The first Inkscape Vectors meeting of 2020 was awesome and I returned for more! An issue is used to track the agenda. As usual, the meeting was logged.

Here was the agenda, the stuff crossed out that wasn't talked about:

• Tutorials Funding @ryangorley @CRogers (10 min)
• Inkscope @tim (I will schedule a separate short meeting)
• 2020 Big Picture Goals @all (10 min)
• Revitalize Bug Hunt & bug migration (5 min)
• Inkscape Survey @victorwestmann (10 min)
• Social media stats update (NA) #131
• website feature - highlight user project @brynn (10 min)
• building Documentation team, make announcement @brynn (5 min)
• Release (5 min)

Tutorials Funding @ryangorley @CRogers (10 min)

Abstract - Users on all major social media platforms have expressed a desire for instructional video offered by the project.

Proposal - To give users the most benefit, video should be:

1. Combined with existing manual materials to compliment what has already been built by documentation contributors, for the purpose of clarifying, providing examples, and encoraging further development of completed documentation. Videos should function as stand-alone tutorials, such that the written documentation is not necessary to benefit from the videos (so they can be watched as a stand-alone tutorial series)
2. Combined with practice exercises in svg format which the user can download which will aide in information retention.
3. Be made with FLOSS tools, to provide assets which can be built upon and modified by project contributors in the spirit of the rest of the project without the need for proprietary software.
4. Modular, easy to understand, and captioned for the hearing impared.
5. High production quality to increase the precieved value of Inkscape as a professional tool. - Every tutorial should also be an advertisement for the quality of Inkscape as a professional tool. Examples show attractive graphics which will entice people to watch the video (as shown in the thumbnail).
6. Low file size so they can easily be downloaded with accompanying documentation.
7. Short - No more than a few minutes each (up to 5 minutes).
8. Edited with voiceover and on-screen step by step instructions.
9. Finished with a step-by step recap list of the process.
10. Topped off with any FAQ items or any common problems with the process, and how to fix them. Basically, we don't just want random people doing random screencasts, we want a production.

Example Script:

Video Title: Inkscape Basics: Rotating Objects Video Intro: (Shows rotating objects in different ways along with the title so people know right away what the video features)

“Inkscape has many amazing tools for rotating objects.”

• Rotate with rotation handles
• Rotate with Hotkeys
• Rotating Multiple Objects
• Rotation Tips and Tricks
• Challenge! - Rotate the Elephants!

Revitalize Bug Hunt & bug migration (5 min)

The bug migration involves moving bugs from launchpad to the new issue tracker.

“There are an additional 2500 issues in Launchpad exept Importance=wishlist (with Importances: 1473 Unknown / Undecided, 479 Low, 598 Medium, 123 High, 2 Critical). The last four categories still have to be migrated. Remaining High and critical bugs are mostly bugs that can't be reproduced easily, but people are afraid to close them because of their tag. There is probably a load of severe and consistently reproduced bugs lurking in the Unknown / Undecided categories.

It sounds like these two documents are shared with people who want to help:

• Frontfacing Bug Management Draft
• Generic Inkscape Bug Triaging

“there's also the #bug_migration channel where people can get help”

There is a video called How to Report Inkscape Bugs in GitLab.

Inkscape Survey @victorwestmann (10 min)

A list of questions has been created.

“The intent is to understand age, gender, and how knowledgeable our users are. And how they can donate/get involved in the project more to help us move Inkscape forward.”

“It is more of a health check on our users and how we can help them in the future. The survey does not mean immediate areas that Inkscape will act upon immediately…”

“From the issue, the purpose of the survey is this: “so Inkscape project maintainers would have a better idea on what is working, and what the project could try to improve” (if this is wrong, updating the issue would be good 🙂 )”

“We all need this guys. We need to better understand who our users are, how we can better talk to them, and how they can help us in the project, either with volunteering here with us or donating money.”

We had moved on before I got to type my thought on all of this. In short, I think a survey is fine (as long as the Inkscape community is already oversurveyed) but the purpose should be very clear. Are we trying to figure out what's working and how to improve? Or are we trying to bring in contributions?

website feature - highlight user project @brynn (10 min)

“I want to start the feature that we've talked about from time to time, where users can share a project where they used Inkscape. Or if they don't want to write it up themselves, we can gather the info from them, and write it up for them.”

Krita does this with a news feed. There are many good examples.

The Inkscape forum as a “Share Finished Artwork” category. Good stuff in there.

Later, @jhofinger shared Ticket to Ride - Tenerife, which looks great!

building Documentation team, make announcement @brynn (5 min)

A new Documentation Team has been formed.

The existing #documentation channel will be used.

End of meeting

At the end I asked if anyone is going to the Libre Graphics Meeting.

Also, it sounds like a separate Inkscope meeting is coming. The first episode came out in late 2018.