History: Branding Guidelines

Here are internal guidelines about all promotion about WikiSuite, the software and the community.

Free Software vs Open Source

The choice of the terms Free Software vs Open Source is delicate.
Ref: https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_software#Naming

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

It is quite long, so it's understandable that in some restricted space (ex: Twitter), we can sometimes uses Open Source, and sometimes 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 a FSF High Priority Free Software Projects

Promoting only what is in WikiSuite

WikiSuite only includes FLOSS. Some of the components have non-FLOSS plugins (aka Premium / 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 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.

From the main site of each component:

• Components that are FLOSS only: Tiki, Kolab / Roundcube, Openfire Meetings / Jitsi Meet, Syncthing, Kaltura, KeePass
• Components with proprietary plugins: Piwik, ClearOS (although most paid apps are services), Elasticsearch and Kibana, Xibo (Android player)
• Needs 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 in WikiSuite. Ex.: 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.
• So 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

• A lot of our audience's first language is not English. So let's keep our language level simple, and unambiguous. Please avoir idioms
• Gary Cunningham-Lee can help for all proof reading

About technical languages

• Our main target are 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 can be ambigous, put a hyperlink or Mouseover

Visual consistency

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

Respecting licenses

• We must be diligent to respect licenses. Ideally, we find sources of images / videos / etc. which we can remix. And we give proper credit. Related: https://avan.tech/Image-banks

Keeping components and service providers in mind

WikiSuite is composed of software components. We must make sure we do everything to make them proud of being in WikiSuite and helping us promote the project. Service providers as well. ex.: https://www.bsfez.com/tiki-browse_freetags.php?tag=wikisuite

Think re-use / 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 our content. Some of the software components may also want to re-use / remix. Service providers as well. ex.: https://www.bsfez.com/tiki-browse_freetags.php?tag=wikisuite

Message consistency

• The branding page should have all 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