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OERu

Towards more affordable education for all students worldwide

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Summary of activity outputs

The proposed strawdog candidate below was replaced by the OERu logos developed and donated by Thompson Rivers University. Logo design consultation closed and retained in the wiki for historical purposes.

Initial consultation

Key points

The OERu anchor partners, to date, have not agreed a logo for the OERu initiative. The OER Foundation and OERu collaboration subscribes to open planning and open decision-making. The adoption of a logo for the OERu will be informed by our model of rough consensus and open consultation. The OER Foundation, as a small educational charity, does not have in-house graphic design expertise or funding resources to commission the development of a logo for the OERu. The final logo choice will rely on donations of time from the community and/or anchor partner members.

Instructions and process

File:OERu logo strawdog.png Strawdog proposal for OERu logo based on a derivative work of the OER Foundation logo originally designed and donated to the Foundation by Ray Sharma. To bootstrap the process, the OERu logo consultation will commence with a straw dog proposal based on a derivative work of the OER Foundation logo which is openly licensed. This strawdog candidate has been used by the OER Foundation in public presentations on the OERu in the absence of a community approved logo. In the absence of alternative concept designs, this straw dog proposal will be adopted as the official logo of the OERu. Please submit any comments and reflections on the appropriateness of the strawdog proposal in the wiki below by the close of your business on 12 October 2012. Please submit any general comments for selecting and adopting an OERu logo in the wiki below by the close of your business on 12 October 2012. Proposals for alternative OERu logo candidates should be uploaded for consideration in the wiki below by the close of your business on 12 October 2012. Bear in mind, where possible, these submissions should be of reasonably professional standard as we do not have the funding to commission final design. At best, we can request volunteer support from design professionals at our anchor partners for the final polishing work of the preferred candidate. True to the open education philosophy underpinning our collaboration, we will only accept proposals licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License. The OERu partners may decide to trademark the logo as a mechanism to regulate appropriate use of our logo in the future based on consensus decision among the anchor partners. We will conduct a rough consensus poll after 12 October 2012 for the final selection of an OERu logo. The final decision for the OERu logo will vest with the OERu anchor partners, that is, confirmed members at the date of the decision taking the advice and rough consensus poll generated by the open community into consideration.

Open discussion on the strawdog proposal

• The considerations used for the design and selection of the OER Foundation logo, on which the strawdog proposal is based, are equally valid in the OERu context. 1) As an international non-profit working in many regions of the world, it was important to avoid using images which may have different meanings in different cultural contexts. 2) It was important to select a design which would work equally well in black and white as many users may need to rely on print-based materials. 3) The OER Foundation logo can easily accommodate different colours for use in different contexts, eg school, post-secondary, vocational or university contexts or different colours for generic areas of study etc. --Mackiwg 05:55, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
• The image shows similarities to the infinity symbol referencing endlessness, reuse and sustainability. The symbol is not closed which represents openness. The designer remarked that the colour component of the symbol can be likened to a tick (correct mark) referencing achievement using open education approaches. The symbol also references the "No. 8" which is a New Zealand reference to "Number 8 wire" resourcefulness. Headquartered in New Zealand, the No. 8 wire reference was appropriate for the innovation to establish the OER Foundation. --Mackiwg 06:06, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
• I selected green as the preferred colour for the OERu strawdog proposal which is intended to signify renewal, sustainability, nature, fertility and life. The reference to nature is universal. --Mackiwg 06:06, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

General comments for selecting and adopting an OERu logo

• Comment by personal email: "Avoid using an image of the globe at all costs" and must concede that I agree with this recommendation ;-) --Mackiwg 05:05, 9 September 2012 (UTC)
• Add comments here - and remember to sign

Open discussion on OERu logo nomination candidates

Please upload images for OERu logo alternatives, which must be licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license. Create a subheading for each nomination candidate, eg Candidate 1, 2 etc.

• No alternative candidates submitted by due date.

Decision

• Strawdog proposal will be adopted as the official logo of the OERu network.
• OER Foundation will secure a volunteer graphic designer to format and refine the strawdog proposal for use and distribution in appropriate formats. --Mackiwg 03:39, 17 October 2012 (UTC)