Re: Viral Marketing PHP (was Re: [PHP] Computer Science and PHP)

Hello Manuel, > > One other dimension, the institutions can only offer classes in the languages (and > > techniques/technologies) that > > the trainers know and than they have the resources (hardware, compilers/interpreters) to > > cover. > > > > Maybe therein lies an answer to the 'marketing' side too. The best way to > > 'market' a new language, ie to cause > > it to spread virulently (?virus-like) is by offering classes in the schools! Certainly > > when my customers ask > > about 'which tool' my first question is always, "what skill sets do the > > staff have?". > > One good point about what you said is that one budgetless what to > promote PHP is to use 'viral marketing'. Viral marketing is a way to > market something by using a technique that spreads by itself, ie, no > additional effort or money needed to be spent by the originator to have > the notice of what you want to market spread like crazy. ... > sort what ideas can become viral. With that topic in the mind, if you > ever figure a viral idea to promote PHP, just share it here to prove the > concept as well! :-) I had intended that the 'institutional approach' be seen as the seeds of a viral marketing campaign. If students learn the tool, when they 'go out to work' they want to use it. Even if the student is a 'hobbyist' then it still spreads the 'word' around... Your point earlier, if statistics say x million dynamic web sites are held together by PHP, IT managers/decision makers tend to feel they should take notice, eg Apache and the Netcraft surveys. The same will apply to PHP, numbers need to build to some 'critical mass' for corporate credibility to follow (as wrong as that sounds). How to get PHP into the institutions? You'd think it would be easy, wouldn't you - it's 'free', and that sounds great! However you need competent/trained teachers/training staff. You need teaching materials and supporting text books. You need sample exercises and databases. Look at what SuSE are doing with email servers (etc) and RedHat with Linux distributions. Perhaps a distribution of LAMPS or the 'PHP Triad', especially configured for an educational environment could be considered? Finally you need people to be convinced that there's a demand for the teaching, and conversely students convinced that it is a valuable skill to acquire... Regards, =dn