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

[Paul W. Frields]

On Tue, Mar 30, 2010 at 10:14:09AM -0400, Máirín Duffy wrote:
> 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

I don't think Fedora has the need (or, certainly, the werewithal) to
do a "100% cultural correctness" check on every single piece of media
we produce.  It should be abundantly clear to the majority of viewers
that the picture in question is in the spirit of worldwide community
and friendship.  There's nothing else on the page to suggest
otherwise, and the text around the picture makes that context pretty
clear.

Big companies may have the staff and money to throw at these kinds of
issues, but we do not.  I don't want to make Fedora the kind of
project where people have to get all sorts of permissions or pass
through a lot of stages of review to produce wonderful media that
shows how friendly and wonderful the Fedora community is.  I love that
particular picture, and indeed the entire layout of pictures in the
one-page release notes that show the warmth and welcoming nature of
Fedora.

I believe Nelson already said he didn't mean to stir up such a
controversy around this picture.  It would be good for any new or
existing members of the Fedora Project to keep in mind that we all try
to do our best here to *make* friends across cultures!  Calling into
question the motives of other contributors is not a good way to help
achieve that end.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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