Re: [Gimp-developer] it is time...

[Nathan Summers <rockwalrus gmail com>]

:( sorry to see you go.

Rockwalrus

On Mon, Feb 23, 2015, 4:27 PM peter sikking <peter mmiworks net> wrote:

> Dear GIMP team,
>
> it is time to say farewell. This is not easy for me, but
> I have come to the conclusion that our collaboration cannot
> be revived anymore. For the reasons why, I will take us back
> to the very beginning:
>
> From early 2005 maintainer Sven Neumann worked really hard
> to reach out in the Berlin openUsability scene and find
> help for GIMP’s usability. He knew that the state of GIMP’s
> UI was a life-threatening problem and that no one in the GIMP
> team and community could do anything about it.
>
> Ellen Reitmayr organised bi-weekly meetings to bring FLOSS
> and usability people together. Sven and I were there most of the,
> time, if not every time. During these discussions my ideas on
> (great) product making and working with a product vision were
> formed. Sven was patient and waited until the time was right.
>
> That was LGM 2006. We made the GIMP product vision there
> (a first) and after a hiatus Ellen ensured that our
> collaboration got rolling; the first of its kind and
> with the first openUsability internship (Kamila Giedrojc).
>
> Sven ensured that we all were working towards GIMP’s vision,
> and made that everyone in the project understood that a
> new way of working, of collaboration with the UI team, had
> arrived. I learned a lot in those days. Sven came up with
> the idea (and action) to work via a wiki, and I am still
> using that today in many projects.
>
> You can say that Sven’s conclusions about the state of GIMP
> and all his actions were the necessary precondition for a
> successful collaboration.
>
> A bit later Martin Nordholts joined the GIMP team. He
> understood the importance of interaction (design) for
> making software that works, and we started a great
> collaboration. It was based on ‘I help you, you help me’
> and respect for each other’s competence and work. It was
> very uplifting and again I learned a lot.
>
> You can say that Martin’s attitude and his actions were
> the necessary precondition for a successful collaboration.
> (At this point I’d like to mention GSoC student Aurimas Juška,
> with whom collaboration was also a pleasure.)
>
> All of this was not perfect, there were enough infuriating
> moments for me, but it got results. We moved issues big and
> small from absolutely awful, to elegant and powerful.
>
>
> And then… Sven and Martin left the project.
>
> That is years ago and with 20/20 hindsight, when both of them
> had left each and every precondition for a successful collaboration
> had vanished from the GIMP project. We soldiered on, in an
> on-and-off fashion, for years. Results became vanishingly rare.
>
> The TiTO fiasco put a big magnifying glass on all the missing
> preconditions: something is broken, for a long time, and it cannot
> be patched up by some new rules of engagement.
>
>
> practical stuff: I will close the GIMP UI brainstorm.
>
> gui.gimp.org is a repository and will be waiting for a new
> usability/interaction/UX maintainer. I guess it will take a while
> for such a person to turn up at the GIMP project, but when the
> day arrives I will have a friendly chat with them (to ensure
> that GIMP will be in safe & experienced hands), and hand it over.
>
>     --ps
>
>         founder + interaction architect
>             man + machine interface works
>
>         http://blog.mmiworks.net: on interaction architecture
>
>
>
>
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