Now that CloudStack is an Apache incubation project, it feels like it should have a mascot to help establish its own unique identity, similar to the Hadoop elephant, Linux penguin and Tomcat um, cat.
I’d like to propose we do this in a way that allows the community to solicit ideas of for the mascot, then to vote on the final winner from a list of candidates. The idea is pretty simple: a) Put out a “call for submissions” and ask community members [you] to reply with their thoughts on what “Cloudy” should look like, and why. For example, a submission might say “I would design Cloudy as two lightning bolts with a blue cloud behind them. This would represent the scalability and power of CloudStack to build real production clouds.” (Note that I’ve been referring to the mascot as “Cloudy”, but if people have better ideas for the name, they could suggest that as well.) b) Have an independent designer read all the inputs, and create a series of cool design options based on the community input. c) Put up a website where everyone can vote on the best option. I’d propose we do it as a tournament style bracket where the mascots face off against each other, with the winners moving on based on community votes until we have a final winner. I’ve talked with the Citrix team about this. They agree with the goal and are very supportive of making sure CloudStack looks and feels like a true Apache project, not a commercial Citrix product. They have even volunteered to fund the designer and website (these would not be done by Citrix employees or have any Citrix branding – they’re only offering to fund them to help the goal of Apache CloudStack establishing its own identity and doing so in a fun, engaging way.) The final decision, of course, would need to be ratified by the PPMC, so after the community votes, we can take a vote in the PPMC to ratify their selection. Would be a simple up or down vote to accept the entry with the most votes. Proposed timeline: · “Call for Submissions” to be sent out to cloudstack-dev as soon as the PPMC approves this proposal · Submissions would be due by the end of the month (April 30) · Give the independent designer a week to do the designs · Launch the voting website at the beginning of the following week (May 7) · Let the voting run for a couple of weeks, depending on how many options are in the brackets · After the voting is complete, put the winning mascot choice out to PPMC for up/down vote to ratify (mid-to-late May) Feels like this would be a fun and engaging way to begin establishing a unique identity for CloudStack that’s clearly and visually independent from Citrix, and do it in a fun, engaging way that involves the broader community. Time is short, but if we keep to the above timeline, we could get the voting site up and running before the Citrix Synergy conference, which I think would be good for community optics. If folks like the general idea, we could call for a PPMC vote to move forward quickly. Peder
