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"Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)" <[log in to unmask]>
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Chris Sparks <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 6 Jun 2000 15:47:05 -0700
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"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
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"Robert C. Leif, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Bob Leif
To: Chris Sparks et al.

My published solution has been to employ software engineering to solve the
critical problem of dividing up the money! Ada allows a distributed model of
entrepreneurial software development. One no longer needs to make huge
capital investments, such as Microsoft's Redmond complex.

It is only by our own efforts that we have failed to effectively market Ada.
For instance, SIGAda conferences do NOT produce premeeting press releases.
The ARA could do some advertising emphasizing interoperability. The vendors
can pool their funds for a generic advertisement that lists all of them. A
simple documented statement giving examples or statistics on the very large
amount of code that they can all compile and run would be very impressive.
The ARA should provide an Ada content label.

We are at the start of the XML revolution. In spite of the US Department of
Justice, the browser will become the front-end of the operating system.  XML
has much more in common with Ada that XML has with C family of languages.
Since it is possible to local host an XML application, we no longer have to
provide a tight interface with an environment based on C and C++.

In case any of you feel that the situation is hopeless, in the last two
months, I have had two upgrades of software from vendors other than
Microsoft that were disasters. One cannot install and the other after
installation made a disaster out of my faxing. Windows 98 and other
Microsoft software have crashes and lockups. The majority of customers would
be very interested in purchasing reliable software. There is a very large
amount of money to be made with well engineered, commercial applications
written in Ada !
-----Original Message-----
From: Team Ada: Ada Advocacy Issues (83 & 95)
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Chris Sparks
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2000 11:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Should we form an Ada Marketer's Association?


Ok.  I will once again get into this discussion since I my previous
post was ignored by this group.

AdaWorks wrote:

> I agree with Dr. Feldman that we do not need yet another formal
> organization.   Also, just as he submitted his five dollars for some

I disagree.  We need a software consortium of the "little" guys to
bring our ideas and efforts to fruition.  Whether we do projects for
our own self worth or for profit, this organization is definitely needed.
ARA has taken on a very high level roll and can't bring products/
projects to the table.  We as the "little" guys need to stop lamenting
and start inventing.  (I like that line since I just made it up!)

> The only forum we have for those of us who are Ada enthusiasts
> with an interest in promoting Ada is Team-Ada.   Michael is correct
> in his conclusion that we do not want to form yet another organization.
> Nevertheless, we can make a difference from this forum, I believe.

Team-Ada is good sounding board, however, we need to form a virtual
(if you will) organization.  We need to know each others strengths and
weaknesses in coding, marketing, selling, whatever.

> I am not one of those who thinks print ads make that much of a difference.
> However, public relations efforts can pay off.    Good PR will be in the
> form of literature, events, and notifications that are of interest to the
> targeted audience.   This is already being done, to some extent, through
> the cooperative efforts between ARA, SigAda, and volunteers noted in
> Michael's attached message.

ARA and SigAda can help facilitate our PR efforts.  I believe once we
got something good going on, we will have backers knocking down
our doors.  Nobody gave Linux a serious look in the beginning and now
big computer vendors are loading Linux as a viable alternative to
Windoze.  Effort and persistence, coupled with quality can yield good
results!

> We need more.   We need products written in Ada.  We need some of
> the Team-Ada members submitting articles to IEEE Computer and other
> IEEE publications.  We need papers published in the ACM publications.
> We need stories of problems solved using Ada in Dr. Dobb's.   And we
> need to have the ARA or its members placing public relations notices
> in major publications.   At present, the PR activity related to Ada is
> nil.   The PR for C++, Java is substantial.

I concur.  I, however, am more interested in getting the product out.  We
need a good solid base from which to develop.  "Quality from the ground
up" should be our motto.

> I called for a "grass roots" effort since we have no money to make this
> happen.   ARA apparently has no money for public relations.    But
> whatever we do in the form of PR must be grounded in substance.  If
> we do have an article to write, be sure it is solving a real problem that
> is of interest to real people, errrrrrrrr, to software developers anyway.

I agree.

> Enough for now.   Sorry to be such a bother on this.   I believe we need
> some kind of effort from among our own subscriber list.   I believe we
> can make a difference.

Having this type of discussion is ok, however, going around in circles and
barking at the moon is not going to change things.

I am once again going to request that people who are interested in forming
a virtual consortium/corporation please submit me information as to what
you like to do, dislike doing, project ideas.  I can post a summary of the
information on my own personal web site.  I can look into getting access
passwords, if needed, or some obscure path name, whatever, for those
involved.  Aside from coding we need testers, salespeople, integrators,
archive specialists, etc.

If I am being too presumptuous for this group then I will refrain from
discussing
this idea again.  I am ready to make a difference, however, I can't easily
do it alone.  Anybody up for the challenge?

It must be my red hair and Irish/Italian heritage that gets me on a warpath
like this e-mail portrays! :-)
--
Chris Sparks, Boeing
(714) 372 - 9791

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