News-Feeds:
Protecting the TYPO3 brand and code
That's the work in the T3A board: currently I have to deal with legal stuff to protect the TYPO3 branding and coding. Your opinion is wanted.
My "all-day-work" is communication (most of it is mail communication at info(at)typo3.org). Besides that there are plenty of things to do. Here are two issues that keep me busy these times.
Some of you who follow the English TYPO3 mailing list may know about the first case: someone took the TYPO3 code, adapted some features, substituted all copyright notices with his own name and sells "his" CMS. This is one legal case I am tied up with. At least with the preparation.
An other thing is conceptional. It's about protection of the TYPO3 branding, especially the use of the TYPO3 logo by 3rd parties. These are the questions:
- Who may use the logo / the brand?
- How may the logo / the brand be used, in what context?
- How can we make sure, that the logo/brand is not used in a way that spoils the branding or the spirit?
- How can we enable people to use the logo/brand in a way that it is boosting the brand and the spirit of TYPO3 in a very positive way?
In short: we need good branding guidelines. They should be tight enough to protect the branding and prevent an abuse and on the other hand they should be simple enough that 3rd parties can use it in a positve and TYPO3 supporting context.
And yes, I'd really like to have your opinion or advice or your expertise or examples of already existing abuse of the brand/word "TYPO3" and the logo or examples where the use is supporting TYPO3 and should be definitely allowed or perhaps you can point to examples how other organizations handle it in a convincing way. Leave a comment here or write me a mail (info(at)typo3.org with subject: "branding comment") or come to Luebeck.
Thanks for your involvement and looking forward to hearing your feedback:
Boarding, please!
Peter
comments
June 23, 2009
21:31
Maybe we can ask a few questions to determine whether using the TYPO3 logo and brand is okay:
1. Does it take anything away from the hard work of the people who work on making TYPO3 the best it can be? Example: Replacing copyright notices etc, as in the example you cited.
2. Does it portray TYPO3 in a positive/honest light? Examples: TYPO3Sucks.com - bad. TYPO3isAwesome.com - yay! Quality of website/product design is of course an important factor in this case.
I added "honest" to the question because TYPO3 is not perfect, and a site dedicated to pointing out its flaws in a non-bashing way should be perfectly fine.
There may be more to consider, but this is a start.
Christoph
June 24, 2009
16:46
We have been quietly learning TYPO3 and developing a portfolio of websites since 2006.
Other than the Style Guide (http://typo3.org/teams/design/style-guide/?no_cache=1&sword_list[0]=style&sword_list[1]=guide), what information is available for correctly helping to build the TYPO3 brand?
June 25, 2009
08:16
Second is to PROTECT ITS VALUE. I strongly believe that TYPO3 is a fantastic product with a strong name in the OSS and CMS world. We should all protect and even increase its value. The code, product quality, large adoption, future visions do already a lot. But not allowing everything happening to the brand and put up some guideline definitively would help. How about showing some good examples of adoptions, instead of forbitting and highlighting what not sould be made. Sort of a correct branding showcase. I like a positive kind of approach. Anyway, I am more than happy "to boaring" your branding mission. Let me know how I can help.
Buzz is the official blog resource of the TYPO3 project. You can be part of Buzz too. If you want to blog about the achievements of your team or your personal involvement please check out our HELP section.
For the past 5 years we have been testing best practices when it comes to promoting TYPO3 relating to our company services. Our marketing model currently uses the TYPO3 brand to attract freelancers and web agencies over traditional business users. I also like what typotycoon.com is doing in this respect :-)
If you see anything being done correctly or incorrectly, please let us know!
Cheers,
Greg