[Proposal] Creating an Apache Pulsar Outreach Working Group

[Aaron Williams <aa...@wi5s.com>]

Hello Apache Pulsar Community,

I would like to propose that the PMC create an Outreach Working Group.

Here’s why it is needed:

The Apache Pulsar community currently doesn't have community-driven content
channels that are unaffiliated with any vendor. We also don't have an
active effort to help identify people/organizations who are using Pulsar,
nor do we have resources who are helping to tell their stories and educate
the broader industry about these users and organizations where Pulsar is
being used successfully.  In my experience, this is the single most
important factor in helping a new infrastructure “cross the chasm” from
early adopters who are willing to roll up their sleeves, do their own
research and help find bugs, to “early majority” where people feel
confident in adopting it because peer groups that they trust have already
done that research and hardening.

In other words, there are many great things happening around the Apache
Pulsar community, but there is no unified effort to push that information
out.

For example, we could do a LOT more to publicize the Pulsar Summit Europe.
Instead of a website going live a month before the event with no awareness,
the working group would be responsible for having the webpage go live well
in advance, for contacting the relevant press to set up interviews with
Pulsar Summit speakers, for helping the PMC define a theme of the event,
for setting up social media & targeted ad campaigns, and for engaging with
content creators like podcast interviews.  Blogs and interviews would be
completed in advance and set to roll out on a predetermined cadence.

During the event, social media posts will be ready to go and augmented with
news made the day of the event.  Afterwards, there needs to be follow up
blogs, pointing people to the content that they missed and how to get to
it.  Then this same content can be placed in the newsletter and recycled in
other posts later on.  This is a lot of work that doesn’t “just happen”; it
takes a lot of volunteers to get everything done.  And right now it doesn’t
look like it is getting done, or at least the community has no insight into
the current status of the event.  Thus, community members who want to
volunteer, don’t know how to start.

I hope this helps illustrate how an Outreach Working Group could help
organize and promote the community.

I look forward to hearing from the community about this proposal.

Thank you,

Aaron Williams

Re: [Proposal] Creating an Apache Pulsar Outreach Working Group

[Aaron Williams <aa...@wi5s.com>]

Dave,

Thank you for the reply and you are correct that there should be anything
stopping us from doing this informally on the dev@ list.  And given the
absence of any other feedback, I think that is what we should do.  I am
assuming that it is ok for me to start volunteering on an informal basis to
help coordinate topics like I described for the Pulsar Summit on the dev
list with an [OUTREACH] tag for visibility.

And obviously, if anyone one would like to help, please let me know.

Thanks,

Aaron


On Thu, Aug 26, 2021 at 10:58 AM Dave Fisher <wa...@apache.org> wrote:

> Hi -
>
> Even without an official group it should be possible to discuss
> improvements to outreach here on the dev@ mailing list.
>
> There is a page full of logos (some missing) at
> https://pulsar.apache.org/powered-by/ <
> https://pulsar.apache.org/powered-by/> While that is a good starting
> place there is no information on that page about how to request addition to
> that page. I’m not clear that the PMC has a policy or rule.
>
> > On Aug 24, 2021, at 5:30 PM, Aaron Williams <aa...@wi5s.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Apache Pulsar Community,
> >
> > I would like to propose that the PMC create an Outreach Working Group.
> >
> > Here’s why it is needed:
> >
> > The Apache Pulsar community currently doesn't have community-driven
> content
> > channels that are unaffiliated with any vendor. We also don't have an
> > active effort to help identify people/organizations who are using Pulsar,
> > nor do we have resources who are helping to tell their stories and
> educate
> > the broader industry about these users and organizations where Pulsar is
> > being used successfully.  In my experience, this is the single most
> > important factor in helping a new infrastructure “cross the chasm” from
> > early adopters who are willing to roll up their sleeves, do their own
> > research and help find bugs, to “early majority” where people feel
> > confident in adopting it because peer groups that they trust have already
> > done that research and hardening.
> >
> > In other words, there are many great things happening around the Apache
> > Pulsar community, but there is no unified effort to push that information
> > out.
> >
> > For example, we could do a LOT more to publicize the Pulsar Summit
> Europe.
> > Instead of a website going live a month before the event with no
> awareness,
> > the working group would be responsible for having the webpage go live
> well
> > in advance, for contacting the relevant press to set up interviews with
> > Pulsar Summit speakers, for helping the PMC define a theme of the event,
> > for setting up social media & targeted ad campaigns, and for engaging
> with
> > content creators like podcast interviews.  Blogs and interviews would be
> > completed in advance and set to roll out on a predetermined cadence.
> >
> > During the event, social media posts will be ready to go and augmented
> with
> > news made the day of the event.  Afterwards, there needs to be follow up
> > blogs, pointing people to the content that they missed and how to get to
> > it.  Then this same content can be placed in the newsletter and recycled
> in
> > other posts later on.  This is a lot of work that doesn’t “just happen”;
> it
> > takes a lot of volunteers to get everything done.  And right now it
> doesn’t
> > look like it is getting done, or at least the community has no insight
> into
> > the current status of the event.  Thus, community members who want to
> > volunteer, don’t know how to start.
> >
> > I hope this helps illustrate how an Outreach Working Group could help
> > organize and promote the community.
> >
> > I look forward to hearing from the community about this proposal.
> >
> > Thank you,
> >
> > Aaron Williams
>
> All The Best,
> Dave
>
>

Re: [Proposal] Creating an Apache Pulsar Outreach Working Group

[Dave Fisher <wa...@apache.org>]

Hi -

Even without an official group it should be possible to discuss improvements to outreach here on the dev@ mailing list.

There is a page full of logos (some missing) at https://pulsar.apache.org/powered-by/ <https://pulsar.apache.org/powered-by/> While that is a good starting place there is no information on that page about how to request addition to that page. I’m not clear that the PMC has a policy or rule.

> On Aug 24, 2021, at 5:30 PM, Aaron Williams <aa...@wi5s.com> wrote:
> 
> Hello Apache Pulsar Community,
> 
> I would like to propose that the PMC create an Outreach Working Group.
> 
> Here’s why it is needed:
> 
> The Apache Pulsar community currently doesn't have community-driven content
> channels that are unaffiliated with any vendor. We also don't have an
> active effort to help identify people/organizations who are using Pulsar,
> nor do we have resources who are helping to tell their stories and educate
> the broader industry about these users and organizations where Pulsar is
> being used successfully.  In my experience, this is the single most
> important factor in helping a new infrastructure “cross the chasm” from
> early adopters who are willing to roll up their sleeves, do their own
> research and help find bugs, to “early majority” where people feel
> confident in adopting it because peer groups that they trust have already
> done that research and hardening.
> 
> In other words, there are many great things happening around the Apache
> Pulsar community, but there is no unified effort to push that information
> out.
> 
> For example, we could do a LOT more to publicize the Pulsar Summit Europe.
> Instead of a website going live a month before the event with no awareness,
> the working group would be responsible for having the webpage go live well
> in advance, for contacting the relevant press to set up interviews with
> Pulsar Summit speakers, for helping the PMC define a theme of the event,
> for setting up social media & targeted ad campaigns, and for engaging with
> content creators like podcast interviews.  Blogs and interviews would be
> completed in advance and set to roll out on a predetermined cadence.
> 
> During the event, social media posts will be ready to go and augmented with
> news made the day of the event.  Afterwards, there needs to be follow up
> blogs, pointing people to the content that they missed and how to get to
> it.  Then this same content can be placed in the newsletter and recycled in
> other posts later on.  This is a lot of work that doesn’t “just happen”; it
> takes a lot of volunteers to get everything done.  And right now it doesn’t
> look like it is getting done, or at least the community has no insight into
> the current status of the event.  Thus, community members who want to
> volunteer, don’t know how to start.
> 
> I hope this helps illustrate how an Outreach Working Group could help
> organize and promote the community.
> 
> I look forward to hearing from the community about this proposal.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Aaron Williams

All The Best,
Dave