~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is quite lengthy. If you can't read it all but are interested then try just to look at the bits with ==?== in front of them - they're questions that I hope as many people in the art-team as possible should answer...
Wiki Page: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeams If anyone thinks sabdfl needs to know about this then please forward it to him ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi all, Given the recent discussion about frustration in moving things forward and the team not really having direction, I think it might help if we organised ourselves a bit more... I think we have the talent and enthusiasm in the team to get great stuff out if we do it right! So, I have a suggestion: A few years back we organised a system where we had 3 'Theme Teams' that took charge of developing themes to be packaged separately and be available in Universe. This wasn't without it's troubles, but did produce some nice work. I think we should do it again. It seems very unhelpful to suggest something like organisation and then leave it alone, so I've expanded below... ~~~~~~~~ Proposal ~~~~~~~~ Here are the 'rules' I propose. Please comment on them. * These theme teams would _not_ be developing default themes - and should not be under the illusion they are * The teams should _aim_ to create complimentary themes, not too similar * A theme team will develop or COMPILE at LEAST gtk theme, metacity, gdmsplash, background. Usplash and icons would be ideal (for icons, compiling seems much the better option) * We're talking about making FUNCTIONING themes, not mockups! * The process needs to MEET DEADLINES. If we want to be available in Universe _for the release_ (which we might already have missed the chance to do - what do people think?) then meeting deadlines at every stage of the way is essential. * Each theme team needs a leader to collate and co-ordinate things. * The themes will rock! ==?== What do you think of these ^ ? ==?== Should we aim to do these for Hardy or Hardy + 1? I think we should aim to have 2 or 3 theme teams - so as not to spread experience and time too thinly. For this we need people with time, enthusiasm and knowledge about themeing to come forward and agree to be leaders of these Theme Teams. These people don't necessarily have to be designers, but they do need to be prepared to make sure the team is meeting the deadlines and producing work. If you think you've got what it takes, step up! ~~~~~~ Getting Started ~~~~~~~ This brings me on to how I think we can start. We still don't have a better tool than the wiki, which is a shame, but not a big problem! https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeam For the first stage, I've created a page where anyone who wants to lead a theme team can enter a description of what they want to do. https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeams/ThemeProposals People who want to join the team can 'sign up' and we can go from there. It makes sense to me to either vote on these ideas, or ~~~~~~~~ Leadership/Decision Making ~~~~~~~~ We need leaders for theme teams, and they need to be prepared to make things happen :) These leaders will have the final call on their theme's design. They could either design a theme, or compile a theme form existing components, or a bit of both ==?== Do we decide leaders and teams based on a vote, by which teams most people want to contribute to, or by some other means (decision by sabdfl, Kwwii?) ==?==Want to be a LEADER? So, if you've got a theme you'd like to develop - have a think about being a theme team leader. I did the job for the Blubuntu Theme some releases back, it was a lot of fun and VERY rewarding! To get an idea of what is required of you, it might help to look at the Blubuntu wiki pages I made. I found it to be an excellent way to organise the work... https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Blubuntu - they give the best idea of what is involved. This time around there will be more commitment in packaging than last time! Any other people who have done it before, please chime in... ~~~~~~~~ Timescales ~~~~~~~~ I've put a draft timeline for THIS process on the Wiki page I made https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Hardy/Alternate/ThemeTeam First deadline is JAN 5th - DO WE WANT TO DO THIS == ? == Well, do we? ~~~~~~~~ Launchpad ~~~~~~~ ==?== How do we integrate correctly with Launchpad? It would seem that the existing *-look themes have separate packages for each thing - so I gues we should do this. We need to work with Launchpad to comply with the process for getting new packages accepted in to Universe (see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/NewPackages ) Please, can someone advise on this - shall we speak to Dan Holbach? ~~~~~~~ The End! ~~~~~~~~ Wow, finally. Please comment, please step up! Who (Jonathan Austin) -- ubuntu-art mailing list ubuntu-art@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-art