Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Comment on OSGeo Project Marketing template before we set it in stone
The graphics team assures me I have no understanding of typography either (nor anything else to do with graphics), but that might be more about my insistence that they try tools that are not part of Adobe CS*. Particularly after I suggested the alternatives might be good enough for them to do their jobs! I'd be licence-aware (because you want to embed the font into the PDF and have it available for others to use as needed) and stick to one typeface - for a nice modern Sans look I'd consider URW Gothic L (distributed under the GPLv2) or more traditional Sans Serif look go with Liberation Sans (Arial-ish) as kindly provided by Redhat. Both are available with all good Linux distributions and available for free download for users of operating systems that do not have these fonts in their repositories (or even gasp don't have repositories...). Cheers Chris - Original Message - Thanks for the feedback Jason: On 05/06/10 05:50, Jason Birch wrote: Couple comments based entirely off the PDF: - The typography needs some work. Mix of serif, sans serif, italics, bold is a bit confused. Typography is not my strong point. Does anyone have suggestions as to what should be used? Even better would be to edit the styles at: https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/doc/descriptions/postgis_overview.odt - Would be nice to see some header/footer graphics or at least colour. - I really, really, really, really don't like the inclusion of the commercial support line. Unless it points at the OSGeo service provider registry. One of the standard questions people as at FOSS4G stands at conferences is Who do I call if my Open Source application breaks? Hence I think it is important to link to commercial support. Many projects have a jump page listing companies which provide support for their project. Would that be suitable? I agree that using the OSGeo support service is a good idea: http://www.osgeo.org/search_profile Any chance we could create sexier URL for the support page, which is easier to remember. Eg: http://support.osgeo.org And http://support.osgeo.org/postgis (for project specific search) Note, the OSGeo LiveDVD also contains project which are not listed on the OSGeo Support service, so they will need to link elsewhere. Jason On 4 June 2010 04:34, Cameron Shorter wrote: To support this, I've created the attached pdf template. Please review and provide feedback before we set the template in stone, and ask all projects to create material against this template. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss -- Cameron Shorter Geospatial Director Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 Think Globally, Fix Locally Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source http://www.lisasoft.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss -- Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit http://iso26300.info for more information. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Comment on OSGeo Project Marketing template before we set it in stone
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Cameron, this should be tied directly to the project overviews / info sheets [1] that are already available on the OSGeo website and should be maintained by the projcets themselves. Tyler has provided really nicely layouted templates to do just this. To me it does not make sense to make projects deliver several different version that need to be maintained and updated separately. It is hard enough to nudge, encourage and coerce folks to maintain one such artefact. We would need to check what to do with projects that have so far not shown any interest / do not plan to get involved more closely with OSGeo (yet). But I guess that a more neutral layout should be easy to glean from what is there already. Jason, some time back we envisaged a project template with a free space in the lower right corner. At conferences this can be used for some neutral OSGeo info or business cards for folks appearing at an OSGeo booth. Companies providing support can use these templates to add their logo / stamp / business card in the lower right corner. Sponsorship prospectus; We (so far Tyler, Jeff and me) try improve our sponsorship prospectus and we came up with a related idea to provide these flyer / brochure / info sheets as readily printed out marketing material as an asset for OSGeo sponsors. They can use shiny original OSGeo material for marketing and add their brand to it with very little effort. This is especially interesting for smaller companies who in general do not care / spend little time on creating marketing material. This would be a real net added value for them and would mean little extra effort for OSGeo. Would that be a type of commercial hint / support that goes better with your concerns? Best regards, Arnulf. [1] as examples: http://www.osgeo.org/mapserver http://www.osgeo.org/grass and so on Cameron Shorter wrote: For the OSGeo Live DVD that we are developing for FOSS4G 2010, we will be asking all applications to provide a punchy, one page overview of their project. This overview will conveniently double as Project Flier to hand out at conference stands, and also be a page in a book of OSGeo projects. The aim of these overview pages is to have them be consistent, sexy, and sell OSGeo in a positive, professional manner. To support this, I've created the attached pdf template. Please review and provide feedback before we set the template in stone, and ask all projects to create material against this template. Template source: https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/doc/descriptions/postgis_overview.odt Marketing artefact definition: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Artefacts#Application_Overview ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss - -- Arnulf Christl Exploring Space, Time and Mind http://arnulf.us -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAkwKQawACgkQXmFKW+BJ1b1XAQCfVbw5Ko7Y8fE1crf6k71fVedx 8u8An2pvAL7n2z7mOCYDVn6Xh2KPJ0M7 =wayB -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating
Cameron Shorter ha scritto: For the OSGeo LiveDVD and OSGeo marketing material, I propose we use a 5 star maturity rating. This is because it is too difficult to explain in a couple of words, the difference between: Graduated, In Incubation, Stable, Beta Again, I'm interested to hear comments on whether I have defined a good rating system, before we set it in stone. A rating system, imho, should take into consideration multiple vectors: - does the project have a long history? - how big is the developers community (e.g. number of active committers in the last year) - what are the steps taken to keep the code base quality high (unit tests, nightly builds, code reviews, and so on) - how diversified is the developer community (are all developers affiliated to a single entity, or distributed among many? What is the bus factor in terms of companies) - how live the development is (e.g., number of commits/changed files/ size of the diff between today and one year ago) - how big is the user community (e.g., nummber of subscribers to the users list) - does it have user documentation - does it have developer documentation - does it have stable/frequent releases - has it been awarded OSGEO project status, is it in incubation? These (and others) could be assigned some score, and then you could sum them and get to an overall score. Some elements could have a weight higher than others to accomodate for relative importance (e.g., part of OSGEO could be weighted higher than the other items). Just my 2 cents Cheers Andrea -- Andrea Aime OpenGeo - http://opengeo.org Expert service straight from the developers. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Comment on OSGeo Project Marketing template before we set it in stone
Arnulf, I agree that we should only have one marketing template, which will provide content for a pdf/paper flier, a HTML description for the OSGeo LiveDVD, and an Open Office Text (odt) format, which can be cutpasted into various other uses, like System Integrators' marketing material. The postgis template I put together is based upon the prior marketing template. I'd like to think it to be an enhancement, or version 2 of the template. In particular, I've moved from the Open Office Presenter format to Open Office Text format as it is harder to the key useful formats for users (HTML, ODT and Word). I also expect that we will get marketing material for every project that is on the LiveDVD, which includes most of the OSGeo projects, as these projects have already produced similar material for prior LiveDVD releases. Jason, Note that the LiveDVD packages more than just OSGeo incubating and graduated projects. As OSGeo support is only for OSGeo support projects, that means there are some projects on the LiveDVD which are not included in OSGeo Support. On 06/06/10 04:12, Jason Birch wrote: Arnulf, Yes, I like both of those options. I think my initial reaction was because it implied that a project was only supported by a single commercial entity, which isn't healthy. But I can definitely see the need to meet the use cases you've outlined. It makes a lot of sense to encourage/enable local consultants to modify the marketing material for their own use (hopefully without destroying the brand: OSGeoJason). We need to support our commercial efforts wherever possible. Providing a box at the bottom with some boilerplate for the SPD (for other commercial support options?) but making it clear that business cards should be attached on top of it is a great way of supporting the folks who are working the booths and developing local support for (and businesses around) OSGeo. Cameron, If there are OSGeo projects that are not represented if the provider directory, this needs to be fixed, probably with a Trac ticket. I like the idea of a support.osgeo.org that allows you to choose the product you need support for, and are then provided with links to website, documentation, and a list of commercial support providers which could be filtered by location. IMO, this would be better as a separate app than trying to hack drupal. Any takers? :) I think using the existing templates makes a lot of sense. My main recommendation for typography (and I'm as far from knowing what I'm talking about as anyone) would be to pick a single face. As a non-designer I try to keep the visual hierarchy as simple as possible, using size and weight and staying away from colour, style, and white space for defining importance. These can all used effectively, but are easier to mess up too. Jason On 2010-06-05, Seven (aka Arnulf)se...@arnulf.us wrote: -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Cameron, this should be tied directly to the project overviews / info sheets [1] that are already available on the OSGeo website and should be maintained by the projcets themselves. Tyler has provided really nicely layouted templates to do just this. To me it does not make sense to make projects deliver several different version that need to be maintained and updated separately. It is hard enough to nudge, encourage and coerce folks to maintain one such artefact. We would need to check what to do with projects that have so far not shown any interest / do not plan to get involved more closely with OSGeo (yet). But I guess that a more neutral layout should be easy to glean from what is there already. Jason, some time back we envisaged a project template with a free space in the lower right corner. At conferences this can be used for some neutral OSGeo info or business cards for folks appearing at an OSGeo booth. Companies providing support can use these templates to add their logo / stamp / business card in the lower right corner. Sponsorship prospectus; We (so far Tyler, Jeff and me) try improve our sponsorship prospectus and we came up with a related idea to provide these flyer / brochure / info sheets as readily printed out marketing material as an asset for OSGeo sponsors. They can use shiny original OSGeo material for marketing and add their brand to it with very little effort. This is especially interesting for smaller companies who in general do not care / spend little time on creating marketing material. This would be a real net added value for them and would mean little extra effort for OSGeo. Would that be a type of commercial hint / support that goes better with your concerns? Best regards, Arnulf. [1] as examples: http://www.osgeo.org/mapserver http://www.osgeo.org/grass and so on Cameron Shorter wrote: For the OSGeo Live DVD that we are developing for FOSS4G 2010, we will be asking all applications to provide a punchy, one page overview of their project. This overview will conveniently double as
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating
On 06/06/10 05:10, Andrea Aime wrote: Cameron Shorter ha scritto: For the OSGeo LiveDVD and OSGeo marketing material, I propose we use a 5 star maturity rating. This is because it is too difficult to explain in a couple of words, the difference between: Graduated, In Incubation, Stable, Beta Again, I'm interested to hear comments on whether I have defined a good rating system, before we set it in stone. A rating system, imho, should take into consideration multiple vectors: - does the project have a long history? - how big is the developers community (e.g. number of active committers in the last year) - what are the steps taken to keep the code base quality high (unit tests, nightly builds, code reviews, and so on) - how diversified is the developer community (are all developers affiliated to a single entity, or distributed among many? What is the bus factor in terms of companies) - how live the development is (e.g., number of commits/changed files/ size of the diff between today and one year ago) - how big is the user community (e.g., nummber of subscribers to the users list) - does it have user documentation - does it have developer documentation - does it have stable/frequent releases - has it been awarded OSGEO project status, is it in incubation? These (and others) could be assigned some score, and then you could sum them and get to an overall score. Some elements could have a weight higher than others to accomodate for relative importance (e.g., part of OSGEO could be weighted higher than the other items). Just my 2 cents Cheers Andrea Andrea, This is a good list and looks quite similar to the OSGeo Graduation checklist [1] (You have a few extra suggestions which probably should be added to the checklist). I propose that 4 stars are allocated to projects that have graduated. [1] I propose that 3 stars are allocated to projects ready to enter incubation, as per Project Evaluation Criteria [2]. (We may need to make this criteria a bit more specific in future). Andrea and others, does this fit with people's expectations? [1] http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/project_graduation_checklist.html [2] http://www.osgeo.org/incubator/process/evaluation.html -- Cameron Shorter Geospatial Director Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 Think Globally, Fix Locally Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source http://www.lisasoft.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating
Wow, I'm really having opinions this week :) IMHO getting into rating projects is just asking for trouble, infighting, bitterness, and people/projects walking away from OSGeo. Jason On 5 June 2010 16:37, Cameron Shorter wrote: Andrea and others, does this fit with people's expectations? ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating
Agreed on it being a hassle. However the OSGeo foundation also has a responsibility to users - who *really* want to see a feature list and to be able to compare projects. The foundation can take steps to help projects communicate - and this is the task/mandate of the marketing committee. Competition and Collaboration are both key. I am also happy to see the marketing committee engaging with projects directly; I hope they also have some volunteer hours for writing and are not expecting developers to step away from their core responsibility to the codebase. Jody On 06/06/2010, at 10:14 AM, Jason Birch wrote: Wow, I'm really having opinions this week :) IMHO getting into rating projects is just asking for trouble, infighting, bitterness, and people/projects walking away from OSGeo. Jason On 5 June 2010 16:37, Cameron Shorter wrote: Andrea and others, does this fit with people's expectations? ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating
On 06/06/10 10:14, Jason Birch wrote: IMHO getting into rating projects is just asking for trouble, infighting, bitterness, and people/projects walking away from OSGeo. Jason, this is a valid concern with decent founding. However I think the potential for conflict is not as bad as you may think, and there is a very strong user community desire for, and value to be gained from such ratings. 1. We already have a rating system, based upon: * Project has completed incubation * Project is in incubation * Project is not in incubation What I'm suggesting is that we apply a star system to these stages. 2. We already have a criteria for defining this rating, (which may be refined), which reduces the subjectiveness and hence the potential for conflict. -- Cameron Shorter Geospatial Director Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 Think Globally, Fix Locally Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source http://www.lisasoft.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] 5 Star OSGeo project maturity rating
On 06/06/10 12:23, Jody Garnett wrote: I am also happy to see the marketing committee engaging with projects directly; I hope they also have some volunteer hours for writing and are not expecting developers to step away from their core responsibility to the codebase. Jody, Our aim is to create a standard documentation template, which will make creating marketing material much easier for projects, and then once created, will provide a wide avenue for publishing the material. Maximise value, minimise effort. We will still be asking people from projects to help populate the marketing material as these people know their projects better than anyone else. -- Cameron Shorter Geospatial Director Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 Think Globally, Fix Locally Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source http://www.lisasoft.com ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Comment on OSGeo Project Marketing template before we set it in stone
Hi Cameron: You should find that an official marketing template is already available as part of the work the graphics designed has done. My trouble is that I have not seen it in open office yet. Jody On 04/06/2010, at 9:34 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote: For the OSGeo Live DVD that we are developing for FOSS4G 2010, we will be asking all applications to provide a punchy, one page overview of their project. This overview will conveniently double as Project Flier to hand out at conference stands, and also be a page in a book of OSGeo projects. The aim of these overview pages is to have them be consistent, sexy, and sell OSGeo in a positive, professional manner. To support this, I've created the attached pdf template. Please review and provide feedback before we set the template in stone, and ask all projects to create material against this template. Template source: https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/doc/descriptions/postgis_overview.odt Marketing artefact definition: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Artefacts#Application_Overview -- Cameron Shorter Geospatial Director Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 Think Globally, Fix Locally Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source http://www.lisasoft.com postgis_overview.pdf___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
