Proposal for OSLC marketing/communications workgroup

Introduction

This is a proposal for the creation of a workgroup to communicate about the work of the Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) community. The workgroup is envisioned to aim at building better visibility within the community of the work of the various workgroups; and raising awareness of the value of the work of the community within the applications and middleware industry and its customers.

Responsibilities of the workgroup

The workgroup would have the objective of growing the active contributions to the community, interest in the work of the community and adoption of OSLC, by promoting the work of the community within and outside. The workgroup would be responsible for internal (cross community, not within workgroups) and external communications about the value of OSLC and the latest news from the community (and associated projects like Eclipse Lyo).

Skills and commitment needed from individuals

For this workgroup to be successful in raising awareness of the OSLC community, two main types of support are required:

• Providing ideas for types, structure, and vehicles for communications and supporting promotion of communications activities.
• Spokespeople with subject matter expertise to represent the community or workgroup in communications.

If an individual has the skills and desire to support both of the above then that support would be encouraged, however it is expected that technical contributors to OSLC may not wish or have time to be involved in the communications workgroup, in which case existing technical contributors will be encouraged to seek a marketing/communications person from their organization to participate in the communications workgroup. The primary role of the workgroup will be providing ideas and content for communications activities, and if not found within the workgroup will reach out to the rest of the community for contribution of technical subject matter expertise.

The workgroup will decide its level of activity and frequency of meetings but in this proposal it is suggested that the workgroup should hold a monthly conference call.

Ideas for actions from the workgroup

The communication plan will of course be the responsibility of the workgroup to build, but to kick off interest in contributing to the workgroup and to the initial discussion of a communication plan, the following types of activity are suggested:

• Regular (perhaps monthly) newsletter that summarises the work across the various workgroups and associated projects/events; perhaps features work of a particular workgroup and/or OSLC implementation
• Regular podcasts perhaps rotating on the work of a featured workgroup; and on vendor/user experiences
• Regular webcasts summarizing the latest news from the community and associated projects/events
• Evangelism of OSLC at relevant events
• Visibility of OSLC, the work of the community and promotion of OSLC related activities on the websites of contributing organizations and in social media
• Support for analyst and media briefings on OSLC

Initial indications of support for the workgroup

Feedback was solicited from individuals/organizations on an earlier draft of this proposal, together with a request for indication of support for the workgroup. Support was received from:

• Susan Duncan, Oracle
• Wesley Coelho, Tasktop
• Rainer Ersch, Siemens
• Matt Thomas, BSD Group
• Stephanie Trunzo, IBM
• William Bolander, General Motors

To provide your feedback / support

To provide your feedback on the proposal / indication of support for the workgroup please either respond to the OSLC mailing list thread or email directly to Andy Gurd, IBM (andy.gurd@ukNOSPAM.ibm.com)