This is something I've mentioned before ,and had feedback from MPT , but
I wanted to have a discussion and to expose the topic some more . More
so that now it's kind of an important time in Ubuntu history (I'm
talking about the Phone OS of course) , and it will be very useful to
consolidate the community workflow .
A big problem for the community is that Brainstorm , the forums , the
mailing lists , the wiki , the main site , and maybe some other part of
the ecosystem have overlapping functions (oh and Launchpad) , and nobody
has an idea what the design team (or dev team) is working on . MPT
posted that there were discussions over such issues ,and ideas about
resolving them . Here's a snippet:
On 12/21/2012 05:49 PM, Matthew Paul Thomas wrote:
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In our initial discussion, we came up with several ideas. For example:
* Individual Canonical designers can introduce themselves on IRC
more so that other contributors get to know them and discuss things
with them. Where possible, we'll also mention what we're working on
at the moment. (There'll always be some times when we're working on
private stuff.)
* Have monthly public campaigns to design solutions for particular
problems in Ubuntu.
* We can improve the way we deal with design ideas posted on
Brainstorm and Launchpad. (We're just not sure how yet.;-)
* Encourage design work that happens by itself without Canonical help.
For example, the non-default background pictures for each Ubuntu
version, and the installer slideshow, are produced mostly without
Canonical involvement. A future example could be improvements to
application icons. (You can see many blurry icons in Ubuntu Software
Center.)
* When software needs other artwork (for example, new icons), we can
post the request to the ubuntu-art@ mailing list, instead of
assuming that a Canonical artist has to do it.
We'll start on these actions in the new year.
Cheers
- --
mpt
Now I just want to add a few notes on possible solutions, the
incorporate most of the ideas above (the email is very short-lived so if
someone likes the ideas , take note , I just don't know yet where to do
it , so as to have more impact ) :
1. The main site - it's veery good now , I browsed it more yesterday ,
GJ to the design team .
2. The wiki - it should merge with the main site (as in - ok ,it links
to the articles , but it shouldn't be a tool , rather an archive, the
main site is the tool)
3. Brain storm - it should merge with Launchpad - as a tab (along with
bugs, code , etc.) . When saying that, I really hope that's even a
possibility with the Launchpad project .
4. Forums will be forums , it should just be clear that they aren't the
place for development discussion or ideas, but for questions , or for
some unfit for Launchpad discussions/ideas .
5. It would be nice to have a "Communication with Cannonical" page on
the main site :
a) To have an idea what's going on (though that's the developer
blogs' use as I come to think of it)
b) So dev/design team members can set out focuses for the community
effort and make better use of it .
So an ideal workflow will go as follows :
The main site has all the info and introductions as it now does .
Launchpad is the center of development . The key (or all)
packages/groups have their own Brainstorm for proposing and discussing
changes , blueprints for detailed/accepted ideas , bugs for bugs ,
mailing lists (for notifications on the groups , and announcements (and
some forum like stuff - questions , etc.) ) . And all of that is
described at "The Ubuntu community ecosystem and workflow" in the main
page (because God knows it took me a long time to grasp all of it
initially) .
The main question that I'm left with is - how possible is to make all of
this happen . Because everything in the plan that's flawed can be ironed
out (or it can all be rewritten , what do I know) , but the problem
stands , and I'm very curious to understand from someone that is more
insightful if such changes are possible in the near (~1year) future .
Petko
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