Hi Friends, Some weeks back i wrote about the idea of 'maybe' doing something to promote Ubuntu (Linux / FLOSS etc).
One of the ideas is put down below: *** The Ubuntu India 2010 Calendar **** The new year (2010) is already upon us - The calendar may or may not strictly happen before the new year but i think we have a margin that runs into January. The idea of the calendar it to have something physical that we can give out, individually, to folks who we would like to impress, with the idea of Ubuntu, Linux, FLOSS CONTENTS OF THE CALENDAR - 1. The calendar could contain art work, photographs etc drawn from orginal content - this would form the main visuals of the calendar. The underlying theme of the visual content should be to highlight a key feature of the OS, or how it works or what makes it special. Each Main Visual should have a short note on what the visual is about - how it was made and what makes it special. 2. Each main visual could be accompanied by a smaller visual with again a short text of this visual is about - this is more information - to get people familiar with people and software. The idea is to get the various facets of Ubuntu, Linux , FLOSS, to become common knowledge. IDEAS - We need a theme (and slogan) for each month - from this we could determine the main content and the smaller or tiled content (the numbering below is so that we have 12 ideas and they are not necessarily given month wise) Month 1 - About Ubuntu - The philosophy - what it is about and the different releases so far (from warty warthog) - the main image with the rest of the past distros as smaller tiled images. Month 2 - About Linux and Tux the logo - and about Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman Month 3 - Prominent open source, creative commons licensed sites / software (wikipedia, wordpress - (m)any others ) Months 4 (April) - Since its the month of the release - we could image the release version Lucid Lynx - and describe the LTS and we can have the Mark Shuttleworth featured Month 5 - Popular personal accessories / Peripehrals that work on Ubuntu , and the software that runs them. Like ipod , digital cameras etc Month 6 - Related philosophies - Creatve Commons, GPL, Copy Left Month 7 : Prominent Open source applications (firefox, openoffice, gimp, inkscape, thunderbird, vlc, multimedia apps etc) Month 8 : Unique features of Ubuntu (linux) - multi language options, free, no virus etc Month 9 - Less prominent but equally important open source apps - like stellarium or celestia, qgis, pdf apps Month 10 (October) - Tiles of other prominent Linux distributions Month 11- Less prominent but emerging open source initiatives - like open source hardware (see http://www.gosh2009.ca ) google chrome OS etc Month 12- About the distro attached and what it contain and how to use it ? Or something more exciting Page 13 - how the calendar was made, what software were used, links to some sites. etc Other Ideas - Month n1 - Software that can be used on other OS' Month n2 - How to Start up Ubuntu Month n3 - popular and other large users of Ubuntu - websites, projects, universities individuals A Customized DVD / CD - of Ubuntu - we could get the default one from Ubuntu but what if we could remaster a DVD / CD which has all the software used and includes the original calendar file as well in the templates / or some other section. (maybe we could I wanted to say here that the calendar needs to be visually appealing - and various ideas would need to lend themselves to becoming visual (like the how to start up ubuntu might be difficult to implement visually) Tiling means have a host of small images - instead of one big one - i have seen a world calendar which takes a country and the page contains many small images of that country - there were 12 locations and needless to say that calendar still lies around because its so evocative and good People we could feature: Other then those mentioned above Jimmy Wales founder Wikipedia - Lawrence Lessig founder creative commons Matt Mullenweg - founder wordpress Who else Any Indians ?? PROCESS - 1. Wiki - it would be great if we could get help to setup this wiki where potential content can be put up and discussed and edited etc. (may be as part of the ubuntu.in wiki) 2. A team of folks (volunteers) who coordinate the effort and bring it to production stage and then its distribution 3. The content can be decided by vote - the visuals can be run past folks who we may know who have creative and visual skills. written content needs to be verified for errors factual, spelling, grammar etc INVOLVEMENT - We need to have some structure in place: People who want to develop each month main as well the small tiles - people can choose to work on more than one Research - people who generate / verify the content being used. Coordinators - who help bring the idea to productions specifically to coordinate sections - content, getting quotes for printing or following up how to print - regional coordinators. People who would help put up a wiki (and or mail alert site) on the Ubuntu India site (http://ubuntu-in.info/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) - copy of this mail is marked to admnistrators of said site for their response People to look at the dates and days - holidays, prominent dates, moon phases - preference could be to very short text on each date box with space with the day and date being cleanly visible Of course none of the specific jobs are exclusive but if we have enough people we can spread the work around. NORMS - 1. Use only open source software 2. No negative other "OS" bashing - even though it may be an enjoyable exercise 3. All visual content original - that is developed for the calendar - text etc can be adpated from sources because we are talking about something that already exists.Logos etc of course will have to be exempt from this Photographs could be from our personal stock and preferably should not have been used before. 4. Fonts used should be open source fonts 5. Weblinks to be kept to a minimum - people who want to follow up can visit the wiki / webpage we make for this project where we can have more serious documentation TIME FRAME: While getting it at the start of the new year would be super but i think we can be realistic only when we know how many folks are involved and how soon we can decide and implement content. Second if the choice is between soon and doing a good job i vote for the latter because a late calendar will not be as detrimental as a bad or error prone calendar, And then we are in it for the long run if our first steps are good then we can come up with better stuff over the next few years. CALENDAR FORMAT - I don't (as yet) know the professional names of the size but am sure we will find out soon enough :-) The Desktop Calendar - the one that sits on desktops (the table desktops not the computer desktops) The Large Wall Calendars - which are one large chart sheet and not folded) The folded Wall Calendar - - like a flip chart any other ideas of sizes and / or layouts SPONSORS - Preferably it would be good if we can do this without any corporate sponsor. If we can source funding outside of "us" then it should be without an advertisment tag. Eg Someone could sponsor the CD / DVD that we could think of packaging and we can let them have their prominence there - but no where on the actual calendar itself (except on page 13 which says how we did the calendar POINTS TO DISCUSS - Of course among the many others but these seem prominent: 1. The Licensing of the calendar - which specific form of Creative Commons - so that non commercial use is prohibited but any one can use the calendar (and of course adapt it) 2. Can we collectively fund its printing or do we go about is individually or maybe even bunched into regional groups -eg. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata etc - basically where ever we can get pro quality printing done. Of course the original / source will be available for anyone who wants to do it on their own. 3. Do we need to ask Canonical and other agencies about using their logos. This is not a commercial venture but we will still need to pay for the actual calendars so does that imply a financial something // that they should be worried about. HOW MANY CALENDARS ARE WE TARGETING- I guess this will be price dependent - but lets see - really good large wall calendars - which have superb photographs etc cost about Rs 250 - but these probably also include decent profit margins and decent volumes. So we can start by knowing how many people are willing to buy such a calendar and how many (numbers) Mine is 10 copies if the rate is about Rs 250 per calendar . USES- Promotion begins at home - we can use it to remind us and our family / friends Bosses and those who need to know Friends New Year (or any occasion) gifts Friendly net cafes Offices we work in (including desktops) SOME LINKS - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Photos/Calendar Check out the link to the odt file that helps make an a4 calendar - nice **** end of proposal *** so now lets hear your feedback and ideas regards ram -- ubuntu-in mailing list ubuntu-in@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in
