[ubuntu-art] Kyūdō: Working on the Foundation

[Thorsten Wilms]

On Sun, 2008-10-05 at 10:50 +0200, Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen wrote:

> I am a bit unclear about the scope of Kyudo. When you talk about
> "themes" I get the idea that it is only about the desktop theme
> (traditional gtk+metacity+icons+gdm (+bootsplash etc)) is that right?

Yes.

> Because my idea of a "whole unified presentation" also involves themes
> for the relevant web sites out there, as well as providing web buttons
> and flags people can use in their blogs and probably other things I
> haven't thought of.

Yes. Defined as "presentation" within Kyūdō. The long term goal is to
achieve an optimal presentation. But currently it's all about the theme.

Because one can't tackle everything at once. The theme defines what
people look at for the longest duration. You can create and offer a
theme without special permissions. So to have a chance to at least
influence say, the main website design, the idea is to first prove
ourselves with a theme. Finally, I assume that one will find the most
tight requirements for the theme, making it easier to adjust other parts
of the artwork, where you will find more freedom.


> Would something like:
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork/DesignService make sense for the
> art/kyudo team?

Perhaps. You could argue that requests to the mailing list are the way
to go, but maybe this possibility isn't obvious/clear enough.



> Another thing I can not fully figure out, more related to the /Process
> document... Roadmapping; it is not expressed that stuff should be
> roadmapped (with dates/deadlines!) - it not only helps you (and more
> importantly: others) in accessing whether you will be ready on time,
> but in my usual work flow this is also a key element in evaluation
> part of the work.
> 
> Historically we have tried a bit of half-hearted road mapping, but it
> has always just ended up outdated and misleading, so that is a good
> reason to avoid it otoh. If one does not stick to the roadmap and
> update it frequently it is actually better not to have (a public) one.

The next release plan will set important dates for everyone who wants to
work on themes for Jaunty Jackalope. Apart from that, currently, I could
only make a plan for myself. But things have to happen as I get around
to them.


> Last clarification: Leadership. What will the structure of the
> organization be? The current complete non-organization of the artwork
> team is a disaster nothing less, that is my humble opinion at least.
> Things such as a clear decision making process and responsibility
> assignment are paramount if Kyudo is meant to have a professional
> workflow and be more inviting to cooperations such as Canonical.

Said disaster was part of the motivation. We are all volunteers here,
you can't push people around, as much as I would like to ;)
My allies and I want meritocracy. Leadership by example, skill and
effort. At some point, official roles might be introduced. 

I would be glad to share the responsibility for parts of Kyūdō, but will
likely always see the big picture as my job.


> Anyways these are just my opinions and you should of course take Kyudo
> in the direction that makes sense to you. And thanks for the excellent
> documents, I read them with delight :-)

Glad to hear that, but really, you should get involved. Make Kyūdō
broader and more solid, save us from the blind spots of a single person!


-- 
Thorsten Wilms

thorwil's design for free software:
http://thorwil.wordpress.com/