[Jaffa Software]

Wednesday 4 June 2008

maemo.org: what next? (part 2)

Following on from my earlier post, maemo.org: what next?, LinuxTag has now happened (and Quim very kindly used my open source triangle), and the 10 days brainstorm for the 100 Days community action plan, and 2010 Agenda have been launched.

My main focus in the earlier post was more related to the 2010 vision: what should Nokia do as soon as possible to really fully utilise an untapped area of the community.

However, what can the community do to organise itself and present more of a consensus view? Consensus by mailing list posts and wiki-edits just means the loudest - or most pushy - individual voices get heard. So, I suggest a Community Council, elected by the maemo community, to act as a filter/co-ordinating body to present a more unified view to Nokia - and therefore help them to help us.

Comments welcome below, or just make changes in the wiki!

7 comments:

  1. Why not go the whole 9 yards, and define what maemo is, and lobby to have a non-profit created to govern it, with a board of directors elected from the membership which would include several community members?

    Dave.

    ReplyDelete
  2. dneary: Interesting idea (now I've confirmed on #maemo you weren't being facetious ;-)), perhaps an evolution of the council could turn into that eventually, but could that be a step too far at the moment?

    I thought a council idea may have been too far out there, not sure where that puts a non-proft maemo organisation :-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree in principle to a community group mediating between ourselves and Nokia (and other related groups) and think a team of the right people could make a big difference.

    However, time is a big factor - I know lots of us mess around on these devices and come and go, its not always possible to give it your 100% attention.

    Following Daves' suggestion would allow a (however small) amount of compensation for time ensuring the council members are able to concentrate on the task at hand.

    I personally know who I would like to see on the council but its not time for voting yet.

    ReplyDelete
  4. A quote from Jono Bacon's talk at LinuxTag about the Ubuntu community and the multitude of councils they have there: "We don't love councils, but we found them to be necessary."

    It was an interesting talk. I wish Quim had seen it.

    ReplyDelete
  5. fwiw I know the Ubuntu community organization, having followed it since Day 1 (I'm a Ubuntu user myself). I also know Jono, I missed his talk in LinuxTag but I'm following him long before he got the job of Ubuntu community manager.

    About the topic itself: Nokia won't stop the maemo community from being organized and structured, and can help if requested. Let's just make sure these attempts don't go too far too soon. Incremental development through fast iterations is probably the best sustainable way to move forward.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi,

    I guess they would be in kind of the same roles as Niels and Dave. One problem is that I don't think a single person can follow all the maemo-media even if it would be a full time job.

    What is good about Niels and Dave is that they apparently gained thrust from Nokia. They work for maemo and only need to get enough Karma from the community to be able to function correctly (in such a new role). (small vote for them. lets give them a chance)

    They are not in the triangle. They are in a separate dimension where they are able the make changes.

    It is not that I would not thrust somebody else but I kind of like the "power" Nokia gave them it makes them special and real not dreamers. What would really be cool is if we can hit any of them if they don't work hard enough!

    ReplyDelete
  7. FWIW, the task is now being defined more concretely in the maemo.org wiki:

    http://wiki.maemo.org/Task:Community_Council

    ...and I've advertised it on ITT (complete with poll):

    http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21161

    ReplyDelete