community at lists.openmoko.org

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

I must admit that I can't follow the "patience" idea.

Some facts:
* FIC is a commercial company and they want to sell devices to finaly  
make money
* impatience generates market demand - patient people wait forever.  
This is no good business model.

What happens if the impatient people buy an iPhone and the patient  
ones sit there and simply wait for announcements? This list will  
become quite inactive (in my subjective observation it is already).  
FIC will have to decide that nobody is here anymore impatiently  
waiting for them to deliver anything. And they will finally have to  
cancel the project because it will not be able to meet their  
financial goals.

Impatience shows interested people eagerly waiting for the heroes to  
deliver something extraordinary!

And note: developers are the early adopters. Patient people  
(marketing speak calls them "laggards") are the last to buy something.

And talking about being a customer or not. I do also not agree  
completely that we are developers and not customers and therefore are  
not allowed to demand anything.

Developers have paid (or will pay) for a hardware. Well, we have not  
paid for technical support. But the whole OpenMoko project assumes a  
substantial contribution from the developers towards the project  
success. I.e. we do even invest our time to push the project. So, we  
pay in addition to the device hardware for getting this open  
platform. Therefore, we can IMHO expect some more insight into what  
is going on because we pay more...

Finally, I also wonder a little about the expectation that the hero  
(core) developers should only develop (behind some curtain and not be  
disturbed) and somebody else should write announcements,  
documentation, help, etc. This attitude fits more to closed companies.

Nikolaus Schaller

-------------------------------------------------------------
Golden Delicious Computers GmbH&Co. KG
http://www.goldelico.com
Digital Tools for Independent People
-------------------------------------------------------------


Am 25.10.2007 um 09:18 schrieb Simon:

> Carlo, thanks for this post.
>
> I was thinking about writting a similar one, but since my english
> isn't super, you did a much better job.
>
> Just like all of us, I'm looking forward to have a Neo and start
> hacking the little thing.  But the Neo is just the start of a long
> story of freedom.
>
> Patience is one thing we can all practice meanwhile.
> Programming is another!
> Working out the documentation is yet another.
>
> On the other hand, I believe it is important as a community to
> recognize that impatience exists and that it is normal.  That there is
> no reason to flame someone for not having googled, searched the wiki
> and mailing list archived before asking a question.  If there is a
> nice and easy place to find the info, why not point the guy there,
> with a smile. There are hundreds of others who read the mailing list,
> they will follow the link and learn.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Simon
>
> On 10/25/07, Carlo E. Prelz <fluido at fluido.as> wrote:
>>         Subject: community at lists.openmoko.org
>>         Date: mer 24 ott 07 03:48:18 -0600
>>
>> Quoting Mark (wolfmane at gmail.com):
>>
>>> You need to keep in mind that:
>>>
>>> - It takes maybe a couple of minutes at most to fire off a
>>> one-paragraph email.
>>
>> and then it takes untold time and energy to extinguish the fire if  
>> the
>> promises made in that two-minute, one-paragraph e-mail eventually
>> prove to have been too optimist.
>>
>> here we are not talking about describing the past or present, but
>> about foreseeing the future. If you are careful, and make appropriate
>> use of past experience, there are good, solid possibilities that your
>> forecast may prove true. Two minutes are way too short for this sort
>> of exercises.
>>
>>> - If somebody, anybody, had taken 30 seconds to post a message to  
>>> the
>>> list we wouldn't be having this flood of posts on this topic right
>>> now.
>>
>> No. The flood is caused by lack of patience. An unripe message that
>> were to make wild promises may only work as a painkiller.
>> Painkillers remove the symptom, but they do not cure the problem.
>>
>>> - Nobody is asking for an "official", press-release-ready corporate
>>> announcement. All we're asking for is something like this:
>>>
>>> "Sorry, folks, but due to circumstances beyond our control we are  
>>> not
>>> going to be able to make the release at the previously announced  
>>> time.
>>> We are working on the issues and hope to be ready for sale in
>>> December."
>>
>> During the life of this project I have seen several announcements of
>> this kind. Coming at the right time.
>>
>> I prefer not to see messages and to know the energy of the team is
>> focused towards having a working hardware as soon as possible, rather
>> than to have my impatience quelled by official postponements that  
>> have
>> no base in real events.
>>
>> I rest comforted by the facts that a) it is their jobs, not mine,  
>> that
>> are in relation with a speedy delivery of both openmoko and the neo,
>> and b) if, come the worst, no functional phone were to eventually
>> surface from this project, well, my old treo still works OK...
>>
>> The best we can do to help is to provide support and encouragement to
>> the hard-working team. And to exercise the subtle art of patience.
>>
>> Carlo
>>
>> --
>>   *         Se la Strada e la sua Virtu' non fossero state messe  
>> da parte,
>> * K * Carlo E. Prelz - fluido at fluido.as             che bisogno ci  
>> sarebbe
>>   *               di parlare tanto di amore e di rettitudine?  
>> (Chuang-Tzu)
>>
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>
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