With nearly all of the design work complete for Maverick Meerkat some folks are reflecting on Community and the path which lead to here. The Ubuntu Artwork Team and perhaps others are trapped by the pressure to produce in a manner which competes with established professional players and finding resources with the time and skills to complete tasks on time. With the desire to move Ubuntu into the mainstream, Canonical added talented resources to the design team leaving Community members standing on the side line to wonder how they can get back into the game. To add additional confusion to the mix the paradigm changed as new players entered and challenged existing norms.
So what is more important – a commercial quality Ubuntu or something less made with more community involvement?
Stepping back a little further other effort comes into focus by those who build and support Ubuntu based derivatives. The Ubuntu Ecosystem is more than Ubuntu.
What is the Artwork Team doing now?
Current Activity
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From the above diagram it is easy to see the Artwork Team is missing many opportunities to contribute as the current release was limited to activity with community (GTK) themes. Part of the reason for this can be seen in the following diagram.
What is the Canonical Design Team doing now?
Current Activity
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Although gaps remain, activity is improved. I am not aware of any targeted support for Ubuntu derivatives as the expectation is Ubuntu improvements will flow down in a waterfall like manner to these solutions.
Building Bridges for Improvement
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The above diagram illustrates what can happen when synergy kicks in. The question becomes how do you make it happen?
- Inclusion! Invite stakeholders from the Canonical Design Team and derivatives to participate. Be transparent and open in the manner in which business occurs.
- Build repeatable processes. There is power in processes and good processes will get you through tough times
- Clearly define what is expected and how processes work.
- Decide on a common infrastructure. Store common items in the same place (viz. GTK Themes)
- code in Launchpad
- screen shots in Flickr
- documentation in Wiki
- store photos on Flickr
- manage effort from a Blog
- document processes in Wiki
With all of this said if I missed something please be mindful these comments are not meant to be the end, but rather the beginning of discussions to improve our processes to add value to the Ubuntu community.