[ubuntu-art] [Ubuntu-Art]Theme Teams. Moving Forward. Making Stuff!

[Who]

~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is quite lengthy. If you can't read it all but are interested
then try just to look at the bits with ==?== in front of them -
they're questions that I hope as many people in the art-team as
possible should answer...

Wiki Page:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeams

If anyone thinks sabdfl needs to know about this then please forward it to him
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Hi all,

Given the recent discussion about frustration in moving things forward
and the team not really having direction, I think it might help if we
organised ourselves a bit more...

I think we have the talent and enthusiasm in the team to get great
stuff out if we do it right!

So, I have a suggestion: A few years back we organised a system where
we had 3 'Theme Teams' that took charge of developing themes to be
packaged separately and be available in Universe. This wasn't without
it's troubles, but did produce some nice work. I think we should do it
again. It seems very unhelpful to suggest something like organisation
and then leave it alone, so I've expanded below...

~~~~~~~~ Proposal ~~~~~~~~

Here are the 'rules' I propose. Please comment on them.
* These theme teams would _not_ be developing default themes - and
should not be under the illusion they are
* The teams should _aim_ to create complimentary themes, not too similar
* A theme team will develop or COMPILE at LEAST gtk theme, metacity,
gdmsplash, background. Usplash and icons would be ideal (for icons,
compiling seems much the better option)
* We're talking about making FUNCTIONING themes, not mockups!
* The process needs to MEET DEADLINES. If we want to be available in
Universe _for the release_ (which we might already have missed the
chance to do - what do people think?) then meeting deadlines at every
stage of the way is essential.
* Each theme team needs a leader to collate and co-ordinate things.
* The themes will rock!

==?== What do you think of these ^ ?
==?== Should we aim to do these for Hardy or Hardy + 1?

I think we should aim to have 2 or 3 theme teams - so as not to spread
experience and time too thinly. For this we need people with time,
enthusiasm and knowledge about themeing to come forward and agree to
be leaders of these Theme Teams. These people don't necessarily have
to be designers, but they do need to be prepared to make sure the team
is meeting the deadlines and producing work. If you think you've got
what it takes, step up!

~~~~~~ Getting Started ~~~~~~~

This brings me on to how I think we can start. We still don't have a
better tool than the wiki, which is a shame, but not a big problem!
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeam

For the first stage, I've created a page where anyone who wants to
lead a theme team can enter a description of what they want to do.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeams/ThemeProposals
People who want to join the team can 'sign up' and we can go from
there. It makes sense to me to either vote on these ideas, or

~~~~~~~~ Leadership/Decision Making ~~~~~~~~
We need leaders for theme teams, and they need to be prepared to make
things happen :) These leaders will have the final call on their
theme's design.

They could either design a theme, or compile a theme form existing
components, or a bit of both

==?== Do we decide leaders and teams based on a vote, by which teams
most people want to contribute to, or by some other means (decision by
sabdfl, Kwwii?)

==?==Want to be a LEADER?
So, if you've got a theme you'd like to develop - have a think about
being a theme team leader. I did the job for the Blubuntu Theme some
releases back, it was a lot of fun and VERY rewarding! To get an idea
of what is required of you, it might help to look at the Blubuntu wiki
pages I made. I found it to be an excellent way to organise the
work...

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Blubuntu - they give the best
idea of what is involved.

This time around there will be more commitment in packaging than last
time! Any other people who have done it before, please chime in...


~~~~~~~~ Timescales ~~~~~~~~

I've put a draft timeline for THIS process on the Wiki page I made
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeam

First deadline is JAN 5th - DO WE WANT TO DO THIS
== ? == Well, do we?

~~~~~~~~ Launchpad ~~~~~~~

==?== How do we integrate correctly with Launchpad?

It would seem that the existing *-look themes have separate packages
for each thing - so I gues we should do this. We need to work with
Launchpad to comply with the process for getting new packages accepted
in to Universe (see
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages )

Please, can someone advise on this - shall we speak to Dan Holbach?

~~~~~~~ The End! ~~~~~~~~

Wow, finally.

Please comment, please step up!

Who (Jonathan Austin)