[ubuntu-art] Organizing Artwork Wiki

[John Baer]

On Sun, 2009-04-05 at 23:04 +0100, Thorsten Wilms wrote:

> On Sun, 2009-04-05 at 10:03 -0400, John Baer wrote:
> 
> > IMO we should lay out and agree to the desired organizational
> structure
> > of our pages and then move content to this structure.
> 
> I have to admit that after getting a general OK, I applied a
> just-do-it
> approach without discussing each step ;)
> 
> Does wonders for getting stuff done, but is only as good as that one
> person knows it :)
> 
> 
> My guiding principals are:
> - All required information in a concise manner
> - No useless information and filler
> - Avoid placing material of different scope on one level. For example,

+1

>  a
> single proposal like WarningThemes shouldn't be on the same level as
> Incoming ...
> 
> So far I made an exception for Breathe, though, as one might argue it
> should be in Incoming. I don't dare to touch it without asking Cory
> because he's Cory and think it deserves a little extra emphasis :)
> 

I believe Cory will agree to changes that add value to Breathe.


> My ideal is that a newcomer can start from Artwork (and easily get
> there
> in the 1st place) and find all the info he needs, no matter if he
> starts
> from basically zero, or if he is looking for something specific.

+1

> 
> 1st level shall be:
>  * Official Artwork
>  * Breathe Icon Set
>  * Incoming
>  * Documentation
>  * Specifications
>  * Meetings
>  * Archives

Here are my thoughts :)

URL                       CATEGORY

Trunk

      * Artwork               (CategoryArt)

1st level

      * Artwork/Archives      (CategoryArtArchives)
      * Artwork/Banners       (CategoryArtBanners)
      * Artwork/Releases      (CategoryArtReleases)
      * Artwork/Documentation (CategoryArtDocumentation)
      * Artwork/Governance    (CategoryArtGovernance)
      * Artwork/GtkThemes     (CategoryArtGtkThemes)
      * Artwork/GdmTheme      (CategoryArtGdmTheme)
      * Artwork/IconThemes    (CategoryArtIconThemes)
      * Artwork/AudioThemes   (CategoryArtAudioThemes)
      * Artwork/Meetings      (CategoryArtMeetings)
      * Artwork/Guidelines    (CategoryArtGuidelines)

2nd level (documentation examples)

      * Artwork/Documentation/OfficalArtwork
      * Artwork/Documentation/InBzr
      * Artwork/Documentation/Updating

2nd level (icon theme example)

      * Artwork/IconThemes/Breathe              (CategoryArtIconThemes)

2nd level (release example)

      * Artwork/Releases/Intrepid/TooHuman      (CategoryArtReleases)
      * Artwork/Releases/Jaunty/photo_wallpaper (CategoryArtReleases)

2nd level (IRC meetings example)

      * Artwork/Meetings/Calendar               (CategoryArtMeetings)
      * Artwork/Meetings/2008May13              (CategoryArtMeetings)

> Breathe is Cory's realm and clean.

+1, but IMO we should not design around the as-is but consider the
possibility we may have multiple icon themes under development at the
same time. 

> Incoming has per release sub-pages and a few long-term, the chaos has
> been moved to Incoming/Attic.
> 

This is were my heart ache lies. 

To support Launchpad/bazzar, the desire is to link back to a home URL.
Using Breathe as an example, this project has and will span multiple
Ubuntu releases so the home page shouldn't reside under the current
"incoming" or proposed "releases" branch. IMO these projects should have
a home URL under a branch which describes the effort (e.g. IconThemes).

The same can be said of some GtkThemes such as Dust which has already
re-located under "incoming". IMO this was the right move to the wrong
place. I believe it would be fair to say Dust is here, not incoming. I
would place Dust under my proposed "GtkThemes" branch.

> Documentation shall contain:
>  * Artistic guidelines
>    * Recommended reading on various subjects
>    * Design Process

IMO documentation is a good place for informative content or how-to's. I
placed Official Artwork there as it is a resource to other projects and
not a development effort.

>  * Licensing guidelines
>  * Technical documentation
>    * Recommended Software, including tips and links to tutorials
>    * Theming
> (not necessarily with these exact sub-pages)
> 
> Specifications is so meager it's tempting to dissolve it.
> 
+1, I couldn't find a home for this information.

> 
> > Once this is in place we should monitor the "Artwork" branch to
> ensure
> > new content is placed appropriately.
> 
> Yes, constant care.
> 
> 
> > The desire of the following page is to assist with that effort.
> > 
> > https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/WikiDesign
> > 
> > Again, I suggest we design the desire solution, document, and then
> > create tasks to achieve the agreed result.
> 
> 
> Tasks:

   * Design and agree on desired hierarchy.

   * Move content to correct branch.

>  * Add info to the Artwork page (directly or linked) that allows a 
>    newcomer to work with the wiki, even if they came with no prior 
>    knowledge about wikis.
>  * Add info to the Artwork page (directly or linked) that allows a 
>    newcomer to join us on IRC, even if they came with no prior 
>    knowledge about IRC.
>  * Shape up the Software page in Documentation, such that someone who 
>    has never heard of any of our tools will
>    * find to them
>    * be able to associate them with similar commercial tools,
>    * understand what they do even if they didn't know what bitmaps 
>      and beziers are,
>    * have links to the finest tutorials

+1

> * Cover topics like color theory, composition, drawing in 
>   perspective ... a few _high_quality_ links should do.
> * Fill in the missing releases in Archives
>
> * Collect definite info on Licensing, covering which exact licenses
> we 
>   should use for what, and what we can and can't do with material
> that 
>   has other specific licenses.
> 
> 
> Well, sometimes the wiki is fast, today it crawls. Still much better
> than being unavailable like yesterday :)
> 
> 
> -- 
> Thorsten Wilms
> 

I would add a powerful feature of MoinMoin is the use categories.
Categories is a method to group similar content. In my MoinMoin wiki
work I usually create a listing page for each category. For an example
see this page from projWiki:

http://www.projwiki.com/index.cgi/CategoryImpression904

IMO this really adds value to the wiki.

John