This task is due by the time of the Apache Incubator proposal (see #441). It may be replaced by more specific, actionable issues, but this one is intended to capture the overall theme. By the time governance shifts to a PPMC, the technical direction of Hydra should be very well established. It already is; Hydra is almost five years old, and it has been pretty consistent about its goals and scope from the original design document until now. Much less attention has been put into branding/presentation, however. For best results, this needs to be established prior to community governance as well. What happens in Apache Incubator and beyond is up to the community, but there should be a clear initial direction, including at least:
- An official tagline. The current tagline, "graph programming language" is accurate but too narrow. "Translingual programming" gets closer to the core ambition of the project, but might be a little mystifying to those not already familiar with it. We should possibly think of this in terms of a short, punchy tagline plus a slightly longer one-line description of the project.
- An official logo. The Hydra-of-Gremlins logo is fun, but has more to do with TinkerPop interoperability, and doesn't render well as a small icon. I'd like to carry on the TinkerPop tradition of a Ketrina-based (https://ketrinadrawsalot.tumblr.com/) cast of characters, as well. In this case, it would be the Hydra in various guises. Different heads for different languages. Different motifs for different aspects of the problem space. Ownership of the logos would pass to ASF along with the software.
- A top-down refactoring of the user-facing documentation with particular personas in mind (to be more thoroughly fleshed out), reflecting the user community as it emerges. New tutorials and recipes in a consistent style.
- A series of presentations which introduces the 1.0-ready Hydra to the world
W.r.t. the "suitable name search" for Incubator proposals, the name Hydra was chosen long ago, with full awareness that there a number of other prominent Hydra's, and I hope the project will move forward with that name. The very ambiguity of the name was a factor in choosing it: like the gremlin, the hydra is a mythical and complex creature, bewildering to the outsider but internally consistent. "Apache Hydra", on the other hand, can only be confused with the air-to-ground rocket.
This task is due by the time of the Apache Incubator proposal (see #441). It may be replaced by more specific, actionable issues, but this one is intended to capture the overall theme. By the time governance shifts to a PPMC, the technical direction of Hydra should be very well established. It already is; Hydra is almost five years old, and it has been pretty consistent about its goals and scope from the original design document until now. Much less attention has been put into branding/presentation, however. For best results, this needs to be established prior to community governance as well. What happens in Apache Incubator and beyond is up to the community, but there should be a clear initial direction, including at least:
W.r.t. the "suitable name search" for Incubator proposals, the name Hydra was chosen long ago, with full awareness that there a number of other prominent Hydra's, and I hope the project will move forward with that name. The very ambiguity of the name was a factor in choosing it: like the gremlin, the hydra is a mythical and complex creature, bewildering to the outsider but internally consistent. "Apache Hydra", on the other hand, can only be confused with the air-to-ground rocket.