[Clipart] clipart.freedesktop.org and OpenOffice.org

[Jonathan Phillips]

Agree with you Bryce. Also, the reason SVG is/was being considered as
the first primary format is so that it can be the "mother" format where
submissions could be converted to others after submission.

I firmly believe that we need finite goals, like getting our SVG-based
repository good first before expanding outwards. Another reason why is
that the space requirements for other formats are going to quickly grow.

I think we should just keep our chat as: #clipart on irc.freenode.net
for now, as the project is going to be renamed in the immediate future.

Chad, while I value your opinions, I think it would be a better position
to maintain our repository in the highest "mother" format which will be
scalable and could be funneled down into lossy/reductive bitmap format. 

I could see the need to a bitmap repository in the future for images and
photos however. I do still think that as a group we are better to stick
together and do one thing right before making a
mega-monolith-all-inclusive project, right?

Jon


On Thu, 2004-04-08 at 17:36, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> On Thu, 8 Apr 2004, Chad wrote:
> > bryce at bryceharrington.com wrote:
> > 
> > <snip>
> > 
> > >start collecting items for a todo list, like...
> > >
> > >0.  Project Initiation
> > >   * Establish an IRC channel and get together informally
> > >   * Set up wiki with access for clipart participants
> > >   * Get access to a web server for posting static web pages
> > >   * Review/revise this todo list
> > >  
> > >
> > First question, why did you start with 0 instead of 1?
> 
> Too much programming I guess.  ;-)
> 
> > Here's an IRC - irc.freenode.net/#openclipart.org
> > 
> > >1.  Make First Clipart Package
> > >   * Collect a couple dozen random SVG imgs useful as clipart
> > >   * Write a README for the package
> > >   * Add the public domain license to the package
> > >   * Tarball the package
> > 
> > And we can't use SVG.  OOo doesn't support them.
> 
> The reason that we choose to emphasize SVG as a primary format is
> because the initial founders of this project (from Inkscape, Sodipodi,
> Scribus, AbiWord, Gnumeric, etc.) wanted SVG specifically.  At the
> founding we discussed making the project SVG-only, but figured we try to
> keep things open to a variety of formats.  This is why it's great to see
> the OpenOffice folks becoming involved, even if it doesn't support SVG.
> 
> There were several founding principles we outlined when we started the
> project, the most important of which being that the project be an
> application-neutral way of sharing.  Sodipodi already has a clipart
> collection, as do several of the other projects mentioned above, and
> when Inkscape started down that road too, we decided it'd probably be
> wisest to figure out a common forum where we can share between
> ourselves.  Since these apps were SVG-based, this is why many of us are
> very SVG-oriented.
> 
> Anyway, the point I think I'm trying to make here is that, wow, bummer
> that OOo doesn't support SVG, but there's a number of applications that
> do, that we care a lot about, so it is not possible to exclude SVG.
> 
> The intent of the first package is less about starting to get useful art
> than to simply get the ball rolling; I anticipate that the initial
> contribs may get replaced by better stuff down the road anyway, so
> getting it right is less important than just getting moving.  I also
> don't think the format of the contribs are as important as just having
> some contribs.  So why don't we just drop the format restriction and
> permit either SVG or WMF as the contributor wishes?
> 
> > If this is going to work with OpenOffice.org SVG's are out of the 
> > question.  OOo just doesn't recognize them.
> 
> Again, this is not the attitude we want to foster.  SVG clipart is very
> important to many of the participating projects, and obtaining a shared
> SVG clipart collection was the original motivation for founding this
> project.  However we want to keep the project as open as possible so
> have no problem opening it to non-SVG contribs.  But to shut out SVG
> because one of the participating applications doesn't support it would
> be extremely inconsistent with the purpose of this project.  We need to
> be fair, open, and inclusive, as much as is technically feasible.
> 
> Bryce
> 
> 
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-- 

Jon Phillips
Graduate Researcher
Visual Arts Department

PO BOX 948667
LA JOLLA, CA USA

cell.858.361.2811
jon at rejon.org
http://www.rejon.org