[Clipart] Questions for the Community

[Bryce Harrington]

> > Hello everyone,
> > 
> > Could you all take some time to answer a few of these questions. I will
> > probably include some quotes and snippets in a developing section on
> > "why people contribute." If you are not into sending this back to the
> > list for others to see, just send to me...It might be good though to
> > send to the list so everyone can be on the same page. Answers to these
> > questions will really help me write this paper.
> > 
> > Thanks!
> 
> As Nicu rightly suggested, I should fill this form out as well! Good
> suggestion. I wrote it while trying to assess some parts I did not have
> enough information on in my paper. Hence, I wrote it while rapidly
> putting my paper together and forgot to reply myself. Check below...

Okay, I should answer too.  ;-)

> > ###
> > 
> > What characteristics typify yourself as a contributor? 

I'm going to reword this question to something a bit easier to answer:
"What motivates you to contribute to the project?"

My main motivation is because I think this is an extremely valuable
resource for the Open Source community, and because it's fun to see how
many truly impressive contributions others make.  I feel motivated to
play my small part in the process in order to help keep it going
strong. 

> > Are you more of a user, an artist, or a developer (librarian), and
> > why?  

These days I'm almost exclusively a developer.  Early on I filled in all
over the place, but as others have gotten involved, I've been able to
focus on the area I'm most interested in and that needs the most
attention.  In general I like to figure out how to get processes set up
and moving forward, then turn the processes over to the general
community to maintain and administrate.  I like working on the
underlying foundations the most, because I know other people can do the
rest of it better than me.

> > How many images have you contributed?  

Only a dozen or so, but I did contribute the very first image.  :-)
I think the quality of all of my submissions is far, far inferior to
what others have contributed, so I think they should probably be
retired.  ;-)

> > What are the top five things you contribute to the project?

I contributed the original release system, including the practice of
putting out monthly releases.  With rejon I also set up the website and
project infrastructure.  I've also tried to help encourage others to get
involved in participating in and leading the project.

Currently I'm maintaining the following:

   SVG::Metadata
   Document::Manager

I also try to help spread the word about OCAL in articles and such.  :-)

> > Why do you contribute to the project?  

I consider this an important adjunct to Inkscape, so my initial
motivation was to help in making Inkscape more effective.  However,
these days my involvement is mainly because of my interest in seeing DMS
through, get it into production, and create a really powerful process
for managing large numbers of documents.  I think this is going to keep
me occupied for a long time...  ;-)

A couple more clipart-oriented things I'd like to help contribute to are
ways to use clipart for things like greeting cards, and to build a
collection of technical and map symbols.

> > How long does it take to learn how to contribute?  

No idea...
 
> > How did you find out about Open Clip Art Library?

I first got involved when I was maintaining the Sodipodi website.
People periodically would submit SVG files, and I'd collect them and put
them on the site.  For some reason, we had gotten a couple dozen flag
SVG's.  

One Friday, Uraeus put out a request to the community about our flag
collection, encouraging people to submit their flags to Sodipodi.  I
quickly started merging the submissions into the site, and before long
we were inundated with scores of new flags.  I think I spent the entire
weekend just integrating flags.  By Monday I was completely worn out!  I
turned over maintainership of the flags to Uraeus, who then went on to
build it into a pretty much complete set of all flags in the world.

Later, when Inkscape started up, I wanted to get a contribution system
going like we had in Sodipodi, and decided to run it as a separate
project from Inkscape so other projects like Sodipodi, OOo, Abiword,
KDE, etc. would feel comfortable using and contributing to it.

> > What do you think would make the project better?

I agree with others that a better system for managing clipart is vital.
I wish I could afford to spend 3 full weekends focused on working on
DMS, as I think it's pretty close to being able to improve our
situation.

> > What are your personal goals for project?

   * Build motivation for OpenOffice.org to fully support SVG
   * Create DMS and shape it into an effective way to manage our SVG's
   * Build up a vast wealth of holiday-oriented clipart
   * Build a resource of technical oriented clipart

> > What are your general group goals for the project?

   * Keep the monthly release process going strong
   * Spread awareness of OCAL
   * Increase the level of participation by contributors
   * Continually improve our processes to make the work easier

> > What would you like to learn about and do on the project in the future?

   * Learn REST (could it be a better solution than SOAP?)
   * Analyze DoXFS to see if it'd be a more efficient backend
   * Find out if OCAL could play a role as being the Go-To project for
     Open Source projects that need logos

> > What is the primary problem on the project?

I think the developers (or, at least me) need about 4 extra hours in the
day.  ;-)

The main problem is the lack of tools for managing clipart submissions.
We need ways to track state of clipart and to provide better searching
and filtering.
 
> > What is the way to solve that problem?

I think getting more people directly involved in the DMS development may
help move things forward.  Probably the best way of achieving that is to
get DMS into production use, and implement enough of the core features
that people feel they can add new features one by one.

Bryce