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List:       meego-dev
Subject:    Re: [MeeGo-dev] MeeGo Reconstructed - a plan of action and
From:       Graham Cobb <g+meego () cobb ! uk ! net>
Date:       2011-10-06 9:40:00
Message-ID: 201110061040.01418.g+meego () cobb ! uk ! net
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On Thursday 06 October 2011 07:33:24 Carsten Munk wrote:
> We have chosen to move out the hardware adaptations and UX'es out of
> the core, into the community surrounding it, to get rid of a lot of
> politics - to concentrate on what's technically good and benefits us
> all - not having to maintain our own mobile distribution ourselves.

I think I understand your point but there is a big danger there.  My day job 
is marketing.  And there is a lot of marketing involved in building an open-
source community.  In order to get contributors, or to get vendors to use you, 
you need to be seen as viable and successful.

And a lot of that is tied up with end-users: the blogs and web sites will be 
talking about you if users are talking about you.  Your strategy is going to 
require that you have a successful and visible "vendor" project and, even 
then, you need to make sure that people are mentioning your core when talking 
about the associated project.

My personal view (which is partly based on my marketing job) is that you have 
to start off focused on a very visible end user experience in order to get the 
project the necessary publicity.  For your own governance reasons you will 
probably want to make sure the split between core and "vendor" is clear, but 
from the outside world they have to look like one to start with.

The bottom line is that many potential community members will be doubtful that 
your project can be successful, unless you can show them a working (preferably 
great) end user experience (including hardware).  Many projects have been and 
gone, either sponsored by big companies (we are all familiar with those!) or 
purely hobbyist (e.g. Cordia now that the Cordia Tab seems dead).  If the 
Cordia Tab was going to happen then Cordia might have been the viable end user 
project to get you the publicity but without hardware it seems to be going 
nowhere as well.

Graham
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