Press Release Process

The goal is to have a simple and understandable process for creating, reviewing and issuing press releases.

Once initiated, the process will be driven by a member of the Visibility Committee. The basic steps are:

Conception
Something newsworthy happens - a new software release of an OSGeo project, for example. The "owner" of said event wishes to publish this development to a wider audience.

Creation
The owner of their OSGeo-related newsworthy event or their proxy writes the release to the wiki using the Press Release Template and notifies the foundation of the url by emailing dev@visibilitycommittee.osgeo.org and board@board.osgeo.org.

Review and Approval

 * Review and approval - members of the Board and the Visibility Committee will have two days to review and comment on the content of the release.


 * Legal review - because the foundation is a legal entity a quick review by our legal representative (on the board alias), will also be performed. This need will be reduced depending on the content of the release and as we ascend the learning curve.


 * If other organizations are mentioned in the release, then they will also need to be included in the review process.

The review and approval process is driven by a member of the Visibility Committee, in concert with the initiator.

Formats
Press releases should be done in plain old ascii text. If you wish to submit an HTML version (simple, bare-bones tags only!), that's cool. If you want to submit in Word or Open Office, that's cool too. But you need to have a nice ASCII version first.

Distribution
A) The press release gets published to the osgeo-news-publisher mailing list. Journalists, bloggers and others potentially interested in OSGeo activities will be invited to join the list.  Currently this is done as per Submitting News Items page.

B) The press release will also be submitted to:

for below sites that need logins, ask mpg for the password


 * [mailto:news_item@osgeo.org OSGeo]
 * GeoPlace.com (login:osgeo)
 * [mailto:submit.news@consortiuminfo.org Consortiuminfo]
 * slashgeo
 * LinuxPR (login:osgeo)
 * NewsForge
 * [mailto:tips@macnn.com MacNN]
 * [mailto:news@gismngt.de www.gis-news.de]
 * [mailto:jan@intevation.de www.freegis.org]
 * DirectionsMag (login:mpg@osgeo.org)
 * [mailto:matteo@gismonitor.com GIS Monitor]
 * [mailto:news@gisdevelopment.net www.gisdevelopment.net]
 * eoportal.org
 * foss4g.org
 * GIS Cafe (login:osgeo)
 * [mailto:press@gisuser.com GISuser.com]
 * [mailto:irloginews@iolfree.ie IRLOGI News (Irish Organisation for Geographic Information)]
 * [mailto:admin@cartographyonline.com cartographyonline.com]
 * linuxtoday.com (?same as linuxpr.com above?)
 * LXer.com (login:osgeo)

For these sites, see mpg for contact info (these are personal email addresses, not be be published):


 * Geospatial Solutions Magazine
 * Geo:Connexion
 * GIM International
 * Earth Imaging Journal

C) The Visibility Committee will also investigate the feasability and desirability of using an electronic news service such as http://www.prnewswire.com that reaches AP and UPI. Accounts are free, but distribution costs are $300-400 per release.  Content gets submitted as a Word file.

Translation
The final press release will be posted on the OSGeo site for translation by volunteers for localization and distribution to local news agencies.