I would also expect to see some concrete proposals (from Council candidates).

I think now is the right time. We now know for sure Nokia will be cutting off funding. The community is currently thinking proactively about its future. It takes time to organize a non-profit, and then for that non-profit to negotiate (request is a better word I think) things from Nokia. And the "just shut it down" proponents will only get stronger over the next six months.



Keep in mind Council will also be voted on at the same time and probed for their position on the issue. We can be more exact and say "organize as a non-profit", but we do want to keep some things flexible to react to changed circumstances. We also don't want to splinter the "yes" vote wtih several different detailed proposals, although that might be addressed with a transferable vote.

Status quo continues, and maemo.org is eventually wound down.

There will be one month of debate on the merits of the referendum (August 22 - September 22). Currently, I am putting the referendum out there so it can be crowdsourced before August 22 and people won't vote against it merely because of the wording or something like that.

In addition, as Quim noted, Nokia has not yet decided to stop funding, so that phrasing needs fixing.

Reference to quote, please? Because Quim's email response said that there was no final decision yet.

Council members, do you think the census might provide us with some useful information?

I hope they don't decide at the end of 2012. There should be a reasonable time limit for them to react.

At the same time it is not wise to antagonise Nokia over this, since they may decide to cut funding earlier, plus we still hope to have some help over closed binaries.

According to Quim today we know for sure that Nokia will not be cutting off funding before the end of 2012. It might even continue beyond that, it just hasn't been decided yet.

If we get to vote this time - I would like to see a referendum on closing the 5-candidate loophole however.

Well, "the referendum will not be changed after Monday, 22nd August 2011" feels a bit like an ambush to me, particularly since I'm travelling in a few hours and I won't be able to participate in any discussion before it's too late.

The cutoff for debate (1 month before election) is in the rules - nothing I can do about it.

Three days ago I asked (although it was not my responsibility) council members if any of them would supervise the election and got no volunteers. I also found out this morning Dave Neary is on vacation. So I went about the task of the election blog posting/forum thread/mailing list announcement.

SD69: I'm sorry that you think I am against "keeping maemo alive".

I will make my position clear. Please excuse my bluntness:

Firstly:

My main problem is that I don't think the 2011.2 council will be able to do much to prepare the Maemo infrastructure. It is clear that the Nokia / Nemien guys don't see any point in hurrying to do anything yet, and we can bustle around and make plans all we want, but they're of the opinion that we should wait a while (at least until summer 2012). I agree with them that we should wait a bit more, but also if we try to push them too hard, they'll just start passively resisting and dragging their heels, and our requests will get more and more shrill, and bad blood will develop...

You must remember, the council / community has no real power here. We're not paying anyone to do anything, the money is coming from Nokia, so we have to be very reasonable and persuasive, not demanding. We have to get them on our side, get them to see the merits of our position, otherwise we'll be talking to a blank wall.

I'm speaking from a position of several council terms' experience here. If the guys doing the infrastructure work don't agree with you, or don't want to do the work, they'll just ignore you or drag their heels. And who do you complain to if they're not doing what you say? It's not like there's an ombudsman out there to take the Maemo community's complaints...

Secondly:

I believe the future of Maemo depends upon actual developers doing actual development to continue the platform, not on a bunch of guys posting in a forum. The guys doing the actual work are doing it right now, and you can see the fruits of their labours in the CSSU, the N900 MeeGo CE and Cordia, plus a host of other, related projects like the Power Kernel and Enhanced BusyBox projects.

What will really matter in 12 months time is not the outcome of referendums, who is in the Council, or who has posted what in TMO, but the status of the projects I mentioned above.

If the key projects have lost momentum, and they've gone "stale", and the developers have gone on to more interesting platforms, then Maemo is dead, it is a museum artifact, whether or not we keep posting in this forum. If they are alive, and the remaining community is still clustered around them, then that community can better decide what they should do next.

Lastly:

I also believe that just because you have a strong opinion about how to save Maemo does not make you Maemo's savior. We all care, otherwise we wouldn't be here, so please don't try to make it sound like those who aren't in agreement with your ideas just want Maemo to die.

I think we should push the vote out by a week or two, until Dave gets back, just so we can deal with issues like the 5 candidate loophole and a debate cutoff of 4 days.

qole thank you VERY much for that very useful, needed summary. I could not have put it better.

+1000000

We all care and afraid of whats coming next but there is still much time to secretly decide by the community heroes to drive this community in a right direction.
lets hope whoever wins the election,works in the best interest of the community,i wish here come more and more developers so that the maemo work can be kind of appealing .
( by qole )if we try to push them too hard, they'll just start passively resisting and dragging their heels, and our requests will get more and more shrill, and bad blood will develop... > i agree with this part <
hope for the best though !