On Mon, January 5, 2009 08:29, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
Hi all,
Just a reminder that we have a meeting scheduled for NEXT week:
http://timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?%
20month=01&day=15&year=2009&hour=7&min=0&sec=0&p1=0
After this we start into a monthly recurring meeting on the first
Thursday of each month.[1]
An agenda is started here:
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Meeting_2009.01.15
Hi,
I will not be able to make it but checked some of the pages wrt logo usage.
Could you please exchange the logos referenced at
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/TrademarkFAQ#Can_I_put_OSGeo_banners_on_my_website.3F_Can_I_link_to_you.3F
with the new version? And maybe we should remove the hint to the linked
version as we are not really using the stats that these could potentially
produce (or am I just unaware of this happening).
I would suggest to relax our guidelines a lot and let people be a lot more
creative with the logo. If it is used in the official context of a
conference, on official documents etc. then we should obviously stick to
the trademark version, colors and all. But for all other uses I suggest to
not be restrictive at all. I was and am opposed to the restrictive
versions we have right now. Especially for the local chapters I suggest to
promote mixing and combining parts of the logo or all of it and not just
allow to change the tag line. It shows that we are open to new input and
support our mission. It specifically says that we do not not want take
over or rival other initiatives with similar goals but to support and
integrate with them. One example using the compass with different colors
and in different contexts is going on right now in the German local
chapter.
http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSSGIS_e.V._Logo_Wettbewerb
You can see the evolution of the old GRASS user group (GAV e.V.) logo to
the Local Chapter and how elements mix. This will not be a problem for
OSGeo marketing. My take is that if people want to use the OSGeo logo
unchanged then they should do so simply because it looks good and whatever
is associated with it ("us") is cool. Not because we force people.
I think it would be really hard to disallow this kind of mixing of logo
elements (mind me, I am just a regular member of FOSSGIS and very happy
that after much discussion they now also represent the German OSGeo Local
Chapter).
Having said all this I remember that there was a sentiment from "the
community" that "we" should not spend so much time on logo updates (which
personally pissed me off a bit because "we" really try to do a good job
and "the community" is nothing but "we" - but so what :-).
I put an item on there to discuss the idea of setting up a lead
person or small group for each of our major projects - i.e. projects
identified in the budget.[2] The primary purpose being that they have
some direction from the group and can carry on with confidence in making
some headway.
I think this is a very good idea and I support it. On top of this I would
suggest that people (normal folks) should be allowed to do more things by
themselves and in the way they think they should happen. Allow people to
do things. Maybe this is the first opportunity to prevent "us" from
becoming "us vs. them" and to prevent OSGeo from encrusting in documents
and rules and regulations and stopping natural evolution. We started off
on a meritocratic basis and "one" earns merits only by being allowed to do
things. Ditch 75% of the Logo Usage and FAQ pages that focus on nitty
gritty stuff that only lawyers are interested in. Even Nike allows people
to make commercials in podcast format and misuse their logo in all kinds
of ways. This is good marketing and it is so much easier especially with a
bunch of square headed volunteers.
Best regards,
If you see some area you are particularly interested in, let's
discuss it on the list before the meeting if we can. Of course, if there
is no interest or time available from the other members in the group at
least we'll have time to discuss it at the meeting. 
Happy new year to all of you!
Best wishes,
Tyler
[1] Calendar file: http://www.osgeo.org/calendars/Marketing.ics
[2] http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Marketing_Budget_2009
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Arnulf Christl
President OSGeo
http://www.osgeo.org