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