RE: SFO call for action - aka questionnaire

[Andrew Savory <andrew savory limofoundation org>]

Hi,

(apologies, Outlook Web Access doesn't allow sensible quoting, doing it manually, expect formatting errors!)
(Note although I mention my employer I'm speaking personally and this does not necessarily represent my employer's views)
(enough with the disclaimers already)

> And here we go... (in your reply please cut off the above ;)
> 
> About you:
> 1. Please describe your background a little bit, i.e. what are you
> working on that made you interested in Gnome/mobile? If it helps us
> understand your background, who are you working for?

I'm working for LiMo, the Linux Mobile Foundation, who build a common middleware platform for mobile phones. 10+ years in Open Source led me to become LiMo's Open Source Manager, responsible for our engagement with the open source community, ensuring license compliance, to try to ensure modifications to open source are not just published but also contributed back upstream, and to advise our Members on open source adoption.

Of course, beyond LiMo, I've had a constant interest in the mobile ecosystem, and have watched in particular the progress of GNOME Mobile (along with other GNOME and Linux projects for different form factor devices), to see how things are shaping up.


> When you first heard of Gnome/mobile:
> 2. What did you think it to be? Please be as frank as possible - what
> were your really *first* thoughts?

My initial expectation was some sort of distribution, packaging everything needed for a mobile platform, similar to Ubuntu Mobile or Moblin. A quick chat with some GNOME folks clarified it to be a collection of components that can be used on mobile, and a way of giving visibility to GNOME on the mobile platform. Not necessarily a better or worse aim.

> 3. What did you expect from it? What did you hope to see as a result
> from it?

It would have been nice to find you guys had solved the problem of providing a single packaged unified mobile distribution, and that we'd see Moblin, Maemo, Android and LiMo all shipping simple derivatives of GNOME Mobile ;-)

Right now, I think the mobile linux landscape is too fragmented for that, so I'll settle for anything that draws attention to a common set of open source mobile components.

> 4. Why did you join the group? Do you feel like a "member" at all? If
> not, why not?

To keep informed, to provide a voice for LiMo, and to help in any way I can. I mostly feel like a member, but sometimes have a hard time tracking down where discussion really takes place - for example, the recently unveiled mobile track of GCDS didn't seem to have much of a feedback loop through this list.

> 5. Did it match your expectations? If not, why? If yes, how?

So far, it seems rather more quiet than I would expect for such a hot topic.

> 6. Is there something like a top-three of most important goals that you
> (personally, not thinking of the group as a whole) would like to see
> addressed by Gnome/mobile? (Three would be great, one is enough too)

- A demonstrator VM that shows off the GNOME mobile stack, something for people to see and play with that provides meat to the architecture diagrams.
- More outreach to the wider communities and companies involved in mobile
- More activity right here on the list

> And today:
> 7. How do you perceive Gnome/mobile today? What is missing? What is too
> much? What is / could be Gnome/mobile's first priority goal? And second?

Kinda addressed this in (6) above, but I think there's benefits to linking up more closely in the public eye with Moblin, Maemo, etc.


> Technically:
> 8. What do you think should qualify a platform for being a Gnome/mobile
> platform? A specific set of components used? If yes, which components?

A checklist of common components would be a good start, with particularly support for common binary interfaces and possibly certified along the lines of the LSB.

Typical components ... gtk? gconf? gstreamer? d-bus? bluez? sqlite?

> 9. Or should there be a formal qualification process? If yes, what would
> be your idea about it? If not, why not?

Speak to the Linux Foundation about LSB certification for GNOME mobile. The danger is that everyone declares themselves to be "GNOME Mobile" devices, giving the expectation of cross-device capability, and then users/developers find that targeting GNOME Mobile does not give them that capability and become disenfranchised.

> 10. What should be the technology goals of Gnome/mobile? Like creating a
> toolbox rather than a product? Or collaboration and information
> infrastructure rather than a development project?

I think this is something I'd like to discuss at the GCDS BoF before giving specific ideas!

> Organisation:
> 11. At the moment the Gnome/mobile group is a pretty loose group,
> everyone interested is welcome and can at once participate. Would you
> like to see this a little more formally structured? Like a formal
> membership, application process, levels of membership, voting processes,
> etc.? Or would like to see it grow as is, a group connected by ideas and
> consensus rather than rules? Other ideas?

Grow as-is.

> Comments:
> 11. Anything else? Did we forget something? Any additional comments?
> Thoughts?

Not yet ...


Andrew.