[Ambassadors] FYI Fedora 12 one page release notes. :)

[Máirín Duffy]

Hi Nelson,

On Sat, 2010-03-27 at 17:14 +0000, Nelson Marques wrote:
> It's nicely done, though on "Help make Fedora" I strongly disagree with
> the image presented as it clear shows signs of "Ghetto culture". You
> shouldn't address an international community displaying such symbols.
> Every time that Communication hits International Communities or
> Minorities, it should be reviewed carefully at cultural level.

I designed the PDF for the release notes flyer and selected the
photographs.

I think the photograph you're calling into question is a wonderful
example of cross-cultural collaboration. You've got an Italian Fedora
contributor making a friendly Hawaiian greeting gesture [1],
photographed by a Romanian contributor, and included in a layout
designed by an American.

Are you sure we really need formal review of Fedora documents
specifically for cultural sensitivity? You know, I'm happy if we even
have a nicely-designed flyer, or any flyer at all for that matter to
hand out to folks. Did you check the history of the page and note all of
the late-night edits to the document? We are very lucky Fedora community
members worked together to make that document happen, and at the events
I've brought it to it's been a great success in communicating what
Fedora has to offer.

I'm a design professional - while that doesn't mean I'm right all the
time, and actually I'm wrong a lot - I am actually quite aware of
cross-cultural issues. I took two years of college-level Japanese and
have basic fluency, and I also completed a graduate-level course in
cross cultural communication and trained east Asian students in ESL, and
in addition to the cross-cultural sensitivity issues that are a part of
human-computer interaction study and practice, I do think I'm fairly
certified to competently make calls on this sort of thing in my design
work and in working with other Fedora Design Team members.

You really want to throw a cultural sensitivity review board at my
design work, and the design work of the entire Fedora Design Team? We're
having trouble enough encouraging designers in Fedora, and in open
source projects in general, without showing a blatant distrust of their
skills... 

~m

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaka_sign