<sect1 id="repo-dirs-trunk-identity" xreflabel="trunk/Identity" label="4.2">

    <title><filename class="directory">trunk/Identity</filename></title>

    <para>The <filename class="directory">trunk/Identity</filename>

    directory implements The CentOS Project <emphasis>corporate

    identity</emphasis> based on the The CentOS Project

    <emphasis>mission</emphasis> and <emphasis>release

    schema</emphasis>.</para>

    <sect2 id="corporate-mission" xreflabel="The corporate mission" label="4.2.1">

        <title>The corporate mission</title>

        <para>The CentOS Project exists to provide The CentOS

        Distribution.  Additionally, The CentOS Project provides The

        CentOS Web and The CentOS Showroom to support and promote the

        existence of The CentOS Distribution, respectively.</para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="corporate-identity" xreflabel="The corporate identity" label="4.2.2">

        <title>The corporate identity</title>

        <para>The CentOS Project corporate identity is the ``persona''

        of the organization known as The CentOS Project.  The CentOS

        Project corporate identity plays a significant role in the way

        The CentOS Project, as organization, presents itself to both

        internal and external stakeholders. In general terms, The

        CentOS Project corporate identity expresses the values and

        ambitions of The CentOS Project organization, its business,

        and its characteristics.</para>  

        <para>The CentOS Project corporate identity provides

        visibility, recognizability, reputation, structure and

        identification to The CentOS Project organization by means of

        <emphasis>corporate design</emphasis>, <emphasis>corporate

        communication</emphasis>, and <emphasis>corporate

        behaviour</emphasis>.</para>

    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="corporate-design" xreflabel="The corporate design" label="4.2.3">

        <title>The corporate design</title>

        <para>The corporate design is focused on the effective

        communication of corporate messages. Corporate messages are

        all the information emitted from the corporation to a target

        audience.  In order for such communication to happen, it is

        required to put the messages on a medium available for the

        target audience to react upon.  These media are know as

        <emphasis>corporate manifestations</emphasis>, because the

        corporation manifests its existence through them. The specific

        way used by the corporation to set their messages on different

        media is what the corporate design is about.</para>

        <para>The amount of manifestations a corporation uses to

        communicate its existence may very from one corporation to

        another. In the very specific case of The CentOS Project, the

        following corporate manifestations come to mind:</para>

        <orderedlist>

            <listitem>

                <para>The CentOS Distribution — The CentOS

                Distribution corporate manifestaion is made from SRPM

                packages. There are packages that make a remarkable

                use of images (e.g., Anaconda, Grub, Syslinux, Gdm,

                Kdm, Gsplash, Ksplash, Rhgb, Firstboot, etc.),

                packages that make a moderated use of images and

                packages that don't use images at all.  Also, there

                are some packages that make use of text-based

                information that need to be changed, too (e.g.,

                release notes, eula, the welcome page of the web

                browser, etc.), in order for The CentOS Project to

                comply with upstream's redistribution guidelines.  The

                CentOS Distribution corporate manifestation focuses

                its attention on SRPM packages that do use images in a

                remarkable way, specifically those packages that

                involve upstream branding, and those files with

                text-based information that need to be changed. This

                way, through image and text-based files, is

                implemented the corporate design of The CentOS

                Distribution corporate manifestations (i.e., all the

                releases of the operating system).</para>

            </listitem>

            <listitem>

                <para>The CentOS Web — This corporate

                manifestation exists to support The CentOS

                Distribution corporate manifestation.  The CentOS Web

                corporate manifestation covers web applications used

                by The CentOS Project to manifest its existence on the

                Internet.  These web applications are free software

                and come from different providers which distribute

                their work with predefined visual styles.  Frequently,

                these predefined visual styles have no visual relation

                among themselves and introduce some visual

                contraditions when they all are put together.  These

                visual contraditions need to be removed in order to

                comply with The CentOS Project corporate structure

                guidelines.</para>

            </listitem>

            <listitem>

                <para>The CentOS Showroom — This corporate

                manifestation exists to promote The CentOS

                Distribution.  The CentOS Showroom corporate

                manifestation covers industrial production of objects

                branded by The CentOS Project (e.g., clothes,

                stationery and installation media).  These branded

                objects are for distribution on social events and/or

                shops.  They provide a way of promotion and a route

                for commercialization that may help to aliviate The

                CentOS Project expenses (e.g., hosting, servers,

                full-time-developers, etc.), in a similar way as

                donations may do.</para>

            </listitem>

        </orderedlist>

        <para>The corporate manifestations above seem to cover all the

        media required by The CentOS Project, as organization, to show

        its existence.  However, other corporate manifestations could

        be added in the future, if needed, to cover different areas

        like building, offices, transportation and whaterver medium

        The CentOS Project thouches to show its existence.</para> 

    </sect2>

    communication" label="4.2.4">

        <title>The corporate communication</title>

        <para> The CentOS Project corporate communication is based on

        <emphasis>community communication</emphasis> and takes place

        through the following avenues: 

        <itemizedlist>

            <listitem><para>The CentOS Chat (#centos, #centos-social},

#centos-devel on irc.freenode.net)</para></listitem>

            <listitem><para>The CentOS Mailing Lists (<ulink url="http://lists.centos.org/" />).</para></listitem>

            <listitem><para>The CentOS Forums (<ulink url="http://forums.centos.org/" />).</para></listitem>

            <listitem><para>The CentOS Wiki (<ulink url="http://wiki.centos.org/" />).</para></listitem>

            <listitem><para>Social events, interviews, conferences, etc.</para></listitem>

        </itemizedlist>

        </para>

    </sect2>

    label="4.2.5">

        <title>The corporate behaviour</title>

        <para>The CentOS Project corporate behaviour is based on

        <emphasis>community behaviour</emphasis> which take place in

        <xref linkend="corporate-communication" />.</para>

    </sect2>

    label="4.2.6">

            <title>The corporate structure</title>

            <para> The CentOS Project corporate structure is based on

            a <emphasis>monolithic corporate visual identity

            structure</emphasis>.  In this configuration, one unique

            name and one unique visual style is used in all corporate

            manifestations of The CentOS Project.</para>

            <para>In a monolithic corporate visual identity structure,

            internal and external stakeholders feel a strong sensation

            of uniformity, orientation, and identification with the

            organization. No matter if you are visiting web sites,

            using the distribution, or acting on social events, the

            one unique name and one unique visual style connects them

            all to say: <emphasis>Hey! we are all part of The CentOS

            Project</emphasis>.</para>

            <para>Other corporate structures for The CentOS Project

            have been considered as well. Such is the case of

            producing one different visual style for each major

            release of The CentOS Distribution. This structure isn't

            inconvenient at all, but some visual contradictions could

            be introduced if it isn't applied correctly and we need to

            be aware of it. To apply it correctly, we need to know

            what The CentOS Project is made of.</para>

            <para>The CentOS Project, as organization, is mainly made

            of (but not limited to) three corporate manifestions: The

            CentOS Distribution, The CentOS Web and The CentOS

            Showroom.  Inside The CentOS Distribution corporate

            manifestations, The CentOS Project maintains near to four

            different major releases of The CentOS Distribution (e.g.,

            the operating system), parallely in time.  However, inside

            The CentOS Web visual manifestations, the content is

            produced for no specific release information (e.g., there

            is no a complete web site for each major release of The

            CentOS Distribution individually, but one web site to

            cover them all).  Likewise, the content produced in The

            CentOS Showroom is created for no release-specific at all,

            but for The CentOS Project in general.</para>

            <para>In order to produce the correct corporate structure

            for The CentOS Project, we need to concider all the

            corporate manifestations The CentOS Project is made of,

            not just one of them.  If one different visual style is

            used for each major release of The CentOS Distribution,

            which one of those different visual styles would be used

            to cover the remaining visual manifestations The CentOS

            Project is made of (e.g., The CentOS Web and The CentOS

            Showroom)?</para>

            <para>Probably you are thinking, that's right, but The

            CentOS Brand connects them all already, why would we need

            to join them up into the same visual style too, isn't it

            more work to do, and harder to maintain?</para>

            <para>Harder to maintain, more work to do, probably.

            Specially when you consider that The CentOS Project has

            proven stability and consistency through time and, that,

            certainly, didn't come through swinging magical wands or

            something but hardly working out to automate tasks and

            providing maintainance through time. Said that, we

            consider that The CentOS Project corporate structure must

            be consequent with such stability and consistency

            tradition, beyond the work it might require initially. It

            is true that The CentOS Brand does connect all the visual

            manifestations it is present on, but that connection would

            be stronger if one unique visual style backups it, too.

            In fact, whatever thing you do to strength the visual

            connection among The CentOS Project corporate

            manifestations would be very good in favor of The CentOS

            Project recognition.</para>

            <para>Obviously, having just one visual style in all

            corporate manifestations for eternity would be a very

            boring thing and would give the impression of a visually

            dead project.  So, there is no problem on creating a brand

            new visual style for each new major release of The CentOS

            Distribution, in order to refresh The CentOS Distribution

            visual style; the problem itself is in not propagating the

            brand new visual style created for the new release of The

            CentOS Distribution to all other visual manifestations The

            CentOS Project is made of, in a way The CentOS Project

            could be recognized no matter what corporate manifestation

            be in front of us. Such lack of uniformity is what

            introduces the visual contradition we are precisely trying

            to solve by mean of themes production in the CentOS

            Artwork Repository.</para>

    </sect2>

</sect1>