Freerunner's Future

Steve Mosher steve at openmoko.com
Sun Jun 7 10:09:56 CEST 2009


see inlined.

Jeremy McNaughton wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 6:23 AM, Werner Almesberger<werner at openmoko.org> wrote:
>> You can view the situation also as an opportunity to change some
>> of the structure of the project. Openmoko Inc. had certain
>> constraints due to the way it was conceived. Some of them looked
>> good at the beginning but later caused problems - yet were too
>> difficult to change.
>>
>> The good thing about a new start is that you can stop fighting the
>> mistakes of the past and turn your full attention towards making
>> new ones ;-)
>>
>> - Werner
> 
> +1 for Werner's way of looking at things.

   For those of you who havent had the pleasure of meeting werner
   or working with him, I'll just add this personal note. He has
   one of the most cheerful dispositions I have ever encountered.
> 
> Considering that Openmoko started as a project inside a major
> electronics manufacturer, it's not surprising that once it was spun
> off it kept a lot of "organizational legacy" from its corporate roots.
>  While the old structure worked well enough to get us to this point,
> I'm pretty excited about getting the development even more out in the
> open.
> 
> Jon 'maddog' Hall's offer to incubate the community under Linux
> International is also pretty exciting.  Eventually I'd like to see an
> independent foundation that acts as hub and legal representative of
> the community.
> 
> Organizing an Openmoko Foundation is something I'd really like to help
> with.   Up till now I've not really had the skills to contribute any
> sort of code.  The other activities open to me thus far (like bug
> testing and documentation), well unfortunately haven't gotten me
> involved in anything more than a casual basis (though I have learned
> tonnes from my months of lurking).
  I'll let Sean know personally. We've discussed it. Haralde also has
  high regard for the idea.
> 
> But organizing is what I love doing.  Like I said above my organizing
> experience isn't with free software but with local activist groups and
> social services:
> - co-founder of a homeless shelter
> - sat on committee to rewrite all bylaws, policies and procedures for
> the shelter after it had been incorporated as a nonprofit (I'm not a
> lawyer, but I've been exposed to lots of policy)
> - sat on the board of a coalition/network of social service agencies.
> the coalition was unincorporated and hosted by an incubator
> organization
> - i've done trainings for groups on consensus decision making and
> conflict resolution

   Sounds perfect to me.
> 
> Even though I'm from a different field, I think enough of my
> background should cross over that I can be of some help.  I've also
> used GNU/Linux on the desktop and server since Slackware 3.2 and have
> been a lurker/occasional participant on many Free software projects in
> that time.  So I'm pretty familiar with open source politics too.  I
> just usually get active in more local oriented projects.
> 
> I don't want any sort of official position... give that to someone who
> has already demonstrated a long term commitment to the community.  But
> I would like to be kept in the loop.. if there's a mailing list
> created I'll join it and be a part of the discussion as much as I can.

   Perhaps we should make a wider shout out to the rest of the community?
   We really do need somebody to keep the momentum going. Those inside OM
   are now deeply focused on the business and those who have left are
   equally occupied, some like werner with volunteer projects and others
   with finding a next paycheck.

> 
> Depending on how things go, maybe I can handle some of the
> organizational tasks that would previously have been done by Openmoko
> Inc. and free up developers to do their thing.
> 
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