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Subject: Re: [kde-promo] About KDE
From: Andreas <andreas () knewton ! biz>
Date: 2007-12-12 19:04:10
Message-ID: 668316.95216.qm () web54111 ! mail ! re2 ! yahoo ! com
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"maybe it's just my own viewpoint, but KDE is the community that creates
software, not the software itself."
I think the term "KDE", much as the word "Google" (or Toyota), has multiple meanings \
(e.g., if I say "I own a Toyota", this does not mean a Toyota employee is my slave). \
The two most obvious ones are: producer vs. product. I think it is important to be \
consistent in usage of the term. If there is a press release about "KDE 4.0", which \
starts out "The KDE project released ...", then "KDE" is being used in the product \
(software) sense, and the producer is referred to as "The KDE Project".
I think the international team would be more suited for an "About the KDE Project" \
line. I don't think it hurts to have two "About" sections in a press release (one \
for, say, the company - "About the KDE Project", or, say, "About Trolltech" - and the \
other for the product - "About KDE", or, say, "About Qt" - being addressed in the \
release), but the usage of the term "KDE" should be consistent when used in the same \
marketing channel and certainly within the same press release.
Looking back at past usage and using my common sense, it seems to me "KDE" should \
refer to the product (I realize in this sense, for other purposes, such as trademark, \
there is a question of what this actually requires - the desktop shell, the core \
libraries / development environment, a core application that uses these core \
libraries / DE, and/or third-party applications - personally I think the last two \
should just be "KDE applications") - and "KDE Project" should be the producer.
Ciao,
Andreas
----- Original Message ----
From: Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo@kde.org>
To: KDE Promo <kde-promo@kde.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:40:12 AM
Subject: Re: [kde-promo] About KDE
On Wednesday 12 December 2007, Jeff Mitchell wrote:
> * "KDE is an international technology team" - not really, at
least
> not in the sense "KDE" is generally used in press releases
>
> True. How about "KDE is *produced* by an international technology
team..."
maybe it's just my own viewpoint, but KDE is the community that creates
software, not the software itself.
is Toyota the cars with their logo on it, or is Toyota the management,
engineering and production staff that creates those cars?
we have used the term "KDE" to describe The Product, which worked when
The
Product was an x11 desktop shell with the necessary supporting apps.
KDE no
longer describes The Product because we have diversified beyond that.
but KDE
continues to describe the team, the community.
by stating that KDE is a group of people it also puts forth the idea
that we
are about community, people and culture right out there in the open.
it's a
differentiator in my mind; not even Apple dares (anymore) to go down
this
path (they used to put engravings of the engineer's signatures on the
inside
of macs and have photos of the design team in the prom that could be
brought
up with a keystroke).
it's hard to get romantic about a piece of software, but it's easy to
get
people connecting with the idea of other people, of culture, of
community.
looking at it another way: what is the difference between Microsoft and
KDE?
one is a close community (a company) that churns out proprietary
software and
technology, the other is an open community with a culture built around
the
ethics and practices of freedom which churns out open software and
technology. the "churns out" (or, "produces" if you will) and "software
and
technology" parts are the same words. the community and ethics parts
are
different. that's why i like leading with it.
i think microsoft actually sort of gets this as well, with their
blogging,
videocasting and "no really, we do community too" smokescreens.
> * "that creates integrated Free/Open Source Software" - the
> capitalization is not helpful to most, integration need not be
stated
>
> Agreed. "...that creates free and open source software"
+1
> * As a general matter the "About KDE" description should be about
> KDE, not Qt or the platforms KDE runs on
>
> Agreed for the most part. This was a special case.
yes
> > I'm || this close to commit it as new about_kde.inc (which I
factored out
> > some time ago on our websites for easier reuse, and easier changing
of
> > the current, hideous way of 'about us'.
>
> If you want to do that it's fine, but I wouldn't add in that
translation
> sentence as is...having "built" twice is awkward, as is "op top" :-)
> Also, building for ease of use implies usability. How about this:
>
> "KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built
with
> ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind."
getting closer =) hmm... "Translated into more than 60 world languages,
KDE
software is designed using modern usability and accessibility
principles."
> Also, saying "KDE's products" makes it sound a bit too much like
we're
> actually selling something. I think "KDE's projects" fits nicely.
a project is something with a defined beginning and end, a work in
progress. a
product is something that can taken in packaged form and used. yes, it
is a
bit more economics oriented turn of phrase, but i'm not sure that's a
bad
thing either given our target markets or who we are competing with.
sometimes we are so concerned with losing our free software roots
(which is a
very good thing to be aware of!) we stray away from words and phrases
that
would actually be useful simply because we feel they are too associated
with
Corporate Greed(tm) or whatever =)
that said, if there is another word that means essentially the same
as "product" that doesn't imply "work in progress" or "research toy",
i'd be
fine with swapping it out.
--
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43
KDE core developer sponsored by Trolltech
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[Attachment #5 (text/html)]
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} \
--></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new \
york,times,serif;font-size:10pt"><div style="font-family: times new roman,new \
york,times,serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br>"maybe it's just my own viewpoint, but KDE is \
the community that creates software, not the software itself."<br><br>I think the \
term "KDE", much as the word "Google" (or Toyota), has multiple meanings (e.g., if I \
say "I own a Toyota", this does not mean a Toyota employee is my slave). The \
two most obvious ones are: producer vs. product. I think it is important \
to be consistent in usage of the term. If there is a press release about "KDE \
4.0", which starts out "The KDE project released ...", then "KDE" is being used in \
the product (software) sense, and the producer is referred to as "The KDE \
Project".<br><br>I think the international team would be more suited for an "About \
the KDE Project" line. I don't think it hurts to have two "About" sections in a \
press release (one for, say, the company - "About the KDE Project", or, say, "About \
Trolltech" - and the other for the product - "About KDE", or, say, "About Qt" - being \
addressed in the release), but the usage of the term "KDE" should be consistent when \
used in the same marketing channel and certainly within the same press \
release.<br><br>Looking back at past usage and using my common sense, it seems to me \
"KDE" should refer to the product (I realize in this sense, for other purposes, such \
as trademark, there is a question of what this actually requires - the desktop shell, \
the core libraries / development environment, a core application that uses these core \
libraries / DE, and/or third-party applications - personally I think the last two \
should just be "KDE applications") - and "KDE Project" should be the \
producer.<br><br>Ciao,<br><br>Andreas<br><br><div style="font-family: times new \
roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;">----- Original Message ----<br>From: \
Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo@kde.org><br>To: KDE Promo \
<kde-promo@kde.org><br>Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:40:12 \
AM<br>Subject: Re: [kde-promo] About KDE<br><br> On Wednesday 12 December 2007, Jeff \
Mitchell wrote:<br>> * "KDE is an international technology team" - \
not really, at least<br>> not in the sense "KDE" is \
generally used in press releases<br>><br>> True. How about "KDE is \
*produced* by an international technology team..."<br><br>maybe it's just my own \
viewpoint, but KDE is the community that creates <br>software, not the software \
itself.<br><br>is Toyota the cars with their logo on it, or is Toyota the management, \
<br>engineering and production staff that creates those cars?<br><br>we have used the \
term "KDE" to describe The Product, which worked when The <br>Product was an x11 \
desktop shell with the necessary supporting apps. KDE no <br>longer describes The \
Product because we have diversified beyond that. but KDE <br>continues to describe \
the team, the community.<br><br>by stating that KDE is a group of people it also puts \
forth the idea that we <br>are about community, people and culture right out there \
in the open. it's a <br>differentiator in my mind; not even Apple dares (anymore) to \
go down this <br>path (they used to put engravings of the engineer's signatures on \
the inside <br>of macs and have photos of the design team in the prom that could be
brought <br>up with a keystroke).<br><br>it's hard to get romantic about a piece of \
software, but it's easy to get <br>people connecting with the idea of other people, \
of culture, of community.<br><br>looking at it another way: what is the difference \
between Microsoft and KDE? <br>one is a close community (a company) that churns out \
proprietary software and <br>technology, the other is an open community with a \
culture built around the <br>ethics and practices of freedom which churns out open \
software and <br>technology. the "churns out" (or, "produces" if you will) and \
"software and <br>technology" parts are the same words. the community and ethics \
parts are <br>different. that's why i like leading with it.<br><br>i think microsoft \
actually sort of gets this as well, with their blogging, <br>videocasting and "no \
really, we do community too" smokescreens.<br><br>> * "that creates \
integrated Free/Open Source Software" - the<br>> \
capitalization is not helpful to most, integration need not be \
stated<br>><br>> Agreed. "...that creates free and open source \
software"<br><br>+1<br><br>> * As a general matter the "About KDE" \
description should be about<br>> KDE, not Qt or the platforms \
KDE runs on<br>><br>> Agreed for the most part. This was a special \
case.<br><br>yes<br><br>> > I'm || this close to commit it as new about_kde.inc \
(which I factored out<br>> > some time ago on our websites for easier reuse, \
and easier changing of<br>> > the current, hideous way of 'about \
us'.<br>><br>> If you want to do that it's fine, but I wouldn't add in that \
translation<br>> sentence as is...having "built" twice is awkward, as is "op \
top" :-)<br>> Also, building for ease of use implies usability. How \
about this:<br>><br>> "KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages \
and is built with<br>> ease of use and modern accessibility principles in \
mind."<br><br>getting closer =) hmm... "Translated into more than 60 world languages, \
KDE <br>software is designed using modern usability and accessibility \
principles."<br><br>> Also, saying "KDE's products" makes it sound a bit too much \
like we're<br>> actually selling something. I think "KDE's projects" fits \
nicely.<br><br>a project is something with a defined beginning and end, a work in \
progress. a <br>product is something that can taken in packaged form and used. yes, \
it is a <br>bit more economics oriented turn of phrase, but i'm not sure that's a
bad <br>thing either given our target markets or who we are competing \
with.<br><br>sometimes we are so concerned with losing our free software roots \
(which is a <br>very good thing to be aware of!) we stray away from words and phrases \
that <br>would actually be useful simply because we feel they are too associated \
with <br>Corporate Greed(tm) or whatever =)<br><br>that said, if there is another \
word that means essentially the same <br>as "product" that doesn't imply "work in \
progress" or "research toy", i'd be <br>fine with swapping it out.<br><br>-- \
<br>Aaron J. Seigo<br>humru othro a kohnu se<br>GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 \
B1EA EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43<br><br>KDE core developer sponsored by \
Trolltech<br><!-- kill --><div><br><br>-----Inline Attachment Follows-----<br><br> \
<br>_______________________________________________<br>This message is from the \
kde-promo mailing list.<br><br>Visit <a \
href="https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-promo" \
target="_blank">https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-promo</a> to unsubscribe, \
set digest on or temporarily stop your \
subscription.</div></div><br></div></div></body></html>
_______________________________________________
This message is from the kde-promo mailing list.
Visit https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-promo to unsubscribe, set digest on \
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