While working on our Unannounced Unofficial Maemo Site we came up an analogy for target audiences which is the record shop analogy. I think this could apply to Maemo's official and semi-official sites too:

- Maemo.nokia.com is like a massive, brightly lit, clean and slick mainstream record shop which is part of a chain and heavily advertised on television. This is probably the default record shop for most people who buy CDs

- Forum.nokia.com is a musical instruments and recording equipment shop, it's aimed entirely at people who want to make music either professionally or as a hobby.

- Maemo.org (including talk.maemo.org) is the dimly lit, small but extremely well-stocked independent record shop that carries records from lots of bands you've never heard of and rare releases from bands you do know. There's a noticeboard at the back of the shop displaying bands recruiting new members, and teachers offering advice for those just learning to play.The regular customers who hang out in the shop include friendly enthusiasts who want to help newbies get deeper into whatever they enjoy, and also some not-so-friendly snobs who think that people should have a deep prior knowledge of music before they dare set foot in an independent store.

Obviously the brightly-lit record shop is going to be the first port of call for anyone new to buying music, but those who want to create it would go to the instrument shop, and those who just want to dig a little deeper would go to the independent shop. All three have a valid role to play, even if the sizes of their audience vary tremendously.

One point I would draw from this analogy is that it would be a mistake to try and merge any of the three together. They perform their roles best when they are separate.