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Preface
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Every single corporation, organization, society or community has its
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own unique identity, even though their members don't take an
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intentional control over it.  Having an strong identity plays a
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significant role in the way the organization presents itself to both
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internal and external stakeholders. It expresses the values and
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ambitions of the organization, its business, and its characteristics.
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It provides visibility, recognizability, reputation, structure and
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identification to the organization by means of graphic design,
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communication, and behavior.  This kind of control is expensive and
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not all organizations are able to maintain it.  Nevertheless,
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organizations can assume an acceptable degree of compromise and, based
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on pragmatic facts, work on a consistent idea that can be
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progressively improved through time.
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To work on a consistent idea of identity, the organization defines its
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mission and makes it public in a place everyone can read. Then, the
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organization identifies each single manifestation where it shows its
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existence on in order take control over their presentations. The
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presentation of one organization is controlled by graphical components
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like names, symbols, colors, logotypes and, social components like
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rituals, behaviours and communication. All these components are
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interrelated and affect the organization identity.
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To effectively and efficiently control each single manifestation the
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organization is made of, the organization creates and publishes its
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``Identity Manual.'' In such a manual, the organization clearly
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identifies the visual manifestations it wants to take control of and
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how exactly to do that. It is a tool. It is a reference manual that
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describes the organization itself.
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Trough the years the CentOS community has shown a growing interest on
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helping to develop The CentOS Project. Some people seem to be very
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clear about what the project's needs are and how to maintain it being
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a highly stable project, but others however don't get what The CentOS
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Project is (even it is explained time after time) and sometimes decide
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to put their efforts in the wrong direction making everything to be a
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waste of time and source of distraction from what is really needed. In
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order for the community to concentrate efforts in the right direction
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effectively and efficiently, the community needs a visible reference
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describing what these right directions are.
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_The CentOS Project Identity Manual_ identifies and describes the key
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manifestations of The CentOS Project identity.  This manual answers
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the question ``What can I do for The CentOS Project?'' identifying
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different work lines that relate one another and everyone can join in.
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It describes a working environment where there are graphic designers
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producing images, documenters producing documentation manuals (whose
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use images produced by graphic designers), programmers producing
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automation scripts (needed to standardize production tasks),
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translators localizing source files created by graphic designers,
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documenters and programmers and packagers collecting information from
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all work lines for building RPM packages.
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_The CentOS Project Identity Manual_ organizes content in two main
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parts. The first part of the book (<<identity>>) describes conceptual
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ideas about The CentOS Project corporate identity (e.g., mission,
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names, symbols, colors and visual structure). It sets the background
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information you need in order to understand the second part of the
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book (<<repository>>) which describes the implementation of The CentOS
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Project corporate identity (e.g., how to produce images, translations,
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documents and packages).
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Copyright
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~~~~~~~~~
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Copyright (C) 2009-2013 The CentOS Artwork SIG.
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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
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under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
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any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
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Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.  A
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copy of the license is included in <<licenses-gfdl>>.
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Feedback
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_The CentOS Project Identity Manual_ is a community effort and it
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needs of your collaboration in order to get improved. If you find
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problems in this book, please send your corrections, comments and
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suggestions to CentOS artwork mailing list
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(mailto:centos-artwork@centos.org[centos-artwork@centos.org]). This is
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the central vain of discussion about The CentOS Project identity
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inside the CentOS community.
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When you send corrections to CentOS artwork mailing list, please be
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sure to define what the problem exactly is, define where it is, and
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the possible solution. This increases the chances that someone could
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take it and implement it. Poorly described problems might be skipped
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by people responsible of implementing the solutions. You might also
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find useful to propose your initiatives as a community effort so they
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can be validated and supported by the community itself.
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