Mascot

[Máirí­n Duffy]

Nicu Buculei wrote:
> There is a very active thread going on the Marketing list [1] about 
> the need of a Fedora mascot and an important number of Ambassadors and 
> community people are in agreement about this need (see the link for 
> comments, ideas, proposals).
>
> I think we, the Art Team, can come *as a community* with a nice, 
> friendly and cute mascot which users will love.
The marketing-list thread seems very focused on animals; a mascot could 
be a character too, though, right?

Actually, so this is totally inbred I think, but - for Red Hat 
Enterprise Linux 5, Red Hat has put out a series of little videos that 
simplify and explain the technology coming out with RHEL 5:

http://www.redhat.com/videos/real_tech/

They've got these cute little tofu-like characters in them that 
represent systems. Very simple, but cute, and I think they bring a 
friendly face to the product. I think that is kind of what we are 
looking for, right?

 From the thread on marketing-list and some comments I saw in our IRC 
channel, I think some of the main points being brought up as issues to 
solve are:

1) the Fedora logo is somewhat impersonal
2) it's not 'ours' - eg the community didn't create it and doesn't own 
it so we're restricted in using it
3) it's not very good fodder for plush animals :)
4) it seems many suspect it doesn't reach out to as broad an audience as 
a well-done mascot might.

I think probably the main goal for a mascot for Fedora, then, to be 
derived from the list of issues above: a community-created and 
maintained mascot for the Fedora project that brings a friendly 
personality to the project and reaches out to our target audience.

Of course, a very difficult question I think is: who is our target audience?

One idea for moving forward would be for us to think of what 
characters/mascots/ even TV commercials we associate with different 
products and try to figure out what we like/don't like about each. We 
could go through youtube.com, for example, and look for popular/funny 
commercials that worked, that people liked and uploaded.
> As for some preliminary rules, I think we need something:
> - Free, so it can be used without any restriction (not even trademarks);
+1 I wouldn't say public domain though? Maybe just a plain CC 
attribution (attribute the Fedora Project) - derivs are OK.
> - lovable, this is the purpose of a mascot; 
+1
> - produced by the community, it should not be someone's baby but our 
> community's baby.
+1

~m