Artwork conversations

[Nicu Buculei]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> 
> The conversation we had went on for over an hour about Fedora Artwork 
> project in general and specifically about getting a larger number of 
> contributors involved from the community, the process and the quality 
> that we need to maintain. Diana Fong was worried about the quality of 
> the artwork being produced but didnt work to throw off people from doing 

The "quality" criteria is so subjective that is just too easy to use is 
as a strawman.

If she was genuinely worried about the quality of the produced work, she 
could have participated (as she was invited to). We never saw even only 
word of feedback from her either here on the list or in the comments to 
the proposals on the wiki.

> the work. I was highlighting that the conversations usually is happening 
> on IRC or blogs which the people here in mailing lists are either not 
> aware of or not participation due to differences in time zones and the 
> process as being important as much as the quality of the work being 
> produced. I suggested that if we cant really collaborate on every step, 
> she can at the moment be transparent about her working methodology and 
> thoughts would be a good first step. I think her recent series of blogs 
> "The Voodoo That I Do" [2] is effective in that and should be 
> appreciated. Not everyone knows equally well to work in the community. 

Indeed, but one would expect some minimal trying, like on email in a 
while to the mailing list, and after years some learning about this 
"community" stuff.

> Unlike say packaging where the line of quality vs community 
> participation is tilter in favor of the latter, I believe in artwork it 
> should be the former that is given a higher priority. We should not 
> sacrifice the good results and throw off skilled contributions just 
> because they or we havent yet been able to communicate well with the 
> community. Having said that, here is more details to consider.

Also the opposite is true: we should not sacrifice good results and 
throw off skilled contributions just because they do not come from the 
"right" people from inside the walled garden.

[...]
> Fedora Core 6 artwork turned out to be even better with the concepts 
> drawn by Maureen Duffy, the 3D blender work done Mola and the final 
> polishing from Diana Fong. We managed to work as a team, incorporate 
> feedback from various circles such as the artwork being too dark 
> initially etc. Other than the long term discussions about the trademark 
> protection required in the logo vs the need for creativity, I think 
> there is agreement that the quality of the artwork in general has been 
> good to exceptional. What was not defined and to some extend still 
> causing confusion [3] is the process. We had to rush through kind of in 
> the last minute with Fedora Core 6 and here we are now worrying whether 
> we can do artwork effectively as a community today. I would say that is 
> pretty difficult and we would have to learn by trial and error a few 
> things and I have some ideas that could help here.

So you are in agreement that the best looking Fedora so far was FC6, 
where the look was produced by a team of contributors, from inside and 
outside of the walled garden.

> 1) Expect to jump through hurdles  :   This shouldnt need much 
> explanation but pretty much everytime we have initiated new projects, 
> there has been periods of confusion and general mess before we started 
> being effective. It is pretty much a established trend that I would be 
> surprised we had it all figured out right from the start anywhere. It 
> happened with with Fedora in general. Fedora Extras, Fedora 
> Documentation and now with Fedora Ambassadors and Artwork projects but 
> artwork is rather unique on its own for a number of reasons.

The thing is, we proved we can be effective with FC6, why a step back is 
necessary?

[...]
>  We might realise sometime later that this just isnt 
> working and shut it down but I consider that pretty premature to 
> conclude at this point.

For now we feel we are not wanted and not needed, so from here come the 
idea of shutting down.

> * Tackle work in discrete chunks  :   For example, creating one 
> particular icon for the Echo theme is much more easier than working on a 
> creating a entire desktop theme. We know the theme is incomplete. We put 
> in as the default sometime back to receive feedback and more importantly 
> contributions. So instead of endless talking about what holes we see, 
> try and fix them.

We do not work here for money, if all we get is ingratitude, then we 
stop working and start endless complaints.

> * Work as a team  : Expect to receive criticism, others to take your 
> work and come up with variations or polish it better etc. Mola's blender 
> work in Fedora Core 6 and John Baer's concept work in Fedora 7 are good 
> examples of this.

Exactly this is the complaint: instead of criticism the proposals 
received only disregard.

And at the end, here is what I see as a proof of lack of goodwill: have 
a look at http://www.isity.net/blog/?p=60
Scroll down to the "credit" section. Do you notice there a familiar 
name? Maybe John Baer who came up with the idea? Me neither...

For now I am seriously thinking of just giving up.


-- 
nicu
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro