Allow me to summarize what I think the above nodes are honing in on and provide (brief) observations about the merits.
The two things that posters have focused on as having the greatest potential for generating buzz are:
- Perl 6
- For any new technology to supplant an existing technology where there is an established network, it has to offer benefits that exceed the switching costs.
- So what the Perl 6 folks have to do is find the things in Perl 6 that will be of the greatest benefit to adopters, then evangelize them with great heaping gobs of gusto.
- Perl 6 needs to answer the question, "Why change?", and answer it convincingly.
- The evangelization needs to be extremely proactive.
- I suggest that when Perl 6 is close to ready for prime time, the Perl 6 team appoint designated evangelists to actively create buzz on Slashdot, Ars, and whatever other forums can reach "crossover" audiences.
- I also suggest that they create a coherent, cohesive message, write it down, and turn a laser focus to their evangelizing on that message. This is something any experienced PR professional could tell you.
- CPAN
- Most negative comments seem to center around issues with search costs.
- There are so many modules out there, it is costly (in terms of human time) to separate the wheat from the chaff.
- CPAN's search site already has a reviewing system (most people don't seem to know this) it just needs to be made as easy to use as possible to increase usage. Perhaps some more categories could be added, such as quality of documentation, ease of use, and stability / bugginess.
- CPAN is already among Perl's main selling points, if not the main selling point, and it would be easy to evangelize. Module of the Week. Fun Modules in the CPAN. Modules for Engineers. Etc., etc. .... If Perl evangelists can't get people excited about the CPAN, it's a problem with the evangelists, not the CPAN.
