Change in Organization, for a better project

[joerg_rw]

[meta: this post created on 2014-05-18 13:00, hacked creation date to make it post#1 in this thread]
tl;dr: please read #70
In an attempt to keep threads on a very narrow topic and to not let the main thread grow beyond a reasonable size (well, it already did), I am starting this new thread and moving all the posts from the main thread to here that are about efforts of transferring fund ownership from Golden Delicious Co to UG.

To the valued reader:
Some posts in this thread may sound a bit dark - this is no reason to feel pessimistic about our project, we are all still determined and willing to make the Neo900 a success story. We just need to do some organizational restructuring now so nobody feels uncomfortable with the risk (read: liability) that is involved for them by working for the project, and also to streamline our process for future work.
We are always honest and fair to our customers/supporters, but we also need to be fair to ourselves: No one should fear to eventually wake up facing a situation where the Neo900 project ruined her/his life. Thus we need to do some risk management and adjust the project organization to what we want it to be. Or let's put it this way: we did some mistakes in the initial phase (sorry, our fault) and we're correcting those now, to secure and improve the project at large.
Sorry for the inconvenience and noise this causes - we are trying to minimize that. Stay tuned, I will update this post#1 with latest news!

Thanks for your support and patience
jOERG

[update #1] as promised, to save you skimming though 7 pages of thread: in 60 minutes I have a meeting with my tax adviser, to check details about how Neo900 UG can receive funds. Nikolaus is looking into ways to transfer funds directly from GDC to UG on order of customer (if customer agrees, otherwise customer receives refund). Next relevant activity you will notice: you receive a mail from GDC explaining the details to you.
[update #2] please skip directly to #68 and also see my reply 2 down (#70)
[update #3] yesterday (2014-05-24) we have set up an interim page with Neo900 UG account data and minimalist wording, on neo900.org. We are still very reluctant to accept any donations there since we can't check (and actually don't even know yet) about shipping situation on donor's location. So for any new donors, please be aware of this fact, we can't guarantee we can ship to your exotic (or not so exotic, just e.g. IL or RU, or AR) destination.
[update #4] 2014-05-28: transfer started, stay tuned for a special newletter mail reaching you - assuming you all registered to neo900.org newsletter mailing list

[gta04]

Hi all,

I have bad news to announce that Golden Delicius Computers (GDC) has declared to step down from the Neo900 project team. The reason is that unsolvable organisational problems have turned out which brake the project progress in a way that I can't any longer take responsibility for.

Unsolvable because we have finally found some fundamentally different expectations about roles in the project (for financially relevant decisions). In other words: we can't find an agreement on who is deciding if we have different opinions and finding consensus takes to too much time.

Since a project needs one person responsible for everything, I finally decided to end this dispute by leaving this role completely to Jörg, because he did initiate the Neo900 project.

Unfortunately this means that GDC can't keep the responsibility for the funds given by all donators/preorders any more. This means we have to refund the payments.

As soon as Jörg has set up and announces some new method to collect (new) funds you are strongly encouraged to spend the refund again to him so that he can continue.

Directly forwarding the money to Jörg is unfortunately not possible because of some unclear tax, accounting and liability reasons.

The refund amount will be reduced to compensate for the development work we have already done and prototypes built&components bought.

Details about this money transfer will follow by personal/individual mails (please give us some days to sort out and calculate the details).

And I will hand over everything GDC has already developed for the Ne900 project to Jörg, so that he can seamlessly continue (potentially with some other partners), but that is completely up to him to organise and to announce next steps.

So I wish Jörg best luck in continuing the project and will try to positively influence as good as possible, but with no role and responsibility in the project any more.

Sorry and Best Regards,
Nikolaus

[wolke]

so, can someone say something encouraging before i kill myself?

[juiceme]

Sad story, this.
Do I understand correctly this is not about the technical feasibility of Neo900, rather about some project management details?

[peterleinchen]

Originally Posted by wolke

so, can someone say something encouraging before i kill myself?

Nothing to add, sorry.

DIScouraging.

[pichlo]

Come on, it does not take THAT much to create a PayPal account in the name Neo900 GmbH or whatever. This is an inconvenience but not the end of the world. Let's just wait for what Jörg says, shall we?

[Fellfrosch]

Common guys, the 1st of April is gone. Can't believe, that the project is going to fail because of personal disharmony.

[wolke]

Originally Posted by pichlo

Come on, it does not take THAT much to create a PayPal account in the name Neo900 GmbH or whatever. This is an inconvenience but not the end of the world. Let's just wait for what Jörg says, shall we?

not to put words in anyone's mouth, but this is in fact the end of the world, or at least a nearly insurmountable hurdle.

aside from merely accepting the money, goldelico was doing the hardware development.

EDIT: note that i am totally uninvolved in this project and i am merely speculating.

[peterleinchen]

Do not let us speculate and start bad vibes.
Let's wait for joerg's statement.

Nevertheless I do hope those two will find to another again!

[vetsin]

@gta04/Nikolaus
Is this really final? Will knowledge of the details further harm the project or could it be used by the community to convince "community-members/corporate-stakeholders" to yield for the sake of the project... The Neo900 is not for me but this is really sad news.
A hardware partner would be really hard to come by.
Edit: glad to know that the details are fueling the community spirit.