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Task:Maemo brand

Revision as of 07:11, 13 June 2008

This is a subtask of Task:Defining maemo coordinated by qgil.

Objectives

• Describe maemo and specify the usage of the maemo brand, changing the trademark policy if needed.
• Describe maemo.org as identifier of the maemo community.
• Clarify the situation of other related names and logos i.e. codenames, Internet Tablet OS, OS2008...

Proposal

This is a DRAFT UNDER DISCUSSION. You can help reaching conclusions. Please add your comments in the Discussion section.

Definitions

• Maemo - Open source software platform for mobile devices. Developed by Nokia in collaboration with the Maemo community and some of the best open source upstream projects.
  • Maemo platform - The software stack from the Linux Kernel to the SDK. It's mostly open source code originated in upstream projects plus some open components developed by Nokia. Some exceptions of Nokia and third party proprietary sofware are included in order to provide a fully functional stack.
  • Maemo SDK - Collection of supported developer tools providing the baseline to create applications for Maemo.
  • Maemo 4 - A specific Maemo release. Each release gets a codename first, corresponding to the name of a wind (i.e. Chinook). The codename is valid during the development phase, becoming Maemo n when it's launched.
  • Applications for Maemo - Programs compatible with Maemo. According to the trademark policy, the Maemo Something formula is recommended only for components that are part of the platform. Applications compatible with Maemo should avoid this formula. This policy is not enforced but just recommended to those projects released before the trademark was approved.
• Maemo community - The sum of developers working openly on the Maemo platform and compatible applications + Maemo users with different levels of experience, interested in all kinds of collaboration and contributions to the project.
  • maemo.org - Space of collaboration of the Maemo community, organized around open source tools and ways of working. Started as a project run by Nokia, it's currently moving towards a community driven initiative.
• Maemo Software - Denomination of the team at Nokia developing and integrating the Maemo platform, SDK and a collection of applications.
• Maemo compatible devices - Nokia 770, N800, N810. All of them belong to the Nokia Internet Tablet family. Nokia integrates in these products an own UI design layer and offers a set of pre-installed applications.

Transition

• maemo Linux based OS2008 - Formula used by Nokia to name the full software stack available for the N800, N810 and N810 WiMAX Edition. From Fremantle onwards the "Maemo n" formula would prevail.

Deprecated

• Maemo Linux - Still used in the maemo Linux based OS2008 formula, currently in transition. Do not propagate further.
• Internet Tablet OS - Used before the OS2008 formula and deprecated since October 2007.

To Be Defined

Out of scope in the 100Days exercise since they would involve extra work in software code, package names... They have no changes in Diablo anyway, let's work on them in the following release cycles. Some of them are core open source applications, to be defined as well if they belong to the platform or are sitting on top of it.

• Hildon UI - UI layer, formed by several components i.e. Hildon Application Framework.
• Sardine - Open development project of the Hildon Application Framework.
• MicroB - Technically is the engine of the Mozilla based browser. In practice is the name the community is using when referring to the whole browser product.
• Modest - Open source email client released with Diablo.

Discussion

What is maemo

Many people are confused about what exactly maemo is, and the difference between Nokia's ITOS and maemo.org.

To my mind, maemo is "the open collaboration project which was started by the release of a free software stack which made up part of the OS installed on Nokia's Internet Tablet series". That's a pretty crummy definition, but engenders a number of important distinctions:

• maemo is not only the software running on your tablet
• maemo is not just the website and tablet user community
• maemo is not limited to free software
• maemo is software based in origin
• maemo is not limited to the needs of Nokia tablets - it can evolve beyond that usecase
• maemo is, above all, an open collaboration project - community developed software, free software, open access, and all of the infrastructure to support it

The major evolution of maemo should thus be a move to enable the community, to help maemo evolve away from its internet tablet roots. Things which allow maemo users to target other devices, replace "official" software or libraries, and otherwise hack on the maemo platform, are all useful. Discussions about opening drivers for hardware, or adding new applications to the tablets, are not. On the other hand, proposals to open up the documentation and APIs for proprietary components is a community enabler, and might be relevant.

Who wrote the text above? Only to know who are we discussing with.  :) Also, I have just posted some ideas about the scope of maemo as a "software platform based mostly in open source components" at bug #630 - Increased Bugzilla transparency - get the developers involved!.

That would be me. --dneary 07:52, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Building a strong brand

To built a strong brand i.e. something that people will remember and have have feelings about, we need foremost two things:

• clarity about what which name stands for and what are the values
• consistent implementation of the terminology

As pointed out already above, now we have maemo, maemo.org, Maemo Mapper, Other Maemo Weather, Internet Tablet OS, OS2008, ITOS and so on. This is not helpful. In general, as less names we have as stronger the remaining name becomes. So, why not center everything around the strongest word: maemo? Why not just talk about maemo platform, maemo software, maemo SDK, maemo community, Mapper for maemo, and maemo 4 (currently known as OS2008)?

And then, why do we want to re-educate people, newcomers, and tech writers in the use of English grammar? Why can't we use a capital "M" always for Maemo? Most of the strong Internet brands and open source brands have a capital letter: Google, Facebook, Ubuntu, Linux. Why do we need to be different?

Our updated terminology would be:

• Maemo Community with the home on maemo.org
• Maemo - the open source software that powers mobile devices
• Maemo SDK - the baseline to create applications
• Maemo platform - everything from kernel up to SDK
• Maemo 4 - the release with XYZ features
• Devices running Maemo software - Nokia N810 running Maemo software (and not Maemo devices)
• Mapper for Maemo - a great application--peterschneider 08:25, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Um, I hate to sound rude, but where does one get off telling 3rd party developers what to name their applications? I could understand if it were Nokia applications you were discussing that you had some sway over, but asking one of the most prominent 3rd party developers to rename their application for "branding reasons" just doesn't sit well with me. :\

The fact is that since the trademark policy was approved no new application has come up with the name "maemo something", and "something for maemo" is the recommended alternative. We declared amnesty to the projects created before the trademark policy for obvious reasons. We could talk about recommendation to swith to the trademark compliant formulas, but not enforcement. But they might be interested. If you notice "Mapper" is cooler name than "Maemo Mapper". Also think about the opssibility to have it ported it to i.e. S60 in a future. Why getting your app tied to the name of one platform if it ever becomes succesful and ported to other platforms?--qgil 12:42, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

As for the distinction between maemo and Internet Tablet OS, I think this is a very important one. Internet Tablet OS is a fairly proprietary mobile operating system that ships with Nokia Internet Tablets, maemo is an open-source development platform for mobile Linux. They're two distinctly separate (if sometimes closely related) things. Moving forward, we should really be increasing this distinction, not blurring it further.

Let's see. The "fairly proprietary" part in the OS2008 comes mainly from the application and Nokia design layer, since the rest of closed elements are also present in the low level and developer platform. The current diff between Maemo 4 and and OS2008 would be, according to these definition, these preinstalled applications and the Nokia design layer that is not available in the SDK (covered by the open Plankton theme). Is that right? If so, then a possibility would be that Maemo = Maemo platform = from kernel to SDK. Then the Nokia N810 would still ship Maemo 4 + a set of preinstalled applications and a Nokia design flavor. In a potential escenario, someone in the maemo community could also take Maemo 4, add a section of application and a default own theme.--qgil 12:42, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

I do agree that consistent usage of terminology has been lacking in maemo-related stuff from Nokia (MicroB versus Mozilla-based Browser for maemo is a fun one, though I understand the reasoning behind it), but I don't think eliminating important distinctions is the way to go about improving this situation. —GeneralAntilles 10:13, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

It is though a priority reducing the brand soup and simplifying things that people anyway were doing '"wrong" but consistengly (i.e. Maemo instead of maemo)--qgil 12:42, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Advantages of the current proposal

Have a look at the draft proposal for definitions above. They are based on Peter's points in the Building a strong brand section above and try to assimilate the ideas posted by Dave and GA, adding other cases that came to mind while writing.

Apart from the clear advantage of unifying denominations around the Maemo magic word (leaving behind several different names) there are more that are not evident today:

• The Maemo word would be used without interferences in the Nokia products, press releases, marketing materials... All this just follows what was the practice in the media, blogs and discussions, that have been using repeatedly "Maemo" to simplify.
• This consistent and repeated use of the Maemo word can just benefit maemo.org. Nokia will offer to its customers a straight gateway to the community space.
• "maemo.org" becomes the identifier of the community, and it is defined as a community driven project. This means that the community will have more control on the usage of "maemo.org". For instance, that proposal of rewarding core community contributors with @maemo.org addresses, a "priviledge" that until now has been only in the reach of Nokia employees and certain contributors with signed commercial contracts (aka the maemo.org crew).
• The community would be almost completely free to define the "maemo.org" logo for this website, shirts, stickers and etc. Nokia would still keep the Maemo trademark and therefore the possibility to raise a veto, but being all the official usage around "Maemo" with a Nokia visual identity, the hypothetical pressure on "maemo.org" diminishes significantly.
• In fact, the Maemo community could run a contest to define a new maemo.org logo (and new shirts & stickers?). Nokia could sponsor prizes and the purchase of the related materials... to be distributed in the maemo summit?

--qgil 20:58, 12 June 2008 (UTC)