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History: Branding Guidelines

Preview of version: 34

The following are guidelines concerning promotion of WikiSuite, the software and the community.

Free Software vs Open Source

The choice of the terms Free Software vs Open Source is delicate; for reference:


We want folks from both camps to be heavily involved with us, which is why the WikiSuite tagline is "The most comprehensive and integrated Free / Libre / Open Source enterprise software suite ever developed".

This tagline is quite long, so it's understandable that in cases where space is limited (for example, on Twitter), we can alternatively use Open Source or Free Software.

GNU/Linux vs Linux

Similar to above: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU/Linux_naming_controversy

Let's use GNU/Linux and work towards one day becoming an FSF High Priority Free Software Project.

Promoting only what is in WikiSuite

WikiSuite only includes Free / Libre / Open Source software (FLOSS). Some of the components have non-FLOSS plugins (aka premium or proprietary). We do not use them as part of WikiSuite and, thus, we do not promote them on wikisuite.org. Of course, people can discover and use these on their own, but the long-term strategy of WikiSuite is to reproduce any desired functionality as part of WikiSuite. This will be a tricky political situation, which we need to navigate through. And the main software has rich functionality as per our component criteria.

From the main site of each component:

  • Components that are FLOSS only: Tiki, Kolab / Roundcube, Openfire Meetings / Jitsi Meet, Syncthing, KeePass.
  • Components with proprietary plugins: Piwik, ClearOS (although most paid apps are services), Elasticsearch and Kibana, Kaltura, Xibo (Android player)
  • Need to be checked: FusionPBX/FreeSWITCH, Kimchi/KVM


Similarly, some components also have some things that are FLOSS, but not in WikiSuite. We generally do not promote these, as it will cause our users to look for info and documentation, and in the end, they can't use them in WikiSuite, for example: https://www.elastic.co/products/hadoop .

Truth and backing up our claims

  • We are competing with two of the biggest companies in the world (Google and Microsoft), and other companies are increasingly in the Enterprise Suite market.
    • Expect that our promotion will be doubted (by potential users or journalists) or attacked (by alternatives).
    • Even one false or exaggerated statement can be used to discredit everything else.
  • Therefore, everything has to be rigorously true.
  • We can promote our strengths and avoid talking about our weaknesses. When we talk about weaknesses, we talk about our plan to improve the situation.

Clarity, spelling and grammar

  • The first language of a lot of our audience is not English, so let's keep our language level simple and unambiguous. Please avoid idioms.
  • Gary Cunningham-Lee can help for all proofreading.

About technical languages

  • Our main target is managers that see the value of technology and want their organization to be more efficient, so our communication must not be too techie. If something might be ambiguous, add an explanatory link or mouseover.

Visual consistency

  • Bilal Siddiq and Isabelle Montminy will work together to keep branding consistent and evolving according to our needs.

Respecting licenses

  • We must be diligent in respect to licenses. Ideally, we find sources of images, videos, and so on that we can remix. And we give proper credit.

Keeping components and service providers in mind

WikiSuite is composed of software components. We must ensure that we do everything we can to make their producers proud of their software being a part of WikiSuite and want to help us promote the project. This applies to service providers as well, for example: https://www.bsfez.com/tiki-browse_freetags.php?tag=wikisuite .

Think re-use and remix

Already one university has taken WikiSuite and re-branded it as Lead To Win Start. They need to be able to re-use all of our content. Some of the producers of software components may also want to re-use and remix. Again, this is also true for service providers, for example: https://www.bsfez.com/tiki-browse_freetags.php?tag=wikisuite .

Message consistency

The branding page should have all of the latest text and images, and should be used for listings. The promotional text we put elsewhere should be coherent with what is on WikiSuite.org.

History

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Marc Laporte 56
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Marc Laporte Major update to 2021 55
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Marc Laporte 54
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Marc Laporte References for stats and claims [Rollback by gary.cunningham-lee to version 50. The content I added should be on another page.] 53
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gary.cunningham-lee Clarification. 52
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gary.cunningham-lee Added two general style recommendations 51
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Marc Laporte References for stats and claims 50
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Marc Laporte 49
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Marc Laporte Only keep those we are or intending to contribute to 48
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gary.cunningham-lee Text edit. 38
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gary.cunningham-lee Text edit. 36
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gary.cunningham-lee Text edit. 35
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gary.cunningham-lee Changed single list item to paragraph. 34
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gary.cunningham-lee Text edits. 33
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gary.cunningham-lee Text improved. 32
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gary.cunningham-lee Text improved. 30
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gary.cunningham-lee Text edits. 28
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gary.cunningham-lee Text improved. 26
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gary.cunningham-lee Text edits. 25
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Marc Laporte 24
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Marc Laporte Now public 20
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Marc Laporte Than page is not public. Maybe it should be, but no time for that today 17
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Marc Laporte Clearer guidelines 16
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Marc Laporte Promoting only the FLOSS offerings 15
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