[Consortium] Re: linuxaudio.org

[Marek Peteraj]

> i would like to see all parts of the community (LAD, linuxaudio.org, 
> younameit) share a common logo to generate some "corporate identity" 
> both for the members of the communities and visitors, without each part 
> implicitly having to endorse everything the other does.

Joern, grep in your archives (august, september) for my proposal.
But let's not call it "corporate", i would call it "identity of a community"

> in the same move, i like andrea's offer of subdomains a lot.
> in my personal view, something like the following would be perfect:

> linuxaudio.org (to become a portal with links to all the sub-domains)

Linuxaudio.org should be about LinuxAudio, it makes no sense to promote linuxaudio if 
any type of organisation gets a better promotion than linuxaudio itself.

> lists.linuxaudio.org (what is now the administrative part of the lad page)

with a neutral 'linux audio advocacy' mailing list which would serve as 
a meeting point for the members of an organisation and linux audio developers 
and users to discuss various opportunities of linuxuaudio promotion. 

> consortium.linuxaudio.org (what is now linuxaudio.org)
> community.linuxaudio.org (news about meetings and events, maybe a 
> user-driven news portal in the future)

organisation.linuxaudio.org should be devoted to an organisation 
backing the linuxaudio efforts, www.linuxaudio.org should be about the community. 

> software.linuxaudio.org (dave's site)
> documentation.linuxaudio.org (all the stuff from patrick's site, 
> alsa-wiki, presentation material, press coverage, and whatever useful 
> remains after cleaning up the lad page)
> alsa.linuxaudio.org (a link to the alsa site)
> jack.linuxaudio.org (a link to jackit.sf.net)
> ladspa.linuxaudio.org (a link to ladspa.org and plugin.org.uk)

> i don't really care whether these are subdomains or directories, but i 
> would love to see all the major linux audio sites (that relate to more 
> than one project or, such as jack, provide an infrastructure of sorts) 
> collected here and maybe share some common looks.

A unified and appealing design is what will help to promote linuxaudio.

> don't get me wrong, i'm not intending to force anybody in, or annihilate 
> people's private efforts. it's just a "would be nifty" scenario to have 
> everybody under one roof,

That was what i was proposing all the time, to make a unified 
infrastructure with official "entrance"
http://eca.cx/lad/2004/01/0160.html - see bottom
http://www.eca.cx/lad/2004/01/0121.html

Linuxaudio.org should *not* be about private efforts. 
Linuxaudio.com unfortunately is about private efforts currently - for example.

> I'd like to have  a clearer understanding of  what the legal situation
> of the Consortium   is (or is planned to   be).  I do  understand that
> Daniel James  is *very* busy  preparing  the booth at the  Sounds Expo
> 2004, so we might as well stop making noise and  wait for some answers
> before going on (I'm not trying to pressure  Daniel or anybody else, I
> just believe in making small steps and  fixing bugs/problems when they
> arise - the legal  status of the Consortium  in all of this discussion
> is, if not a bug,  at least a  point of  uncertainty  I'd like to  see
> resolved as soon as possible).

As someone who has a degree in law, i'd be very interested to see how this gets solved.
I wasn't proposing a non-profit organisation (a legal entity) consisting of natural persons
by coincidence. But it's still the last step in linux audio promotion.

To provide an insight into the future: A formal organisation(from a legal point of view) would/could later provide
services such as sf.net. Projects with sublinks such as jack.linuxaudio.org would later become hosted projects.
Since the organisation would be non-profit, the possibility of providing such services would depend on sponsorships and grants.
In order to accept them, it needs to have a legal status.

> > no, serious, it's not a good idea imho to let go of the LAD acronym
> > since it's well introduced and widely known, but it does not have to
> > play a central role here - just "LA" or linux audio is fine.
> It must be said that LAD - in the sense  of "Linux Audio Developers" -
> puts all the  attention to the  developers.  Whilst I do believe  this
> latter  are of the utmost importance  to spreading Libre Software into
> the  audio domain, we  shouldn't forget that   the task will need many
> other  competences besides coding - even  more so when  you think that
> these  competences are  exactly  those Libre  Software projects always
> have difficulties  attracting:   technical writers, graphic   artists,
> event organizers, and so on and so forth.

My point was - whatever it is it's still Linux Audio *. 
Linux Audio Developers, Linux Audio Users, Linux Audio Projects, Linux Audio Applications, Linux Audio Advocates, etc.

So the term "linuxaudio" is *very* important here: 

1. You just need to know one word to find everything related on the web, whoever you are(developer, user).  
2. It must be easy to remember.
3. It has to identify the community and its projects.

> > > I've been promising to do a dynamic, user-maintainable version
> > > of Dave's app listing for oh, a couple years now...
> > > What were/are the exact requirements of such an application?
> > We discussed some requirements a long time ago on LAD and/or LAU,
> > I forget. I put up a quick mockup on my website and have done nothing
> > since then.

> Basically it's a basic content management system.
<snip>
> registered users can:
>   - post entries for new software
>   - post updates on software entries

It's important that anyone can submit new entries or updates of sw. 
Let's not pester them with registration if they want to help by providing information.  :)

<quote>
> community.linuxaudio.org (news about meetings and events, maybe a 
> user-driven news portal in the future)
...
> > > I've been promising to do a dynamic, user-maintainable version
> > > of Dave's app listing for oh, a couple years now...
> Basically it's a basic content management system.
...
</quote> and the LAD homepage.

It's important to see the whole picture. Those are all building blocks to one 
unified infrastructure called "linuxaudio".
The aim should be to 
1. work out that infrastructure
2. work out the (webbased) implementation of that infrastructure

Last note: there won't be many music industry companies wanting to step in for a simple reason - the nature of open source.
Our aim should be to promote linux audio to attract new developers so that it would accelerate the development of linux audio applications, 
attract new audio users by providing them with a set of apps/tools they like/need to use. 
Having a large userbase will allow linux audio developers to start their own successful companies. 

Marek