[Mageia-discuss] Mageia logo proposals and selection

[andré]

Romain d'Alverny a écrit :
> Hey everyone,
>
> so, to re-frame a bit things and cool down.
>
> First, thank you all for this conversation. That shows you care. And
> that's great. At times, we may disagree with each other, we may not
> manage properly yet how we say things, we may look or be a bit slow or
> too fast. But we still can make something together - provided we aim
> something in common, we trust and respect each other and we know how
> to step down and apologize when needed.
>
> That's not to say it's easy. It's probably the hardest part. We just
> have to take it into account and build our way with it.
>
>
> A quick note the about logo proposals thing. Right, we may pause it,
> however everyone started to propose logos even before we talked about
> it; so at least we reframe the proposals a bit without making a full
> stop. That gives more info to graphic designers at this point and we
> can refine the technical specs as well.
>
>
> So...
>
> #1 Yes, marketing has a say in how we do things in this project. So
> does each team. We didn't listed all these teams without intending to
> articulate their contributions.
>
> One of the crucial points in this project is to make everyone respect
> and understand each other; knowledge, feelings, opinions, unknowns are
> all in the game and we all have to learn how to deal with this to go
> forward.
>
> Marketing, communication (and coordination/inclusion into the project
> main decisions) are indeed, in our inherited culture, not quite known
> &  understood. Each team has its own culture, process. Without all
> becoming experts of each others' specialties, we need to understand,
> value and trust our reciprocal contributions to benefit the whole
> project.
>
> Of course we are in a Open Source project so it makes some teams more
> in technical power of decision (because they don't approve or because
> they don't deliver or because there are technical obstacles or...).
> That's true and that makes even more important that all participants
> acknowledge that we all have
>
> So whether it takes more time, more discussion, an agreement or it's
> up to the Council or the Board to decide in last resort. We will
> strive to base our decisions on three things: project mission, values
> and facts. Feelings are here as "warning signals" of dissonance and
> understood as such; and should be resolved hopefully.
>
> Disagreements may appear from diverse reasons; one may be that we've
> not been specific enough about the direction (because we didn't or
> because we still don't know well enough how to be specific enough;
> that's something to refine as well).
>
>
> #2. Mageia.org does not target desktop users especially. Well, we do;
> as we do target servers and embedded devices. As well.
>
> Nor does it compete with other Linux distributions or other operating
> systems. Yes, we do compete in some way. But we don't see ourselves
> like this at first.
>
> The big difference we expect for Mageia.org is not to compete, but to
> become a inter-disciplinary collaboration community of excellence for
> free/libre projects; the Mageia Linux distribution is only one (huge,
> central and first) "game" in this. As a project, as a platform, as a
> product, as a showcase.
>
> As a hint, two teams were not listed for now, because we thought that
> we need to roll out our first working ISO first and because we didn't
> explained how their role would fit: ergonomics/users study and
> electronics/hardware devices.
>
> The goal is not only to produce a ~horizontal Linux-based system that
> will empower people; it's to create the conditions to build ~vertical
> solutions with it, within or from the Mageia.org community.
>
> Mageia.org is not a commercial project but a community project; where
> people/companies will bring in and bring from. Both as users and as
> contributors.
>
> That does not prevent to design it through marketing, but that must be
> aligned with the project direction.
>
>
> So, to draw this in perspective now, here are the next big milestones
> we have in sight for the coming months. That does not define long term
> strategy (which is still buried in the announcement and in the
> vision/mission statements being worked on) but I guess it will help:
>
>   1. releasing a test drive ISO before the end of November; this is to
> test drive four things:
>     * packaging/translation/build system as a whole,
>     * community council and teams work&  coordination,
>     * final product stability,
>     * concurrent discussions for future plans.
>
>   2. having December to cool down and prepare the next run; having end
> of December free of any stress in this regard;
>
>   3. preparing coming FOSDEM in February 2011; where we shall meet more
> people to discuss future and hot topics.
>
> Concurrent to these, Mageia.org community must form and learn on itself.
>
> For the marketing team, for instance, the first step could to market
> the project itself toward people that will _contribute to it_, first.
>
> That's who we want to work with and who we want to be in love with the
> product, the technology, the project and the processes first. That's
> who we want to care about first. Then we will have to see how what we
> love can be a fit for other people.
>
> (and no, that doesn't exclude all users, but only users that don't
> expect to contribute to the project directly)
>
> That helps in three ways:
>   - helping refine the whole project vision as whole and advocate it;
>   - help contributors get a firmer grasp on who they are, and what
> they're going to build;
>   - inform users community of what it may be going to look like.
>
> This, with time, will help to discuss targets with more data and more
> perspective. For everyone. Notwithstanding that other teams have quite
> a lot of work as well and may need to advocate it as well.
>
> Yes, that's a short roadmap. We can expect to have a larger one later.
> But that's what we have to focus on at this time.
>
> We will dig into some of these points in dedicated meetings in the
> next days (marketing/communication, roadmap and weekly progress).
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Romain
>    
Excellent.  Agree 100%.

- André (andre999)