Nokia seeks Senior Product Manager for MeeGo

I’m going to start echoing job listings for projects and companies I am tracking, and that of course includes Ovi, MeeGo and mobile computing in general.  The category, for those wishing to follow via RSS, will be Employing Opportunity.

In that spirit, here’s an attractive one: “Senior Product Manager, MeeGo Operation-PRO00000031“.  The description is as follows:

MeeGo Devices is where Nokia builds mobile computers on Linux. We build leading-edge devices by combining the most powerful hardware and the best open source software technologies. Our ambition is to deliver a superior user experience dedicated for mobile computers with large touch-screens that fit into your pocket. Using agile development methods and engaging with open source communities define our new way of working. Our latest product is the Nokia N900 – a high-performance mobile computer with powerful multitasking capabilities, fantastic web browser, and a rich media experience. Get to know everything about MeeGo at http://www.meego.com

Besides strong personal charisma and ability to influence, success in this role requires excellent leadership skills, strong strategic thinking skills and excellent negotiation and communication skills. With more than 6 years of experience in similar R&D or product management functions already under your belt, you have a proven your ability to execute in a turbulent environment. We also expect you to have experience from Linux-based open source projects. Take your career to a totally new level by applying today!

As a Senior Product Manager in Nokia’s MeeGo.com operation you will be responsible for driving Nokia’s product and software platform agenda in the MeeGo SW platform creation with Nokia, Intel and the community. You will ensure competitiveness of the MeeGo SW platform in a setup where decision-making is essentially based on your ability to sell your ideas and capability to convince others of the benefits for the whole community, rather than on a formal organizational position. You will need to form a consolidated view of MeeGo building blocks and roadmap with the Nokia MeeGo Product Planning team and to agree on that with Intel representatives or other community members. Also, you will execute a set of front-end product processes (e.g. roadmap process) for steering and managing the development of the MeeGo software platform from Nokia’s perspective. You will report to Head of MeeGo Product Planning Operations.

If I were able to relocate and had just a bit more directly-relevant experience this is the sort of position I would target myself.  I’m sure that Nokia will have no trouble finding candidates.

The position is intended for Helsinki, Finland.  For those interested, the listing can be found here: http://nokia.taleo.net/careersection/10120/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=623606

Akademy 2010: Wrap-up (with travelogue!)

As promised, I’m finally getting around to my final post on the Akademy 2010 experience in Tampere, Finland.  For those interested, I’ll cover most of the journey start to end.

My participation began with a request from Claudia Rauch to the community council for submissions from the maemo.org community.  The chair at the time, Valerio, posted a plea at the discussion forum… which went unanswered.  So, volunteering idiot that I am, I decided to give it a shot.  My proposed talk on user engagement was accepted, and I began an open presentation development process at both maemo.org and Meego.com forums. 

Akademy 2010: Day 2

I just sat through a talk by Aaron Seigo where he outlined the challenges for KDE.  Very stimulating discussion.

As a newcomer to KDE I was struck by the singular fact that nothing he said was new per se.  When he kidded the community for falling short with documentation and global teaming I was put in mind of our similar struggles in Maemo.  So in one sense it was refreshing that that we weren’t the only ones to battle managerial sort of demons and in another frustrating in that his points appear to reinforce the idea that open source communities can’t establish the same degree of discipline as corporate efforts.

Akademy 2010: Day 1

I’m typing this up toward the end of Akademy 2010‘s day 1 in beautiful Tampere, Finland, so please forgive any signs of weariness.

The day began with Valtteri Halla promoting Meego and demonstrating how the project has already benefitted KDE, Akademy’s coordinating organization, with upstream development for KOffice and other applications.  From there came talks along the tracks of community and mobility, including mine on user engagement (presentation on slideshare; project site here).  Even Maemo was mentioned!

I was nervous about my talk but while it didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked, it wasn’t the disaster I feared either.  I’ll take that.  😉

Geography Lesson for US Tech Bloggers

Since the dawn of civilization, defining the center of the world has been a Very Important Activity.  Great wars were fought to stick a flag in this spot, where ever that turned out to be at any given time.  Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great and former US president George Bush all had different opinions on the L10N.  Various indigenous peoples have paid for its ever-changing identification by loss of land and gain of child-labored textile mills.

So given the constant confusion around this nebulous spot it’s no wonder many technically-oriented blog sites get lost… especially those in the United States suffering from a gross misconception of world view.

Never fear: this blog is here to help.

Good day sunshine

Regardless of how one may view the administration of former US President Jimmy Carter, one really good thing that came out of it (besides a large supply of comedic material for Dan Aykroyd) was a sensible, proactive energy policy.  Carter signed off on federal incentives to kickstart alternative energy years before it was fashionable, and a growth industry erupted almost overnight in response.

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time because I got to directly participate.  I was a young plumber at the time, almost ready to take my journeyman’s license exam, when our little outfit became involved with installing passive solar water heating systems.  The basic setup was a roof-mounted panel or two along with a heat exchanger in the garage.  There was even a job or two involving several panels as well as a large storage tank for swimming pools.