as the song says, so close no matter how far!
http://gvsigmobileonopenmoko.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/brazil2.jpg
regards
Juan Lucas
________________________________
De: community-boun...@lists.openmoko.org en nombre de steven
mosher
Enviado el: lun 13/07/2009 18:29
Para: mad...@li.org
CC: community@lists.openmoko.org
Asunto: Re: The University of São Paulo's intent to join
Openmoko development
Thanks maddog for staying on this over the past month or so. I
really appreciate
the effort and I know the rest of the community does as well.
As you know I'm unwilling
to give up on the dream of the Freerunner and the dream of
community driven hardware
in general. I know Werner and his group, the GTA02 core team,
is dedicated as well
to this dream. Let me know how I can help.
Steve
On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 9:03 PM, Jon 'maddog' Hall
<mad...@li.org> wrote:
Dear Openmoko Community,
In light of the refocusing of Sean's company on
consumer items, there
has been a perceived vacuum created in the Openmoko
community's efforts
to create next-generation open cellular smart phones.
I happened to be working with Dr. Marcelo Zuffo, a full
professor and
the head of the Laboratory for Integrated Systems at
the University of
São Paulo, Brazil, on an unrelated project. I asked
Dr. Zuffo if the
university would be willing to join the Openmoko
community and to
provide critical resources to the task at hand.
I subsequently have met with Dr. Zuffo several times on
this matter,
have seen his facilities (which include a very modern
and
state-of-the-art SMT line) and have discussed the goals
of the community
to design and prototype a completely open design for a
cellular phone.
Dr. Zuffo and the university understand your issues,
understand free and
open source software and hardware and are willing to
assist the
community with this project.
I might add that the university can bring several new
capabilities to
the community:
First of all, Dr. Zuffo has discussed the Openmoko
project with the
Minister of Telecommunications of Brazil, and the
Minister is very
enthusiastic about the concept. Having the support of
the government of
the twelfth largest economy behind the project might
really help us with
various negotiations with vendors.
Secondly the University has been working on several
aspects of
telecommunications for a long time, and therefore has
expertise in
telephonic security and codecs (among other things)
that could be of use
to the Openmoko community.
Third, the university has the ability and expertise to
design new
integrated circuits. Recently they designed a a range
of analog-digital
chips. Therefore the possibility of developing,
manufacturing and
freely licensing new chips to help reduce the cost of
the phone is
possible.
Forth, while the facilities I mentioned are capable of
producing up to
10,000 units at the rate of one circuit board every 30
seconds, the
purpose of the facilities is research, developing and
support projects
that can lead innovation, the lab's charter does not
allow them to
manufacture more units then the 10,000 because that
would be "commercial
production". Therefore the university has a goal of
freely licensing
the design to companies for manufacture.
Fifth, the university would be happy to host the
mailing lists and
forums of the Openmoko project. If some of the
software projects need
hosting and can not find hosting services other places,
the university
will consider acting as a primary hosting facility for
these projects.
Sixth, personally I would like to see this concept
extended, of inviting
more universities and their facilities to help with
this project
world-wide. I hope that the leadership of the
University of Sao Paulo
will help create the structure and inspiration for this
to happen.
Finally, the university has a non-profit legal entity,
LSITEC, which can
easily do the type of paperwork that Sean's company did
(NDAs,
certification) so the community can leverage off that.
I know that there will be a lot of questions and
considerations to take
before the community is comfortable with this
relationship. Dr. Zuffo
has asked that I help coordinate the joining together
of the university
with the community, and in the interest of seeing
Openmoko continue to
do the fine work started by Sean and all of you, I will
be glad to help
in this capacity. I am monitoring the community
mailing list, and
people are also welcome to email me directly
(mad...@li.org) with
questions that you do not (for any reason) wish to post
to the list.
Dr. Zuffo's letter of intent is below.
Warmest regards,
Jon "maddog" Hall
President, Linux International
CTO of Koolu, Inc.
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