Thanks Sean for the kind words and for the opportunity to do something unique. i spent some time thinking about how I want to organize the community responses. I have a list of FAQs from werner ( somewhere here in the pile of mail) and I want to solicit ideas from the community on what OM can do to support the community efforts.
I am leaning toward putting Werner's FAQ on the wiki and also having a wiki entry for a community "wish list" where the wishes are directed at how OM can help. Anybody who is better at wiki than me volunteer, please. Steve Sean Moss-Pultz wrote: > Dear Community, > > As some of you have heard, we had a layoff at Openmoko on Monday, May > 25th. First of all let me second the comments made here congratulating > the Openmoko team on all that was accomplished. And let me add that > everything accomplished was only possible because of the amazing > efforts of the community. > > Bringing the Neo products to market, first the 1973 and then the > Freerunner, has been the most exceptional experience of our lives. I > can undeniably say that the most important thing we have learned over > these years is that the power of people bound by ideals, rather than > contracts, cannot be underestimated. These phones are your success. >>From simple things like group sales to complex undertakings like > developing and maintaining entire distributions, you made this happen. > You always came through for us. As CEO, I have to determine the best > path forward for our phone business. And after long discussions with > my key people and Board, we've decided that the best path foreword is > to turn the future of the Freerunner over to the community. > > We've always said that the talent and creativity of those outside the > company is superior to that inside the company. We have stuck to these > principles. We've have opened up more than any other phone, from any > other company, in the history of this industry. Every time we chose > openness over internal control, we have been rewarded. > > Former Openmoko employees have already started redesigning the > Freerunner hardware (gta02-core) using only Free Software tools. > Werner Almesberger, working with many others, has made great progress. > Recently, we have released more information to accelerate their > efforts. In the coming weeks, all the design information will be > handed over to the community along with all of openmoko.org (Wiki, > GIT, Trac, Planet, ...). Openmoko Inc. then will act as the sponsor of > this effort. We will continue to fund all necessary server > infrastructure and support, in areas where corporate help is needed, > future open phone development. (Parts of this process will require > legal work - so I request your patience.) > > I am extremely excited about the idea of an entirely community-built > open phone. Especially since, when the next design is complete, it > will have the benefits of everything uncovered since the Freerunner > shipped last July. It will be buzz free, glamo free, and free of the > recamping bug (#1024) - which I am happy to announce has been solved > this past week. We promise to support these efforts with additional > resources such as components to build prototypes of the new design. We > will help to empower you to build the open phone of our future. > > After all this, there is one last thing that Openmoko the company can > do: we can enable the community to use the Openmoko brand and > trademark for these efforts. For us, the Openmoko brand is synonymous > with the people who built the products: Harald, Mickey, Werner, > Raster, all of my coworkers in our Taiwan office, Sureda, Tuxbrain, > Bearstech, and countless others. I personally want to give an extra > special thanks to Steve Mosher who has taught me so much about > marketing, writing, and well...life. Without his guidance, this all > would have only been an idea in my notebook. > > I have asked Steve to lead an effort, over the next few weeks, to > gather input from the community on how best to implement this > transition. (He will follow up shortly on the community mailing list.) > As always we can expect some negative comments, that comes with the > territory. But we believe a community that owns everything of > importance, with regard to the Freerunner, will focus efforts and > energies on the future - not the past. > > Sales of the current FreeRunner (A7), will continue as before. We have > plenty more in stock. Now that the phone is freed, and its future > entrusted to the hands of the community, Openmoko Inc. will start > another effort on an altogether different type of device. We've sized > our company to go do that task. Please wish us the very best of luck! > More details will follow in the coming months... > > > Sincerely, > > Sean Moss-Pultz > > _______________________________________________ > Openmoko community mailing list > community@lists.openmoko.org > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community