:( sorry to see you go.

Rockwalrus

On Mon, Feb 23, 2015, 4:27 PM peter sikking wrote:

Dear GIMP team,

it is time to say farewell. This is not easy for me, but I have come to the conclusion that our collaboration cannot be revived anymore. For the reasons why, I will take us back to the very beginning:

From early 2005 maintainer Sven Neumann worked really hard to reach out in the Berlin openUsability scene and find help for GIMP’s usability. He knew that the state of GIMP’s UI was a life-threatening problem and that no one in the GIMP team and community could do anything about it.

Ellen Reitmayr organised bi-weekly meetings to bring FLOSS and usability people together. Sven and I were there most of the, time, if not every time. During these discussions my ideas on (great) product making and working with a product vision were formed. Sven was patient and waited until the time was right.

That was LGM 2006. We made the GIMP product vision there (a first) and after a hiatus Ellen ensured that our collaboration got rolling; the first of its kind and with the first openUsability internship (Kamila Giedrojc).

Sven ensured that we all were working towards GIMP’s vision, and made that everyone in the project understood that a new way of working, of collaboration with the UI team, had arrived. I learned a lot in those days. Sven came up with the idea (and action) to work via a wiki, and I am still using that today in many projects.

You can say that Sven’s conclusions about the state of GIMP and all his actions were the necessary precondition for a successful collaboration.

A bit later Martin Nordholts joined the GIMP team. He understood the importance of interaction (design) for making software that works, and we started a great collaboration. It was based on ‘I help you, you help me’ and respect for each other’s competence and work. It was very uplifting and again I learned a lot.

You can say that Martin’s attitude and his actions were the necessary precondition for a successful collaboration. (At this point I’d like to mention GSoC student Aurimas Juška, with whom collaboration was also a pleasure.)

All of this was not perfect, there were enough infuriating moments for me, but it got results. We moved issues big and small from absolutely awful, to elegant and powerful.

And then… Sven and Martin left the project.

That is years ago and with 20/20 hindsight, when both of them had left each and every precondition for a successful collaboration had vanished from the GIMP project. We soldiered on, in an on-and-off fashion, for years. Results became vanishingly rare.

The TiTO fiasco put a big magnifying glass on all the missing preconditions: something is broken, for a long time, and it cannot be patched up by some new rules of engagement.

practical stuff: I will close the GIMP UI brainstorm.

gui.gimp.org is a repository and will be waiting for a new usability/interaction/UX maintainer. I guess it will take a while for such a person to turn up at the GIMP project, but when the day arrives I will have a friendly chat with them (to ensure that GIMP will be in safe & experienced hands), and hand it over.

--ps

founder + interaction architect man + machine interface works

http://blog.mmiworks.net: on interaction architecture

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peter sikking (peter@mmiworks.net) wrote:

it is time to say farewell. This is not easy for me, but I have come to the conclusion that our collaboration cannot be revived anymore.

Peter, thanks a lot for the work you have done for the GIMP. I have enjoyed learning about the thought processes behind usability work and it has broadened my view on these issues a lot.

I hope we'll meet on the next libre graphics meetings, you seem to be involved in the metapolator project so there is a chance of hearing more from you :)

Thanks,
Simon

simon@budig.de              http://simon.budig.de/

I'm sorry to read that!

Thank you for all your contribution to Gimp, Peter. Thank you. ;)

Hello Peter,

Am 23.02.2015 um 22:19 schrieb peter sikking:

it is time to say farewell. This is not easy for me, but I have come to the conclusion that our collaboration cannot be revived anymore.

that is very sad to hear. Your work on GIMP has been an eye-opener for me. Watching you work in the open was very instructive and a rich source of inspiration. Thank you for all that generous sharing.

I'm glad to learn that your engagement with free software continues, despite everything. So not all is lost. For me, it seems i still need to discover my interest in font design, though...

-yahvuu