Thoughts on recent threads

Fri Dec 22 22:37:57 UTC 2006

Hi John,

John Baer wrote:
> 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).

John, we've had this available here: 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/FC7Themes

Bill Nottingham *just* sent out the FC7 schedule this week and I didn't 
have a chance to update it as others decided to override our existing 
schedule. When I created the schedule on the FC7Themes page, I was 
guesstimating good deadlines for each round and we discussed the 
deadline for round 2 openly on this list to account for the holidays 
[1]. I didn't have a final date for round 3, because I did not know the 
deadline for FC7 test 2 or test 3 yet. I would be perfectly happy to 
update that page with Bill's recently-published schedule in mind, 
however, with a due date for round 3.

I'm not sure how with the information I had on hand at the time, 
however, that the schedule there could have been any more clear. As well 
as publishing this schedule on the wiki, I also sent it to this list 
[2], It's in a story I submitted to Fedora News [3], and I also posted 
the link in my blog which is syndicated on Fedora Planet [4].

All of the items to be created have been available on 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/ThemingOverview for a very long 
time (before Diana's recent modifications) and have been linked to on 
the Artwork/FC7Themes page. I really don't want to talk about that 
particular topic any more, though, I don't think it's good for my blood 
pressure.

> 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.

We brought up the question of OOo splash screens and discussed it 
openly. Would you prefer someone make declarations rather than 
discussing issues like this out in the open?

The point of round 2 in the theme process is to play around with 
different ways of rendering the ideas we came up in round one. See the 
first paragraph under "Participate in FC7 Theme Development" at 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/FC7Themes. I don't think anyone 
really cares what the color is to make that declaration - really if you 
feel strongly about using some non-blue color, well... go for it! And 
show us what you come up with, and we'll discuss it.

> 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.

Your question about RHGB was discussed openly on this list. I actually 
discussed whether or not RHGB could do what you wanted to do with it 
with Ray Strode, who is the currently the Fedora package maintainer of 
RHGB, and I got back to you. Was there something wrong with how that 
went down?

> 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.

+1 ! Make sure you always upload your SVG and/or XCF sourcefiles when 
submitting!

> 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.)

I didn't know about the Fedora Forum post about the FC7 themes until one 
of the Fedora Forums community members emailed me about it a couple of 
weeks ago. I thought I had included it in my community feedback post 
[5], but looking back it looks like I didn't - I might have found out 
about it after that post. I am planning on writing up another set of 
community feedback as I continue to get lots and lots of feedback on my 
blog post as well as in Fedora Forums.

> 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.

The original date we had for that decision was February 12th. We may 
need to set that a couple of weeks back, though, considering Bill's 
schedule for FC7.

> 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.

+1

~m

[1] 
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2006-December/msg00027.html

[2] 
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2006-December/msg00034.html

[3] http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/2192

[4] http://mihmo.livejournal.com/35195.html

[5] 
https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2006-December/msg00117.html