Qt-Project-Social-Media-Guidelines

Guidelines for using Qt Project social media

This document describes guidelines and policies for using Qt Project’s
social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, G+, or YouTube
accounts.

Rule of thumb: Showcase the technology, not the product nor the vendor

Qt Project’s media channels should be used to promote Qt as a
technology. The idea is that the better we promote Qt as a viable
technology platform, the more Qt users we can attract, and the better
we can position Qt as opposed to e.g. HTML5, .NET, or Java. This
should grow “the Qt cake” overall and thus improve Qt as a technology,
Qt as a product, and the business opportunities for everybody involved
within Qt.

Subjects that are desirable in Qt Project’s social media channels:

- source code, binaries, descriptions, screen shots, or videos of demos
or other software that showcases interesting or new features in Qt

- source code, binaries, descriptions, screen shots, or videos of demos
or other software that showcases Qt’s viability for a certain business
purpose or industry

- source code, binaries, descriptions, screen shots, or videos of demos
or other software that showcases Qt’s viability in education (both
primary and secondary, both general programming techniques, and more
specific tasks, such as 3D graphics)

- announcements of releases of software related to Qt and licensed under
a license approved by the Open Source Initiative, as this shows positive buzz
around Qt [this clause also ensures that it’s actually OK to announce
Qt releases]

Subjects that are undesirable in Qt Project’s social media channels:

- any kind of material that markets a particular product or service
provided by any particular vendor

Example: “iChart 5.0 integrates OpenGL with QML2!!!” would not be
ok, as this would promote the product. “See OpenGL integrated with
QML2”, and demoing that using iChart 5.0 as an example would be ok,
as that would promote the technology (QML2, in this case).

Potential corner cases:

- A product or service that is so unique that its mere existence
would make Qt a more attractive technology. E.g. a library for
holographic images. In this case, the question is whether the added
publicity and attractiveness this gives Qt as a whole outweighs the
advertisement for the particular vendor selling that library. This
will have to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

- Advertisements for products or services that by their existence
validate Qt as a platform, and that are made available by several
vendors. For example, the possibility to purchase Qt training makes Qt
a more attractive platform to businesses than if there were no
training vendors. In this case, using the Qt Project social media
channels for advertising the existence of trainings is OK, as long as
all (known) training vendors are mentioned.

Mentioning company names, “product placement”, etc.

Mentioning the producer of a certain bit of media (e.g., a
demonstration movie) is OK as long as this is done in a non-conspicuous
way and does not divert attention from the main message, promoting Qt
as a technology. For example, this could be done in credits at the end
of a demonstration movie, in a copyright header on top of a source
file, in an about box.

Whenever there is a link to a vendor web site, there shall always also
be a link to www.qt.io (and equivalent for other links, such
as to Facebook groups).

It should always be made obvious whether a bit of media was made on
behalf of an organization (such as a vendor) or a person. If a bit of
media was produced on behalf of an organization, that shall be
mentioned in the media. If it was produced by a person but not on
behalf of an organization, even if that person is employed by an
organization involved with Qt, the employer shall not be
mentioned. (Rule of thumb: Make interests transparent.)

Conflict resolution

For any corner cases, or in the case of disputes, consensus about whether
a bit of media is acceptable in the Qt Project social media channels shall
first be sought on the Qt Marketing mailing list. If consensus cannot be
reached this way, the question shall first be escalated to the marketing
maintainers, then, if still necessary, to the current set of all Qt Project
maintainers (which shall vote by simple majority), and finally to the
Chief Maintainer.

The login credentials to social media channels shall be made available to the
following organizations: Qt Project, KDE e.V., as well as companies
making more than spurious contributions to Qt, currently: Digia,
Intel, KDAB, [add more companies here]. Each of these organizations
shall appoint two named persons to hold those credentials.