Importance Of The Maemo Community by Randall Arnold

1. with input from Ed Page and Daphne Won

2. The goal of this presentation is to explain the benefits of the Maemo
community and development experience for interested mobile
developers

3. Maemo came to public attention in 2005 with the release of the 770 Internet
Tablet. The developer community that soon arose was naturally small and full of
leading-edge types who seemed more interested in “hacking” than in formal
development processes. Which was okay at the time, because there was little
support for such processes. Hacking also pushed the boundaries of the devices
and even generated surprise within Nokia at what could be accomplished.
As the community grew and the platform gained greater attention (helped by the
N800’s perceived polish), developers began to demand more transparency and
support from Nokia. This was slow in coming at first as Nokia was treading new
and potentially risky territory by bridging commercial interests and open source.

4. The transition from community-led 770 to N800 and N810 application
development was rough and involved passionate discussion in the growing
community. Many felt Nokia was not moving fast enough to further open the
operating system. Some believed Nokia was not even listening. A compatibility
break between the platforms caused even more discomfort.
Nokia’s decision to support “hacker editions” of OS2007 and OS2008 went a long
way toward alleviating much of that heartburn. OS2007HE and OS2008HE
demonstrated that previous hardware generations need not be completely
abandoned. This advent significantly improved community and developer buy-in,
and paved the way for the advent of Mer (more on that later).

5. Progress!
The current
The current
dynamics
dynamics
between Nokia
between Nokia
corporate
corporate
interests, the
interests, the
Maemo
Maemo
developer
developer
community and
community and
individuals: Input &
individuals:
some different
some different Feedback
desires, but
desires, but
increasing
increasing
movement
movement
toward common
toward common apps
apps
goals
goals

6. 2009 saw a significant amount of positive change for Maemo. The Maemo
Devices group was formed, pulling together formerly separate parts of the
organization. The community demand for an increased openness in the OS bore
fruit, as fact-based and well-reasoned requests were fulfilled. The Mer project, a
community-led OS replacement, gained Nokia support. More to come!
The introduction of the N900 with its full cell phone capability opened up new
avenues for the maemo.org developer community. Handing out 300 devices to
Amsterdam Summit 2009 attendees demonstrated Nokia’s commitment to the
platform and its hardcore supporters. This drives a new, expanded view of the
Nokia-community relationship…

7. Perfect!
The ideal Software
dynamics Service Patches
between Nokia issues
corporate Product
interests, the Ideas
Maemo
developer User
community and Metrics
individuals:
leadership, General
feedback and Roadmap
brainstorming Revenue Testing
Ideas
Custom
OS

8. Some “soft” but useful data
From Maemo Summit 2009:
• Nokia sponsors numerous attendees to the event
• Keynote presentation includes much-requested general roadmap
(victory for developers!)
• Some community members receive N900 devices for wide-open
testing with few restrictions – unprecedented!
• Maemo 6 concepts presented already!
• Mer replacement OS highly represented and popular
• Sessions were packed!
• Ad hoc discussions quickly led to application features

9. Development Nirvana
Development is not limited to a single platform. There are programmers working
straight out of Ubuntu, Microsoft Windows and even right on Maemo devices!
C++ and Python are the most popular languages but others are supported as
well. The goal of platform-agnostic Qt is to broaden this as much as possible.
The community has helped by contributing to tools like the Qt 4.5 libraries.
Maemo offers two distinct but related paths to software publication. The
emphasis has naturally been on free and open source development but
commercial applications are expected to grow in number. The former find their
home at maemo.org, the latter at Forum Nokia.

10. maemo.org
This is the open source road, the domain of free- and donation-ware. Note that
Qt licensing is free for this sort of development.
Applications begin in the Extras devel environment, move to Extras testing for
bug shake-out, and after achieving sufficient community approval, polished apps
migrate to Maemo Extras for general public consumption.
Newcomers and casual users are cautioned to avoid Extras devel unless they
accept the explained risks. Extras testing is not as risky but it is recommended
users gain some experience with their devices before plunging into testing.
However, testers are most certainly welcome!

11. Forum Nokia
Forum Nokia is geared more toward commercial development and support of the
growing Ovi Store. Developers are expected to be set up as a commercial entity
and possess coverage for liability. Qt licensing is not free for applications with
consumer cost. More details available at Forum Nokia; see slide near the end of
this presentation for links.
“…some [FOSS developers] might bring up fear of competition
with the community since it is so strong. I think a strong
community can improve the commercial. It discourages a
bazillion one of cheap apps that the iPhone app store gets
spammed with.”
-Ed Page (epage), Dialcentral developer

12. The following applications cover a broad array of uses and interests, and are
presented in no particular order. Some are the result of individual coders while
others involve large and diverse teams of developers, testers, researchers and
managers. By this point Maemo is mature enough to present some truly
commercial-grade apps, and we expect that wide adoption of Qt as a
development platform will increase that exponentially.
All of the apps shown are free of charge and available from the Maemo Extras
repository. In additions to applications, a community-created replacement
operating system called Mer is also presented. Code from these projects is
typically made available to the community at large for other uses.

13. Grzanka's iconset
by Iconbest
Forecast on Nokia N900. Ultra-customizable
weather widget for showing forecast the way you Beginning iconset
want. Supported by various icon sets. By B. Gint
Shiny Iconset Tango iconset Contour iconset
by Jyri Kuparinen By Chris Stark By Andrew Zhilin

14. Development Status:
A simple, lightweight interface to
5 - Production/Stable
Environment: Gnome, the Google's GoogleVoice (tom)
Maemo service.
Intended Audience:
End Users/Desktop With this native application you can
License: GNU Lesser initiate Click2Call sessions, send
General Public
SMS messages, view and call from
License (LGPL)
Maemo/Tablet OS your google address book, see you
version: All OS recent call log, view Voicemail
Natural Language: transcripts and SMS messages,
English and change your preferred callback
Operating System: number.
Linux
Programming
Language: Python Current Project One of the most popular apps, with
Topic: Chat, Admin and 16358 downloads to date!
Telephony developer:
Ed Page In work: an evolutionary app called
The One Ring, a Telepathy
manager for GoogleVoice

15. Development Status: A mobile OpenStreetMap Editor
4 - Beta OSM2Go is a lightweight editor for
Environment: Gnome, OpenStreetMap intended for
Maemo mobile devices and small screens.
Intended Audience:
End Users/Desktop
License: GNU This mapping tool is particularly
General Public suited for small-screen portable
License (GPL) systems such as subnotebooks,
Maemo/Tablet OS handheld devices and netbooks
version: OS2008 which do not have a network
Natural Language:
connection at all times.
English
Operating System:
Linux OSM2Go features a tagging
Programming presets system, background
Language: C Project Admins: satellite/WMS layers, and gpsd
Topic: Front-Ends, Andrew Chadwick integration. It was originally
Vector-Based, Claudius Henrichs
Visualization designed for the Maemo mobile
Till Harbaum
Linux platform, and so is
lightweight and sports a simple,
speedy interface to map editing.

16. Keep track of all your sports and
Development Status: 4 -
Beta outdoor activities. With eCoach
Environment: Maemo you can get the most from your
Intended Audience: End workouts by monitoring your
Users/Desktop speed,distance and heart rate in
License: GNU General real time. You can also use the
Public License (GPL)
built-in training diary feature to
Maemo/Tablet OS
track your progress as you work
version: OS2008
Natural Language: towards your specific training
English goals.
Operating System:
Linux eCoach supports Open Street
Programming Map, Google Earth, and Virtual
Language: C, C++
Project Admins: Earth,enabling you to view your
Topic: Other/Nonlisted
Topic Jukka Alasalmi routes on the map and share
Kai Skiftesvik them with friends at a later point.
Sampo Savola It currently supports FRWD B600
Veli-Pekka Haajanen
and Zephyr HxM heart rate
monitors.

17. Displays a real-time mirror image from the internal
camera.
Interesting fact: this application came about when
a new female member joked that she wanted to
see more apps for her gender. She offhandedly
mentioned a mirror, and in short order Attila Csipa
(achipa/attila77) had coded one up!

18. Goals
Mer •Integrate the best solutions for a wide
variety of small form-factor devices
•Encourage wider access to device
An open, community-led, capabilities through the Vendor Social
Linux distribution (OS) for Contract
mobile devices •Demonstrably provide an easy route to
market for vendors
“Mer shows there’s a big •Dramatically reduce costs to vendors of
enough repository of coders supporting EOL hardware
interested to maintain a •Focus, harness and support community
community variant of Maemo.” contributions to the platform
•Encourage and ease migration of existing
-Carsten Munk (Stskeeps), applications
maemo.org distmaster and Mer •Support experimentation, innovation and
Project coordinator
development

19. "The Nokia N900 shows where
"The Nokia N900 shows where
Going Forward…
we are going with Maemo and
we are going with Maemo and
we'll continue to work with the
we'll continue to work with the
community to push the software
community to push the software
forward."
forward."
-Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia
-Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia
“I think openness is the number
“I think openness is the number
one sign that a company _and_ a
one sign that a company _and_ a
community is healthy. If a company
community is healthy. If a company
feels free enough to be open with a
feels free enough to be open with a
community, then something
community, then something
right is happening.”
right is happening.”
-timsamoff, 06 August 2009
-timsamoff, 06 August 2009

20. More Success Stories
• Testing and early usage of the OS and SDKs by the device actually
helps add quality to OS and SDKs for all developers
• Nokia developer Vitaly Repin dives into talk.maemo.org to solicit direct
feedback on Mail for Exchange (MfE) issues, listening thoughtfully and
responding with helpful candor
• Developer events and community outreach activities gain immediate
high interest
• Brainstorm solution proposal activity at maemo.org enjoys high
popularity and deep engagement from all types of community members
• …?

21. •VisionMobile blog article, “Open is the new closed”:
http://www.visionmobile.com/blog/2009/08/open-is-the-new-closed/
•Mer replacement OS Project: http://wiki.maemo.org/Mer
•Maemo community: http://www.maemo.org
•Introducing Maemo @ Forum Nokia:
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Technology_Topics/Device_Platforms/Ma
emo.xhtml
•Qt development: http://qt.nokia.com/developer/qt-for-maemo-
developers

22. Thank you!
Randall Arnold
texrat@ovi.com
tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com
maemo daemons group on LinkedIn
2

23. Another great point about community/commercial interaction is we've
created a lot of example code for the commercial appsmore especvially
for the more exotic areas like phone functionality. Not a commercial
app but my work om The One Ring (Telepathy connection manager for
GoogleVoice has been greatly accelerated by the existence of
telepathy-butterfly. Some might fear the legal line between reading
the code and using it in a way an open lisence might be violated.
I would also guess that except for a few cases polish and
innovation are the areas to focus on to stay competitive.
> 2. Testing and early usage of the OS and SDKs by the device actually
> helps add quality to OS and SDKs for the commercial developers