[maemo-community] maemo.org and Maemo 5

[From: Ryan Abel]

With the release of the next generation of tablet hardware and Maemo  
5, this platform is likely to see an influx of users that will dwarf  
any previous milestone (the N800 release, the N800 price drop, the  
N810 release, etc.) and maemo.org needs to be ready to handle these  
new users. Many of these users will have no prior experience with the  
platform, so this is both an incredible opportunity (to give them a  
great first impression) and an incredibly daunting task.

So, I'd like to start discussing plans for the Maemo 5 release. These  
new users are going to want three things: software, documentation and  
support. Which gives us three specific areas we have to cover:  
Downloads (and to a lesser extent, maemo.nokia.com), the wiki, and the  
various discussion forums (Talk, the lists, IRC).

Documentation (especially for new users and developers) will likely  
largely be covered by Nokia (judging by their past performance, it's  
difficult to say how _good_ it will be, but it will at least be  
acceptable), but we'll still need to update the existing content on  
the wiki for Fremantle, and, depending on how Nokia does the whole  
"beta" documentation thing, we may have an opportunity to help out  
with the developer docs.[1] I'm going to ask about the early developer  
device program and see if some considerations might be made for folks  
interested in writing documentation (it'd be really awesome if we  
could get most of the content updated _before_ release).

Downloads and software distribution are a slightly longer-term goals  
than the Fremantle release timeframe (I'm assuming, anyway ;)), but  
improving usability on the website should be a feasible goal in that  
term. Niels has already started work on some proposals for it, but any  
help to polish and improve them (then helping to implement them) would  
be greatly appreciated.[2] For farther down the road we'll want to  
look at Application Manager integration.

Right now, the most work is taking place on the support  
infrastructure. The itT -> Talk move with the introduction of new  
moderators, forum reorg, etc. is the first priority, but  
considerations also need to be made for integrating the lists and IRC  
more closely with the website (possibly specifically with Talk).

So, thoughts on what you think needs priority? Volunteers to help  
out? ;)


[1]http://wiki.maemo.org/Category:Users
[2]http://wiki.maemo.org/Task:Downloads_catalog_improvements
[3]http://wiki.maemo.org/Task:Improving_the_Application_manager

--
Ryan Abel
Maemo Community Council member