Archive:EPEL/CommunicationPlan

= EPEL Communication Plan =

This page is for coalescing the various bits of message that need to go out to various audiences about EPEL.

If an audience is missing, please add it. Any ideas based on your first-hand experience with these audiences is much appreciated. Either edit this page or email epel-devel-list@redhat.com.

Introduction
The responsibility of Fedora is to provide messaging for our audience, who are the developers and packagers of EPEL. Since the specific target of EPEL packages is *not* Fedora, anything that is directed to end-users is outside of the purview of Fedora to set.

For example, it is the responsibility of CentOS to provide communication to their community that is appropriate for their needs. Similarly, Red Hat is the group who needs to provide content and support for their ISV/IHV partners, as well as customers, who want to get involved in EPEL. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of these downstream EPEL consumers to do their own marketing. This means, Fedora would explain one set of reasons why EPEL is useful; Red Hat may have a similar but more focused set of reasons for their target audience. Participation from downstream EPEL through EL-(re)build projects are the clear responsibilty of those projects.

In other words, if your community of EPEL users is not loud and proud, then you are not marketing and supporting it well enough.

ISVs and IHVs
The benefits of building upon EPEL as an ISV or IHV have great potential. If your software package currently packages its own copies of open source libraries or well-known tools, you can rely upon EPEL to provide those packages. For example, Perl modules are often needed and repackaged, yet can be available through EPEL instead. You let dependencies be met by EPEL, and your team concentrates on what they do best: develop, support, and provide your product(s).

Additionally, if you are on an ISV/IHV team that utilizes open source software packages to deliver your products, you have the opportunity to contribute to EPEL. This ensures a community of support, review, and testing for packages that your customers depend on for your products.

Please join the mailing list for involvement:

epel-devel-list@redhat.com

The message here is about how Fedora and EPEL benefit open source, make better software, and are a fun way of doing business.

Rebuild Users (CentOS, Scientific Linux, etc.)
The message here is about how EPEL is helping to fix the rifts in Fedora and EL downstream communities. How this benefits users.

Rebuild Developers and Packagers
EL rebuild developers and packagers have been doing good work for a very long time, and now EPEL is trying to bridge the gaps created when the Fedora Project was started. None of our collective community of software is going to eat anyone's brains, and we want it to be clear that those days are over.

RHEL Customers
This is Red Hat's responsibility to take care of. When something is written, we'll link to it from here. For now, the canonical page is this one: