Hy,
here are my 2 Cents...
Launch a challenge in existing artist communities through a
cooperation
protocol between Fedora and those communities, for some quick examples:
Sounds good. With the right words you can reach very much people.
*
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.
The "Theme" is a very wide area ...
#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).
See
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Logo/UsageGuidelines2
Thats the first one I found. I think some Artworkers have some
pre-prepared Links to send them out ;-)
#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).
See
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/F13_Artwork (as soon as the Name and
Slogan is ready artists have enough input to go on). Then they should
(as always) send a Mail to the artwork mailing list for discussion.
If you want to work with them in a more collaborate way you can use
gobby and/or etherpad-clones like
http://typewith.me/.
Then we also have fedoratalk with some conference rooms.
You see there are many ways of communicating together. You just have to
use it.
#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).
License (as you already know) will be cc-licenced.
#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.
Hmm, my personal opinion would be that the Artwork-Team and the
Mailinglist and IRC around it should be sufficient and maybe there are
some of them who are happy to join your idea.
#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 ?).
- Wallpapers (several ones around the Theming)
- Iconsets
- Countdown Graphic
- Banners (Alpha banner, Beta Banner, Release banner, Countdown Banner,
Download Banner, Website Banner, etc.)
- Splash-screen / Install screen
- DVD/CD sleeves
- Release Party Posters
For Spins and Window Managers (Gnome, KDE, XFCE, LXDE...) I see some
timing / ressource / including / coordination problems.
Tip for the time-planing: do not forget Testing and QA work in the
timeline.
#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).
I think thats less a Fedora Marketing (global) issue than more a PR
(localized) issue to reach them. Every artist lives in his or her small
world and you have to reach them more or less indididually. But you will
come very soon to that point ;-)
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 ?
Shure. Why not?! Our artwork is fully Community based...
- 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?
There are no restrictions. There never was. You only have to provide
your work under cc-license and the sourcecode so that modifications can
be done from everyone.
- 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.
This is how it works.
- 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.
The Mailinglist helped always new contributors. Mostly it goes the open
way like this:
$New_One: Hey, I'm new here. I have $cool_wallpaper and $cool_Iconset.
Do you like it?!
$Experienced_Fedora_Artworker: This looks pretty nice. Please take also
a look at $Fedora_Design_rules for proper dimensions/colors, etc. It
would be nice if you can put it into the $wiki or on to your
$fedora_people Account that we all can participate and improve it.
$New_One: Well, I'm not so experienced and I have done this with
$commercial_software. Is that ok?!
$Experienced_Fedora_Artworker: Not so much, because we do it the
OpenSource way (here: include $4-Foundations explanation, Opensource,
cc-licence, etc.) Please take a look at $Design_spin or
$Opensource_artwork_tools_links and try to adjust and edit your idea so
that it fits into that.
$New_One: Cool. I will do so. You guys and girls rock!
- 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).
Jep. Thats a good start for e.g. an article about Fedora Artwork or some
interview how it is made, etc.
- 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.
Yeah, but I think 5-10h can be to a bit to little. In my experience if
such a campaign comes up its more like 3-4h a day / 7 days.
- 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.
I think we have proper channels for distribution there (FWN, planet,
Mailinglists, wiki).
As I said in my first sentence: you can reach very much people.
But you must IMHO also face the fact that it will be hard work and you
have to be very flexible all day and all night to communicate with
artists, the different Fedora Teams involved, organize Mailings on the
Mailinglist, meetings on IRC, structured timeplaning (I think here of
the good and nice Mails from John Poelestra which reminds us always on
the deadlines), be patient with soft souls and kick-ass to the lazy Ones
- Designers and artists are often (if they are not working in a
$design_agency VERY lazy :-) ), promote infos to all kind of people in
all kinds of shades, etc.
Because if you are not that way it can be bad not only for that small
project inside Fedora it could be very harmfull in the whole community!
If you are up to it I would say build a wikipage, make a timeplan (e.g.
beginning short before the Release Partys begin, because you can profit
from those events) and rock it...
mit freundlichen Grüßen / best regards
Henrik Heigl - wonderer(a)fedoraproject.org
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