RE: Proposed changes to Semantic Web logo policies

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 ;-)

- 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?

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 20:55:15 UTC