Community liaisons instead of community managers
The relationship between communities and the companies that are involved in them is always a tricky thing to navigate well.
So I was interested to see that Maemo is holding an election for a Community Council that will "represent the community’s interests to Nokia, and to co-ordinate community initiatives". It's the first time I've heard of a community electing community representatives to work with the company. Usually you see the company hiring community managers to work with the community!
I think this is an excellent idea because usually the issues aren't around the community hearing the company but rather the company hearing the community. (Not because they don't want to but because it's difficult for a "company" to hear all the traffic in the mailing lists.) By electing community members to be the voice of the community, the Maemo project is giving companies an easy way to work with them.
While navigating the relationships between companies and communities is always tricky, I think Nokia and Maemo are doing really well.
