Struggles for Open Clip Art

LXer Feature: 25-Feb-06 Success can bring travails for open source projects. A small crew cannot keep pace. The archive hasn't release a new image since October. So how will the Open Clip Art Library continue to provide new images for Openoffice.org, KOffice and related apps? On Digg.com

If you use Microsoft Office, you can go to the Microsoft clip art gallery on the web and access a vast collection of images and media clips. If you use OpenOffice.org, KOffice and similar programs, chances are you use the Open Clip Art Library. The library has somewhere around 9000 images, and used to release a full archive of them each month.

They haven't released an archive in four months, due to the overwhelming success of the project. Not only does the crew face a monstrous task, they are trying to migrate the site to a system designed specifically for managing such content. It doesn't take much to overload the team.

To be fair, Bryce Harrington doesn't seem to be complaining about the challenges he and the volunteers at Open Clip Art Library face. Still, he acknowledges that it is difficult to produce a downloadable archive each month in the face of these three separate issues.

For users, it can be frustrating to keep waiting for a new archive to be released each month, only to find it isn't available. Of course, with each passing month the archive crew gets further behind because even more images continue to be added to the site.

Harrington discovers what used to be a one-man project has now grown into a project requiring several people. In responding to LXer's inquiry, he assessed the need, saying, "I think what OCAL needs is about three different kinds of people.

First, he needs people who like going through and organizing large collections of files. Secondly, the sites can use people who love hacking together scripts and tools that the first group can use to help simplify their work. The thirdneed is for people who like to produce packaged releases, taking care of odds and ends, publicizing the availability of the package, and handling user questions."

The Open Clip Art Library plays an important role in the libre software community. While it is not a project akin to Apache or OpenOffice.org, it does play a major role in making OpenOffice.org suitable for people who work extensively with clip art images.

All images are in the public domain, thus making them suitable for commercial, as well as non-commercial purposes. Additionally, the site contains useful information about graphics formats, as well as a wish list that gives artists ideas for work. People interested in helping with the Open Clip Art Library should probably join the mailing list.