[odf-discuss] [Urgent]Article about OpenDocument

[Jean Hollis Weber]

Thomas Zander wrote:
> SEPT-Solutions wrote:
>> - articels by companies:
>> free advertisement inside the magazine
>>
>> - articles by private people:
>> 35?/page.
> 
> Assuming that ? is a euro sign (thus 35 euro) that's very close to a freebee. 
> A professional author gets quite a bit more. Take out taxes and money 
> transfer dues and the author will get near nothing for many hours of work.

Several days ago, I was contacted directly by the magazine about 
providing an article about using OOo. I was offered free 
advertising; nothing was said about payment, however small.

I declined to write anything, but not because of the lack of 
payment; I don't have time. Considering how much I have already 
written for free for the OOo community, recycling something in 
exchange for advertising a series of OOo books seemed like a 
perfectly reasonable trade for me personally.

I had not thought to offer the magazine something about 
OpenDocument; now that Max has mentioned it, I'm sorry I did not 
think of that myself.... although that would not have changed my 
lack of time to even rework something already written.

> Sounds like one of those magazines that just sells advertisements and hopes to 
> get some readable content for cheap.

That approach seems perfectly reasonable to me (it is typical of 
small-press fiction magazines, for example), and can in fact be a 
good deal for people who might otherwise need to spend hundreds 
of euros to buy an advertisement -- but I do understand that many 
writers would not find that acceptable, especially if they have 
nothing to advertise.

>> The magazine will be called OpenOffice.org (not related to OpenOffice)
> And she expects no trademark issues there?

This has been discussed on the OOo Marketing List, because people 
there were concerned that readers would think it was an official 
magazine from the OOo community. They suggested names like "The 
Unofficial OpenOffice.org Magazine" but I have not heard whether 
the publishers are going to make any changes. (I suspect not.) 
This may be one reason why the magazine is having difficulty 
getting articles to fill their first issue.

> I suggest people to stay away from this.

As an OpenDocument enthusiast, it seems to me that getting 
OpenDocument (and the Fellowship) what amounts to free 
advertising in another publication (with a different audience) is 
a good thing to do, if anyone had the time to do it. (Go, Marco!) 
But as an OOo enthusiast, I am concerned about the name of the 
publication.

--Jean