TodayLast week I finally joined the Wikimedia Foundation, with my US visa renewed and all the bureaucratic requirements in place. I work at the Platform Engineering team, reporting to Sumana Harihareswara and having other (remote) neighbors like Guillaume Paumier, Chris McMachon and Andre Klapper (of GNOME & Maemo/MeeGo fame, what a coincidence!). I feel happy. I feel honored. I’m ready to do my best contributing to the Wikimedia (with m) movement, one of the most impressive collaborative projects nowadays.
Planet maemo: category "feed:eeb15882984e6cb6ff412c3c7c7bd2b3"
Lick Observatory from Ranch Grant, by Sean O’Flaherty.
Hi, just a short note to let everybody know that I’m in the process of leaving Nokia and joining… the Platform Engineering team at the Wikimedia Foundation! There I will help improving the volume and quality of community contributions in technical areas like QA, sysadmin and development of features for Wikipedia and related projects. I don’t need to tell you how excited (and impatient) I am about diving into such massive and complex project full of openness and freedom.
But before I need to deal with something more prosaic and mundane: the change of status of my US visa. Hopefully it will take just a few weeks. In the meantime I’ll have time to leave things properly at the Qt and Maemo communities, while getting more familiar with the wide and deep Wikimedia biosphere. I’ll also have time to read units of 140 pages instead of the usual 140 characters, learn something requiring full concentration and perhaps get a few samples of the peaceful Summer holidays I didn’t have with all this professional instability. Like attempting to pedal up to the Lick Observatory while, down there, Silicon Valley is pushing frantically new businesses, products, releases…
This is enough for today. Not saying “Thank You” yet.
Some personal news: I’m joining the Qt team to help making the Qt Project rock. A small change of floor at the Nokia offices in Sunnyvale (California) and barely a change to be noticed by my relatives and non-geek friends. Still, for me it is a big change, the end of a phase and the beginning of something fresh.
A month ago I downloaded the last Qt SDK, plugged my Nokia N9 to it and started writing from scratch a chess game UI. This week Miniature 0.3 Berlin Defence has been released sporting a demo UX running with real Qt Quick code of my own forge. I have learned a lot with the help of many and I can’t describe how happy I am now – even if this is only the beginning!
Nokia has unveiled what comes next in its Linux and Qt fronts. Here you have links to the sources and a summary of the implications for the MeeGo and open source communities:
N9
The Nokia N9 is the ultimate Qt-powered mobile device. I find it a pleasure to watch and play with. Its polymer unibody chassis complemented by a strong and scratch-resistant curved glass makes it both solid and smooth in the hand. Multitasking is pushed forward with a combination of open tasks, events and apps. You navigate through these views with a simple gesture, a swipe of a finger. Get a grasp of this beautiful (and open!) product at http://swipe.nokia.com.
N950
While the N9 becomes publicly available, Nokia has produced a limited edition of N950 devices for the most devoted Qt and MeeGo developers with apps in the works. We are offering 250 devices to open source community developers through the MeeGo Community Device Program. Nokia Developer has more for champions, partners and other professional developers.
MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan
Nokia’s implementation of the MeeGo platform has been released. It combines a playful multitasking UX with an efficient OS that shares the same API and architecture pillars of MeeGo upstream. It’s a great demonstration of what can be done with the MeeGo platform on a mobile device. Check http://www.developer.nokia.com/swipe/ux/.
Qt updates
The Qt SDK has been updated with a Harmattan target including the Qt Quick UI Components. The way for Qt developers to target MeeGo, Symbian and other platforms is being paved. Nokia is also making Qt core to its strategy to take the Internet to the ‘next billion’. Qt is a star in the OSS stack and is at the backbone of all these announcements. The Qt5 governance plans becoming reality as we speak make it even brighter. More at http://qt.nokia.com.
MeeGo Community Edition
The community team that has brought usable MeeGo upstream releases to the Nokia N900 will add now the new devices in its scope. The planning and work will happen in the open, just like the rest of the Community Edition activities. Remember that these are not Nokia official releases, but fun R&D experimentation open to all community contributors. More at http://wiki.meego.com/ARM/N900
The wait is over for MeeGo developers. Now it’s time to show off your apps!
Tampere people: the MeeGo project knocks your door.
San Francisco and Dallas are also growing a Local MeeGo Network, followed by Buenos Aires, Cambridge and Delhi.
Helsinki & Oulu, now what are you waiting for? Same for Bangalore, Manaos, Oslo, Berlin, Beijing, London, Portland, New York, San Diego and whoever else is reading this invitation with a genuine interest in MeeGo stuff.
All what you need is 5 ameegos happy to meet once a month. Let it grow if it wants to grow. See http://wiki.meego.com/Community_Office/Marketing/Local_MeeGo_Networks
If you want to start a Local MeeGo Network I’m happy to help you. Let’s reach that critical mass.
http://www.meetup.com/SFBay-MeeGo-Network/
Here you can track MeeGo related activities in San Francisco Bay Area. Propose genuine MeeGo meetups or casual meetings after interesting events.
First meetup on September 14 @ San Francisco:
Chronology of a success story (please contribute dates missing):
- Jan 2010 – kojacker joins maemo.org.
- Feb 16th – First Talk post (no firmware update for Vodafone UK).
- May 4th – First Talk thread started: Any interest in a friendly Maemo app development ‘competition’?
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May 19th – He goes for it: [ANNOUNCE] The First N900 Coding Competition! 21st May-21st July. Open to all!
- May 20th – Cosimo Kroll (aka zehjotkah) proposes that Nokia could fund prices for the winners (and contacts me).
- May 21st – Prizes agreed: “the winner of each category will be invited to the MeeGo Conference with travel and accommodation covered. If someone can’t make it then we can offer an N900 in exchange.”
- zehjotkah opens a PayPal account to pool donations.
- July 1st – A new category for beginners is created on the fly based on popular demand. 17 projects apply.
- July 22nd – 65 projects registered and ready to be voted in 6 + 1 categories.
- August 8th – The community has raised a bounty collection of €781 ($1019) to reward the 2nd, 3rd and 4th participants in each category.
- August 9th – Winners announced! (see screenshots & more)
1. Queen Beecon Widget by Alessandro Peralma (No!No!No!Yes!) (Desktop category)
2. CloudGPS by Damian Waradzyn (dwaradzyn) (Location & Navigation category)
3. Faster Application Manager by Heikki Holstila (hqh) (System & Utilities category)
4. PSX4M by Tomasz Sterna (smoku) (Games category)
5. PenPen Sketchbook by Ben Lau (benlau) (Graphics & Multimedia category)
6. TweeGo by Mikhail Ramalho (mikhail_ramalho) and Rodrigo Avelino (rodavelino) (‘Other’ category)
7. DropN900 by Jonne Nauha ( jonnenau) (Beginners category)
Congratulations for the winners and everybody involved. *You* are making a difference with initiatives like this. See you in Dublin!
Now it’s possible for power testers to install and run MeeGo 1.1 unstable in the Nokia N900. MeeGo Handset is not yet in shape for users of any kind. If you find the instructions complicated and unfriendly it’s simply because MeeGo is being sincere with you: stay away from it and come back later. 
There are more than 1000 people following my Twitter updates. Thank you all! I keep doing my best posting and retwitting what I find really remarkable, plus one or two lines just for fun from time to time.
This is how you look like:
Apart from the obvious big fonts, I find interesting the thick “enthusiast” & “everything”, since this somehow reflects this permanent curiosity that substitutes coffee in my life. What to think though about the combinations “anxious ceo” and “dead profesional” (sic)? Good to see “beer” in its fair measure. And “hauler” was the Wiktionary word of the day.
Anyway, thank you again! And now back to work.
Tagged: twitter, twittersheep
