Originally Posted by ARJWright

Don't be surprised if a few companies come for you, your background inside and outside of Nokia is needed in several industries.

Originally Posted by geneven

Someone should just hire him for some vague title and let him do what he thinks is important.

Greetings Maemo community! For Moblin folks with no current maemo.org ties this is mostly an FYI (although I encourage you to engage in the process if you are interested).

I was going to hold off on this announcement but given the high demand for guidance vis-a-vis the Maemo-Moblin-MeeGo transformation I felt it would be a good idea to announce my candidacy for re-election along with my intentions (platform).

As many on the Maemo side know I was originally involved with the Maemo devices as a Nokia factory QA engineer and in 2009 transitioned into more of a community-support role when my Nokia position was eliminated.

I will list my recent efforts, new projects and future plans as follows:

Recent Efforts

As a council member I championed the welcoming of new members and rolled out a volunteer program called Maemo Greeters with a very simple goal: ask members to include helpful links in their talk.maemo.org signatures, thus easily propogating helpful info throughout the forum. The program was more successful than I had even imagined, growing through user suggestions to include multiple languages and a variety of resources and approaches. I see value in continuing this at MeeGo.

Another initiative was Community Outreach. With the guidance of the maemo.org community I developed flyers and began reaching out to user/developer/enthusist groups who would potentially have interest. Along with Ed Page and Andrew Black (and input from others as well), we began working on outreach policies, procedures and budget. I believe this is also important to continue for MeeGo.

I have also been a strong advocate for the community device owners, successfully working with Nokia to resolve a quality issue with micro USB connectors coming out of N900s. I will continue to use my blog as a fact-based pulpit for user advocacy.

New Projects

One item I think has paramount importance is Bugzilla. It's critical to make sure the MeeGo bug tracking structure supports the various needs a multi-device OS platform will encounter. Nokia Pilots has a very rich and robust tracking system and my hope is that we will be allowed to benchmark against it and possibly even duplicate its structure if that proves to have merit. I have volunteered to participate in this effort.

Following that, I have been putting together a presentation for getting feedback mechanisms of various types onto Maemo devices, including a bug reporting wizard. I believe this should be carried into MeeGo and am refactoring my presentation accordingly.

I would also like to take the lessons learned (especially my own) from maemo.org Brainstorm for creation of a similar but better system for MeeGo.

Future Plans

I see the creation of a discussion forum as a great need. Just as we created new email lists for MeeGo as opposed to renaming or reusing maemo.org lists, I believe we should create an entirely new forum that reflects this "reboot". Yes that will be hectic for those who will "live in both worlds" for a while but I am uncomfortable with plopping a huge legacy forum on top of the incoming Moblin contingent. Let's all start into this on equal footing!

I also plan to learn QT + Python development to better understand the needs of developers (as well as for personal growth).

Platform

My belief is that almost every user is a potential developer/designer/tester/evangelist/etc and should be approached in that spirit. They need to feel instantly welcomed in any community with which they identify. Making MeeGo's goals and infrastructure clear and open is foremost among my interests. I wlll continue working tirelessly to be a face of and for the community. I will be approachable and sympathetic to sincere constructive criticism.

Voting

Please see these discussions at talk.maemo.org for voting details:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=44623
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=44036

I'm nervous about this big advent but excited too. I intend to do what I can to make the change positive. Thanks for your vote!

Randall (Randy) Arnold
maemo.org community council
http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com/

Originally Posted by Texrat

Wow... I write about Nokia beefing up US operations (and HIRING people), and reaction so far is negative (on Maemo Planet). I'm perplexed.

Originally Posted by Mandor

General topic 1 : Transition from Maemo to MeeGo community



Examples :



1) How do you see your (new ?) role in the MeeGo community ?

2) What can you do as a community council to ease the merge between both community ?

3) What should be the objectives of the MeeGo council ?

4) In your opinion, what should happen to Maemo.org after the merge ?

5) Do you see the usefulness of a MeeGo council ?



General Topic 2 : Growing the community



Examples :



1) How should the community welcome its new members ?

2) What can the council do to help the community grow ?

3) I am a developer. I have a busy life. Why should I choose the Maemo community over another OSS community ?



General topic 3 : Nokia and the council



Examples :



1) Do you believe Nokia is listening to the council ?

2) In your opinion, what kind of relationship/communication there should be between the council and Nokia ?



I will think of more later. I hope it will do for the time being.