Request for help: Would like community applications to show and discuss at LinuxWorld

Michael Shiloh michael at openmoko.org
Wed Jul 23 18:49:15 CEST 2008


Hi,

When I talk about Openmoko, one of the points I make emphatically is 
that the goal of the project is not to create a new cellphone, but 
rather, that by being open, we allow and encourage innovation, and that 
by working with you, the open source community, we tap into a huge pool 
of imaginative, creative, very smart and hardworking innovators. I go on 
to say that my personal dream is not to see a better way of syncing my 
Neo to my desktop, or a better way to manage my SMS messages, but rather 
to see new applications or new uses in areas that I can't even imagine 
(and I have a pretty wild imagination).

Of course following a dramatic statement like this I often get asked 
what are the cool applications and uses based on the Neo Openmoko. 
Sadly, because I haven't had the time to try them out, I am actually 
incredibly ignorant of what our community has done so far.

At Linuxworld in two weeks I will have perhaps half a dozen phones at 
our two booths, and I would love to showcase on each of these one or 
more of your creations.

So here is my plea: Help me decide which ones to put on there!

Things to consider, not necessarily in any order, and not necessarily 
all required:

* Shows well in 5 seconds (for those who have no patience)
* Easy to install and get running
* Innovative, different, unusual
* Shows off the more uncommon hardware (GSP, accelerometers), although 
these are of course becoming more common
* Any interesting FR-to-FR apps? Mr. Moore?
* In case we have poor connectivity, apps that don't require GSM/GPRS
* In case we have poor Wifi, apps that don't require Wifi

I encourage discussion of what apps would show well, but don't expect me 
to make the decisions.

(Perhaps I can impose a little more on those of you who volunteered to 
help at our booths to take a role in helping to decide which apps to 
show - you have an incentive to do so since it will probably be you 
doing the showing! Perhaps too you can install these on your Freerunners 
and test and become familiar with them.)

Finally, if you are involved in or have heard of or have an idea for an 
interesting project or use that can't be shown either because it 
requires infrastructure (server, connectivity, etc.) or isn't ready yet, 
please tell us about it so that we can discuss it with the public. 
Remember, we've been immersed in this community for a year or more, and 
what seems common to us is still new to most visitors.

Thanks,
Michael




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