Thoughts on recent threads

[John Baer]

Hello everyone,

Wow, the list server submissions have been heated of late. In the world of
project management this phase of project team building is referred to as
"storming" and it often produces a positive outcome.

Max and David thank you for your comments. Your input is valued and
appreciated.

What I see as the root problem is a broken process and it can be addressed
with a simple question.

Fedora (aka Max, David, Jonathan, others from the Fedora council), "what do
you want and when do you want it"?

Diana's development of the release guide is a big help with the "what". It
provided me with a list of twelve images to developed and the criteria of
the desired result. It also provided a valuable resource for discussion. For
example, the Open Office and Gimp splash screens; can the RHGB program be
changed to render artwork differently?

IMO what we are lacking is published deadlines and a clear definition of the
deliverables. I remember from the FC6 cycle the artwork came in late and we
were advised by Rahul the submissions for FC7 needed to be more timely. In
addition, the short deadline in FC6 produced an unfair burden which fell on
Diana and Mola's shoulders.

As a result, the artwork effort of FC7 began earlier but I now realize
Diana, Mo, and others from Fedora have other product deadlines to honor.

Therefore, as a submitter of artwork to the Fedora art team I request the
following.

1)    Publish a development schedule to the wiki. Detail as much as possible
exactly "what" is to be complete (visual examples are good) and the outcome
of the deadline. This could also become a dashboard if one were to assign a
status (ie. Green/Yellow/Red or AheadOfSchedule/OnSchedule/Late).

2)    Fedora needs to communicate it's vision clearly to the group. This
vision should also reside on the wiki. For example, if Fedora desires not to
theme the splash screen of Open Office make the declaration, if Fedora
doesn't care make the declaration. If Fedora desires to use the color blue
in new theme development make the declaration.

3)    The team needs an ambassador to Fedora. The perfect example is my
question on changing the RHGB program. I would add this person should not be
an active submitter of artwork and can change from time to time.

The reason is in addition to ambassador this person should be a coach to
team submitters. As this person will more than likely be from Fedora, Fedora
should decide who is best qualified to fill the role.

4)    I would ask the team to communicate visually. Have an idea or see an
improvement for a submission? Mock it up, a picture is truly worth a 1000
words. We agreed to only use open source products for development (mainly
gimp & inkscape) so passing files should not be an issue.

5)    I would ask team members to post their intentions to the list server.
I had no idea a forum post was made and an artwork theme poll was underway.
A wonderful idea but I would have liked the opportunity to comment and
participate in the forum thread. (If that was done and I missed it, great.)

So where are we now?

In my mind the development of the "Flying High Theme" needed to evolved to
the point Fedora could give the thumbs up or down. I believe I have
accomplished that goal and the result of the effort is posted to the
"preview" wiki.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fc7ThemeProposalFlyingHighPreview

I know if I were entrusted in making the decision on which theme to use I
would want to see as much as possible. If I were purchasing an auto I want
to see more than the bumper. To do less places the project at risk of
getting something less than desired. Once the decision on the theme is made,
the effort becomes refinement and polish.

In conclusion what I see before us now is an opportunity for improvement.
Let's agree Fedora 7 can be as good as we want it to be.

Cheers,

John
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