[okfn-discuss] New flyer for OKF

Thu Mar 24 17:32:01 UTC 2011

On 22 March 2011 17:40, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was sitting (sans wifi) on the train earlier trying to think about
> how we could really simplify, boil down and crystallise what the OKF
> is about. I wanted to do this so that it is easier to explain to
> people what we're about - and to give us focus in what we are doing.
> The one sentence pitch!

At almost the same time I was re-writing an "About OKF" text to send
to someone in response to a question. What I ended up with was:

The Open Knowledge Foundation is a not-for-profit founded in 2004 in
the UK. It's aim is to develop and promote open knowledge –
information that can freely be used, reused and redistributed -- in
order to deliver better governance, culture, research and economy.

We work in three core areas:

* Community - we are a community based organization and developing
both our own and the wider ‘open’ community is central to what we do.
This development includes activities such as running working groups,
organizing events and engaging directly with other individuals and
organizations.

* Tools and infrastructure – we develop tools and infrastructure that
support the development and growth of the open knowledge commons by
ourselves and others.

* Material and apps – we create open material (datasets and content)
and build apps using open material that are of direct value to end
users. We believe that open knowledge must be used if it is to deliver
value and developing apps and material help get information into the
hands of end users. Moreover, work in this area functions as essential
demonstrators for policy-makers and the general public of the benefits
that 'open' can deliver.

> I concluded that there is not much that we do that can't - broadly
> speaking - be lumped under either:
>
>  * 'tools' (CKAN, Public Domain Works, Annotator, Open Literature...)
>  * or 'community' (events, competitions, hackdays, IRC, mailing
> lists, working groups, blog, annotation sprints, etc).

I tend to split the first into:

* Tools and infrastructure (CKAN, Annotator, Public Domain Calculator)
* Apps and material: Where Does My Money Go, Open Shakespeare, Open
datasets we create ...

> And the *main* motivating idea is the 'ecosystem' or 'commons' of
> information/content/data/knowledge.
>
> Hence: "We work to build tools and communities around an open
> knowledge commons that everyone is free to use, enjoy and share."

I like this. I guess you could insert 'apps' there but for the wider
public i think the distinction between apps and tools

> Then I tried to capture these two main ideas in logos for 'tools' and
> 'communities' based on the colourful bubbles that seems to be becoming
> our house style. I created a basic flyer out of this:
>
> Front: http://www.flickr.com/photos/okfn/5550671746/
> Back: http://www.flickr.com/photos/okfn/5550671744/

These are great. You should post the source :)

> Second (slightly more crowded) alternative for front:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/okfn/5550734094/

In some ways I think this may be better. I think you want the please
share me at the bottom so it is easily readable ...

> I'd like to get something like this printed out as a nice double-sided
> square flyer ASAP. The 'Please Share Me' refers to both open knowledge
> - and to the physical flyer, which I intend to leave in relevant
> places on my travels (on noticeboards, in hacker spaces, etc).

I think you could also make a really small 10cm x 10cm (or even
smaller) version.

> What do people think? Good, bad, ugly? ;-)

Very good I think :)

Rufus