By Tim Samoff, chairman of the Hildon Foundation Board.
Dear Maemo Community,

As long-time supporters and contributors -- and, in all humility, quite
honored to be counted among all of you -- we, the inaugural Hildon
Foundation Board felt it necessary that we put forth an open, public
statement about how we feel the "Board" should be considered and engaged
with.

At this point, the first Board meeting minutes have been published for
public review. As we hope you'll see, it is nothing but the Maemo
Community's best interests that we are concerned with. In fact, the
entire reason for the Hildon Foundation to exist is so that the
community may continue with as few interruptions as possible. So, as
you read on, please keep this in mind.

A little history first...

Sometime in 2007 this community reached a tipping point. There were many
active users, new devices, new code, and a lot of questions pertaining
to the future of the maemo.org website and the community's relationship
with Nokia. Because of this, the idea to create a "community council" as
a way of fielding community issues and communicating them with Nokia was
proposed. Those of you who have been a part of this community for a
while will remember that the idea was widely agreed upon and the Maemo
Community Council was born.

This new entity, while totally unpaid and volunteer, ended up being an
amazingly efficient conduit between community matters and those at Nokia
who considered Maemo their charge. Both the community and Nokia
flourished because of this relational reorganization.

Fast-forward to the present...

Nokia is leaving the scene (figuratively, of course, as we hope that the
community still sees some Nokia faces here and there); the community is
in a bit of an identity crisis; the Council and Foundation Board
elections are rife with issues... The list could go on. But, regardless
of these problems, we now have a new phase of community life to forge.

Because of this, it is necessary to reevaluate how the community
operates and who is responsible for its continued operations.

Today's Maemo Community Council...

Thankfully, the new Maemo Community Council is made up of very dedicated
and trustworthy folks. And, as it has been since the Council's

inception, these are the people who will directly fend for the daily
life of our community. It is with gratitude that our community should
receive this new Council. Treat them respectfully and always give them
the benefit of the doubt. They are our dedicated and faithful guides.

The Hildon Foundation...

The Hildon Foundation and, specifically, the Foundation Board should be
viewed in quite a different light, though. It is the Hildon Foundation
that will oversee the transition of the Maemo Community away from Nokia
and into the hands of the community. Of course, the Foundation is also
very concerned with ongoing development within both the Mer and Nemo
projects, so facilitating their future is also quite important.


It is the Hildon Foundation that will administer such things as
community infrastructure, managing money needed to continue the
community, and general oversight of features and functionality in and
around the strata of the community. Understand that it is the
"Foundation Board" -- regardless of the individuals who actually occupy
the roles within -- who accept and administer responsibilities.



Because of this, it is the current Board's opinion that the relational
dynamic between the community, the Council, and the Board should remain
very similar to how they existed between the community, the Council, and
Nokia in past years. And, because of this, it is the Boards opinion
that the community should continue to communicate directly with the
Council, and not necessarily with the Board. (Hence, discussion forums
such as "Ask the Board" are quite inappropriate for these purposes as
they never existed between the community and Nokia.)

In Conclusion...

All of this being said, the Hildon Foundation Board will make every
attempt to run "business" in an open source manner. We will publish as
much of our meeting minutes as possible without violating any non
disclosure agreements. Likewise, we will make every attempt to respond
to community communication via the Maemo Community Council, especially
those things that pertain to community infrastructure and daily
operations. Lastly, we will remain active within the community as
regular community members.

Thank you...

Thank you for supporting this community. It is the reason why we who
choose to serve in more political capacities like the Community Council
and the Board. There is no other reason. We believe in this community.
We desire this community to succeed. We will do everything we can to
facilitate the growth of this community.

In service,
The Hildon Foundation Board



Link: Original article.

The header of this letter should read:

Randall Arnold (texrat) is the Board Chairman.

Yes, sorry for the mistake.

That's a nice piece about the evolution of things and gives us a general understanding of what's going on. Thank you.

I was wondering whether you would be able to add to it (or just post below, in response) a few very short bullets about what the Board does and what the Council does. Yes, the full explanations are elsewhere but both for completeness and as a general memo to the reader, whose attention may have meandered in the prose (e.g. seive-heads, like me!).

@ Community council: The other thing we're all wondering is what's the timescale for the timescale?
i.e. By when will everyone be told (via TMO & Wiki?) about what, when and how the handover from Nokia to THF will takeplace? Is the end date even fixed in stone?

Kudos for these pretty inspiring and well chosen words. They actually made me rethink my own notion about the council and its role and value in times of Hildon Foundation. The warm comfort of proven to work traditions and procedures probably outweighs any concerns regarding overhead introduced by two self-contained entities (board *and* council) all days.

Congrats to the original founders and the whole board for the smooth implementation of this very important and much needed new thing H-F. Looking forward to the cooperation between council and board.

cheers
jOERG (councilor in spe)