project customers

[Werner Almesberger]

Christoph Pulster wrote:
> As you already said, companiess who built a solution based on the  
> Openmoko need a reliable product AND a reliable company behind.

Hmm, I think you're right that there has to be a company that
buffers the customer from the increasingly chaotic (*) "inner
layers". However, I'm not sure this company has to be the
manufacturer or "owner" of the product, nor that there would
have to be just one company in this buffer role.

E.g., I could easily imagine a consortium grouped around an
open design. That's one of the possible directions I see for
the work we've started with gta02-core.

Such a consortium could be much more reliable than a single
company. If someone drops out, others can fill the gap. If the
consortium as a whole falls apart or veers off course, anyone
can pick up the design and continue producing it. You can even
have mobility at the level of individual engineers.

So the product would live as long as there's enough interest in
seeing it live, much as it is with Open Source software.

Also, if we consider project customers, many of them have needs
the current market offerings cannot satisfy, they usually do
have technical competence, and they have some money. What they
don't have is the size and pull to just create the product they
need from scratch.

Now, there are many roles they could play. They could be "just
customers". They could take a more proactive role and be part
of such a consortium. Or maybe they're even underestimating
their potential and would actually be able to take the lead in
creating such a product from scratch. They just don't think
they could.

(*) Chaotic, not necessarily because of a lack of structure,
    but simply because of the amount of information going
    around and because there will invariably be a lot of
    horrifying news that don't have much of an impact in the
    long run.

- Werner