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List:       kde-promo
Subject:    Re: [kde-promo] nepomuk / baloo naming implications
From:       Tassos Koutlas <tassos.koutlas () gmail ! com>
Date:       2014-02-20 20:29:30
Message-ID: 1758013.dEBVLPvW0F () pixie
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Hello all,

I know this comes out of the blue but I have decided to weigh in this debate, 
sorry but it turned out rather long. I am a KDE user since the RH6.5 days back 
in 1999. I've experienced first hand the evolution of KDE and all the 
controversy surrounding the 4.x release, the bad press on nepomuk and so on. I 
have been however in numerous occasions presenting KDE software to students 
and professional groups and I have been outlining its merits, vision of the 
future and cutting edge technology included in each release.

But let's step back a bit and think about KDE as software. What has always 
been its number one advantage over other desktop environments (DE)? I believe 
it's been primarily consistency and platform integration and secondarily a 
unified UX (a distant third IMHO was stability but remember back in the day you 
had to recompile Xfree86 from source to be able to play DIVXes so stability 
for non technically inclined people is out of the question). People are using 
or switching to KDE to experience consistency, integration and unified 
experience in a FOSS desktop environment. In my opinion regardless of trolling 
and early criticism the 4.x releases strengthened KDE in those respects. 
Recently there was an article showing KDE having a concrete 30% of use in a 
very fragmented market.

Having said that, my initial reaction at the Baloo announcement over at 
planetkde was a sense of relief; I guess bad feelings on nepomuk overwhelm me 
too. However my next reaction was a sense of disappointment feeling that we 
yet again rush new technology when in fact should spend our time strengthening 
KDE's core values (consistency and integration). Please note however that 
these were my personal immediate reactions and they don't necessarily reflect 
reality. I understand that Baloo will be better than nepomuk in those respects 
and that it would be able to provide all integration nepomuk was destined to 
do. I also don't want in any way to diminish Vishesh's contributions on 
building a better and more suitable tool, he is doing a great job advancing 
KDE on that front.

But we, as a community, have to understand that technology developed in the 
context of KDE ultimately aims to serve people. Let's face it as far as 
software goes, a DE is as people-centric as software can get. People care 
about solutions and products that deliver them. Please note that product in 
this context is used as an entity in a competitive market claiming market 
share, not necessarily reflecting monetary attributes, after all a product is 
much more than a price tag. As a product, KDE, is destined to be something 
more than the underlying technology, it must have a unified front presenting 
itself to others in terms of narration, a set of core values and principles, a 
certain community ensuring continuity.

The above serve as a compass when arguments arise. Developers may change and 
users may increase or decrease, the project as a whole, however, can continue 
to fill market needs as it always did and it can expand incorporating new 
narrations based on values and principles. How these are presented to people 
matter. They matter because they define how people perceive the project and how 
the press perceives the project. For instance if our core values are 
consistency/integration/stability then marketing Baloo as anything different 
than the continuation of nepomuk is invalid. If, on the other hand, we want to 
be perceived as a project where cutting edge technology is presented to the 
user as soon as it is available then keeping nepomuk brand alive is invalid. 
But we cannot do both at the same time.

If we ultimately care about people and how KDE is offering solutions to people, 
then we have to treat it as any other technology product. There are three 
distinct characteristics in a technology project targeted at different 
audiences: 
(a) technology related matters targeted at developers, 
(b) marketing related matters (including product/user relationships, 
distribution/promotion matters, copywriting material and so on) targeted at 
people, 
(c) and community related matters target at people to ensure project 
continuity.

So there is a question, given that KDE is an advanced project in terms of 
technology and technical vision how can this can be communicated back at 
people both in terms of users and press?

First and foremost kde-promo mailing list is a very good step at coordinating 
efforts made, as are the development of the Visual Design Group (VDG) and the 
Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) group. But these alone are not enough. The 
cornerstone of these efforts is to distil and decide the core values of the 
project in terms of its audience. Then to change our idiosyncrasy towards the 
project given those values and principles. What that ultimately means is that 
instead of feeling that each component of KDE is vertically aligned we should 
change to a more horizontal approach. Developers may have authoritative 
control over the technical merits of a component, identity characteristics 
however should be vested in people with expertise in the marketing/promo space 
and the usability space.

To conclude with my thesis, I would like to thank you all for your efforts 
building KDE, an indispensable part of my everyday computing experience. My 
thoughts above have been piling up for quite some time now. I don't know if my 
expertise is adequate enough to contribute at the marketing/promo space of 
such an important project as KDE, but I indent to get more acquainted with 
efforts so far and participate more.

Best regards,

Tassos

-- 
Think before you speak

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