Press center on the website - looking for volunteers

[Mike Hearn]

There are lots of people who would do a good job, we just have to get them up there.

By the way, I've asked Saivann to pick some consistent way to describe me and Jeff. I just got off the phone with a journalist who got very hung up on the difference between "developer" and "core developer" and kept asking what the difference was. He seemed to think there was a much stronger hierarchy than there really is. I suggested just using the term "Code contributor" or something like that instead.

[1715020078]

1715020078

[1715020078]

1715020078

[1715020078]

1715020078

[1715020078]

1715020078

[1715020078]

1715020078

[blockgenesis]

Sure. Initially, you were "BitcoinJ Developer" and Jeff was "Core Developer", but you asked me to remove BitcoinJ. You've created a hierarchy against your will ;-) But yes, I think Developer is more appropriate for everyone. I will change that today.

[Mike Hearn]

That's true Bitcoinj looked like a typo if you aren't familiar with it.

[BCB]

Somebody's going to kick me in the balls when they read who I feel could take on this task--Mathew N. Wright.

BCB /kicks/ Phinn in the BALLS.

[BCB]

Mike,

Great effort. 

I also suggest this be kept up to date.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Public_relations

"what is open source"
"what is a developer"
"what is a core developer"

- Talking point so any member of the bitcoin community speaking to press can be talking using the same terminology for consistency.

I think the fundamental need is to to "boil" this bitcoin business down to simple laymens terms for the general media/masses then save the technical details and theory for those journalist who are capable of or or want to dig in.

Trace Meyer was recently on Fox Business "Money" and when he started talking about size of the distributed bitcoin network, host Melissa A Francis said, "That's all French to me."  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfknveaWQ_4

The talking heads have no clue and they are "dumbing down the news" for mass consumption.    When bitcoin supporters get this opportunity they have to be clear and succinct with our message of the benefits of this great technology.  The goal should be for any listener to be intrigued and search for more info and begin their learning process on their own and not for the listener to be turned off by some techno-anarchist's gobblygook about how how cryptography and anonymity will bring down our government (even if that is what some may believe).

MARIA BUSTILLOS writing in the New Yorker recently showed her journalist chops in this article.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/the-future-of-bitcoin.html

Adrianne Jeffries was another journalist who wrote intelligently about bitcoin.

Media coaching is also of great benefits.  We all know what we want to say but when put in front of lights and a camera on a set we don't also say what we mean. 

Maybe with the coming conference, this would be helpful as bitcoiners attending prepare for the coming onslaught of interviews and additional media attention.

Anyway, I'm in New York and work in press and marketing and have access to media consultants and am glad to help.






 

[nwbitcoin]

I fully agree with this development - its exceptionally important to guide the press to a positive story on bitcoins and this is the best way to do it.

However, I am in the UK and our press sux (with some exceptions!) and tend to take the text from the US and fit their left wing slant to everything they write because they never actually talk to anyone from the US, unless they are known in the UK.

Is there a plan for English language bitcoin representation for Europe?

We need some loose group of press friendly talking heads that can appear at a few moments notice and can write PR with a European slant to it.

Before anyone asks, I can do the writing, but I can't do the talking head bit!

Any feedback?

[Herodes]

Bitcoin does not have any dedicated PR people, nor should it.

jgarzik seems to have the opposite view:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160131.msg1696390#msg1696390

The Bitcoin Foundation should at least have one dedicated full time PR person imo.

[n8rwJeTt8TrrLKPa55eU]

The Bitcoin Foundation should at least have one dedicated full time PR person imo.

Agree completely.  As far as PR goes, centralization is better.  Get a pro on board.

Trying to present a one-size-fits-all static interviewee list is a bad idea.  Most entities who care about how they are perceived sooner or later (wisely) direct press inquiries to a single well-trained contact (internally, or at a PR agency), who then acts as a common-sense filter, suggesting interviewees or quotes depending on context.  That PR handler would also have a general idea of people's availability and other practical factors relevant to the request, such as suitability for rapid-fire live TV versus slower print media, susceptibility to gaffes and controversy, or even a database of canned  quotes on various topics so that many print requests can be fulfilled immediately with no further action.

Thus, for situations that look like potential hatchet jobs, only the squeakiest clean and most boring people would be suggested, whereas Ver/Matonis/Tucker/Berwick/Falkvigne etc would be perfectly suitable suggestions for edgier alternative newsmedia.

That doesn't mean that any journalists, if they wanted to, couldn't just go directly to anyone in the community.  But it would mean that at least for random requests, most of the time they would get routed to the most suitable person from the very beginning, as opposed to wasting time going down the list and possibly ending up with someone who is so out of context that it ends up doing Bitcoin more harm than good.

Regardless of the above, it does look a ludicrous to any outside observer that based on the proposed interviewee list, Jon Matonis is highly-regarded and trusted enough to be on the board of the Bitcoin foundation and publish writings for a very mainstream brand, but is implicitly not trusted to talk to the press.  His exclusion is quite unwarranted and crazily paranoid, I'm sure he is intelligent and experienced enough to deliver the right message according to context.  I doubt he would be foaming at the mouth demanding immediate conversion to anarcho-capitalism in front of an audience of grandmas.

[Mylon]

So I'm reading this, am interested, where do I sign up for the mailing list as all the cool stuff seems to happen there (no PR experience, but have a native non-english tongue )

[aigeezer]

No that FAQ is deliberate. Some people do ask this even though it was years ago.

Oops - sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I should have asked whether someone will be adding the April 2013 crash/dip/correction thingie to the FAQs, since that is what much of the media are buzzing about.

[cybrbeast]

The "a beautiful 3D rendering of a Bitcoin posted to reddit" you refer to may have been my work. I've made more work and it's all freely available (including 3D models) for promotional or commercial work. I've detailed all the renderings here if people are interested: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=182200.0
It's in the Project Development subforum. Maybe it could get some more exposure if I posted it in this forum, or is cross-posting frowned upon?

Some of my work already made it to a few articles.

Maybe some of the works could be shared on Press section of the Bitcoin.org website if people think the quality is good enough.

[Mike Hearn]

It was a different render actually, but your images are indeed awesome cybrbeast. I opened up an issue to track getting it into the site:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.org/issues/150

Are you familiar with git/html enough to do a pull req yourself? If not don't worry, I can do it for you but it'd be convenient if someone else stepped up to the plate.

[cybrbeast]

Do you have a link to that render, I'm quite curious. I don't know what a 'pull req'  is, so I guess I'm not familiar enough with it

[Mike Hearn]

It just means a patch to the websites source code (html).

It was this one:

https://doc-0c-b8-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/vqds9l7jvnsabd9dng87k4n6gvcoen50/6o3mv20sfcgpans9kon2s03pkp6215f8/1366574400000/17270597173548675061/15267874755562319752/0B8gy4-2HDZBiMHdXSndqdjFOcUU?e=view&nonce=e9ipgr7lu8qbg&user=15267874755562319752&hash=ino45k3id1mlg7malb0f8pptcd8pt4vo

[cybrbeast]

I get this error when I click on your link

The webpage at https://doc-0c-b8-docs.googleusercontent.com/docs/securesc/vqds9l7jvnsabd9dng87k4n6gvcoen50/6o3mv20sfcgpans9kon2s03pkp6215f8/1366574400000/17270597173548675061/15267874755562319752/0B8gy4-2HDZBiMHdXSndqdjFOcUU?e=view&hash=r73eubttni70kqh533he6pfv47qs60jk&nonce=qlv4sqouulccm&user=06937362412586522445 has resulted in too many redirects. Clearing your cookies for this site or allowing third-party cookies may fix the problem. If not, it is possibly a server configuration issue and not a problem with your computer.

[charleshoskinson]

I agree completely with this goal. I've been committed to developing my course to serve as a central hub to introduce bitcoins to the general public:

https://www.udemy.com/bitcoin-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-crypto/

Ultimately, I'd like to develop a series of courses to take someone from a novice to an accomplished fully integrated Bitcoiner. Anything I can do to help you guys let me know.

[jgarzik]

Bitcoin does not have any dedicated PR people, nor should it.

jgarzik seems to have the opposite view:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160131.msg1696390#msg1696390

The Bitcoin Foundation should at least have one dedicated full time PR person imo.

Yep.  Bitcoin Foundation needs somebody who is available [nearly] 24/7 for press requests, who knows how to talk to journalists, and knows bitcoin at a tech level as well as currency level.

"talk to journalists" is not code language for an ideology, but simple press training:  knowing ahead of time that journalists are mainly looking for "pull quotes", and tend to chop up, shorten and take out of context whatever is said.

(and no, I do not claim to be anywhere near good enough for such work, even if I had time)

[organofcorti]

Bitcoin does not have any dedicated PR people, nor should it.

jgarzik seems to have the opposite view:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=160131.msg1696390#msg1696390

The Bitcoin Foundation should at least have one dedicated full time PR person imo.

Yep.  Bitcoin Foundation needs somebody who is available [nearly] 24/7 for press requests, who knows how to talk to journalists, and knows bitcoin at a tech level as well as currency level.

"talk to journalists" is not code language for an ideology, but simple press training:  knowing ahead of time that journalists are mainly looking for "pull quotes", and tend to chop up, shorten and take out of context whatever is said.

(and no, I do not claim to be anywhere near good enough for such work, even if I had time)

It wouldn't have to be one person - several people who are available eight hours per day distributed equally over timezones would do it too. Although it would be much harder to find more than one person who has had press training.

One advantage of this is that there would be a better chance that this person might speak one or more language of their timezone. Or at least their timezone's hemisphere, anyway.

[jgarzik]

It wouldn't have to be one person - several people who are available eight hours per day distributed equally over timezones would do it too. Although it would be much harder to find more than one person who has had press training.

Agreed -- though it's mainly a press training (as you point out) and B.F. funding issue at that point.

Ideally there is a bitcoin press army in every country and language

[eMansipater]

Ideally there is a bitcoin press army in every country and language

Agreed.  I've added an issue on github suggesting we note countries and languages alongside contact info for those listed, as well as try and add more non-US contacts (I didn't make it a pull request because I don't have the country/language data for the existing contacts to simply fix the page myself--hope this was the right way to go about it).