Talking to marketing people about Python

[Roy Smith]

I'm working on a product which for a long time has had a Perl binding for
our remote access API. A while ago, I wrote a Python binding on my own,
chatted it up a bit internally, and recently had a (large) customer enquire
about getting access to it.

I asked for permission to distribute the Python binding, and after a few
weeks of winding its way through the corporate bureaucracy I got an email
from a product manager who wants to meet with me to "understand the market
demand for Python API before we commercialize it".

Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
marketing/product management person will understand?

[Steve Holden]

Roy Smith wrote:

I'm working on a product which for a long time has had a Perl binding for
our remote access API. A while ago, I wrote a Python binding on my own,
chatted it up a bit internally, and recently had a (large) customer enquire
about getting access to it.

I asked for permission to distribute the Python binding, and after a few
weeks of winding its way through the corporate bureaucracy I got an email
from a product manager who wants to meet with me to "understand the market
demand for Python API before we commercialize it".

Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
marketing/product management person will understand?

No, but if you gave him a piece of paper with "please turn over" written
on both sides you could perhaps keep him otherwise occupied to the
company's benefit.

Seriously (and I suppose as a PSF director I should be serious from time
to time), you could point out that it will increase the availability of
your base product. Point out that there are Python APIs for many
services (Amazon S3, del.icio.us, digg to name just a few) and that
these bring the services within the scope of many more people.

Lastly, remind him that the customer is always right, and the large
customer usually even more right. You already have evidence of demand
from the customer base: aren't large customers a part of your market?
Show him the enquiry!

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden [phone] [phone]
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://holdenweb.blogspot.com
Recent Ramblings http://del.icio.us/steve.holden

[Sybren Stuvel]

Roy Smith enlightened us with:

I'm working on a product which for a long time has had a Perl
binding for our remote access API. A while ago, I wrote a Python
binding on my own, chatted it up a bit internally, and recently had
a (large) customer enquire about getting access to it.

I asked for permission to distribute the Python binding, and after a
few weeks of winding its way through the corporate bureaucracy I got
an email from a product manager who wants to meet with me to
"understand the market demand for Python API before we commercialize
it".

1) The customer wants it already.
2) The language is good enough for NASA and Google.

Sybren
--
Sybren Stüvel
Stüvel IT - http://www.stuvel.eu/

[GHUM]

Roy Smith schrieb:

>
Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
marketing/product management person will understand?

please also look for the "Python success stories"

There is also a aviation control system running with Python / using
Python bindings.

Google offers Python bindings and has employed the BDFL and at least
one ~bot. I think nobody would doubt that Google has the most knowledge
about online services - maybe there is something about Python?

You can also point out that Python is especially suited for secure
online applications, with more web frameworks than keywords it offers a
very high "security through diversity", as no single vulnerabilitie can
be exploited across a big enough ecosphere.

Harald

[Kay Schluehr]

Roy Smith wrote:

I'm working on a product which for a long time has had a Perl binding for
our remote access API. A while ago, I wrote a Python binding on my own,
chatted it up a bit internally, and recently had a (large) customer enquire
about getting access to it.

I asked for permission to distribute the Python binding, and after a few
weeks of winding its way through the corporate bureaucracy I got an email
from a product manager who wants to meet with me to "understand the market
demand for Python API before we commercialize it".

Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
marketing/product management person will understand?

There isn't an immediate economical benefit, but a technician has to
care for the "state of the art". It is both a net-effect regarding
technologies and developers but also something more vague, which is a
little harder to get: a product has to have a certain appeal. Perl
might have been a good decision 10 years ago but appears a bit shaddy
these days where better designed languages exist with equal power and
far more clean APIs.

[rdsteph]

Roy Smith wrote:

>
Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
marketing/product management person will understand?

As a sometimes marketing droid on my day job (please don't tell
anyone!) I think you should point out that, while 5-10 years ago Perl
was more popular and widely used than Python, Python has been growing
at a much higher rate, and by many (most?) measurements, Python is now
more widely used than Perl for many types of applications.

These measurements are not precise, but all of the below show Python
catching or surpassing Perl today:

1. Number of newsgroup postings
2. Number of books published and sold
3. Number of universities offering courses
4. Number of commerical training courses and seminars offered
5. Number of job listings on internet job listing boards.

With Python, it's all about growth; the growth rate of Python, by any
of the measurements above and others too numerous to mention, is far
greater than Perl's growth rate. Any marketing droid worth his salt
should be impressed with high growth rates persisting over several
years. ;-))

Ron Stephens
www.awaretek.com/plf.html

[Roy Smith]

In article <11************ **********@i42g 2000cwa.googleg roups.com>,
rd*****@mac.com wrote:

5. Number of job listings on internet job listing boards.

I just did a quick survey for Perl and Python jobs on some of the big IT
job boards. I came up with:

Site Perl Python
Hotjobs 2756 655
Monster >1000 317
Dice 4828 803

I'm not sure how I'm going to spin that to a marketing guy to make him
think that "by many (most?) measurements, Python is now more widely used
than Perl for many types of applications"

Has somebody done a historical analysis of job listing growth over the past
few years? If there was a graph showing the lines cross in N years, that
would be more impressive.

[Fredrik Lundh]

Roy Smith wrote:

>5. Number of job listings on internet job listing boards.

I just did a quick survey for Perl and Python jobs on some of the big IT
job boards. I came up with:

Site Perl Python
Hotjobs 2756 655
Monster >1000 317
Dice 4828 803

I'm not sure how I'm going to spin that to a marketing guy to make him
think that "by many (most?) measurements, Python is now more widely used
than Perl for many types of applications"

I think the use of "applicatio ns" here implies "new applications", not "applicatio ns
still in use somewhere".

did you try searching for Cobol, btw ?

</F>

[rdsteph]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:

I think the use of "applicatio ns" here implies "new applications", not "applicatio ns
still in use somewhere".

Good point, Fredrik. I do recall that, a few years ago, I graphed the
*growth rate* of new Sourceforge projects written in Python vs. the
same for Perl, and it was a very clear growth trend in Python's favor;
even though Perl still had more total projects because of its earlier
popularity. However, I did not keep the data.

Ron Stephens

[John Salerno]

Roy Smith wrote:

Can anybody suggest some good material I can give to him which will help
explain what Python is and why it's a good thing, in a way that a
marketing/product management person will understand?

You might want to take a look at Chapter 1 of "Programmin g Python" (3rd
edition, unless it's not changed much from the 2nd). It's even described
in the Preface as being a general introduction that can be used to
explain the language to management and non-programmers.