Copied from tmo:

There has been a lot of talk lately about what the Maemo Community Council is and how we should operate. This is a good thing -- something that the first Council asked for at Maemo Summit 2008.

A lot has happened since the inaugural Council was elected. I won't mention it all here, as it has been discussed ad nauseum in a few other places. What I will say is that we have been busy. Some of our work has been public and some has not. Some has made people happy and some has not. But, what has become clear is that there are definitely things that could be done better... One of them is communication with the Maemo Community.

Because of this, we have decided to hold a Public Maemo Community Council Meeting, this Monday, 8 June 2009, at 13:30 UTC.

Anyone can participate at freenode.net/maemo-meeting.

The itinerary is below.

###

PUBLIC MAEMO COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING

THEME: Communication

1. One place for all communication: Where? (<5 minutes)

- Council blog
- Council wiki
- maemo-community mailing list (if integrated with tmo)
- Council subforum on tmo
- Other?

2. Representing the Maemo Community (maemo.org)... (<10 minutes)

- Take _every_ community "item" (request, complaint, etc.) into
consideration?
- Community trusts Council to make assessments/decisions based on
these "items"?
- "Items" brough to a Coucil-moderated "community meeting" so that
community can decide?

3. Representing Maemo SW (Nokia)... (5 minutes)

- Is this actually helpful to the community?
- Ideas on bettering inter-community communication about official
correspondence?

4. Redefinition of Community Council. (<10
minutes)

- Quims proposal:

OPEN COMMUNICATION...
* News and calls for participation are summarized in the
Council blog (RSS).
* Council micro-updates can be followed at [new thread to
be created in this forum] (watch)
* Council oriented conversation happens in the maemo.org
Talk forum (archive) and the maemo-community mailing list
(archive), in threads identified with the [Council] tag.
* Also, Council members are usually present over IRC in
#maemo, happy to chat with you.

5. Regular Maemo Community town hall meetings? (5 minutes)

- At all?
- Every month?
- 6x/year? (Every other month)
- Quarterly?

###

We hope to see you there!

If you aren't able to make it to the Mozilla/Maemo Danish Weekend, this...er...weekend, you can keep track of what's happening by following the #mozmae hashtag on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23mozmae

Also, view information about this groundbreaking event here, and check out a Maemo-specific schedule of sessions here.

The Maemo Community Council's own, Kees Jongenburger will be in attendance, as well as a bunch of Fremantle Stars and Mer developers. Be sure to treat them kindly if you are there (i.e., these people shouldn't have to buy their own drinks, ok?).

I described this even as "groundbreaking," and that's really what it is. How often do you hear about an open source mobile development platform partnering with a major web browser developer in order to make the world a better place? (Think I'm being idealistc? Hold your judgment until after the event.)

Mozilla, Maemo, Mer, Fennec, along with all sorts of cutting-edge developers, are going to be collaborating on some pretty amazing ideas for the next few days. We, as users of some (or all) of these technologies, stand to benefit greatly from the efforts. If you're lucky enough to be there, have fun! Those of us who will not be present are wishing safe travels and an amazing experience for you!

Ok, well it's just an interview of me, but hopefully Steven Lake, the owner/operator of Raiden's Realm will interview the others as well.

Anyway, if you want to know a little more about me, maemo.org (especially the recent website redesign), and the Maemo Community Council, head on over to the interview.

Over in the (recently rebranded) talk forum, krisse has suggested the creation of a Maemo School to replace the earlier "Tablet School" which faded out a few months ago.

The idea is to create a library of videos, with an appearance similar to maemo.org downloads:

"[...] a Maemo School where every aspect of the interface and third party applications could be covered, with contributions from anyone who wants to make them."

If you're intrigued by the idea and would like to help out, head on over to the thread and let's sort something concrete out.

If you're like most people who have contacted me since my last post, you are pretty sick of the über-80s pop-metal anthem, "The Final Countdown" by Europe, spinning in the back of your head. Well, good news... The new maemo.org website has barely been out a day and we've already gotten some good feedback and some bug reports -- all to be expected. Personally, I think the change-over went even more smoothly than I ever expected (thank you X-Fade!). All this, regardless of what you have playing on repeat in Canola.

As stated previously, there will still be a lot of issues to be worked out in the coming weeks -- and subsidiary pages that need to be worked into the new design. We'll try to accomplish all of these things in as timely a manner as possible (there are really only two people who are integrating actual design stuff, so please bare with us).

You may have noticed that the "Talk" button up in the main menu now points to Internet Tablet Talk. This is an interim solution that is helping us get ready for when itT is styled to look just like this new site (thanks Reggie!).

Again, thanks for the feedback and bug reporting. We really appreciate it.

Let us know here in the comments what you think about the new site & design!

Hold on to your britches everyone, the new maemo.org Beta will be launching tomorrow at 1200 UTC! (That's 7a my time, so I'll most likely be watching Curious George with my son -- not that I won't be checking in.)

The first phase of the launch will be some back-end stuff and link checks, so don't expect the new site to be live until sometime after 1200. There are a lot of different elements the incorporate the maemo.org website and migrating a project of this size is no laughing matter.

This is where we must ask for your help again. There is no doubt that a few things may be broken after everything is up-and-running. Not only will there be links that need editing, but some pages may not look or work properly. In these cases, please help us by searching and adding the bug to bugs.maemo.org (classification: maemo.org Website/newstyle). Please search Bugzilla before posting a new bug.

Also, many features of maemo.org will still look like the "old" site after the new design is live: wiki.maemo.org, garage.maemo.org, etc. Likewise, we are still trying to figure out the best way to integrate Internet Tablet Talk into the forthcoming talk.maemo.org.

Lastly (for now), I'd like to point out all (or most) of the people who were integral in making this new website happen:

• Ryan Abel
• Henri Bergius
• Niels Breet*
• André Cunha
• Andrew Flegg
• Quim Gil
• Lauri Manner*
• Dave Neary*
• Glaubert Oliveira
• Me
• Reggie Suplido

Did I forget anyone? Let me know if I did and I'll add them... As you can see, a project of this magnitude cannot be done by just one person. It was a wonderful privilege to work with all of these talented people. There were arguments along the way (and still are about some issues), some stepped-on feet, some hurt feelings, and so on. But, when all is said and done, we were all able trudge through through the issues with the main goal always in sight. And, the fact that we're finally counting down to an actual launch time is such an amazing testament to a healthy open source community.

But!

Our jobs are far from complete. As I said, the launch of the new site is most assuredly Beta. Don't think of it as anyting but. In this case, our next days will be filled with bug reporting and fixing and trying to figure out how to go from Beta to final. (Hopefully, all of this with your help!)

* Rock stars

It's time for another maemo.org redesign update.

The design and "bug" fixes for the new maemo.org website design are speeding along and we're fast approaching out launch date of Wednesday, April 22... That's less than a week away! This launch will be considered a Beta launch, as there are still a lot of issues to work out (wiki and itT integration, just to name a couple). There are also a lot of minutia that will have to be organized, managed, and tweaked after launching the new design.

In fact, if you'd like to help test (and improve) what we're doing, feel free to browse the new design, take notes, and add what you find (or what you might like to see changed) to the maemo.org Bugzilla. (Please take time to view the existing newstyle reports before posting something new.)

All of us who have been working on the new design are very excited to be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. As you might assume, anything that is done via committee has a tendency to become more complicated and take quite a bit longer than one might hope. Still, I think we are creating something that will not only be visually appealing, but will be easier for everyone to use.

Again, let us know (by using Bugzilla) if there are any major bugs or features that might hold us back from the Beta launch. We would really appreciate it.

The April 2009 maemo.org sprint will be held tomorrow (Monday), 2009-04-06 at 13:30 UTC. Anyone who would like to get involved in community tasks is welcome to attend the IRC meeting. Full details can be found in the wiki.

Public service announcement #1: the council homepage has had a bit of a refresh to try and explain what - apart from chair the sprint meetings - it is we do. Comments, as ever, are welcome.

Public service announcement #2: The latest release of Mer - the community Linux distribution for numerous devices, including Nokia Internet Tablets, based on Maemo - has been released. Go get v0.11 now if you want to help, like to live on the cutting edge, or just want a play!

Ryan, Tim, Alan, Kees and I have started work as the second Maemo Community Council. First order of business was sorting out who we wanted to be chair this time and muggins-here volunteered. So, I'm pleased to announce I'll be taking over Ryan's role of shepherding the catsouncil through the next six months.

One thing we're going to try and do, to set a good example, is to report what we've been doing - when appropriate - through the normal maemo.org sprint process. This should allow the community to keep abreast of what we're doing, but will suppliment - rather than replace - this council blog.

The votes are in and counted. Thank you, all, for voting!

The new lineup is as follows:

Andrew Flegg (Jaffa), Ryan Abel (GeneralAntilles), Tim Samoff (timsamoff), Kees Jongenburger (keesj), Alan Bruce (qole).

Read more about the results here:

http://lists.maemo.org/pipermail/mae...ch/003524.html

Please welcome the two new members (Kees and Alan) warmly.

Also, let us know what you'd like to see us tackle/facilitate over the next six months. We rely on your input! If you have comments, suggestions, questions, or anything else, please post them on the maemo-community mailing list.