Big Tent - Many Clowns... (A month late and distro short...)

[jelkner at divmod.com]

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005 16:23:40 +0200, Jane Weideman <janew at hbd.com> wrote:
>On Fri, 2005-06-24 at 10:18 -0400, flint at flint.com wrote:
>> Jeff Elkner suggested to me and I suggest to the list that we are not
>> being inclusive enough in this selection process.  Jeff pointed out to me
>> that if an instructor or educational technologist in the future generates
>> a version of Edubuntu (for instance using Launchpad :^) that would benefit
>> from the chemistry-themed logo, then that is the logo that should be used.
>>
>> I believe that what Elkner is saying to us is that the rich set of
>> alternatives for the edubuntu logo is a feature to be exploited not a bug
>> to be eliminated.
>>
>> So my question to the list is "Why can't we just use them all?".
>
>Er, I think while your suggestion does have merit, and we could have a
>bank of usable designs available for distros. I think from a branding
>perspective we should have one logo that becomes known as Edubuntu, and
>certainly one chosen for the October official first release.
>
>Strong brands have strong recognisable branding.
>
>Thanks
>JaneW

Seems to me we need the best of both worlds here.  Since Edubuntu will be free software, customization will be possible anyway.  I understand and agree that there should be one "official" Edubuntu brand, but we need community space to be able to *theme* it as well.  The other logos could be part of community supported themes.

Giving Edubuntu a chemistry look in a chemistry class and a K-6 look in an elementary class will go a long way toward helping popularize it, at the same time reinforcing the idea that free software is "our" software.

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On another note, I understand the need for the first release of Edubuntu to coincide with the release of Hoary, but an October release is a month too late for most educational institutions to make use of it this year.  This probably means they won't be able to use it until the following September, 11 months after it's first release.

A well promoted beta release in the beginning of September together with a fairly smooth transition to the final release could be a big help here...

jeff elkner
open book project
http://ibiblio.org/obp