To me, a committee of volunteers that anyone interested can be on _is_ a
community decision.
This is sort of a philosophical discussion/debate we've had before.
Some people think "community democracy" contradicts having a certain
specific committee, community democracy requires that everyone involved
in the community can step in and step out at any time, can participate
in every decision even if they hadn't participated in previous
decisions, etc. Me, I don't think that's a requirement, and I think
there are often problems with that approach. To me, establishing a
committee which is open to any volunteers---but which carries with it
the expectation that serving on the committee is accepting
responsibility for getting stuff done---is community democracy too, and
often preferable.
In this case, I think either could work, whatever people who want to
spend time organizing it want to organize. (Ah, but again, the
recognition that there will be some certain people who spend time
organizing it. If it's going to happen, that's just a fact, some people
will really take on and do the work, that's how it works. That's why I'd
say, okay, call them a committee. Certainly, the opinions of anyone in
the committee should be taken into account by those doing the work, but
I don't have a lot of patience for people who demand unlimited decision
making power without accepting responsibility for work.).
Jonathan
Edward M. Corrado wrote:
I am all for a logo, but I also agree with Kevin it needs to be a community
based decision. I'm also not sold that we need a professional designed logo,
but I'm not against it either. I can understand why a business would not
want to leave it to amateurs (although I have seen some great logos created
by design school students) but I'm not sure what a professional logo would
give us that a community derived one wouldn't. Roy, what do you think that
would be that would gain by using a professional logo company?
Edward - actually wearing a code4lib conference t-shirt right now
On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 11:48 PM, Carol Bean <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Well, looking at Software Freedom Day, which has somehow managed to get
itself a logo with virtually no organizational infrastructure, I don't see
why Code4Lib shouldn't. I suspect their logo design wasn't done by
amateurs, however, even if they were volunteers. Of course they have a much
larger, global base of volunteers...
I think it's a cool idea.
Carol
On Sep 19, 2008, at 11:39 PM, Kevin S. Clarke wrote:
I like the idea. A real logo would be nice. My one caveat is I'd
still like everyone who'd like to have a voice to have one (I like
voting). I'd be less in favor of a committee of volunteers to make
the decision. I don't know how that would work with a professional
graphic designer though. Could they give us several options and open
it up to a vote?
Kevin
On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 11:29 PM, Roy Tennant <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I was in the middle of writing a blog post about Code4Lib going regional
when it hit me -- here we have this incredibly successful brand and yet
we
lack a t-shirt. But I guess we lack a t-shirt because we lack a logo to
put
on it. The closest we get are the items that decorate our web site. Are
we
at the point where we're ready to establish an official graphic identity,
that can grace our web site, journal, conference, etc.? I think so.
So here's my proposal: we take some of the money that has been passed
down
from conference to conference and we hire a graphic designer to do a
professional job of it. Branding is best not left to amateurs. We put
together a committee of volunteers to handle it.
I know of at least one design firm that I think would do a good job,
since
they just designed a t-shirt for OCLC that we really liked, and they were
delighted to work with library coders. See
<http://www.sanchezcircuit.com/catalog/>. There are no doubt others as
well.
One of the nice things about a logo is that although it establishes a
solid
graphic identity, it doesn't really take any organizational
infrastructure
to do it, which seems to fit right in with the c4l vibe. So am I crazy?
Stupid? Or right? You decide.
Roy
--
There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe there
are two kinds of people and those who know better.
Carol Bean
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
