Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Modesty demands...
...That we not tell you the following quote from Saturday's paper:
"[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment..." - James Randerson writing in The Guardian on November 25, 2006.
"[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment..." - James Randerson writing in The Guardian on November 25, 2006.
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I saw that one! LOL! Seems to have given visits to our website quite a bump up! As they say in Hollywood, "there's no such thing as bad publicity." :-D
Note that typing "RepRap" into Google News search only brings up the Hindu article. Strange, innit?
Vik :v)
Vik :v)
Cool!
There is one kind of publicity that's bad.
With some of these news sources, you only get one shot at fame. If you use it too early - you get a bazillion hits from people who quite rightly say to themselves : "Well - this is a wonderful idea - but it's a long way from being real". Then, a year or two down the line when your final working thing is up and running, you have a harder time getting publicity because everyone (journalists and the general public) has in the back of their minds ("Oh yeah - I saw that - that's that pie-in-the-sky thing.") - and it's harder to get their attention for a second time.
This has been very noticable with some OpenSourced software packages with web sites like Digg and Slashdot. It's quite easy to stir up a heck of a lot of interest when you announce your first beta release - but when you're finished and you'd REALLY like everyone to come and grab a copy - nobody is interested.
That may not be a problem here - because when it finally reaches fruition, it'll be such an utterly amazing thing that there shouldn't be problem getting publicity - but still - caution is perhaps in order.
There is one kind of publicity that's bad.
With some of these news sources, you only get one shot at fame. If you use it too early - you get a bazillion hits from people who quite rightly say to themselves : "Well - this is a wonderful idea - but it's a long way from being real". Then, a year or two down the line when your final working thing is up and running, you have a harder time getting publicity because everyone (journalists and the general public) has in the back of their minds ("Oh yeah - I saw that - that's that pie-in-the-sky thing.") - and it's harder to get their attention for a second time.
This has been very noticable with some OpenSourced software packages with web sites like Digg and Slashdot. It's quite easy to stir up a heck of a lot of interest when you announce your first beta release - but when you're finished and you'd REALLY like everyone to come and grab a copy - nobody is interested.
That may not be a problem here - because when it finally reaches fruition, it'll be such an utterly amazing thing that there shouldn't be problem getting publicity - but still - caution is perhaps in order.
But it's much easier to get their attention when you have a custom made, freshly-fabricated WhamKonk(TM) to smack them over the head with...
In short, there will be plenty of easily discernable evidence that we're making hardware not vapourware.
Vik :v)
In short, there will be plenty of easily discernable evidence that we're making hardware not vapourware.
Vik :v)
3d_geek is right: you can fire up the press too early. Given RepRap's potential impact there was a moral obligation to put a press release out at the start. I decided before I did that not to chase publicity any more until the first release.
The Guardian article was because the journalist came to me.
The Guardian article was because the journalist came to me.
As far as being a wonderful congestion of creative thought, RepRap is already a towering success. Sure all of us less mechanically inclined lurkers can't wait to buy a 200$ already built knock-off at Bi-Mart but in the meantime you folk have impressed the heck out of many of us with your novel solutions and persistant dedication to what is fundamentally a brilliant idea.
Keep up the good work and just run any naysayers over with your shopping cart.
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Keep up the good work and just run any naysayers over with your shopping cart.
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