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Task:100Days

Revision as of 15:11, 30 May 2008

The maemo.org 100 Days Action Plan

Get the server and bandwidth infrastructure up to speed

• Mirror the repository.maemo.org to ensure good uptime.
• Mirror tablets-dev.nokia.com to ensure good uptime.
• Improve the hardware and bandwidth availability behind *.maemo.org to ensure quick response—maemo.org is too slow!

Internet Tablet Talk Syndication

• Provide an automatic way to re-list applications at the Internet Tablet Talk Software Section (itTSS).
• Each application (version) that is re-listed at Internet Tablet Talk, starts a new thread in the forums so end-users get notified of new apps as well as provide a way to give feedback to the developers. Developers themselves can also join in the discussion. This hope to help better the quality of applications.
• Provide a way for developers to easily add a bug at the application's Garage page for confirmed bugs reported in the discussion thread.

Update developer libraries

• gcc-4.x, glib, powervr, it's important to give developers much more time to play with newer tools than short before a major upgrade takes place (of course with disclaimer that nothing is guaranteed to be shipped in a certain way)
• add IPv6 support!
  • Already in Diablo, not relevant to maemo.org generalantilles 23:36, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
• Update the vmware appliance with sb2 and python2.5 setted. And more publicity on the vmware appliance, as their is already one on garage, but many don't know it.

Focus developers and users on the right channels

• Today we have too many channels (ITT, maemo.org...). Maybe have some more focus like: maemo.org for developers and ITT for end users and something that link they so software releases can be announced automatically on ITT and users from ITT can easily post bugs on garage bugzilla for example.
  • Perhaps develop a plan, but this isn't specific enough to achieve in 3 months, IMHO --jaffa 22:10, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

• Develop a recommended usage policy for garage.maemo projects, taking into account turning off GForge modules not needed (perhaps defaulting in a subset rather than all, for new projects). Further discussions on whether non-core bugs should be in central Bugzilla and garage trackers merged/closed.

• Close misnamed (and now misused) maemo2midgard-discuss mailing list and create maemo-web alongside existing mailing lists for overall discussions about maemo.org sites.

• It's unclear where to report problems about packages found in the application catalog. A single bug tracker is needed, or at least a catalog that would redirect the user to the appropriate tracker from a common start page. Or we could set up a "maemo" distribution on launchpad.net, which would let us integrate with the bug trackers of individual packages.

Increase Openness

• Identify all closed components in ITOS at each layer:
  • Initfs/direct hardware access
  • Firmware used by kernel modules
  • Low-level system daemons
  • User-space applications
• For each package:
  • Outline purpose in a dedicated wiki page
  • Describe rationale for it being closed source
    • Will need some form of mediawiki template for such pages --jaffa 22:26, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
• Document in wiki the process for petitioning for opening of a component, or its specifiation.
• Document in wiki the process for ensuring any new closed packages get a wiki page containing this information.

Beautification and format/style unification of maemo.org

Beautification

• Maemo.org can benefit from some face lifting - right now on 1280x1024 (this resolution seems to be very common to developers) only half of the real screen estate is used. With some loose block positioning both 800x480 and bigger resolutions can be supported. Maybe even specialized tablet finger-friendly look for those preferring it.
  • Resolution seems fine to me at the moment, and it works fine on the tablet without requiring the extra effort of maintaining a separate tablet style. Perhaps reducing the min-width to not require horizontal scrolling with the tablet browser windowed would be useful, though. generalantilles 21:02, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
    • There won't be any extra effort on the resolution maintainment - this can be done with minor CSS modifications. As for the separate tablet style - this really requires extra effort and if done should be entirely optional. bundyo 21:26, 29 May 2008 (UTC)
• More relevant information displayed on front page, preferably customizable blocks like Netvibes and iGoogle. Since the content is gzipped, that won't be too harming to the traffic. Blocks can be optionally auto updated for those that like to keep their browser pages open (and if Prizm is ported - even in the tray). For instance new bugs section with voting on the fly will boost bugzilla usage.
• Make links more standardized. New users often expect links would be underlined, even subtly, or appear to be a button of some kind. Don't rely on hover effects because the tablet can't practically use them. See Wikipedia on 'Mystery Meat Navigation'

Unification of format and style

• Format and style need to be unified across as much of the site as possible (excluding things like Garage and Bugzilla). Take, for instance Planet and News, two pages that should be very similar, if not the same. Perhaps take News's style and format and apply it to Planet (add the contributor's avatar to the upper right of each article? Much like slashdot does with their article category images.), as the News style seems to off a cleaner look that better utilizes the available space.
• For the outliers like Garage and Bugzilla, at least the style should largely be unified with the main site—using the same fonts, same colors, etc.

Improve Documentation

• Provide a better guide / ruleset for developers
  • Define types of applications that will be useful on the Internet Tablet
  • Stress the fact that the Internet Tablet is not a PC and apps should be created/ported with the tablet form in mind. Don't just do a direct port of an existing app. Aim for quality and Internet Tablet usablity.
    • Add porting FAQ wiki page detailing common problems developers will run into (i.e. application is killed 3 seconds after launch) and how to deal with them. Provide examples of typical GTK/Motif/etc. application changes needed to properly Hildonize the application. List ways to deal with porting of toolkit-specific functionality whether it be internationalization or mouse/keyboard input.
  • Focused discussion/guide on User Interface so apps will have a consistent look as well as provide a similar way to interface with the user
  • Clearly define what changes is made by default on gtk : like GtkTreeView with hidded header columns by default, or image-button off ...

Growing the community through better information for newcomers

• Currently, maemo.org structure is less than favourable for newcomers to get familiar on what maemo software and maemo.org is. If we want to grow the community we need to provide better introduction to the community and the software assets. Hence, the content of the Intro section should be refreshed and restructured.
• To create more clarity, I would suggest to remove the "Tips for tablet users" because the link to OS2008 web page is already on the home page. I would furthermore move the "Roadmap" page to the "development" section. The gallery page should be moved to "downloads" and someone should clean up the gallery to contain only relevant content. The presentation section is to some degree outdated and should also be cleaned up. The "White Paper" page should be really give a quick overview of what maemo software is. The "trademark" and "licenses" pages should be moved to "Terms of Use". And the "Links" should be moved to "Development".
• After all these changes, our intro section should include "Who is the maemo community?, What is the maemo platform? The maemo software architecture, How does maemo.org work? Quick start guide to develop on maemo software, and presentations" --peterschneider 10:02, 30 May 2008 (UTC)