<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 TRANSITIONAL//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; CHARSET=UTF-8">
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="GtkHTML/3.16.1">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
Well said!<BR>
<BR>
I think that many people don't take us (you?) seriously. The current theme is years old...<BR>
Nobody uses the default theme (except of me, I think...).<BR>
If anybody woullead a team, I would join in. (I could do things like a new GDM-theme...).<BR>
<BR>
Let's fight;-)<BR>
<BR>
Am Samstag, den 05.01.2008, 11:23 +0000 schrieb Who:
<BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE>
<PRE>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">All,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">On my schedule for this (potential) process, today was the day to</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">decide whether or not we wanted to do this. Very few people have</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">answered... Please answer.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">As it stands, with one suggested theme and no leader for it, we can't</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">go ahead. There is just no point. Is there any support for this idea,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">or are people only here because they want to design the default theme</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">(serious question, not an attack! ...please answer)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">In summary, here is why I think it is a good idea to do this</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">* If you want your design to be available to Ubuntu users, this is the</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">only certain way to do it</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">* In the past, this team has had most success developing community</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">themes (my opinion, but see below)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">* If we want to be taken more seriously as a team in the future,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">getting good stuff done well without offiicial hand-holding is</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">important</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">* Developing these themes is fun, seeing people using your theme is great</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">But if we don't get people able to run them/do design we can't go</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">forward. It is only sensible for me to drive a process like this a</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">certain amount (i.e the leaders need to want to do it!, and do does</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">the team)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">It occurs to me that if we can't even make a complete theme of ANY</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">style to a good standard, we shouldn't expect to be taken seriously</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">when we ask to design the default theme!</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Happy answering,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">Who</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">On Jan 3, 2008 9:59 AM, Frank Schoep <<A HREF="mailto:frank@ffnn.nl">frank@ffnn.nl</A>> wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> On Jan 3, 2008, at 9:42 AM, Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen wrote:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > To all the new people around here - please pay attention to Who, he</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > has been around here for a good while and knows the drill. …</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Absolutely – there are a few people on this list who've been around</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> for quite some time. I think this list is very fortunate to still</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> have experienced people like Who and Troy around, but it's also good</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> to see a lot of new enthusiastic people sharing their vision.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > …</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > We came close to the real deal once, was it Dapper?, where we got a</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > few community themes, bundled, but not enabled, by default.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I think you are referring to Edgy, as the Theme Teams were introduced</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> in that release. Eventually three themes ended up in universe, being</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Blubuntu (Who / PingunZ), Peace (Chuck Huber) and Tropic (Viper550).</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> While varying in quality and polish, the mere fact they were included</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> was a sign that independent small community groups could work towards</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> their own vision *and* meet the hard deadline constraints that were</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> set for them.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > This happened solely because of two things:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > * A few people stood up and took responsibility for creating themes</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Indeed. There was a deadline for Theme Team applications a few weeks</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> into the release cycle so that the theme leaders needed to be</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> involved from the start up through a few weeks before release. For</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Edgy, four leaders stepped up with a serious proposal.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> During the development period, we regularly discussed progress and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> problems and where possible I tried to help out either myself or by</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> getting the right people in touch with each other.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > * Daniel Holbach saved our asses with a lot of packaging work we</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > really should have done our selves</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Daniel has historically helped out with a lot of packaging work,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> indeed. For the Edgy Theme Teams, we made sure he only had one final</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> version to package per theme with room before the deadline, so they</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> wouldn't burden him much.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > I think it would be very valuable to have a "History Page" on the wiki</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > outlining the success and Failures of the art team. That would</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > probably help to make it clear how we are doomed to repeat history</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> > unless people step up an take responsibility.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> While I can't say much about Feisty, Gutsy or Hardy-in-progress, I</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> could tell you about Edgy. As far as I know, Edgy was the first (and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> last?) release to actively try and use community input as a viable</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> source for distribution artwork.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Postmortem I did an interview with Linux.com on the Edgy cycle, and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> there's some half-decent comments from Slashdot, too:</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="http://www.linux.com/feature/58477">http://www.linux.com/feature/58477</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/14/2241255">http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/14/2241255</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ('Stroep' [sic])</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> It seems that all the history we built on the Wiki has been shoveled</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> elsewhere or been dumped in a landfill altogether, but if you can</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> find it, you might be able to reconstruct a decent timeline along</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> with the mailing list.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> It was pretty high traffic during those days (July - October 2006)</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> and the ML / Wiki combination seemed to work somewhat satisfactory.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> All in all, Edgy was edgy to me – as you can read in the interview</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> the idea was to try something new, community artwork by default, and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> since there were no trodden roads available I did my best to get and</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> keep things rolling in an enjoyable fashion.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> I think it worked out pretty well in terms of community involvement,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> enthusiasm, commitment, process structure and raw output. Slightly</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> missing was the desired art *direction* but somehow I don't think</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> that problem's been resolved ever since, no flame or offense intended.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> If you'd ask me now, sure I'd do things different based on the Edgy</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> experience and the knowledge I've accumulated since then, but I think</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> the Edgy cycle already showed a lot of potential for the future</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> although it never got tapped into afterwards.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Tell me if I'm wearing rose-colored glasses, thanks for reading.</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Sincerely,</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> Frank</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> --</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> ubuntu-art mailing list</FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="mailto:ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">> <A HREF="https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art">https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art</A></FONT>
<FONT COLOR="#000000">></FONT>
</PRE>
</BLOCKQUOTE>
</BODY>
</HTML>