The Galileo Release is just four short weeks away; June 24 is the big day. Every year we put together a launch program to help promote the release, this year being no different. I thought it might be useful to summarize what we are planning. Feel free to let me know if you have some other ideas.
1. Galileo Twitter Birds Nest. Twitter is all the rage for the social networking crowd, so we want to make sure people hear about Galileo on twitter. Building on the success of the EclipseCon Birds Nest, we have created a Galileo Birds Nest. This is the place you can go to find other twitter people that are interested in Galileo and see what they are saying. If you are tweeting about Galileo, please use the hashtag #eclipse35.
We are also building custom Galileo avatars that people can use to help promote Galileo on twitter. My hope is that everyone will update their avatar with a new Galilean avatar.
2. Blogging Contest. For the past couple of years we have run a blogging contest to encourage people to blog about the release train. This has always been a successful program, so we are doing it again. Simply write a blog about what you like in the Galileo release and we will send you some Eclipse swag. Details here.
3. Galileo DemoCamp. I am a big believer that face to face meetings really help promote online communities. This is why we are sponsoring over 30 Eclipse Galileo DemoCamps in cities around the world. If there is a demo camp organized in your city, take the opportunity to attend and see what other Eclipse community members are doing with Eclipse.
4. Galileo Virtual Conference. We organizing a virtual conference on June 26. This will be a series of webinars that highlight different projects in the Galileo release. Details will be coming soon.
5. Friends of Eclipse Get it Faster and Sooner. Friends of Eclipse is a program the allows people to make contributions to the Eclipse Foundation to support the Eclipse community. A benefit of being a ‘Friend’ is that you get access to a special download server that will allow you to get early and faster access to the Galileo release. Details here.
6. Press Outreach. We will be issuing a press release on June 24. This is a great way to promote the release to a wider community. More on the press release later.
Each year a lot of people do a lot of work to make the release train a success. It is amazing accomplishment for the entire Eclipse community. I’m looking forward to seeing the result this year.
