Thread: Maemo Advocacy
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Texrat's Avatar
Posts: 11,700 | Thanked: 10,045 times | Joined on Jun 2006 @ North Texas, USA
#238
Originally Posted by qgil View Post
> some Nokia execs appear reluctant to process negative feedback

Not the line of managers from my boss to the CEO, nor other managers in my team, deciding the future of maemo and the tablets. These people are quite flexible and open to improve or reinvent what is not going well or well enough. Then you might or might not like all their decisions, but the decision process overall makes sense and includes a lot of research and listening.
Qgil, you're doing it again. I truly believe that you don't see those people. What I'm asking from you is the same benefit of the doubt. I *have* encountered them in various areas of Nokia, including some involved with the N800's development and launch. Within Nokia's walls I have heard so many purely unscientific, anecdotal comments about what people want or don't want for so long I could scream if I hear another! Surveys are better!

You probably want to say that not all or not many of these priorities are matched. I wouldn't say the whole community is completely disatisfied either. There is progress, only two years ago almost nothing of all this existed publicly. Perhaps part of the expectations missmatch is a matter of understanding corporate software development processes and speed compared to OSS community hackers coding and releasing.
I didn't think the qualifier was necessary; I figured it was obvious I was generalizing there. I never said the whole community was dissatisfied, nor implied it, so again I see defense mounted where none is necessary . I really, REALLY wish we could avoid belaboring the obvious. There are some safe assumptions in this dialog and I have no problem with anyone making them of my points-- it's the unsafe assumptions and black-white responses I find annoying.

To the point, I agree, and insinuated as much in previous remarks. I am amazed at the tablet platform's progress. I remain a hardcore devotee. BUT: I would be remiss, personally and professionally, if I did not provide constructive feedback-- even if it's painful for *some* to hear.

> if both "sides" have the proper information to realize that either Feature X is...

This is precisely why I'm getting so stubborn about http://maemo.org/intro/roadmap.html , linked pages and the process to update them, inside Nokia and the community.
Once again: fully agreed. I think as a group here we're in consensus. Provide a single channel, and let the community diffuse the info. We've done it before, we'll continue to do so. RogerS, Reggie and Thoughtfix are all awesome at that. It's covered.

> New and potential users will base decisions on whether or not to buy a tablets based on what they skim here

While the optimism and recommendations done in spaces like ITT might have a noticeable impact in sales, this is in general another type of argument you can drop in your dialog with Nokia. Go instead for argumentations around what makes sense and what doesn't make sense according to the Nokia products and strategy. "Syncing with Nokia phones should be a no brainer" or "the use of a system-wide database should be enforced" are good examples of winning arguments. "User X asked about YYY but since it's not in the tablet won't buy it" is not.
Hang on Qgil. This is a major obstacle here. While what you say has objective merit, we're not living in ivory towers here. There is what we'd like to expect happen, and then there's reality. The reality is that people DO skim this forum and make snap judgments. I've seen far too many choose to avoid the tablets due to that unfortunate tendency.

Now, if you say those are unwanted prima donna customers I might be inclined to agree . The only reason I brought it up was that there is a perceived arrogance on Nokia's part toward customers. Read the posts here. Better yead, read the Nokia Way Jam feedback when you get a chance-- employees perceive it, too. Are those claiming the notion of an arrogant, disconnected Nokia are wrong? Well... that's pretty subjective. What I'd like you to do instead of dismissing what's been said along those lines is consider the ramifications if its true.

> Since it can do nearly anything, people want it to. That's a dilemma for Nokia,

Not really. I hope nobody thinks that Nokia chosed to create a platform based on Linux, Debian and GNOME and never thought that the open source community would pick that base and try to do lots of things with it. Nokia wants to push and ride the *top drivers* of the tablets and the software inside and wants to not be an obstacle to all the rest of possible use cases, to be developed by third parties (community, companies, whatever). Nokia leading all possible developments is senseless, or at least not according to the strategy around maemo and the tablets.
It's another perception thing. It *appears* to be a dilemma to many here, who may have a different notion of what a "top driver" is. Survey them. Best approach IMO.

Anyway, still glad to see your participation. I'm well aware what it takes.

EDIT: I agree with educating the customer. But consider this: forget the skimmers I mentioned. Your base here is very, very savvy. The heck with horses-- they're still wondering where their flying car is. The folks here are the ones who sneer at Henry Ford and teach HIM a thing or two. So we have that covered, as well.

Last edited by Texrat; 2007-07-10 at 07:13.