[okfn-discuss] new brand, new website: coming up next week

Tue Apr 15 09:34:18 UTC 2014

I've been honoured to be on the Advisory Board/Council for 10 years. I have
gained a huge amount.

It's a good thing that we are continually reexamining our fundamentals. But
we have to be very careful. I don't think any of this discussion has been
specifically referred to the AC - it might have been useful to do.

I make no comment on the logo - logos always generate irresolvable
discussion. I liked the old one. The new one has a hole in the middle where
Chuff can put her head. Bit prickly, but Okapis are used to prickles.

My main concern is that the new brand may be driving the philosophy and
practice of OKF rather than reflecting it. We've struggled for 10 years to
try to capture what we are about. Our diversity is part of our strength but
it's fragile.

The latest phrase I remember is something like:

"A community making knowledge open and useful"

The words aren't quite right but that expresses what I feel about OK. I was
happy with it. I've also taken part in the current review of the OKF and
found the 90 minute session very useful. We were able to prioritise and the
top of my list was "community" combined with the Open Definition.

I am worried about the use of "data" in the new tagline. "data" is
impersonal and cold; "knowledge" currently relates to humans and is warm.
Although it's harder to pin down knowledge it's much more than data
hacking. (and I say that as a data-weenie).

We have not, and I hope we never will, turn into a data organisation. So
please can we go back to knowledge?

P.

On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 4:38 PM, heath rezabek <heath.rezabek at gmail.com>wrote:

> I'm glad for Laura and Rufus' willingness to engage in this exploration.
>
> We seem to know this much:
>
> - The logo is good to go.  Not everyone will love any given logo, but
> overall response is positive.
>
> - The tagline is contentious, mostly due to questions over how well it
> expresses the human and holistic aspects of our efforts.
>
> Two questions:
>
> Might the second tagline (Open Data / Open Minds) and the flexible use of
> 'Open _____' answer some of this?
>
> Can the process launch with the logo, while the tagline is further refined
> through community collaboration?
>
> - Heath
>
>
> On Monday, April 14, 2014, Aaron Wolf <wolftune at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> There are many totally different ways to go with the tagline than those
>> I've seen proposed so far. For example:
>>
>> Open Knowledge [logo]
>> "Empowering people by freeing ideas"
>>
>
>
> --
> Heath Rezabek  //  labs.vessel.cc
> Long Now Foundation (Intern)  //  Manual for Civilization Project  //
> longnow.org
> Icarus Interstellar  //  FarMaker Design Corps  //  icarusinterstellar.org
> Open Knowledge Foundation  //  Texas Ambassador for the OKFn  //  okfn.org
>
>
>
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-- 
Peter Murray-Rust
Reader in Molecular Informatics
Unilever Centre, Dep. Of Chemistry
University of Cambridge
CB2 1EW, UK
+44-1223-763069
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