ext Glen Gray wrote: > On 27 Apr 2010, at 10:16, Quim Gil wrote: > >> The plan is to have in few weeks a first complete MeeGo release >> followed by a roadmap to work on the next release. Once this is out >> the MeeGo project shouldn't have any obstacle to have all the daily >> work and routines in the open. >> > > > Thanks for the honest reply Quim. > > I think a LOT of misunderstandings and anxiety about what's happening > could have been avoided if this had been clearly stated from the get > go. We've been getting mixed messages as others have commented on > today.
Sure, but this assumes that we knew exactly how things would roll out. :) This is the first time we do a merge like this and there are actually not many precedents to look at. At any point we have said what we actually believed that would happen. Then some things happen when and how you expect and some others go in different ways. Even if this is sometimes uncomfortable, all in all is not a huge deal since the direction is clear, the will is there and we will go through this. Also, there seems to be a perception that Intel and Nokia now form a single united team sharing all the information and clear plans and hiding most of it to the community. I take this as a variant of the conspiracy theories around corporations. ;) But this merge also brings "mixed messages" and perceived "lack of information" to Joe Developer at Intel and Nokia. A natural part of the process: consolidates teams of people sharing common managers, company structures and knowledge of confidential corporate plans now are meant to collaborate fluently and in the open with developers from other companies and individual contributors. In practice this is easier for developers used to these dynamics in upstream projects (Kernel, BlueZ, etc) and less easy for others (future reference applications, system UIs still not shipping in any product, etc). >> - One that is quite unique now: two big teams having to sync on >> 1001 little things before going public & common. > > I'm sure having discussions out in the open would have actually aided > in that. There still seems to be a lot of misunderstanding between > the teams from Intel and Nokia which is seeping through to the public > level. Even from departments within Intel. That's my perception > anyways. Yes, all in all open discussions do help. But some of them do not help if you need a well founded decision with a tight deadline. I mean, there have been some hot topics that now we have settled but a regular open project would still be discussing ad aeternum. Now they can still be discussed (ad aeternum if you wish), but the fact of knowing that Intel and Nokia as main current promoters have agreed on something does help moving forward. Again, after the first MeeGo release the backbone is in place and probably there will not be any technical discussion stopping the show for the rest of the project. We will also know each other better so the risk of "personal damage" in public discussion will be smaller. Then there is also an "empty disco dance floor" effect. Even if many people is willing to dance, the dance floor is mainly empty and you look left and right to see if any of your friends will jump first. (To make the analogy more complete, in such situations usually you see the first ones jumping to the floor with quite extrovert attitudes and questionable dancing skills - which doesn't help your motivation to do the step). ;) But every night the dance floor ends up full with plenty of fun, and at that point is plain easy for anybody to just get in and add to the mess. We are getting there, slowly. >> - One that will be around basically always: marketing factors >> making company X or even the MeeGo project itself to go for a sound >> release instead of an open development since the first line of >> code. > > This is something that is of great concern to me. We've seen this > before plenty of times. Specifically, partner releases, which > coincide with the main product release. Yes, we have seen this. But this is one point I really love about MeeGo: time based releases. Products have to align to the MeeGo timeline, not the other way around. > It seems incredibly unfair > and disrespectful to a community to deny them access to the product, > many of whom would possibly like to further the use in a commercial > setting. But at the same time to provide access to "key partners" in > order to have a big reveal for launch day. Confidential projects from a company will always exist: one company is developing something and they decide the day when they want to start sharing publicly. But this is fair, isn't it. What would not be fair is that the MeeGo project is used as a curtain with two sides: one for the public community and one for some kind of corporate backstage where companies would share development before public releases. All the MeeGo work needs to be public and all the company confidential work needs to stay within the scope of the company NDAs. I hope this point is clear now, -- Quim Gil open source advocate MeeGo Devices @ Nokia _______________________________________________ MeeGo-dev mailing list MeeGo-dev@meego.com http://lists.meego.com/listinfo/meego-dev
