On Sun, Jun 7, 2009 at 1:49 PM, swap38<swa...@openmoko-fr.org> wrote: > > good news :-) > > Like jeremy I'm not enough skilled to contribute in code and I'm > probably less skilled than him in management. > But I want to help as much as I can. > > There's 2 solutions for a foundation : > 1 - create a brand new Openmoko foundation > 2 - join an a foundation that already exists an create a sub-group > > The solution 2 is easier to start (and can be moved in solution 1 later). > We can ask to : > - Linux International (see this mail from maddog : > http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/2009-June/049177.html) > - Mozilla (they planned to build a mozilla phone : > http://mozphone.com/about/) > - LiMo ? (www.limofoundation.org) > - other ? > > My 2 cents > > Swap38 >
These are good suggestions (though I don't know about LiMo, not really a community organization). After thinking about it for a bit, I don't know if we really need to find an umbrella organization right away. It seems that for now Openmoko is still willing to foot the bills for hosting infrastructure and helping out in other small ways. That's basically what an umbrella or incubator would be doing for us anyways. Maybe I'm mistaken, but it doesn't seem like Openmoko Inc. has any sort of urgency to hand the phone over to another incorporated body. If I'm wrong about that then maybe we should take up Jon's offer with Linux International. But if there's no rush, let's take our time to look at all the options. After all, transitions like this one are difficult and resource consuming. We should try to go through as few organizational transformations as possible. There are some other questions that I think we need to talk about for a foundation: Name: Openmoko Inc. has been kind enough to allow the community to use its branding and trademarks. Would that include allowing us to use "Openmoko" in the name of the foundation? There are obvious advantages to keeping the same branding, but that could become confusing. Steve said "Postmoko" above. Freerunner Foundation? Or maybe even a name that could include other phones? Scope: What will our mission statement be? Is the foundation just to support the gta02-core project, or will it also supervise/contribute to/support Paroli, OM2009, FSO etc? Does the foundation attempt to finance a future phone, does it work mostly on software, does focus on porting "real" Linux to all the Android phones that will be on the market? Location: The Openmoko community is international, so where do we want the foundation to be headquartered? It might make the most sense to put the foundation where there are the most members. Different countries have different rules and categories for non-profits, are there places we should avoid or that may be advantageous? Are we safer in a country that does not recognize software patents? As for Jon's offer, maybe an LI sub-group for Openmoko end users could exist in parallel to the foundation. The foundation could still also be open to end users in this scenario. This could work well if the two groups have different mission statements. There are a lot of options to consider. It's important that we choose carefully to ensure a productive future for our community. Before we're ready to start a foundation, there are some things that we can sort out during our incubation period. I've only just started reading the gta02-core list and haven't been on IRC at all yet so I don't know... maybe some of these things are already started on: Decision making process: I think that a clear, accessible process for making decisions is best. We need a balanced process that is fair to those doing the hard work and to end users. We also need to avoid deadlocks and conflicts. Paroli and OM2009: Do these projects need new leaders? Online resources: who will handle admin tasks on the *.openmoko.org? Do we need a team for that? _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community@lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community