Best Press Release Ever?

Thu

Oct 11
2007

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We at Radar are not in the business of reprinting or rephrasing press releases -- there are plenty of technology blogs that do just that -- but every now and then we read one that catches our interest, regardless of the topic. Under the headline "Backcountry.com finally gives something back to the open source community," we've just read a press release that leads with one of the most enjoyable sentences we've seen recently: "After mooching off the open source world for 10 years and making millions, Backcountry.com finally threw the Postgres community a bone in the form of a database synching tool curiously called Bucardo."

The program itself looks interesting (visit Backcountry.com and Bucardo.org), but enjoy the energy, the tone, and the understanding of the audience of that first sentence. Wouldn't you read more press releases all the way to the end if they started that way?

tags: just fun, open source | comments: 5 | Sphere It
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Comments: 5

Tim O'Reilly [10.11.07 10:22 AM]

While I loved this press release, I have to say that Kathryn Barrett, who used to work for O'Reilly and is now at PageOne PR, had some killer openings. Consider this one:

"A change in circumstances can be surprisingly disorienting. Consider Little Dorrit, the Charles Dickens' protagonist who was born and lived her entire life within the walls of the Marshalsea debtors' prison. Upon learning that she and her family were not only free to leave, but were also wealthy, Little Dorrit promptly fainted. Similarly, Windows and Mac users confronting a Unix-based operating system for the first time--while not reacting quite so dramatically as Little Dorrit--may find the experience disconcerting. But, there is help available to ease the transition. Learning Red Hat Linux, Third Edition by Bill McCarty (O'Reilly, US $39.95) provides a comprehensive yet gentle entry to the world of Linux with new users in mind, specifically, the popular Red Hat distribution of Linux."

Maybe this is too literary for many people, but I fell out of my chair laughing.

Kathyrn has a knack for wacky, fun leads.

Rahul Dave [10.11.07 10:29 AM]

Thats funny! Backcountry.com/net/etc are some of the coolest outdoor sports sellers, especially for skiers/climbers/etc..its not surprising that they comeup with that release!

Blair [10.11.07 11:23 AM]

Was the backcountry.com guy on Real World New Orleans?

Don Marti [10.11.07 04:30 PM]

David Jenkins, CTO, Backcountry.com, gave a talk at LinuxWorld in New York on "Open Source Collaboration and Retail." So at least they've been honest about the "mooching" for a while.