Hi:
I like many of your suggestions, and I don't think "fluff" can be dismissed.
Fedora already has good audio/music packages, so why bother with our own spin if
not for the fluff?
Also, I was having problems writing what I actually wanted to say, so it came
out as another one of my numbered lists. It's kind of the same thing I always
whine about, but it's what you get from a humanities scholar-in-training.
1.) We're Fedora, we're open source and open development, we're multicultural,
we're multilingual, we're not mainstream, we are welcoming, we are the four Fs.
2.) As you know, the graphics for our spin are very important. Graphics are
marketing and image-creating and generally very important to the feel of a
distribution.
3.) Given those points, let's use our spin to make a strong statement in favour
of the Fedora community's culture.
4.) We can most effectively represent our own experience of the Fedora community.
When we try to represent somebody else's, we're very likely to make a mistake.
5.) Let's make a list of all the musical practices we are involved in, and
collect images of Fedora community members participating in these things (or the
devices Fedora community members use to participate). By "we" I mean "all of
Fedora." We can write blog posts, ask people on IRC, post to mailing lists--
whatever it takes.
I've spent some time talking with folks in #fedora-social and #fedora-music and also some non-fedora sources that are still involved in opensource community and music like #opensourcemusicians and #openoctave and #ubuntustudio. In speaking to all of these people I've noticed there's typically a group of people similar to what I would expect at my local music store. (please note that this is very much MHO and shouldn't be counted on for accuracy, but I believe it to be fair.)
There's typically a majority of people that play typical modern instruments like guitars bass and drums, and record things that are inspired by pop music/rock/ect, I would say that a majority of these people are also running some kind of at home recording studio and they're typically also gear heads. There's another large majority that focuses on electronica music, with remixes, synths, house, trance, ect. Next up is probably people who are interested in composition. There's a decent percentage inside this group is classically trained in either orchestral instruments, or voice. Regretfully, the last group is probably all the jazz musicians. (I don't know if it's because they're all gigging, but they tend to care less about hardware/software realm: holstein being the exception that proves the rule.)
6.) Then we can try to fit everybody in, and we'll fail, but we can change it up
a bit every release to make it exciting and fair.
7.) We'll avoid the appearance that we authorize only particular kinds of
musical activities, or that we endorse certain activities over others.
8.) We'll also avoid accidentally misrepresenting what we stand for, why we
belong to Fedora, and why we're making our own spin. What I mean is, if fictional
contributor Jessica Wu uses Fedora to perform in a laptop orchestra, and we use
a photograph of her doing this in the spin, almost everybody will understand
that (A) she's making music with Fedora, (B) she's part of the Fedora community
because she believes in its values, (C) laptop orchestras are an acceptable
cultural practice, and (D) she doesn't represent everybody in Fedora.
+! I agree with all of your points, and I think it's important reflect our community with "all that is possible" Not only will it allow us to include others, but it will encourage others to branch out into areas they didn't expect to be able to use the spin.
I know there's a general distaste for actually showing people in artwork, but I
wonder how far we can push the limit.
I think pictures like this would be fine for places like the musician's guide, wiki, website, ect, but I want to push back on using pictures like this for things like desktop, and login backgrounds. It's difficult for me to imagine users seeing Jessica Wu and wanting to keep that as a background, or pick up a spin case with her pic on it... I say that unless she's drop-dead-gorgeous, but are we going to sell Fedora with sex? Where did this girl come from, and where are we getting these pictures?!? Sorry, I'm getting side tracked, heheheh.
I think musicians are very much artists and we like things to be a little less defined, which is why people in the artwork won't be appealing for most people. However, Sexy photos of gear (Thank you Brandon Jones for putting it so eloquently) typically is at least appealing to most. We'll never be able to accommodate every one, which is fine, but maybe instead of thinking of what we're doing as endorsement, we should rather think of it as celebratory.
You'll have to forgive the postmodern in me for wanting a both/and solution. What if we did our first theme as something along the lines of Celebration in collaboration and performance. Like doing collages of a wide range of gear, with classical instruments, compressors, turntables, sheet music, and guitars. There would be a lot going on, and some of it may not always be clear or defined, but that's what happens when you just grab a bunch of people and tell them to Jam on something. Kinda like there is so much stuff, it's hard to define what kind of music or genre it represents. But playing music is a common theme throughout.
We can also package more than one theme, (KDE already does that) so there's no real reason not to, other than who's going to do it. Why not have different themes, complete with their own sounds that represent and celebrate different types of music. There might be an easy way to have a user change or select a theme that would suit them on the initial boot, or soon after they log in (like a desktop link). As we release new releases we can choose or create a new theme to celebrate while keeping all of the prior ones available.
Ok I'm getting tired.
/end rant
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