During last weekend the Ura team traveled to Brussels, Belgium to attend FOSDEM. We had the chance to be present at one of the largest conferences in Europe (and probably the largest Free Software/ Open Source one). Just like at CCC, we strive to be at events which promote collaborative projects and initiatives. In addition […]
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<p>During last weekend the Ura team traveled to Brussels, Belgium to attend <ahref="https://fosdem.org/2018/"target="_blank">FOSDEM</a>. We had the chance to be present at one of the largest conferences in Europe (and probably the largest Free Software/ Open Source one). Just like at <ahref=""CCC,westrivetobeateventswhichpromotecollaborativeprojectsandinitiatives.Inadditiontothat,threemembersoftheteamwerethereasMozillaTechSpeakers.Itcanbesaidthatmanyofuswearvarioushatsatthesametime.</p>
<p>As part of the <ahref="http://opensourcedesign.net/"target="_blank">Open Source Design community</a>, you could find us at the respective infobooth on both days. Members of our team were at the both along with other fellow designers. Together, we emphasized the importance of usability and user centered design in Open Source Projects. At the “Design Clinic” session, attendees could come to us and showcase us their project. By doing so, designers could advise them on the improvements their design would benefit from.</p>
<p>Since she was going to attend the <ahref="https://sha2017.org/"target="blank">SHA2017</a> Hacker Camp in the Netherlands, this was a great opportunity for her to also meet people from the <ahref="http://opensourcedesign.net/"target="blank">Open Source Design</a> community and people from other open source projects we’ve been working with.<br/>
For those of you who haven’t heard of SHA before: this is an outdoor hacker camp which took place in the Netherlands on August 4th to 8th and was the successor of similar events which have been taking place every 4 years and thousands of visitors have been joining it. Thousands of activists,free-thinkers, hackers, geeks, scientists, makers and others from all over the world joined SHA2017 to share their ideas, thoughts and knowledge, to discuss, build and hack with others.</p>
<p>During last weekend the Ura team traveled to Brussels, Belgium to attend <ahref="https://fosdem.org/2018/"target="_blank">FOSDEM</a>. We had the chance to be present at one of the largest conferences in Europe (and probably the largest Free Software/ Open Source one). Just like at <ahref="https://dev.ura.design/blogposts/2018/01/15/chaos-communication-congress-2017.html"target="_blank">CCC</a>, we strive to be at events which promote collaborative projects and initiatives. In addition to that, three members of the team were there as Mozilla Tech Speakers. It can be said that many of us wear various hats at the same time.</p>
<p>One of the things that Silva noticed during these hacking days was the fact that people were not talking so much about design in general, which is not that much of a surprise since the event is quite technical in general. But of course, there were so many people there and she also had the chance to meet some of those who were also concerned about the design of their products and would like to meet and talk to people who are experts of the field, and having projects like Open Source Design makes it easer to show them a place were they should go and ask for advice or help.</p>
> Still Open Source Designing Anyway!! #sha2017#sha2017camp@SHA2017Badge<ahref="https://pic.twitter.com/rmejAIL1YM"target="blank">pic.twitter.com/rmejAIL1YM</a>
— Ura Design (@uracreative) August 7, 2017
<p>During her days at the camp Silva had the chance to meet <ahref="https://twitter.com/seoul_victoria"target="blank">Victoria</a>, a UX Researcher/Designer who is part of the Open Source Design community. Victoria told her a bit more about the the community, what the people who are part of it have been working on and what are some of their future plans. She also met <ahref="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hpbos"target="blank">Herman</a> one of our clients who is the founder of <ahref="https://www.osso.nl/"target="blank">OSSO</a>, a company which specializes in open source infrastructure, development and operations. We have been working with them during the last months to improve the design for some of their products.</p>
<p>The camping days were intensive, with so many great talks, workshops and hacking sessions. Silva says that having more presence in such events by people who work with design would help in increasing awareness about the importance of good design while building technological products.</p>
<p>As part of the <ahref="http://opensourcedesign.net/"target="_blank">Open Source Design community</a>, you could find us at the respective infobooth on both days. Members of our team were at the both along with other fellow designers. Together, we emphasized the importance of usability and user centered design in Open Source Projects. At the “Design Clinic” session, attendees could come to us and showcase us their project. By doing so, designers could advise them on the improvements their design would benefit from.</p>
<p>Check <ahref="https://silva.arapi.tech/sha-2017-hacker-camp/"target="blank">her blog</a> for more details on the camp.</p>
<p>At the Open Source Design booth, apart talking about our Design philosophy, we also had the chance to tell people about the way we operate and why we are focused on Free and Open Source Software, We were also happy to introduce “Logobridge” our side-project which helps us contribute back to the community as a whole.</p>
<p>On the 2nd day, Elio, the founder of Ura presented <ahref="https://identihub.co/"target="_blank">Identihub</a>. He presented a live <ahref="https://demo.identihub.co/"target="_blank">demo</a> of the latest version we are launching. During his presentation all attendees had the chance to watch in real time how they could host their visual assets and how to use some of its features, like format conversion of a certain file. Elio emphasized the importance of SVG as the “middleman” between developers and designers and how exciting it can be if in the future we would be able to have a similar version control powered by Git which would be tailored for designers and developers alike.</p>
<p>Further the attendees were introduced to more technical details of the project. Identihub development and discussion happen on GitHub and contributions from everyone are welcomed. Having said that, everyone who is willing to contribute to the project can do so by either contributing with patches, reporting bugs, suggesting usability improvements or creating mockups. Last but not least you can support the Identihub development financially by signing up for a monthly contribution at our dedicated Patreon.</p>
<imgsrc="/images/@stock/Elio-Identihub.jpg"alt="Elio during his presentation about Identihub"><br/>
<i>During the presentation – By Mariana Balla (Creative Commons – Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International)</i>
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<p>The feedback we received was great! Among others, we are happy to have gone the AGPL route as it ensures full Free Software freedom throughout the journey of Identihub. Unfortunately there were a few technical problems with Elio’s talk recording so we will update you once we have updates.</p>
<p>Another wonderful experience for Ura at the largest Open Source conference in Europe.<br/>
Looking forward at the next edition with more interesting projects and more <strong>pen Source Design!</strong></p>
Anxhelo Lushka
7 years ago