Re: GNOME mobile on website

[Dave Neary <bolsh gnome org>]

Hi,

Seems I didn't answer this mail yet...

Thilo Pfennig wrote:
> Dave Neary schrieb:
> Here are my questions:
> 
>  * the projects name is "GNOME Mobile & Embedded Initiative (GMAE)" and
> it should keep this name? As far as I understood the core idea is to
> summarize some different platforms that all build on GNOME and make it
> more visible?

No, it's now officially GNOME Mobile, and has been for at least a year.

>  * Also GMAE is essentially a stripped down GNOME which is especially
> made for mobile and embedded device?

First, it's the GNOME Mobile initiative. So it's an initiative.

The initiative grew out of the observation that several stock desktop
components were finding their way into the heart of many mobile software
platforms.

The GNOME Mobile SDK release is the common subset of those components,
gathered together to give distributors a reference point for the
libraries. It is the smallest set of useful APIs for an application
developer on a GNOME Mobile based system. It should be possible to
create useful powerful applications using only the GNOME Mobile APIs,
which will work across all GNOME Mobile based platforms, including
Maemo, LiMo's reference platform, ALP, Poky, Ubuntu Mobile and more. In
other words, it is the common thread which allows these platforms to say
that there is a common base, that the fragmentation in mobile Linux
platforms is vastly overstated.

GNOME Mobile is a forum where participants can work together to ensure
that the needs of mobile environments are represented in the development
of these projects. It's a place to co-ordinate effort on features which
will add to the common platform, or co-ordinate efforts to get work
upstream. It is a meeting place of companies working with the software
and the community members developing it. Ideally, it is a place where
people in those companies finally *become* community members themselves.

The Forum has three types of interactions - mailing list, group
meetings, and individual communication. The mailing list is a low-touch
forum, and is as valuable as what you put into it. The group meetings
have helped set the agenda for the initiative, and have also allowed us
to appreciate just how much demand there is for this. The one-on-one
meetings are probably where the most work gets done - when Stormy, Paul
Cooper or myself are talking to GNOME Mobile participants, and figuring
out what they want from it, what they are prepared to put into it, and
how we make that happen.

>  * Who is the intended primary audience? My reception is that this is
> more developer related and companies.

Companies, community developers, and third party application developers.

>> * A list of active participants (I can send this to people)
>>   
> /mobile/participants (TODO)
> Which would be those listed in the press release?

When talking about press releases, things get trickier, since that goes
through The Marketing Department. To mention any company in a press
release, you need to clear it with them first.

>> * Some stories of devices based on GNOME Mobile (human interest type
>> stuff) - I thought Vernier, Nokia, maybe Ubuntu Mobile might be good
>> choices - perhaps also the iRex eReader.
>>   
> /mobile/devices (TODO, take the stuff from /mobile and elaborate)

I don't think the cut of subpages is quite right...

Some of this stuff really needs to be on the mobile page. Some of it can
be linked. I would have the list of participants either at the end of
the "Case studies" page, or just have small logos at the bottom of the
index page.

Case studies definitely will need a sub-page (or a few of them) - unless
you put a list of 2 or 3 in a side-bar or a block on the page, and have
a "more..." link to bring you to a longer page of case studies.

For the platform, I think we probably need a sub-page.

For sample platforms, keep it on the index.

The project achievements have to be sung from the skies. Front page.
Project roadmap can be off the front page.

> That's about what I would suggest doing. I think splitting some things
> to wiki would make the page shorter and more readable.

I don't think it's a good idea to use the wiki for any www.gnome.org
content - they look different, the wiki is wikilike, it's best IMHO to
keep the two separate.

Wiki = staging area. Final content = www.gnome.org/mobile.

Cheers,
Dave.

-- 
Dave Neary
GNOME Foundation member
bolsh gnome org