• Craig Woodard / Woody14619 (audio only)
• Rob Bauer / SD69 (audio only)
• Jim Jagielski / Jimjag (audio only)

Personnel and Organization

• Motion by Craig Woodard to appoint Xes as co-sysop for maemo.org, with physical access to server if needed. Passed unanimously.
• Motion by Robert Bauer to appoint Jacekowski as co-sysop for maemo.org, with physical access to server if needed, under supervision of other co-sysops and subject to their continuing consent. Passed unanimously.
• Resignation of Cosimo Kroll as Treasurer was noted and circumstances of bank account discussed. Volunteers to be requested for Treasurer and appointed at next Board meeting.
• Discussion of Secretary and Chair positions. Robert Bauer will continue as Secretary and Craig Woodard will be Chair.
• Discussion of Board Meeting Schedule. Board members will communicate via email to determine schedule.
• Discussion of roles of Hildon Foundation Council and Maemo Community Council. Colloquoy between Craig Woodard and Robert Bauer on background of the councils. Jim Jagielski recommends to continue the process of initiating a Hildon Foundation Council election process. Further colloquoy on the councils during which Jim Jagielski leaves meeting. Joint motion by Craig Woodard and Robert Bauer to continue with elections for Hildon Foundation Council at the same time as election for Maemo Community Council. Jim Jagielski not present and does not vote on motion.
• Discussion of suggestion of special election for Board of Directors. Robert Bauer noted that special election of the current Board can be prompted by resignation of a Director and one of the remaining two Directors refusing to appoint a replacement for the resigning Director within 7 days.

Infrastructure Issues

• Motion by Jim Jagielski to purchase SSL certificates for maemo.org immediately upon transfer of domain from Nokia. Passed unanimously.
• Motion by Craig Woodard to reimburse Joerg Reisenweber up to $300 for purchase of hard drives subject to documentation. Passed unanimously.
• Discussion of IPHH annual contract for server hosting and payment by Treasurer. Motion by Craig Woodard to sign contract. Passed unanimously.
• Discussion of offering Hildon Foundation server to act as mirror for Qt project. Suggested by Craig Woodard to request Falk to discuss the matter with IPHH.

The Foundation Bylaws state that the Hildon Foundation Council shall be composed of three or five persons and that its function is to organize and manage the membership of the Foundation, facilitate and assist the activities of the members, communicate the needs of the membership of the Board, and conduct the elections of the Foundation. The membership criteria can be karma based or it can be more formal like Debian’s membership program. The Foundation’s membership criteria has not been determined yet, because the initial Hildon Foundation Council has not been determined yet.

The Maemo Community Council is a body whose function traces back to when Nokia administered maemo.org and maintains the same relationship with the Foundation Board . On December 8, it was appointed by the Foundation Board to take responsibility “for running, administrating, and managing daily operations of maemo.org.” The Foundation has agreed with Nokia to accept responsibility for maintaining and keeping maemo.org intact, including community aspects such as the Maemo Community Council. The Maemo Community Council should soon have their 6 month elections according to the rules therefore that have been in place for several years.

Although the Bylaws state that the Hildon Foundation Council is to be determined by an election of the Hildon membership, they do not state how the first Hildon Foundation Council is to be determined. In February, Board of Directors Member Bauer recommended that the Board solicit nominees for the first Hildon Foundation Council. However, Board Chair Samoff and Director Galvez resigned before action could be taken on that recommendation. Craig Woodard and Jim Jagielski were appointed to the Board on March 5. Director Woodard subsequently moved that the Board immediately appoint the three current members of the Maemo Community Council to the Hildon Foundation Council without allowing for alternative nominees or for two additional nominees to bring the Hildon Foundation Council to a five man roster.

The determination of the first Hildon Foundation Council should be addressed in the first Board meeting including the new Directors. It may be addressed in the manner recommended by Director Bauer, moved by Director Woodard, or in some other manner, such as some form of election. Unfortunately, there is not yet any Electorate and Nominations Requirements document as specified in Article VII of the Bylaws so the details of any election would have to be determined by the Board as well. It is necessary for the Electorate and Nominations Requirements document to be completed by the Hildon Foundation Council soon, as an election of the Hildon Foundation Board must be conducted according to it later this year.

It is noted that the three current members of the Maemo Community Council have purported to appoint themselves as a three member Hildon Foundation Council and to conduct the elections of the Foundation without the Electorate and Nominations Requirements document specified in the Bylaws. This was not done through any cooperation with the Board or the community at large. It was an unofficial act, beyond the authority of the maemo community council indicated above and is of no effect. It is possible that the initial Hildon Foundation Council will be determined by an election which utilizes or leverages the Maemo Community Council election process in some way, but this would have to be determined by the Board.

It is a bit cumbersome to comply with formalities, but they are necessitated by the Bylaws which were determined in an open and inclusive fashion. Since Hildon Foundation is a registered nonprofit corporation, it should be in full compliance with its Bylaws at all times. If Hildon Foundation wishes to become a tax-exempt organization, compliance with the Bylaws is necessary for that as well. Please exercise patience as the Foundation continues its growing pains.

Robert Bauer
Secretary, Hildon Foundation

As promised (threatened), I’m posting a intro about myself, how I got involved in all this, why I agreed to get involved in all this and what I plan to “do” in all this.

First of all, a bit about me. I’ve been hacking and developing FOSS for several decades, making me an old-timer. I was part of the Apache Group, the original team of Apache httpd developers who later went on to found the Apache Software Foundation, which is likely one of the best known Open Source Foundations in existence. I’ve been on the board of the ASF since day 1, serving as Sec/EVP, Chairman and President. All directors are elected by the ASF membership. Despite some vague allegations, I am not some FOSS politician; I am a coder, and still am active on numerous FOSS projects, as a simple look on Ohloh would show. Because of my work, I was also elected into the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and the OuterCurve Foundation. I also speak at conferences about FOSS, communities, licensing, etc… I work for Red Hat.

There is a mailing list (foundation@) for those within the FOSS spheres related to issues/concerns/questions about running/organizing/etc FOSS foundations. Maybe 2 weeks ago there was an email posted on that list asking for help with HiFo. I did some research and it seemed to me that the community and foundation has great spirit, great potential and a great mission (a real open source mobile OS). It also looked like the foundation was in danger of dissolving, so I contacted the 2 posters and indicated my interest in helping however I could. At the time, I was attending and presenting at ApacheCon and things went quiet for awhile… we tried to connect but due to the con, timing was bad, and it wasn’t until last week when I pinged board@HiFo again that I was made aware that I had actually been proposed as director!

So why did I even bother? True enough, up until the post on foundations@, I had not even heard about HiFo, and Maemo was just a vague awareness. First of all, as indicated above, I also believe that the mobile world would greatly benefit from a real open source mobile OS. iOS ain’t, and neither is Android. “Real” open source for me is more than just a license, it’s a community. And despite being treated like crap, from what I saw, the Maemo community was still holding up. Since it seemed to me that the existence and the health and viability of HiFo was crucial to Maemo continuing, I wanted to help. I figured that my experience in creating and running FOSS foundations might be useful, and maybe my experience and “reputation” might make Nokia feel more comfortable in the endeavor. Also, I thought that my PoV that foundations exist for the community and not the reverse aligned 100% with this situation. HiFo would exist and run for the simple legal aspects required to allow Nokia to donate the assets and allow the community to continue growing, developing and having fun… This is how the ASF works and I saw similarities.

So I know nothing about the code, and would not presume to direct or manage how it’s coded, what to add, etc… IMO, that’s not the function of the foundation or the board anyway. My desire was, and is, to help get HiFo on solid footing and then step away.

But as my initial post indicates, I don’t suffer fools. I’ve been told that people are upset with the “processes” associated with HiFo; I’ll be honest: if you are running a legal entity (and HiFo is), especially one that aspires to be a true NPF (501(c)3), you better follow the rules required, and I’m sure that Nokia wants that assurance. You can also bet that any entity that would even think of using code developed my Maemo would want to ensure that it can track IP and the like. That’s what HiFo needs to ensure. If people think they can be lazy or lackadaisical about such things, then, well, you can develop the code of course, but no entity will use it; the risk would be too great.

And finally, I would like some sort of straw poll on whether or not you, the community, would like me to continue. In many ways, I was “forced” upon you, either rightly or wrongly. Now I’d like to hear from you.

• Tim Samoff / timsamoff (video)
• Rob Bauer / SD69 (audio only)
• Iván Gálvez Junquera / ivgalvez (chat only)

Finances (including bank account issues):

• Wire transfer went through, but the transfer didn’t have the account number… All issues were resolved, except that it wasn’t all of the funds.
• Cosimo (via email): Amount transferred: $2,130.00 out of $3374.83… Where is the rest of the money?
  • Cosimo has transferred the $2,120.00 some weeks ago from personal PayPal account to personal bank account in preparation of the international transfer to the HF bank account.
  • The rest will be transferred via PayPal as soon as the HF PayPal account is linked to the HF bank account (the HF PayPal account can’t accept money as long as it isn’t linked; donations or transfers are there, but they can’t be used yet).
• Cosimo: What is the status of linking the new PayPal account?
  • The HF PayPal account was linked to the HF bank account the week before last week. PayPal usually transfers two small amounts (for example $0,02 and $0,05) which the bank holder has to verify in the bank account.
    • The routing and account numbers are needed.
• Cosimo: Where is the money?
  • Three places:
    • In the HF bank account.
    • In HF PayPal account (donations coming in from 8. February on), frozen until linked to HF bank account.
    • In personal PayPal account (donations made until 8. February).

Nokia contract issues:

• Still no final word from Nokia about the transfer of ownership.
  • Why aren’t they finishing the process? Puts all of community in a difficult position.
    • Iván: I think that might be there is lack of communication between different Nokia departments. Mokia said that domain transference should be doable between Tim and Eero. (However Nokia didn’t know anything about DNS problems.)
      • Tim will complete this task this week.
      • There may be potential DNS issues surrounding this task.
      • Iván: I suggest you both to send a new email to try to push the domain/DNS issues.
        • The problem is that connections to maemo.org will go to Nokia DNS.
      • According to Council… (DocScrutinizer05) I today came up with a plan to gather more control over our DNS records (the stuff converting from URL -> IP). I talked about it with Eero and Merlin and we agreed to give it a try and see if Nokia will agree to do it. The basic idea is to.
• Big problem: Nemein is still in control until Nokia transfers legal ownership to us.
• The contract between HF and Nokia still has a couple of sticking points.
  • Nokia/Hildon relationship still needs to be clarified.
  • What is still something that needs to be under NDA?
  • Nokia keeps removing software distribution tools from the agreement. Why?
    • The PoC at Nokia told us that SDK will be available to redistribute from our side, while OVI Store or other commercial software won’t.
    • Rob will follow up with Nokia PoC and Nokia lawyer about these issues.

Appointing of new infrastructure maintenance positions:

• Christian Ratzenhofer (merlin1991): Voted in unanimously.
• Craig Woodward (Woody14619): Voted in unanimously.

Migration issues (including those questions brought up by Eero, copied below):

• OSUOSL: Very reputable.– No contact in last week.
• IPHH: Very reasonable terms (free).
  • Will send contract soon.
• Rob to execute contract if the terms (especially about the hardware) are agreeable.
  • If IPHH’s contract is good, we will go with them.

Board and Council relationship/dynamic:

• Council is free to vote to appoint repo maintainers as long as they’re community members (and not paid).
  • To be clear, this is only for maemo.org, not any other domain or project that Hildon Foundation might do.
• This does not apply to SysAdmins, which the Foundation would like to be involved in choosing and accepting for roles.
• Currently, there is only one manager: Joerg and one administrator: Falk. In the future, we hope that there are several SysAdmins.

Ubuntu:

• Canonical to release Ubuntu “mobile” source code soon (see: Ubuntu for Phones).
  • Rob to send email to community in order to see how open the Ubuntu code is and how it might fit with Maemo.
• We need to figure out if there are duplicated efforts, etc.
  • Can we work with them to accompish any mutual goals?
    • For instance, can we supply extras?

Iván’s resignation from the Board and Council:

• Will send resignation later.* Need to find replacement.
  • Iván: A few proposals: Cosimo Kroll (obviously), Craig Woodward, and Alexander Kozhevnikov (Mentalist Traceur).

Meeting concluded.

• Tim Samoff / timsamoff (video)
• Iván Gálvez Junquera / ivgalvez (audio only)
• Rob Bauer / SD69 (audio only)

New HFO Support Staff:

• Ryan Abel (generalantilles) appointed as Communications Manager (to handle online and social publication of HFO communication).
  • Hildon Foundation Board voted unanimously.
• Based on his offer to help, ask Mathew Hart (flynx) to review HFO website and offer improved and more detailed content.

Finance Status:

• Cosimo:
  •  What is the financial status of HFO?
    • Cosimo’s response (voa email): “Every day we get on average about $50 US of donations.”
  •  Have there been any additional donations?
    • Cosimo’s response (via email): ”Yes, all the time. I can’t update the list in real time. So I’m updating it on a monthly basis, or semi-monthly if needed.”
  •  Has the original donation money been transfered from PayPal to the HFO bank account?
    • Cosimo’s response (via email): ”No. We agreed to wait with that until HFO has its own PayPal account. Then there are no more donations to my PayPal account so that I can transfer the money all in one transfer to safe international transfer fees.”
      • Update: An HFO PayPal account has since been created.

HFO Ovi Store Account:

• Has an account already been created?
  • After investigation: Not yet.
  • Cosimo: The HFO bank account will have to be connected with the Ovi Store account.
• Maemo Community Council will be in charge for approving contributed apps for HFO Ovi Account.
  • It is the Hildon Foundation Board’s opinion that these apps should be maemo.org related (e.g., TMO app for N9, TMO link for N800, etc.).

Maemo.org Server Status:

• The Nokia server will cease to support maemo.org on 1 March 2013.
• Currently Nemein is charging $500 per month for server support.
• Joerg Reisenweber suggested the option of using Oregon State University’s Open Source Lab (http://osuosl.org).
  • This seems like a very good idea to pursue.
• Whatever the option, the Maemo Community Council needs to make a decision very soon.
• Joerg Reisenweber asked for Hildon Foundation Board to give approval in assigning Falk Stern (fstern) as maemo.org SysOp.
  • Hildon Foundation Board grants approval.

Maemo.org/Maemo.com Transferance from Nokia:

• Tim still working on transfering domain names. He will send a new email request.
• Rob is waiting to hear back about contractual issues (hopefully next week), specifically, agreements about software distribution.

Open Invention Network (OIN):

• OIN has approached HFO with an offer to help with FOSS patenting issues. Unfortunately, they do not cover mobile devices, so help is not needed at this time.
  • Update: OIN has begun supporting mobile technologies.

Unified Letter for Potential Donors:

• Tim needs to finish the first draft of the letter and send to the rest of the Board for review and edits.

TMO Reorg:

• We will potentially be adding Mer, Nemo, and Sailfish OS categories to the MeeGo subforum on TMO.
  • Possibly reengage Jolla about upcoming TMO reorganisation and ask for their input.
  • We must have a public conversation on TMO in order to have community buy in (or not).
  • Hildon Foundation Board to discuss these issues in more detail via email.

Sratchbox.org:

• Need to ask Nemein about the possibility of migrating the website and services to the same server that maemo.org is on.
  • And, once done, could some of the common services (repos, Bugzilla, etc.) be merged in order to cut down on maintenance, etc.?

Meeting concluded.

Thank you for your response to our Open Letter. As you can see from the community conversation regarding your response — here, as well as various social media circles — most of our members want more. The Hildon Foundation appreciate the invitation to become “true pioneers,” but in all honesty, the Maemo community has been a true pioneer for many years now as a unique open source initiative combining developers and users with a community repository of applications and platform components.

This being said, we understand that Jolla is a future that we would like to help make successful if possible. Currently, neither Jolla nor any Jolla affiliates affiliates (Mer, Nemo, Sailfish OS, etc.) have any sort of “community,” user base, or public space for communication to speak of. These assets can be extended if, for example, you are interested in a community repository, cross-platform development, or helping developers migrate to Sailfish. We had already intended to provide a public space for Jolla/Nemo/Sailfish and will continue to do so regardless. Would Jolla like to help with any of these efforts that will benefit Jolla?

We thank you for indicating on our website that Jolla agrees to support a Sailfish on N900 project. Of course, our community contains the world’s most knowledgeable developers on the N900 device. We would promote and host the project in a variety of ways to leverage our existing expertise and bring in new participants.

What type of support and/or cooperation does Jolla envision providing?

Thank you,
The Hildon Foundation

Happy New Year! And, congratulations on your successful launch in November. We were all watching in hopeful anticipation and were pleasantly surprised. You are doing things that many of us never thought possible.

Like Jolla’s open ecosystem, Hildon Foundation has also been born as the only fully incorporated, non-profit organization with a mission to promote open source software derived from Maemo. So, naturally, it makes sense that our organizations should cooperate with each other. Hopefully, you won’t mind that we’re publishing this as an “open letter” on our blog (http://hildonfoundation.org/open-letter-fr…ation-to-jolla/) in the hopes that a greater community dialog will occur. If you would like us to conduct any of our conversations privately, just let us know.

As some of you are aware, the Hildon Foundation finds itself in quite a difficult spot at this new year with the impending departure of Nokia. Not only are we gaining full control of the maemo.org infrastructure (housing, developing, and supporting related open source software), and receiving pleas from N9/950 users who need a new space for community and support, but we are also taking over all financial responsibilities. Thankfully, after our initial fundraising effort, we have received over $2,000.00 US from our gracious community members. But, we need more.

In fact, we are now in the process of finding willing sponsors of all types to help fund our open software ecosystem. This is why we’re writing to you. We would like you to consider sponsoring or working with Hildon Foundation in some way. In particular, we would also like to open the community venue for Sailfish OS.

In our eyes, it would be hard to deny that the Hildon Foundation would be a beneficial advocate for Jolla. Jolla is special to us. In essence, you are Maemo’s sister. And, in all honesty, we would like to support you. In fact, we have been quite supportive to many projects and initiatives over the years based on these “gifts” (both downstream and upstream).

Some examples of the work that has been done over the past years include:

• Very intensive Google Summer of Code application development
• Three successful Coding Competitions
• Extensive progress in CSSU development
• Over 100 million software downloads
• Unified development efforts for much open source software (Linux, Mozilla, Debian, etc.)
• An Extras repository full of QA tested community applications
• Crowd-sourced brainstorming of all types
• Major global conferences (under Nokia’s sponsorship)
• Developer Device programs
• Local meetups and hackfests
• General community evangelism
• Etc.

Still, the track record doesn’t address the current challenges or pay the bills. We would welcome discussion about a relationship between our organizations… If anything, we would like to form a friendship. If Jolla would be willing to become a sponsor and aid us in promoting the open source software aspects of Jolla and Sailfish — or, possibly even foot the bill — we would offer valuable community support to Jolla. In fact, we see a huge possibility of the Hildon Foundation becoming a part of the Jolla ecosystem or Sailfish Alliance itself.

Thank you for considering this suggestion of formal cooperation. Regardless of the outcome, we wish Jolla nothing but success, for this year and for the unforeseeable future.

Best Regards,
The Hildon Foundation

As we move into the new year, we’re also faced with a very new phase of life — that is, complete control of the maemo.org infrastructure, meaning community governance of the Maemo Community and everything that it implies (community servers and software repositories, various maemo-related software and technology, the talk.maemo.org forum and wiki, etc.). It’s a lot to fathom, but we are certain that if any community can handle it, this one can.

Fundraising

Likewise, most of you know that the new changes require that we, as a community, foot the bill for all of these new responsibilities. Late last year, we began a fundraising drive that began on TMO and then received a permanent home at http://hildonfoundation.org/support/. If you haven’t donated yet, please consider it. You may donate any amount. Just keep in mind that you money really matters — it is what will help to keep this community alive and functioning.

Volunteers

Now, more than ever, we need your help. We need those who can donate to donate, of course. But, we also a need a President and others with advanced business-related skills such as accounting, marketing, public relations, and social media, just to mention just a few. We especially need those who can manage the technical infrastructure to step up and volunteer. There are many new ways you can now contribute even if you are not a software developer or engineer.

Sponsorship

Speaking of money, it is one of the reasons why we are asking for your ear — and cooperation — again. In the coming weeks, we are going to be asking a number of open source companies and projects to also consider sponsoring the Maemo cause. During the past eight years, Maemo has done more for open source than just housing a niche mobile OS. If you think about it, technologies such as Linux, Debian, GNOME, Qt, Mozilla (and a whole lot more) have all benefited from both downstream and upstream support and enhancements due to this community. Similarly, that corporations and technology of all sorts can flourish with the support of open source advocates. And, if you didn’t know this already, the Maemo Community has become one of the largest open source communities in the world, currently standing at approximately 60,000 members, 5,000 of you being active participants in some way or another.

So who are some good candidates who might sponsor Maemo?

As stated, there are several initiatives whom we might approach. But, these decisions shouldn’t just be made by the Hildon Foundation or the Maemo Community Council. They should be made by you — active, participating Maemo Community members — as well. Do you have any ideas? Are you in a position where you can help us contact someone you know or work with? Please let us know.

Open Communication

One of the things that the Hildon Foundation will attempt to do (when practical) is keep communications relating to possible community sponsorship in the open. So, keep this in mind when giving us your suggestions. We will have a standard, unified letter drafted soon in which we can send to any potential sponsors — and the community at large. Hopefully, this will help to create a cohesive conversation about our community in which every voice is heard.

Jolla

One obvious candidate that we are going to contact is Jolla. Not only does Jolla find its roots in the history of Maemo, but many of the people who started Jolla come from this community and from Nokia. You will see our correspondence with them soon.

In Conclusion

Please consider helping in any way. If you have the means to donate, do so. If you know people in the open source world who could help us, please connect us. If you’ve never known how to participate in the Maemo Community before, please let this be the time when you join us. Our community is important. Help us to keep it strong.

Thank you,
The Hildon Foundation

Because of your donations and the help of many community members — especially Reggie Suplido (rsuplido), long-time Maemo Community member and Super Admin of TMO (talk.maemo.org) and internettablettalk.com — we were able to purchase a license for vBulletin, the software that runs the TMO forums.

But, what does this mean for our community? It means that when we are set to migrate all of the maemo.org infrastructure to new servers at the end of this year, TMO will be coming with it. Hopefully, due to the migration and the vBulletin license, the community downtime will be negligible.

Again, thank you for supporting this community. And, if you haven’t donated any money yet, please consider doing so here:

http://hildonfoundation.org/support/

Happy Holidays everyone!