Like many high-tech companies, Nokia’s success depends not only on its vast assembly of internal talent, but also on the numerous volunteer advocates and ambassadors of its solutions in the wild.  To that end, Nokia formalizes recognition of top volunteers with its Forum Nokia Champion program.  Since 2006, hundreds of hard-working community leaders have been awarded this 1-year designation… which brings with it free devices, training and occasional travel to events.

source: blogs.msdn.com

The Texas Linux Fest is a new one-day technical conference, just in its second year.  I was not able to attend last year due to it being held at the same time as the 2010 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, and this year it was looking questionable also– but thanks to Gabriel Beddingfield all obstacles were removed.  Gotta love the Linux community!

Ever since last Friday’s monumental announcement (do I have to say which one?) I have wrestled with Nokia’s new direction.  I admit to being skeptical of its success, and I’m very disappointed in what I see as a significant retreat from open source… but I’m going to try really hard to be objective.

I see a lot of very polarized reactions and people forming into two distinct Pro and Con camps.  This is understandable; Nokia’s new clothes signify a very different empire than the one to which many of us have grown accustomed.  Because we’re looking at so many unknowns, I have to lean toward the doubters on this one, and Nokia is going to have to work harder than it ever has to prove itself in my view.  Too many words from the past unmatched by action.  Not that the past need dictate the future, but after repeated bumps and potholes one begins to distrust the road.  The one Nokia has been on requires much more than simple patching, to be sure, but the jury will be out on the shotgun wedding to Microsoft for some time yet.

As an (unpaid and often gonzo) journalist I often walk a fine line here between opinion and strict reporting, but I will always make it clear which is which.  In the same vein, I will work at not letting my personal opinion get in the way of highlighting the positive aspects of Nokia’s new developments.  That won’t be easy though!  But I was recently reminded that being a Forum Nokia Champion means supporting the communities, whatever form they take.

I do think some of my peers have been far too eager to radically embrace Nokia’s abrupt shift, but then, I can understand it– especially from employees concerned about their future.  On that note, I left a post at forum.meego.com about showing understanding toward Nokia employees and I hope it’s heeded.  They certainly don’t need any grief right now.

So expect me to cover this subject some more, maybe at times in an aggravated tone but perhaps with some hopeful accents as well.  I don’t want Nokia to fail… far too much at stake that goes beyond the success of Stephen Elop.

Disclaimer: author is a current stockholder and customer as well as former employee of Nokia, and a longtime developer with Microsoft Visual Studio.

Filed under: Great Governance, Into Outreach, Inviting Change, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Process and Product Frontier Tagged: community, forumnokia, MeeGo, Microsoft, Nokia, Stephen Elop

The choice buzzword since the February 11 Nokia-Microsoft deal (satirically tagged on twitter as #NoWin) is ecosystem.  Stephen Elop’s vision apparently stops short of a Linux-powered mobile solution.  Either the newly-minted Nokia CEO can’t see how to monetize it or thinks it hasn’t happened fast enough for him– pick your choice of pundit assessments here.

Several people have asked me to put my thoughts down on Nokia’s new partnership with Microsoft.  Twitter just isn’t the place for it; several 140-characters-or-less postings were met with responses quite distant from where I was going.  I’ll try to say something useful and coherent– but keep in mind this will be an opinion piece.  Very personal.  And lengthy.

Propagating a novel operating system (OS) can often be a frustrating chicken-vs-egg scenario, as many abandoned platforms and even current ones like Linux can demonstrate.  An OS won’t gain many converts without a reasonable stream of ready-made applications as well as the necessary ecosystem support (especially device drivers).  In open source contexts, this is compounded by Digital Rights Management (DRM) and similar sticky, usually legal, bogeys.

One of the biggest challenges facing the MeeGo venture will be creating tangible interest around its (eventual) offerings.  iOS and
Android enjoy the buzz right now, the latter now benefiting more than the former.  At some point MeeGo as a product (or family of products) needs to establish the same sort of excitement if it is to seize significant market share.

It’s only natural to assume that any corporate entity utilizing MeeGo in some manner would craft unique marketing campaigns for their implementations.  But grassroots or community-led marketing is something else entirely.  

Grand Canyons

As shown on MeeGo’s wiki page for marketing, there is no shortage of activities and areas needing attention from the MeeGo community.  Some parts are already gaining traction, such as the local meetups (and even one national), but there are still gaps looking for filler.

The biggest potholes lie between idea and execution, and questions around funding expose the most noticeable hole.  That was a major hangup for Maemo outreach.  Volunteers traditionally don’t mind spending time on an effort in which they believe, but expensing materials, travel fare and hotel rooms can be a blocker.

Following email list discussion on this topic, a “bug” report was created yesterday to get this rectified for MeeGo community outreach.  Hopefully the recent addition of A Linux Foundation employee chartered to manage policy and process will go a long way toward addressing this need.  More on that in a future article.

Echoing Examples

Funding aside, presentations are a relatively easy method of sharing the MeeGo story.  Generic and reference examples already exist to get speakers started, and surely more will come.  I have in mind a multi-part series that starts with the development of community marketing resources and processes, and then guides hopeful community marketeers down the road to compelling presentations.

The plan is to share this series of successes, ideas and iconic practices at various MeeGo-relevant events throughout this year as well as on the usual venues such as this blog and Slideshare.  Feel free to reuse or reference any materials I create for this purpose.

Getting Grounded

MeeGo advocates need to be prepared to face a significant amount of cynicism, especially while the solution is so immature.  Tempering enthusiasm with solid facts and maybe a little humility should help defuse that sort of response.  Still, passion is an important part of effective marketing so don’t lose the fire completely!

Stay tuned for a continuation of this subject, and I hope to see you at future events!

Filed under: Into Outreach, Mentioning Maemo, Mentioning MeeGo, The Write Stuff, Views and Reviews Tagged: community, forumnokia, grassroots, LinkedIn, Linux Foundation, market, marketing, MeeGo, open source, outreach