jspaleta: I like webcomics....i like Fedora.....

Jef Spaleta (

jspaleta) wrote,
@ 2008-04-16 11:37:00

I like webcomics....i like Fedora.....
So here's a question....
Is there space under the Fedora project to introduce consumable content for Fedora users... made by Fedora users... using Fedora tools?

Off the top of my head here are a couple of things I'd like to see created for consumption for the Fedora user community, by the Fedora user community, using only the tools being put together by the Fedora development community:

A webcomic. It doesn't even have to be funny or even reasonably good. But I'd love to see a Fedora branded webcomic illustrated using only tools in the Fedora distribution (inkscape and gimp come to mind), with screencasts of the illustration process on occasion. As a Board member, I'd like to be able to tap an artist/group with a specific vision to produce a series of webcomics for a set period of time, and then at the end of that period, select a different proposal and do it again. Is anyone other their interested in being the official cartoonist of the Fedora community for a release?

A Fedora songfight. We have enough tools inside the distro right now to do a range of music production and spit out flac and vorbis files. Can we make a recurring Fedora songfight happen? And build a feed of the results that our client music applications can consume? We can't really police that all submissions are made using just Fedora tools, but we could probably find a way to seed the submission pool with individuals who make a firm commitment to dogfood Fedora distributed tools. Anyone out there dabble with music production and is up to the challenge of dogfooding Fedora?

I think both of these are great way to dogfood our own creative tools, and generate some dynamic content for our userbase to enjoy.

But as a project are we ready to try to put this together? Can we make F10 or even F11 the "open media" release and have vetted content channels in place that inspires people to create their own open media which they can submit for inclusion into the content channel, so on and so on? Obviously something like a Fedora songfight would require a web presence and hosting space and some organization. Do we have the resources and the manpower to attempt it inside the project umbrella?

-jef

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I used Fedora 7 on my laptop for a big project
(Anonymous)
2008-04-16 08:50 pm UTC (link)

This sounds like a great idea, in general. I used Fedora 7 myself for mastering, editing, and finally producing a large amount (77+ CDs worth) of audio for a convention in December 2007. I recorded the audio itself using Zoom H4 Handy recorders (6 total onto 21 SD cards we rotated throughout the weekend), but all the files were copied raw from the SD cards onto my laptop, burnt onto DVDs, but then also edited using Audacity and burnt onto CDs using GnomeBaker.

I did most of the work after the convention and produced the master CDs also using the same tools, but this time using my desktop and Fedora 8, over the following few months (up to around February or March). While initially cumbersome, because I've only done such massive audio work on Windows using Adobe Audition (also CoolEdit, which was what it was before Adobe bought it), I came to value the power of the command-line and free tools to archive everything to FLAC (I did this early on) and then even converting the final product to Ogg Vorbis and/or MP3.

Long story short, Fedora is ready for prime-time media creation. It may sound dull, but how about a weekly podcast that covers the latest in Fedora and free software in general, maybe an audio version of Fedora Weekly News? I'm willing to contribute my voice to that effort. ;)

--Basil (http://www.basilgohar.com/blog/)

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Re: I used Fedora 7 on my laptop for a big project

jspaleta
2008-04-16 09:34 pm UTC (link)

I'm actually sort of trying to get a Fedora video channel going.

I can do basic editting of theora and raw dv clips in pitivi as shipped in Fedora. And if you have a supported webcam you can use the cheese application to record video. And of course there is always screencasting with istanbul. I'm actually working on example video tutorials that show other Fedora users how to do these video things with just Fedora tools.

And then I'd very much like to have a weekly podcast with contributors who submit theora clips to an editting team and piece it together. Are you volunteering to help with that?

The problem we are running into is how to host the content distribution in a Fedora client friendly way. We can't rely on flash because we can't provide the audio codecs flash is using out of the box... so no youtubage.

The latest thought is to try to host a Miro channel feed of theora videos.
But Miro in rawhide is broken due to xulrunner issues.

Video is actually the hardest media content to produce. A webcomic series is dirt simple...we just need creative people to do it.

Audio production is not dirt simple and we still need creative people to do it. I'm no song writer.

-jef

(Reply to this)(Parent)

Love it
(Anonymous)
2008-04-16 09:51 pm UTC (link)

I love this Jeff, wasn't J5 trying to do something similar with screencasts and video previews of Fedora features? And also this links in with Greg's work on Fedora TV?

If you need any non-artistic involvement, i.e. wrangler/encourager/promoter, I'd be happy to do the leg work!

Either way, yes, creating content with Fedora tools is and showing it off is awesome - the art team does a great job with this each release now!

JonRob

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	Re: Love it (Anonymous) 2008-04-16 09:57 pm UTC (link)
	Sorry one effed Jef for double ffing... Jon (Reply to this)(Parent)

Re: Love it

jspaleta
2008-04-16 10:18 pm UTC (link)

Yes the video effort that i speak of was linked with the Fedora TV effort... but alas that seems to have fallen through. Our next best hope is a Miro channel feed, with less sophisticated editorial control mechanisms. We just have to make it happen. The video editting stuff basically works...but I have no place inside the project right now to host 'blessed' content...and as a result no structure to hang an editorial group around to collaborate and work together to generate 'blessed' content.

The overall goal here is to try to get people working on a spectrum of open media content. How do we attract 'creative' people in our community to contribute more content in a way that parallels what the 'analytical' people do by contributing code? We've got the art team, working on release specific items already. But I think the narrow scope of the release tasking is itself somewhat constricting. I want a wider array of ways to contribute, that's more personally expressive...as a hook to getting more people thinking of themselves about being a 'contributor' instead of a 'user' so I can come back and task them with more constrainted work, like website design.

Aren't there highly skilled content producers out in our userbase who glory in the freedoms and ideals of what Fedora is trying to do? Can we find a way for those people to give back to the project through creative expression?

-jef

(Reply to this)(Parent)

	Webcomic unityflow 2008-04-17 08:11 am UTC (link)
	That sounds do-able, the webcommic. Between inkscape and gimp you have everything you need. I'd offer, but I hand-draw everything, only using gimp to scan and tidy up... I do however make the artwork for my animations using only inkscape. (Reply to this)

nicubunulj
2008-04-17 10:20 am UTC (link)

Running a Fedora webcomic is an old idea of mine... something not fancy at all, graphics in the xkcd style would be, I think, good enough. But I lacked the impulse to start working on it (I understand it is a task which would require a degree of commitment, at least a drawing each week).

As for where to host it... I have a solution for that too: we are supposed to get some infrastructure, most likely a Wordpress instance (or a Wordpress derivative like Lyceum) for Fedora Weekly News. I think the webcomic can be a part of it, with special tags webcomics have a dedicated RSS feed, with tie-ins to other content (news, podcasts, etc.)

(Reply to this)(Thread)

	How about this? nicubunulj 2008-04-17 01:29 pm UTC (link)
	I know it is rough and the graphics are totally naive but... (Reply to this)(Parent)

	(Anonymous) 2008-04-17 06:36 pm UTC (link)
	Also, I just found: http://mindfaucet.com/comicpress/ Which could be interesting, especially as if we go with MU or Lyceum - we're going with one of these two as things stand - it's trivial to set up a blog for just the webcomic if we want it... Jon (Reply to this)(Parent)

	realmotk 2008-04-18 07:48 am UTC (link)
	I have a Intuos tablet I bought for just such a purpose, but have never got it working satisfactorily - things like the 'eraser' on the end not working, or GIMP refusing to see it as a tablet - I'll try again with F9. (Reply to this)

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