Friday, June 30, 2006

Artwork request

The artwork requests are starting to roll in at Open-Collab.org so break out your tablet and crankup your favorite graphics editor. This is a great way for all of the artists out there to contribute to the F/OSS community and have some fun. Anyone is welcome to get involved and it is very easy to participate, even if you are on a tight schedule. In no time at all you will be collaborating with many other F/OSS enthusiasts from around the world all with varying levels of involvement. It is also a great way to create because you are being challenged to make something somewhat specific that you might not ordinarily do and you will receive feedback, ratings and comments from F/OSS maintainers on your ideas and art that you submit. Many times others will build on your contribution which can turn into a very dynamic experience. This goes for other contributions requests and discussions taking place all over Open-Collab as well.

Here are just a few Project Pages and artwork requests you will find at Open-Collab.org.

One of the most recent project pages that has been added is for RSIBreak. RSIBreak is a great new application that prompts you to take a break from your computer now and then. The idea is to help prevent Repetitive Strain Disorder. The RSIBreak OC.o project page so far contains a Artwork Request Forum and an Example Images Gallery. What better way to add a little fun to the project than with a little Dragon Power! When you arrive at the RSIBReak OC.o project page you will find a Konqi-Blender lgpl source file originally created by Bastian Salmela (Basse). I was able to get a hold of Basse and he is also going to be providing an updated version of the blender file. The updated 3D model allows for better movements and even the ability to add facial expressions. Some of these new features were made possible by the work done on the Orange project. Basse also mentioned that he may have the time to make Konqi strike a few poses as well, that would be very cool to see. We also grabbed some existing images to use as illustrations from Workrave a GTK application that does something similar to RSIBreak.

Aktions has a project page on Open-Collab.org that is looking for artwork and some input from any body interested. Computers have become a major aspect of everyday life, creating a need for improved usage statistics. Aktions is a software development kit for KDE designed to gather this information. Our software helps developers understand how well their software meets user demand through an action-oriented perspective.

Tellico collection manager has a project page on Open-Collab.org and is in need of a updated logo.

getMyDistro a very cool project IMO is on its way to a finished logo.

OSS research project is in need of a logo.

Lobby4Linux in need of a new logo as well.

We are nearly out of the Beta stage and it is very exciting to see things starting to roll forward at Open-Collab.org.

2 comments:

Daniel D. said...

there is something imo off about the layout of the site.
1st - Topics in sections i saw are crammed into a tiny, tight grayed-out area. They look like part of an ad.
2nd - There is no count of entries in the topic.

I realize the that the site is new, but those 2 things are a must for productivity.

Theobroma said...

Hey daniel,
Good to hear from you. I see what you are saying thank you for bringing this up. Would you be willing to add this observation to the site issues forum you can find it here http://open-collab.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=241 . This way we could discuss some alternatives and come up with a solution that provides improved visual clues for what is going on in the project pages. Feel free to add any other things you come across to the site issues forum as well.

Thank you