OpenClipArtProject

Summary

Steps to Actualizing this Project

• Try to unify several clipart projects into this one and the efforts from sodipodi and inkscape developers.
• (DONE) Develop a name for the project first - decided to use "clipart.freedesktop.org" for now...
  • Free Clip Art Project
  • Open Clip Art Project
  • Grand Unified Clip Art Repository
  • Open Graphics Repository
• Get project space from fd.o
• Setup project like any open source project: wiki, mailing list, etc
• Allow the project to develop fluidly.
• (DONE) Create WikiMailinglistReplacement as long as we don't have a real one.
• (DONE) mailinglist http://freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/clipart

Project Outline

• Project Hosting
  • sf.net said no!
  • myrkraverk volunteered space
  • freedesktop.org (fd.o) - the best option
    • fd.o getting involved
      • We chatted with an fd.o project admin, and he said: as long as you have people willing to start developing, and this isn't just going to end up like half the sourceforge projects, email daniel@freedesktop.org with username(s), ssh key (s), a project name, and a project description

• Packaging System
  • official packages
  • web based interface

• Repository

• • KISS!!!
  • generally needs to be carefully thought out for scalability, security, etc.
  • I'd suggest splitting up the software into separate components. One that just does the upload + adding keywords, another that just does packaging given a query, and another that does the web navigation browsing w/ thumbnails
  • e.g., for the navigation and browsing perhaps we could start from Pat's tool

• • Emergent Categories
    • emergent categories is that they will represent the users...
    • look at categories at: [runme.org runme.org]
    • yeah how to deal with unacceptable stuff...
    • I'm not saying it shouldn't be emergent, it would be nice though to have some control to make some categories more important.
      • So basically 'adult' is always a high level category, even if it only has one picture.
    • maybe we give the users the power to do some form of emergent censoring and self-editing, like in wikipedia?
    • I guess we'd have to defer to fd.o about their conditions

• • Keyword-based system
    • I'm thinking about a keyword system. Where each object gets assigned keywords - and the categories are derived from there. So a list of keywords is generated, then the one that covers the most images gets at the highest level. Then those are reevaluted with the same criteria to create subcategories. etc. etc.
    • have a list of "standard" keywords that can be selected, or let the user add new keywords
    • I was thinking that categories are made until there is some tollerance of images left (like three) and then those are dropped in the current folder.
    • I think that an administrative duty will be to try and clean up the keywords.
    • categories are just a particular kind of keyword

• • Versioning
    • For the repository, either just keep each copy of the file with a version number appended; that should be sufficient
    • make sure to include a way for viewing and retrieving old versions

• • homebrew versioning system
    • simple php submission engine

• • webDAV
    • Catacomb is perhaps the most advanced OSS WebDAV server
    • Subversion can basically be used like a WedDAV server also.
      • It provides revision control, attachment of properties, and tracking of authorship

• • Zope CMS : Plone?

• • CVS
    • I've tried using CVS as a backend for a DMS before... it's a royal pain in the ass
    • web-based cvs tool doesn't exist!!!
    • has too much of a learning curve for artists

• Philosophical
  • this is a revolution waiting to happen
  • importance of this project

• Filetypes
  • All open formats? Only 2d file formats? What about 3d, or does this project expand outwards to other MEDIA formats?
    • SVG
    • PNG
    • WMF

• Supported File Metadata
  • XMP
    • Adobe's XMP developments
    • more indepth XMP pdfs
    • creative commons xmp support

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Comments

I think we should just use SVG. Bitmap sucks for clipart IMHO and I don't see what WMF offers that SVG don't. Christian S.

The only point I might see for including WMF as a format is that there are a number of WMF-based clipart packages that could be aggregated with the SVG clipart. -- Bryce

I'd suggest limiting to 2d vector formats though, just for the sake of tightening focus. Leave the other stuff for later, or to other projects to focus on. -- Bryce