[relax-ng] marketing

[Michael Fitzgerald <mike@wyeast.net>]

I think some coordinated marketing efforts would benefit RELAX NG as opposed
to our current natural selection process.

Yes, there is no budget, no corporate backing, etc. but couldn't we at least
discuss on this list some things that we could do to move RELAX NG out of
the garage and into the mainstream? There is already good participation on
appropriate mail lists.   That's good. Here are three other things that we
could do to get the word out.

* Get more articles and books written and published.
* Get in front of conference audiences more consistently.
* Get more people interviewed.

James once said at a telecon that RELAX NG "doesn't need a book." I think he
is right from a technical standpoint, but from a marketing point of view, it
would be a great thing to have a book (perhaps a multi-authored thing that
could be put together quickly). I was looking at the program for Extreme
this year (http://www.extrememarkup.com/extreme/2002/schedule.asp) and there
is nothing on RELAX NG I can see, unless someone gets a late-breaking spot
(Jeni is doing a tutorial on XML Schema, however.) We could talk about what
conferences should be hit and make sure at least someone is going to
present. We could get some interviews lined up for publication and/or
broadcast that could prove quite interesting. I also like David's idea about
some sort of a dev site. How about lining up a live debate between James and
Henry at XML 2002? (Just kidding.)

I'd rather be strong on the technical side than on the marketing side. I
think we are strong on the technical side. Science will win out but it needs
help. I think we can do more marketing than we are doing now.

Mike