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

[Máirín Duffy]

On Tue, 2010-03-30 at 17:09 +0100, Nelson Marques wrote:
>  In the past when we selected "Rock it", I've pointed similiar points to
> the Marketing Team and we've actually issued a small context in which to
> fit the slogan. I remember Paul clearly saying not to associate it with
> rocks, and soon after the first image that poped out (from an
> ambassador) was a rock. The term rock itself can be related to crack for
> instance. 

Rock as a verb, not as a noun.
> 
>  In 2004, the GNOME Project issued a release name called "Temujin" (also
> known as Ghengis Kahn, or The Impaler). Apparently, this would not make
> much problems, until someone found on it ammunition and GNOME no longer
> issues release names. Nowadays, they even prepare themselfs for possible
> press attacks (being worked for instance related to gnome-shell).

Well, that sucks that GNOME no longer has release names. 
> 
>  On another field, Anthropology studies human behavior and human
> relations, in this field we study cultures, sub-cultures and
> anti-cultures and their roles in societies. It is normal that symbols
> are shared, and it is normal that symbols get deviations that resemble
> the original. So pointing this or that is really futile, as each
> individual will look them as they want to. You, me or whoever else, cant
> really control that. If it becomes wrongly interpreted, there might be
> ammunition to fire at us.

So we should just not design anything at all? This is an interesting
problem but I don't see any posed solutions here.

I mean, I have to get to work in the morning. Traffic in the Boston area
is dangerous and there are many accidents. I don't huddle in my
apartment for fear of getting into a car, though. You have to move
forward.
> 
>  Further more, my goal was not to diminish someone's work, in fact I've
> made strong compliments in the past to the "Release Notes". When this
> issue poped out, I stopped caring about this subject in particular, and
> as I've informed already the Marketing Group, I will make an appointment
> for a meeting to discuss this and will provide them the tools that
> Marketing uses to analyse this. If they choose to listen or not, that's
> another story, but from this, I wash my hands away.

What tools are you going to provide? What solution do you have in mind? 
> 
>  As for wikipedia, it is not an academical source, anyone can type what
> they want there. There's really no point in clearing it out, as one can
> change it easily and display whatever they want. Marketing doesn't
> follow wikipedia, follows the Academy where it is created as a science
> that operates in several fields, some of psychology, others of
> anthropology, mathematics, etc.

Having visited Hawaii and knowing two people who lived in Hawaii for
some time now I can independently confirm for you that in fact the 'hang
loose' sign is a friendly greeting actually used in Hawaii and by
surfers in California as well. 

>  Everyone misses the point, it is not about our message, but clearly how
> people can interpret it. As for the Shaka, it's a derivate from the
> Hands Horns or Voor which is far older, and if you make black and white
> and just analyze the silhouette across a sample population, you will get
> your results, not like this. Things are never done like this.

You can only control the message you send, not how it's interpreted.
This entire situation here is I believe an extreme example of how we
really have no control over how folks interpret things. If I wear the
color black, which symbolizes death, you can interpret that to mean I'm
either goth or someone died, but 99 cases out of 100 it just means I
happened to pick that shirt out of my drawer in the morning.... 
> 
>  My battle lies ahead with the Marketing Team, on this subject, I have
> nothing more to add. When I joined Fedora I said more than one time that
> I would start mainly with F14 preparation, so that none of this problems
> can actually happen or can be minimized. It was never my goal to be
> involved in F13, neither F12, though I ended up being involved.

It's the design team creating and selecting the artwork.
> 
>  Please, be understandable, that we are working on different fields,
> neither I am attacking your work. Personally that an image I would never
> use. But I have other topics to bring to the attention of the Marketing
> Team, like using children's images and so on. So in the future, maybe on
> a Marketing FAD, I hope we get some more accurate guidelines. What
> people fail to understand is that this was never related to my personal
> opinion (one reason is that I really don't care), but from what
> people/audience might interpret from this, and if they decide to use it
> as free ammunition against us, they will, and in most cases like this
> one, they will succeed. 

Has anyone actually interpreted that image to mean Satan's horns besides
yourself?

Preparing time-intensive solutions to a problem that may not actually
exist doesn't seem like a good usage of time to me. Especially if it's
going to hinder my team's ability to get things done.
> 
>  As I am ready to hold my ground and take the fight to preserve our
> brand integrity, I am sure there might be some willing to the same for
> the opposite.
> 
>  Professional background isn't an issue, some of the biggest Advertising
> Agencies have been responsible for hundreds of millions in damages to
> popular brands like Adidas, Nike, Mazda, Citroen, Esso, etc etc. So this
> is actually rather more complex.

Right, which points out maybe the futility of having a cultural review
board...? If Nike ($$$$$$$) can't get it right, how can Fedora?

>  PS: Maybe joining the Marketing List or establishing a bridge with it
> might help the artists to learn a bit more in other fields that are
> relevant to their work. That would be my suggestion.

We created the one-page release notes working very closely with the
marketing team. A good suggestion - it's just already in place.

~m