Contributing your ideas to the Open Source community

With both of Nokia’s chosen OS’s for their mid and high range handsets being open sourced, it means that a lot of the work and development on these aspects of the OS is done very much in the open and can be accessed with as little effort as it’d take to register for a forum for example. While this access to *some* elements of the OS can be had well in advance of release, the main reason for Nokia’s drive for open source in my humble opinion is to get input and ideas from a wide variety of people with different perceptions, needs, wants, interests and backgrounds. Much more input than would have been possible within the confines of an office in Finland or the UK for example.

Having posted numerous videos and blog posts on Symbian and MeeGo, the coming changes with regards to their UI’s and capabilities etc and received valid and valued feedback, I thought it important to get this message across to our few (but vocal) readers.

CONTRIBUTE!!

While we all love to sing the praises of Open Source projects and initiatives, WE THE COMMUNITY, have to contribute and provide ideas to foster the development of these Open Source projects.

There are a number of ways to get your ideas across to the people responsible for the OS’s that you may well find yourselves using in the coming months or years. How would you like it if one of your ideas and contributions made its way into the hands of millions of people worldwide? I know I’d be happy. While the voices of the individual may not carry across to the people in charge, the voices of a majority can. Get your ideas out there, get support for your ideas and contribute.

There are a number of ways that you can go about doing this. For example, with Symbian, ideas.symbian.org/, exists for the sole purpose of getting your ideas and input. Get on over there, register, read through some of the ideas (some good, some bad and leave your comments and input.)

While you may think that doing so is a futile attempt at getting your voice heard, getting your ideas picked up is a rather simple process.

Create an idea, flesh it out in detail, provide a few images describing your idea and submit it!

If 30 people, a small number to be honest, stumble across your idea and like it and vote for it, 50 people view it and the overall feedback is positive, the possibility exists for a community moderator to support your idea and it’ll move on to the next phase of the cycle. This stage involves an expert approving and analysing the feasibility of your idea. With a bit of fortune, your idea will eventually be picked up and implemented by the Symbian foundation.

Pretty simple huh!

There have also been recent developments in the form of Symbian Developers Cooperative who’ve recently joined the Symbian Foundation in order to give a larger voice and influence to the individuals scattered throughout the Symbian community.

http://www.symbiandevco.org/home

With MeeGo, while the ability to submit ideas is not nearly as polished, the ability to submit “bugs” or ideas that you wish to see implemented also exists.

The following wiki link http://wiki.meego.com/Contributing_to_MeeGo shows just how the Average Joe can add his or her ideas to the MeeGo initiative.

Now go forth! Contribute your ideas and criticisms in the hope that you’ll make the outcomes of these projects better for us all!

Category: Nokia