[Tinkerphones] Welcome to the Tinkerphones community

[H. Nikolaus Schaller]

> Am 01.07.2016 um 09:12 schrieb joerg Reisenweber <joerg at openmoko.org>:
> 
> Congrats!
> 
> This was overdue and the new name is absolutely to the point and has quite 
> some appeal. The definition of what is / is not a tinkerphone is very helpful 
> and should go to the frontpage at http://www.tinkerphones.org
> 
> I like it very much.

That is nice to hear :)

> 
> What about icons etc, generally the complete "corporate identity"? Has it been 
> discussed what will change (beyond the obviously pending overhaul of 
> http://www.tinkerphones.org artwork/design), and are there already tasks 
> assigned to experts? Maybe even new logos etc established and available?

No, nothing. Just the the domain registration and minor changes to the mailing
list and home page.

So there is plenty of room for volunteers to make proposals and many topics for
our community to discuss.

> 
> Many thanks, Nikolaus - and whoever else been involved! :-)
> cheers
> jOERG

> 
> On Fri 01 July 2016 08:29:39 H. Nikolaus Schaller wrote:
>> Hi,
>> after several years of running the OpenPhoenux community, we
>> thought that it is time to refresh it a little and replace the awkward
>> name "OpenPhoenux" (it was always difficult to spell and pronounce)
>> with something new, self-explaining, that your mom understands.
>> 
>> "OpenPhoneux" was originally coined in ca. 2009 as the name of an
>> initiative, when it became clear that the Openmoko company would stop
>> to develop a successor of the Openmoko Freerunner. It finally brought
>> the GTA04 device to life.
>> 
>> Back then, this was a motivating allusion to the situation of building
>> something new on the remains of Openmoko, but nowadays probably
>> only some core members of our community are able to understand
>> this background.
>> 
>> Therefore we discussed in a small circle what the core of Openmoko
>> and Openphoenux is.
>> 
>> It was easy to find what it is not:
>> * it is not a 100% fair phone (we don't have the resources to track
>>  components - it is enough challenge to have it working and being produced)
>> * it is not a 100% open phone (we have not found a feasible solution for
>> WLAN and GPU)
>> * it is not a 100% secure phone (we can't do security audits of every
>>  component)
>> * it is not a cutting edge phone (we do not get the latest and greatest
>>  chips as mainstream manufacturers do)
>> * it is not a geeks (only) phone (we want everybody to be able to use
>>  it)
>> 
>> But then we found what the common denominator of all Openmoko
>> activities was and is:
>> 
>> It is a device that allows you to tinker with it, i.e. find out how it
>> works, to replace software and even hardware components for smaller or
>> bigger improvements and even repairs. It is designed in a way to enable
>> such changes instead of stopping you (e.g. by protected boot loaders,
>> undocumented code etc.).
>> 
>> All this is facilitated by being open (as far as NDAs and other limitations
>> allow) and using open source technology (e.g. GNU/Linux, Debian).
>> 
>> Here is a definition of what "tinkering" is [1]:
>> 
>> 	"tinker or tinker around to make small changes to something in order to
>> improve or repair it" "tinker with: He spends hours tinkering around with
>> car engines."
>> 
>> So we are now happy to tell the world that we are members of
>> "the Tinkerphone community" :)
>> 
>> There is a new web domain representing this change:
>> 
>> 	<http://www.tinkerphones.org>
>> 
>> I hope you will agree with us and stay here, contribute and share
>> your ideas and achievements. And invite new tinkerers to participate.
>> 
>> Happy tinkering,
>> Nikolaus
>> 
>> PS: it will need your help to update the documentation pages...
>> 
>> [1]: <http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/tinker_1>
>> 
>> 

BR,
Nikolaus