11:52 a.m.
Hi all,
I thought over in many things and I do recognize some problems that
might be related to people not enrolling with communities like our. I
would like to propose the following (though I could prepare a decent
document, I'd rather take this approach first).
Fedora 13 is going live soon, and honestly everyone should be committed
to it, but once F13 is live, it is expected that maybe in the upcoming
months after the release there's too much to do still. So maybe the best
time is to trigger this around July. At that time people should be
preparing for vacations and so on (at least the youth, which is probably
the main audience for this).
I am not sure when the theme is going to be decided and specially by
whom for Fedora 14, but this makes sense to be done right after such is
accomplished.
What I would like to do:
Launch a challenge in existing artist communities through a cooperation
protocol between Fedora and those communities, for some quick examples:
* opendesktop.org (gnome-look.org, kde-look.org, etc);
* deviantart.com
* gnome.org and kde.org (?? this people are most likely buried with
work already)
* suggestions from current artists
This challenge should be a "call to arms" oriented campaign in which
artists are invited to produce artwork for Fedora Project. As things are
not going to be much random, this is what I though that is going to be
needed:
#1 - Fedora 14 Theme > this has to be decided prior.
#2 - A document that provides guidelines for participants to comply
(this should be accomplished by the Fedora Design Team, as it's their
field of action/expertise).
#3 - A place where artists can submit their work. (this shouldnt be too
complicated and I would suggest to use a wiki page for this).
#4 - Licensing for submitted artwork (this is for sure something I have
no knowledge, I believe that eventually there are people here who have
done similiar things in the past, so selecting and highlighting such
would be great).
#5 - A committee to analyze the submitted artwork. We can run this as
Fedora or eventually also invite people from other communities, such as
GNOME, KDE, etc. If this artwork is going to be enabled by Fedora and
distributed for KDE/GNOME, makes sense to me to have someone from their
project on this also. See such option as strengthening bonds between us
and them.
#6 - A proper Marketing/Communication campaign for this. We should be
able to reach everyone.
#7 - Decide what kind of artwork we want (ex: GNOME Meta Themes, KDE
themes, Icon Themes, wallpapers, videos ?).
#8 - Some Ambassadorial support work. I would recon that _current_
artists who are ambassadors should have a key role here. As artists they
might be enrolled on other existing communities, they for sure talk the
same language as other artists and know how to attract people in a more
effective way than we can at Marketing. As for standard non-artist
Ambassadors, I believe they can help a lot also, as running such project
is mainly Public Relations work (something I suck at).
Some doubts:
- If we run such campaign, who decides if we can include or not
community based artwork? Can we freely include on F14 some extra stuff
that we get from such a campaign ?
- The tools... we are promoting open source, but if we scroll through
Deviant Art for instance, there is work which is distributed with a
friendly license, but is generated in maybe non-friendly software, such
as OS X platforms and eventually not GIMP/Inkscape stuff. Should we
apply restrictions and check for headers and traces of non-oss in the
submitted artwork?
- I would like submitters to place their artwork in place where FAS
registration is demanded. In the rush of submitting their work, they
will go through that step with some "pleasure". If such is done, with a
single group apply (ex: design-team) and joining a mailling list, their
approach as a potential Fedora contributor is basically done. This could
be explored.
- Ice breaking... People who might want to submit artwork will be for
sure in contact with some of our people. For example we can probably
forward them for a "help list" for this event or existing list such as
design-team to clear some doubts. Doing such will place them directly in
contact with Fedora Teams and will work as a Ice Breaker. This should
probably make their possible integration in the future much easier, as
they will start having friendly voices around.
- Motivation - Fedora is supposed to be installed in 24 million
computers worldwide (or so some say). This is a kick-ass distribution
channel for artists. It should provide enough motivation for them to
participate (if we are friendly with rules).
- Marketing Involvement > I'm not sure how many people face this, but
this is a typical marketing promotion campaign. It does require some
work and free time. I'm making myself available for this and I can nag
my employer to give me 5 hours weekly to work on this, plus my free
time.
- Ambassadorial Work > I'm not sure on how this can be done, so some
feedback from Ambassadors is welcome, and eventually we can see how we
can help each other. Even between the involved departments/teams of
Fedora in such, their work as moderators and promoters should be a must.
- Cost/Benefits Relation > This should be positive for everyone
involved. I'm not sure how design team faces such initiative... Fedora
Design is very important, and this should be an accessory for their
work, and of course a way to reinforce their ranks in number and gather
more contributors/artists for Fedora Artwork/Design Teams. That should
be our greatest benefict, plus providing a wider set or artwork on the
release. Get more people signed on FAS in a friendly way. Break the Ice
between Fedora and possible contributors. On the costs side... This is
will require time and effort from at least: Ambassadors, Marketing,
Design/Artwork and other teams of Fedora such as QA, packaging, etc. I
would say that 20 submissions for Meta-Themes would be already a great
win and would reward us all.
For the rest, this is a very superficial approach, but if there is
interest from Fedora on this, I will turn this into a more in-depth
document and more objective.
I believe we can try to do something different here and try to enlarge
our community a bit, plus providing a bit more of community
contributions.
All the problems have solutions, we just need to identify them and work
them out. I believe we have enough time between now and Fedora 14 theme
selection to work out this in a way that we can kick in fast and
aggressive soon after the main art theme is selected.
I really would love to ear everyone's view about this, their own ideas
on how to make better, their concerns, their critics... everything...
only in possession of such information we can have a strong basis to
work out soemthing like this.
From my personal point, I'm willing to place 10 hours/week for such
project and report to Marketing every single week about what has been
achieved.
Nelson.
--
Nelson Marques
Evil Clown (http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/evilclown.htm)