[okfn-advisory] Open Knowledge brand and website

[Rufus Pollock]

On 8 May 2014 23:18, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:

> I have already expressed my views that the tag line gives a misleading
> idea of what the OKF already is and does. I'd prefer a line
>

That's exactly why we're asking people for suggestions to improve the
tagline - Laura's email was precisely about encouraging further
contribution to discussion on list and on wiki for improvements :-)

As made clear (I hope) by previous email and this email we have opened this
up for suggestions and discussion.


> something like:
>
> "A community to make knowledge open and useful"
>

This is great Peter - would you like us to add to the wiki.

I would add that it would be worth thinking about how to do more than just
describe us succinctly - how would we make this into a short call to action
or compelling t-shirt slogan (which is what we'd also like the tagline to
do!)


> I am not keen on "data" - we are only very peripherally a data
> organisation - our *community* is much more important, approaches to GLAM,
> the practice of open science, bottom-up democracy, advocacy, etc.
>

Good points.


> And I also commented that it would have been appropriate to consult the
> advisory council *before* rebranding - as it is we look like an unnecessary
> appendage - there's a new logo , and new name, a new tagline - and we have
> little role other than to legitimise them - it doesn't seem we can do
> anything else.
>

Some mea culpa here in that we clearly should have done more than we did.
We obviously did speak with some of you about components of this but not
the final logo etc.

I have to say I for one thought (mistakenly perhaps!) that things like logo
design, dropping "Foundation" (and even tagline) were fairly minor (and
potentially bikesheddable) things compared to the bigger questions which we
did consult (e.g. around the strategy or in the community survey whose
purpose was, in part, to inform the brand process).

I think the key point I've taken is that a lot gets read into a tagline,
including significant stuff about our identity (whether that was intended
or not!). As I've noted above this is most definitely open for discussion
and comment so there is most certainly opportunity to determine outcomes
here :-)

I'm sorry again for the imperfect process and please keep helping us
improve :-)

Rufus
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