Page 2 - Would you support a PHP Quarterly Publication?

Ya, i see that phrase in some of the posts quit often. I would have to agree with you tho Ted, that is a stupid phrase and a wrong way to come off at people. I would use -> 'RTM'.......

Back to the publication thing, you hit the nail right on the head here ->

Don't know about the free thing, but the enterprise image would be the big plus for something of this magnitude. An enterprise image is where PHP is lacking, and will continue to lack unless someone/some companies step up to the plate and starts pushing PHP as an enterprise solution. Not only does it take someone/some companies to do it, but it will also take some sort of mass media to make it a reality, a medium that the web can not provide alone.

Trust me, I am not the one that would step up to the plate and attempt to publish a magazine like this. I know first hand what it involves as I started my work career out in the publishing industry 15 years ago and later made the switch to this industry because of the stress thats involved in the publishing industry.

I would, with support from a handfull of people or volunteers that would like to donate some time to to something like this, lobby to have a publishing company look into it, maybe pay for a company to research this more in detail and have them prepare proposals, etc. etc. etc.......

Suggestions????

I think if you can get a group of professionals together and come up with a REALLY promising looking proposal, then you have a shot at pushing this sort of thing through the door with a Ziff Davis type company. The biggest problem I see is this:

Plebian developers, not big wig decision makers, have the most to benefit from this sort of publication. If you want to push it to the decision makers who control the cash in their areas, you need to come up with PHP as it applies to business models, not as it applies to the guys in the trenches writing code. To be honest, how much Enterprise PHP can you come up with on a regular basis? You would almost have to include content besides PHP to make it worth anyone's while, and if you include only PHP and aim the content at regular developers rather than managers, you're not going to pull in enough big-time advertisers to pay for it. My suggestion then is to just try and expand the horizons of this thing beyond PHP. Include content on other languages and other Open Source initiatives and create articles based on how they apply to the business model.. but then, of course, you're not unique, you're just another competitor...

*desperately holding back a RTFM response since it's just not the right thread*

As obnoxious as some of the fanatical members of Linux have been, I do have to hand it to them, for taking something that was once only considered something for the hobby geek, and pushing it into something that has the backing of Oracle, IBM, SAP, and Sun. So this precedent does show it is possible for a grassroots movement to work its way into legitamite, enterprise business.

You make a good point about companies and media being totally necessary for enterpise acceptance. I think the key turning point for Linux came during 1999 through the stock market bubble when billions were injected into Linux ventures, most notably Red Hat. Not only was Linux getting the dollars needed to make it legitamite, but it also got the media exposure. Like you were saying, it does take a company with pockets to really get something substantial going. In the case of PHP, Zend would be the likely first place to approach, though I don't know how much extra cash they have floating around. The big camps seem to have divided between ASP and Java, so that kinda leaves PHP hanging.

Back to this idea of a publication. Now, most vendors have these nice, full color magazines, up to 200 pages. Obviously I think that's something that would be way too ambitious to start out with. Let's take the case of Nintendo. This console came out in 1985-86, and in the box, came with it a card for a free newsletter. I was one of the few that actually got this newsletter. The newsletter started out as a simple, four page foldout with cheap paper and 2 colors, with no photos. I would take these things to grade school, and they were always a big hit. They contained game previews (without screenshots) and a couple of "tips and tricks" sections. Rapidly over the next 2 years, the magazine grew, and got so large it turned into one of those 200 page monsters with nice binding, magazine paper, and full colors and a loyal readership and a big staff. This was a huge marketing hit for Nintendo. Kids would spend hours looking over the magazine to get the latest moves or preview the hottest new game.

By starting with small ambitions, Nintendo didn't bet the bank but they still got a slick marketing tool out to their most loyal customers, and scaled up as needed, without being overwhelmed by the daunting task of putting something together.

There are probably so many more big companies using PHP than we think. The only one that comes to mind off the top of my head is NAMCO's Dead to Rights site:

http://www.deadtorights.com/dtr.php

And of course Britney hahahahaha :

http://www.britneyspears.com/home/index.php

(Who when you think about it is one of the most marketable people on the planet).

Postgres for example, recently put out a call to its users to give them examples of big companies using their software, so they could get the evangelical ball rolling. What came back was a pleasant suprise. Companies such as Cisco, BASF, the .INFO registry, and the largest video rental store in Japan (boasting a HUGE database) were using the software.

When people see other people using something, that reassures them.

Now PHP is more widely adopted than Postgres is. Is there any sort of PHP advocacy email list out there? That would be a great place to start for case studies of big companies using it.

So this publication could have a few nice sections to it:

1) Reader mail
2) Editorials (staff and readers both welcome)
3) Case studies
4) Tips and tricks (including source code)
5) Previews of a PHP product
6) Lots and lots of ads

I know there are a few PHP IDE companies out there that might have the cash to place a ad in such a publication. Then there are more famous IDE's which aren't soley PHP but which have PHP support in them (Dreamweaver, HotDog).

It's kinda like a snowball, once you start looking, you'll find alot more than you thought was out there...

Here's the Postgres advocacy site that literally just started 2 days ago:

http://advocacy.postgresql.org/

Notice how on this site uses alot of the enterprise jargon:

"deployment" "licensing" "extensible" "support"

JBoss is another example of having the right mindset towards marketing. I am jealous of the JBoss Group, those guys all get to work at home on something they love doing. They don't have any sort of publication (that I know of) but they do have the jargon down.

I think you can probably do both and get away with it. Oracle recently started putting source code in their magazine, due to the demand for it.

But I think you hit the nail on the head, the mindset has to be geared towards business models, and the two sites I just mentioned, would be very hard to relate to a business model.

I think the key to the success of a publication would have to be business case studies along with having the proper jargon, the business models as you mentioned.

Just stumbles across this link on php.net

http://phpj.com/



As for finding who's running php... php.net is somehow getting a statistics graph from netcraft covering php usage. I can't find anything similar on netcraft's site, though. It would be interesting to see if we could tie some bigger name domains to those statistics, though.

Hey bricker42,
I stumbled across that site right after I posted this thread. I am kind of weary at the moment about that publication as thier site, as far as I seen, isn't showing any sponsors or endorsements of any sort. This is kinda of strange as you would think that ZEND would be the first to jump on the endorsement wagon, along with other companies as MySql. Also, you would think that with us being the largest PHP community on the net, we would have seen somewhere in the community something about this before I posted this thread, in the form of a spam or others refferencing it.

About the sponsorship as I mentioned, if they have no sponsors or endorsements for it, it will go flat before it even gets of the ground, so I am definately not holding my breath. I will shoot them an email and find out more information about thier plans, if they are just another 'I think I can make money this way' company or are they really serious about thier plan.......

EDIT:::
LOL, I can't even find an about link on thier page, or any kind of corporate information of any sort.....
Are my pupils just burnt to much or is thier really none of this information on that site???????

EDIT AGAIN:::
Ok, I see the subscribe process runs you through linux-mag.com... Still don't understand why there are no endorsements there. Man, if they are trying to push this thing, I see nothing on thier site that is helping the movement in any way...

Ok, I am know curious, I will shoot zend a few emails and maybe make a phone call or two....

I saw that too, good find bricker. It looks like PHP Journal is a sub magazine under Linux Magazine. But, Linux Magazine itself didn't list any sponsors.

It looks like it's geared more towards developers also. It carries a hefty price tag, 4 issues for $30.

Hey, but I salute these guys for getting something started.

Maybe they could use a companion magazine, "PHP Enterprise."

Apparently though, they have enough cash to sponsor a PHP Conference, with guest speakers from Yahoo!, Rackspace, MySQL (of course), and Macromedia.

Hey, a couple of relevant topics include, "High Performance PHP: Profiling and Benchmarking Techniques," and "PHP in the Enterprise - A Case Study at Rackspace."

I do like the last line the Rackspace guy said, "I will try to share some of the success and failures related to deployment of PHP at Rackspace. " An assessment of failures is usually more valuable than an listing the successes.



http://www.php-con.com/2002/view/session.php?s=1006

Here's a link I found that brings a strong case for PHP in business:

http://www.imakenews.com/badblue/e_article000080431.cfm

Excellent find Ted Striker....

Did you notice that we are mentioned on that article also....

jpenn,

Someone on one of the postgres mailing lists mentioned doing a postgres magazine, and another person suggested reading:

Nolo Press' book, "Starting and Running a Successful Newsletter or Magazine."

Thanks for the info striker, I will check that out.....