3rd Anniversary Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk

This post is part of a series celebrating the third anniversary of the Nokia 770 launch:

1. Introduction and more
   
2. Inside Nokia: An interview with Dr. Ari Jaaksi
3. Community Spotlight: An interview with Reggie Suplido of InternetTabletTalk (You are here.)
4. An insider's outside perspective: An interview with Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla
5. A timeline of Internet Tablet developments from 2005 to 2008

Behind any great Linux project is a community and the Nokia Internet Tablets are no exception. In addition to the developer resources from the maemo team, the Internet Tablet family has grown together on the forums of InternetTabletTalk.

The man behind itT is Reggie Suplido. I had the pleasure of meeting Reggie at the Nokia Nseries Unlock party in Beverly Hills. Since then, I've seen him at the Web2Summit launch of the N810 and again at CES2008 where he is pictured above (left) with Jussi Makinen of Nokia.

itT member Benson working hard with his tablet

Since the community is a huge part of Internet Tablet success and culture, I asked Reggie to take some time and discuss the community and forums. Within this post, we'll also introduce some of the regular community members as well.

TF: When was Internet Tablet Talk founded?

RS: Internet Tablet Talk was launched on July 27, 2005. It was on July 31, 2005 though when I wrote an article about a port of Doom, running really fast on the Nokia 770. Popular gadget sites picked it up, and the site took off.

Joe Davidson, another itT member, works out while listening to last.fm

TF: What inspired you to create this site and how has the inspiration/dedication evolved as the tablets matured?

RS: I have always been a mobile device enthusiast as well as a Nokia fan. When I heard of the Nokia 770, I was quite intrigued since first, it was a new Nokia product, second, it was running an OS that was new to the rest of the Nokia products, and third it had an 800x480 screen. For me, "new" means "learn" and the best way to learn about the product is to encourage discussion about it.

I have learned a lot but what's good is I am still learning everyday. It is quite interesting for me how the Internet Tablet OS has continually been evolving. It's great when owners of Internet Tablets start talking about the device's shortcomings, start suggesting improvements, and Nokia listens, well at least to some degree. ;) I am still very much excited to see and experience first-hand on what the Internet Tablet will become.

Forum member mwiktowy takes his tablet to Spain

TF: How active is the community in terms of active users and posts per day?
RS: Internet Tablet Talk has about 16,500 members as of writing this. It gets about 25 new member registrations and about 950 new forum posts every day. It gets about 116,000 unique visitors per month.

Tablet junkie Texrat has his 770, his N800, his N810 and a fourth tablet in disguise.

TF: What makes the Internet Tablet community unique compared to other fan sites/forums?

RS: Internet Tablet Talk was created for enthusiasts. In contrast with Maemo.org which is geared toward the developers, Internet Tablet Talk caters more to the actual users (beginners and advanced) and to the curious guests. There are other sites, mostly blogs, that talk about the Internet Tablet. What I want to see is all these sites become one, but I guess each one has their reasons of running their sites and would be difficult to merge them. Maybe Nokia can do something about it. ;)

joepagiii from itT forums keeps his N800 handy

TF: What would you personally like to see in the future of the Internet Tablets?

RS: I would like to see a lot. To name a few, I would like to see the interface improved -- pull-down menus are so 80's. Get rid of the cartoonish interface and opt to go for more professional/artistic UI. I would like to see it have a better GPS receiver, and run the latest NAVTEQ maps. The screen should be flush (like the Nokia N96). PIM should be added connecting at least to gMail (calendar, contacts, documents, etc ) and MS Exchange. Add a standard database app as well as a common interface between apps to use the standard database engine. I like to see it interface more with other devices -- the desktop, mobile phone(s), home appliances, the car computer, etc. Communication apps should be improved. Make everything more user-friendly.

Thank you for your time and thoughts, Reggie! An extra special thanks to the InternetTabletTalk members who sent me photos to be included in this community spotlight.