History of OPENCLIPART.ORG [OCAL]

by Hyperslower - uploaded on April 26, 2024, 10:32 pm

This clipart illustrates the early years of Openclipart (OCAL)... In my very cartoonish view ;-)

Here, the website, symbolized by its logo, is designed to guide towards the light those lost in the dark and sometimes dangerous forest. Light is a kind of beacon that also warms hearts in the cold of night.

The desire was to gather, to connect, to be useful to the community, hence the reference to religion (from the Latin "religãre" which means "to tie fast", " to link").

And I specify that I wasn't aware of the existence of this collaborative site at the time. I was able to explore the beginnings of this digital human adventure thanks to "Internet archive".

Today, however, I can see that the dynamism and energy that @rejon brought to the Openclipart project is no longer the same. I understand that we're evolving in other directions and that priorities change with time (becoming a father too). I respect his life path.

But I also think that the original idea (=a digital library open to all for the exchange and sharing of vectorized cliparts, encouraging human links, solidarity and creativity - cf "REMIX" function) is still relevant, despite the recent development of generative AI apps.

In my opinion, SVG clipart (coupled with Inkscape) are a source of richness and fulfillment, of empowerment. Because SVG clipart is very useful for communicating effectively (by easily adapting to everyone's wishes - color, format,...); then, SVGs (CC0) that can be shared also save time and money for recipients, who don't have to start an illustration from scratch; SVG is also very ecological, because it's light (compared to video or bitmap images) and "reusable" ad infinitum (because it's very flexible).

In a few years' time, when we need to save a lot of energy (and there's no more room to store our data in data centers), SVG will be the ideal format for informing, teaching, entertaining and communicating. What's more, and finally, SVG is very "democratic" and transparent (or horizontal), because we can deconstruct an SVG file (cf. layers) and transform it if something bothers us, shocks us or seems wrong.

In short, the SVG format encourages active participation, sustainable development and creativity.

So, for all these reasons (and more), I hope that OPENCLIPART will continue to exist and be accessible to as many people as possible, all over the world. And I'm ready to get more actively involved in the project... if I sense in @rejon a real desire to see it develop sustainably and collectively. So @rejon, if you'd like to have ideas and read my opinions on things to improve or on the positive things that are currently working well, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Also, I hope I've been +- clear and that the translation worked well.

(Translated with DeepL)