Re: Making webplatform.org skin publicly available?

On Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 12:15 PM, Janet Swisher <jswisher@mozilla.com> wrote:

>  On 4/3/13 4:22 AM, Tobie Langel wrote:
>
> On Wednesday, April 3, 2013 at 10:16 AM, Chris Mills wrote:
>
>  On 2 Apr 2013, at 20:31, Ryan Lane <rlane32@gmail.com (mailto:rlane32@gmail.com)> <rlane32@gmail.com(mailto:rlane32@gmail.com)> wrote:
>
>
>  On Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 5:55 AM, Tobie Langel <tobie@fb.com (mailto:tobie@fb.com)> <tobie@fb.com(mailto:tobie@fb.com)> wrote:
> If by "skin" you mean actual design (color palette, typography, etc.), this should certainly be open-sourced for outside contributions, but also protected against being re-used as is elsewhere (which would dilute the brand).
>
>
> It's basically impossible to open source something, then disallow its use. If we distribute the skin we just have to accept other sites will look like webplatform.
>
>  Too true.
>
>  So I'm not familiar with how the skinning precisely works here. But maybe we could open-source all of it except for a config file containing the font choice and color scheme?
>
>
> I'm not sure about the technical details, but a determined person would be
> able to reverse-engineer those details if they want to make a copy-cat
> site. Also, holding back some files from being open sourced sends a mixed
> message about the project's commitment to openness.
>
> The strategy that Mozilla uses is to open source the code whenever
> possible, but protect the trademarks (name and logo). (This is not without
> controversy among free software purists -- search keyword "ice weasel".) I
> think that is a reasonable balance between openness and brand preservation.
>
>
This is also Wikimedia's approach. It works generally well.

- Ryan