Preparing a briefing
This page is for journalists, podcast hosts and creators who have a briefing or interview about Exponential coming up. Preparation lets you spend the conversation on what only the people can tell you, such as plans, reasons and opinions, instead of on facts that are already documented.
Contents
- Reading before the briefing
- The briefing sheet
- Planning your questions
- During the briefing
- After the briefing
Reading before the briefing
About 30 minutes covers the basics:
| Minutes | Read | Gives you |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Who is 7x?, In short | The company, the name history, the releases |
| 5 | Who is the Exponential Foundation?, In short | The nonprofit, its mission, its relation to 7x |
| 5 | Who is the Exponential Foundation?, What the sources do not say | The open questions worth asking |
| 5 | The history, The story so far | The main events since December 2023 |
| 5 | The changelog of the newest release, for example 6.0.14 | What just shipped |
| 5 | Brand and naming rules, Do and Don't | How to name everything |
Then add the briefing for your kind of outlet: technical press, business press, local and regional press or education and student media.
The briefing sheet
Fill this in before the call. Every "fact" line needs a source; the "open" lines become your questions.
BRIEFING SHEET date: ________ with: 7x / the Foundation
FORMAT [ ] on the record [ ] background only (agree before you start) [ ] recorded (consent asked)
DEADLINE ____________________ time zone: ______
FACTS I WILL NOT ASK ABOUT (with source)
- Newest release: ____________ (changelog link)
- Development line: __________ (6.0.15 changelog)
- Foundation founded: 19 March 2026, Seattle (foundation.exponential.earth)
- License: GNU GPL v2 or later; documentation GNU FDL 1.3 (README-LICENSE.md)
- __________________________________________________________
OPEN QUESTIONS (the sources do not say)
- ____________________________________________________________
- ____________________________________________________________
CLAIMS I NEED CONFIRMED OR DENIED
- ____________________________________________________________
NAMES TO SPELL RIGHT
Exponential - 7x - the Exponential Foundation - Exponential Velocity - Exponential Layouts -
Exponential Intelligence - Exponential Platform (Legacy, Nexus, DXP)Planning your questions
- Ask for reasons and plans, not documented facts. "Why did 7x keep the code base alive?" is a good question; "When was 6.0.0 released?" is in the release overview.
- Use the gaps. The Foundation page lists questions "left open because no public source used here answers them": the board, governance, members and budget. These are legitimate interview questions.
- Ask about dates carefully. If you ask when 6.0.15 will be released, record the answer as an answer, with the speaker, and print it only as what they said, never as a fact (Attributing statements).
- Pick five to eight questions from the Interview question bank and order them from easy to hard.
During the briefing
- Confirm the ground rules at the start: on the record or background, recorded or not.
- Ask for consent before recording; say where the recording will be kept.
- Note exact words for anything you might quote, and mark them in your notes with quotation marks.
- When a number is mentioned, ask for its source or date: "Where can readers check that?"
- At the end, ask: "Is there anything you would like to give me in writing?" Written statements are the safest quotes (Quotes policy).
After the briefing
| Step | Why |
|---|---|
| Transcribe or note quotes the same day | Memory changes words |
| Check every fact you heard against the documentation | A spoken number may be from memory; the source wins, or you report both |
| Mark which statements are quotes, which are paraphrase, which are background | So nothing background ends up attributed |
| Send a follow-up for anything unclear | Better than guessing (Verifying quotes) |
| Delete recordings when you no longer need them, if you promised to | Privacy (Protecting people's privacy) |
Related pages
- Requesting an interview
- Interview question bank
- Fact-checking guide
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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