RE: Proposed changes to Semantic Web logo policies

On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 22:54 +0200, Peter F Brown wrote:
> Ian:
> I appreciate the hard work that has gone in to something that seems very
> simple.
> 
> I'm probably late to the party on this but I have a couple of comments
> regarding the "colophon" and the logo's use, rather than the logo itself
> (which I think is economical, clean and simple):
> 
> - for me, the statement that "The three sides of the tri-color cube in
> these logos evoke the triplet of the RDF model" doesn't stand up to even
> the barest metaphorical scrutiny. If you want people to believe that
> such a logo does evoke what you state, there must be a minimum
> metaphorical association, and I don't see it: the (overly simplistic)
> appeal to "translate" the three colours into a triple...hmmmm, I don't
> buy it, and actually find it confusing. The problem obviously with many
> metaphors is they break when pushed too hard, but this one seems to fall
> over immediately. Also, the idea that my data might be found in a clean
> and tidy 3-dimensional box, when in reality it's a fluid mess all over
> the place, doesn't fit with the image: problem is: I like the image ;-)

Glad you like it. :) Let me postpone design discussion and focus
on usage policy.

> - on a more "political" point: if one does not accept the premise that
> "'Semantic Web' equals 'the W3C stack of SW technologies'", but believes
> that there are some/many non-W3C standards/specifications/technologies
> that nonetheless are contributing to the building of a "semantic web"
> (or as Ora Lassila has often said "semantic webs"), can one nonetheless
> use the logo (one without the W3C signature clearly) to denote such
> non-W3C work?

Yes. However, attribution that the logo comes from W3C is required
in the draft policy.

 _ Ian

> I can accept that I've missed the boat as regards the first point, but I
> would like clarification on the second...
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Peter
> 
> -------------
> Peter F Brown
> Founder, Pensive.eu
> Chair, CEN/ISSS eGovernment Focus Group
> Director, OASIS
> Co-Editor, OASIS SOA Reference Model
> Lecturer at XML Summer School
> ---
> Personal:
> +43 676 610 0250
> http://public.xdi.org/=Peter.Brown
> www.XMLbyStealth.net
> www.xmlsummerschool.com
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: semantic-web-request@w3.org [mailto:semantic-web-request@w3.org]
> On Behalf Of Ian B. Jacobs
> Sent: 22 October 2007 22:27
> To: semantic-web@w3.org
> Subject: Proposed changes to Semantic Web logo policies
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Every time I work on logos, I learn something new! The main lesson so
> far from the Semantic Web logos: Get more feedback on usage policy
> before deploying. Thank you all for your comments. Most of them related
> to the usage policy, so you will find a proposal for a new one below.
> 
> Please send your comments to semantic-web@w3.org on the proposed policy
> by 29 October 2007.
> 
> Here is a summary of what I read in your comments:
> 
>  1) In general, a desire to use:
> 
>     a) the cube on its own or with "Semantic Web" and not the
>        W3C logo.
>     b) the cube with other visual imagery (than the W3C logo).
>       
>  2) On the Web, more flexibility in the use of links. In particular,
>     for the technology badges, the ability to link to:
> 
>     a) The home page of the relevant technology
>     b) Data or other applications of the technology
> 
> I hope the following proposal helps get us there.
> 
> --------
> Proposal
> --------
> 
> Note: In what follows, the phrase "cube and cube+'Semantic Web'"
> refers to two logos that we would make available: one is the cube alone,
> the other the cube followed by the string "Semantic Web".
> Neither uses the W3C logo.
> 
>  1) The logos with the "W3C logo" in them can be distributed
>     freely and used without permission but not modified. This
>     corresponds to the W3C Document license, or, I believe,
>     this Creative Commons license:
>        http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/
> 
>  2) The cube and cube+'Semantic Web' can be distributed
>     freely. They can be used for derivative works (including used
>     with other imagery and modifications to the cube colors)
>     without permission as long as:
> 
>        - The cube shape is not changed.
>        - There is attribution of W3C (following some
>          guidelines that we still need to draft).
> 
>     This Creative Commons license seems close:
>     http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us/
> 
>     Any other usage would require W3C permission.
> 
>  3) People need to contact W3C before making any commercial use
>     of any of these logos. W3C may start doing more to
>     support itself by selling mugs, etc. I'd like to keep
>     that possibility open.
> 
>  4) On the Web:
> 
>     a) The cube and cube+'Semantic Web' can link anywhere.
>     b) The technology badges can link anywhere, but W3C
>        recommends some URIs (e.g., for SPARQL, 
>        the URI of the home page for that technology).
>     c) The Semantic Web logos with "W3C" in them must
>        link to the W3C site (http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/).
> 
> If there is support for this proposal, I will update [1] accordingly,
> adding details such as the recommended URIs.
> I'll also add links to the "cube and cube+'Semantic Web"
> logos in various formats.
> 
> If you do not support the proposal, please suggest alternatives.
> 
> Thanks to Susie and Benji for helping to explain the relation of the
> cube to the RDF triple image; per Susie's email [2] I have added a FAQ
> question.
>  
> Thanks again to everyone for providing feedback,
> 
>  - Ian Jacobs, Head of W3C Communications
> 
> P.S. This creative use of the logo was brought to my attention:
>  http://gridinoc.name/b.noise/2007/10/semantic-web-logo.html
> 
> I think the new policy enables this sort of creativity. 
>  
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2007/10/sw-logos
> [2] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2007Oct/0164
> 
-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Monday, 22 October 2007 20:58:01 UTC