Re: SFO call for action - aka questionnaire

["Michael 'Mickey' Lauer" <mickey vanille-media de>]

> 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 an independent software architect and author. I was part of the Openmoko 
software team for 2.5 years. I have been struggeling for open platforms (free 
software + hardware you can actually run whatever you want) for years now in 
different communities, to name a few:
* handhelds.org, 
* linuxtogo.org, 
* OpenEmbedded.org,
* OpenZaurus.org,
* opie.handhelds.org,
* OpenEZX.org,
* HTCLinux, and
* freesmartphone.org.

> 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 first reaction was something like "Great! This is what KDE had been missing, 
a task force that improves the desktop-centric technologies for mobile 
devices".

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

I had hoped that GNOME core technologies such as glib, gobject, gconf, dbus, 
eds, etc. would be improved for mobile devices.

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

When I joined Openmoko back in 2006 I tried to become a "member" of this 
group, since back then Openmoko wanted to use quite a number of technologies 
in their handsets. For whatever reason, all my requests for subscription were 
ignored until about march this year. In the meantime, I had almost given up 
that it would ever happen.

I don't feel like a member since I have no clear idea about the mission 
statement.

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

Unfortunately not. See 3.) for what I had expected -- probably misguided, but 
anyways.

Since 2006 I did not have seen any significant happenings except shuffling some 
components around on the official architecture diagram.

> 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)

0.) Raising awareness for the needs of adaptation of existing software for 
mobile. Just because it cross-compiles, doesn't mean it works...
1.) Improving the desktop-centric technologies for mobile devices.
2.) Advertising the set of technologies gnome-mobile can offer to system 
integrators and developers.

> 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?

A clear mission statement is missing that clears e.g.
* is gnome-mobile doing development, or advertising, or raising community 
awreness, or what not,
* are gnome-mobile software components enough to implement a full software 
stack for vertical markets,
* how do we present ourselves, when we have multiple solutions for one 
problem.

First priority should be getting us on board of a common goal, sharing a 
vision. Only after that, we can do actual work.

> 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?

freesmartphone.org is working on dbus-based APIs that can be used in mobile 
devices. We have gsm, gps, resource handling, time & alarm handling, pim, etc. 
and would love to see more standardizing dbus APIs going on. As such we think 
gnome mobile could be a part of helping to "cross the bridge" between 
freedesktop.org and the mobile world.

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

No idea.

>
> 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?

Gnome-mobile should 
a) offer a toolbox of relevant components that can be used to create software 
products,
b) facilitate improving these components,
c) helping to remove the gap between vendors and component developers.

>
> 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?

I don't see that it can grow in the present form, hence I'd welcome some more 
structure. Again though, until it's not crystal clear that we sail under the 
same flag, i.e. what this intiaitve is about, all talk about structure or 
formality is void :)

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

Thanks Nils for executing this! I'm sure it will help bringing gnome-mobile 
forward -- at least in terms of actually defining its mission.

Cheers,

:M: