I’m curious what type of community approach Roon Labs is envisioning.
Are you taking a taking an approach that is akin to open source, etc? Fostering an active community, with engaged members in (public) beta tests etc?
Or should I view this much more as a traditional product company, with a hard product and a community that is more focussed on fans and issues?
We are actually in the process of open sourcing some our of development efforts (GUI Engine, Image and Audio decoders, etc…), but our product will not be OSS.
At the moment, we have an extensive beta program. It is filled with quite a few (a hundred, maybe more?) of participants of all sorts.
What we have been doing so far behind closed doors has been much more like you are thinking in your second paragraph, however because we are a small team, of under 10 employees, getting to everyone’s feedback is not going to happen. That’s why we limited the beta program. Even now, I have many people I would love to be beta testers, but our “Beta Program Manager” keeps shoving them to the end of a long list and taking them in batches.
I hope we wont be so traditional, as there is very little about us that is traditional.
Thanks @danny, that makes sense.
You clearly indicate your dance card is full on the beta side, but if you find room in the after party…
What sort of hardware solution do you plan to offer?
No plans at the moment, just some brainstorming. We know how to do it, and I think we want to do it.
But remember, we are just getting started. I’d like to focus on the software for now. Maybe next year we can look to do something in this space. No promises though…
Have to give some kudos to team Roon!
I am really positively enthused by the openness, responsiveness and engagement of the team here on the forum!
Great spin out conversion and a really great way to create excitement. Awesome.
Fostering active community? Check!