Názory k článku Neo FreeRunner: první doteky

Design je čistě subjektivní záležitost, mě se například Freerunner líbí, naproti tomu iPhone mi připadá odporný.

a chcel som to stripnut ale kedze ste isto zdatny aj v eng nie len v dizajne. Takych ako Vy su tony, co nepochopili ze to nieje o dizajne, zatial.

Dear Community


Design.

Many people seem to expect an explanation of "design" from Openmoko. This isn't going to happen. At least not today. Design isn't something static that I can stop and say here is exactly what Openmoko wants. 1+1 = 2. We try not to talk so much about features or design styles of future products. For the simple reason that we’re not so sure what they will look like ourselves. Design, for us, is the process in which we start by pursuing a few essential ideas and allow for the final result to come into being. Notice that I am not talking about moving pixels. Nor I'm not talking about colors or fonts. Design, in my opinion, is not about technical skill. It's about personal struggle. It's the process by which you relentlessly force yourself to focus on exposing your essential ideas. This cannot be patched and merged like source codes. Imagine Malevich and Monet each painting half of the same painting. The result would surely depress them both. Being open doesn't mean we put the essential ideas behind each product to a public vote. Being open means we provide you with the tools to change our decisions.

Like anything highly creative, design is always highly subjective. Even if I would explain the essential ideas of our products to everyone, they would not make sense in the way I want them to. Because you are only seeing one part of a very intricate long-term plan. You would need to work with us, full time, for many months before Openmoko's vision would really make sense. I can only show you the tangible pieces -- products. Our company is open. You are always invited into this space. Don't forget you are watching serious people work their ass' off. We are mechanics and will certainly yell, "Fuck!" when we smash our fingers or break things. All engineering is public from day one. It is humanly impossible for us not to show you things that are unfinished, inaccurate, flawed, and even self-destructive at times. But we have faith in what we're doing. Openness is our foundation. It's not a marketing buzzword. So my only question for you is, "Do you want to watch, or help?". Because if you want to just stand around and criticize our work, I will have to ask you to leave the shop. People are working here. We're trying to "Free your Phone". Stop bashing things like ASU. This is our work and we are in the earliest of stages. We want to share it with you. Understand that we are not even close to satisfied with it in its current state. But we can see the direction and we love how it's coming together. This is the design process in full effect.

Think of our products as museums. We're building the environment. Each one different from the next. You'll get all the free art supplies you could imagine because we want you to add your own meaning. You choose: consume, create, or both. Either way you create your own meaning. It's about you. Our design is more like non-design. We try to "remove" anything obvious. And focus on what's meaningful. We're not trying to launch a carefully crafted message with a bling-filled user interface. We're building an empty vessel for you to fill with your ideas. We focus on making products that are open and simple. Only products that are open can grow as you grow. Only something simple can be used by everyone.

My mom can install Firefox plugins. Can your mom personalize your FreeRunner?

Like Will already said, by removing a manual keyboard button we are forced to self-organize using the resources in our environment. Resources such as our wiki and our Installer are still badly broken. We need to fix these. We need to make them accessible for "normal people". Every element "removed" is a chance to organize information in ways that are meaningful for others. Whether you like our design or not isn't even the question. You have all the tools you could possibly want to change it.

At Openmoko, we're trying as hard as we can to not over design. Could you imagine walking into a museum where the museum itself looked better than the artwork? We're trying to give you the environment to self-organize. Your code. Your ideas. Your emotions. And then share them back with others. The entire point of our "Installer" is to provide a simple way to bring the excitement and energy of our community into the Neos of normal people. Why else would we invest so much time and money into things like our framework? Or even the little things like opening our CAD files and our schematics? We're building you a museum to showcase the wonderful diversity of this community. It's a foundation for you to stand on. We want your applications. Your ideas in the form of packages of what the buttons can do. Change anything you want to our interface and we will gladly deliver it to everyone. Your music for sound events. Your themes. Speak with your work, not so much with your emails. Let's organize the best parts of mobile FOSS as packages easily installable for the world. We're not going to build yet another App Store.

We must end these unproductive arguments about whose design ideas are better. Should the keyboard be manual or automatic -- this so misses the point of Openmoko! The "killer app" of tomorrow is not going to be software or some hardware device. It's going to be the social practices they make possible.

We each have our own ways of understanding and making meanings. You are free to create your own meanings. Organize your ideas into our wiki and our Installer. Make a package that somebody can easily install for a manual keyboard. Show people the power of open. Let them make their own meanings. For if we cannot organize our ideas in ways non-developers can understand, why even bother? Why struggle so hard to make totally open devices when you can already download thousands of random hacks and applications for an iPhone?

This is Openmoko. We are different. We are open to life. We are never closed, perfect or complete. We embrace diversity. Open means we are free to change the fundamental way information is processed in the mobile world. Let's do this!

Now is the time for our work to speak for itself. I'm out of words.

-Sean