Naim is distributing, among others, software products: nServe, the new Naim app, the OS and the application software of the UnitiServe and the firmware for its range of servers, streamers and dacs.
Currently, Naim does not provide any roadmap for these products and does not support any standard bug report and feature request system or dedicated FAQ. Changelogs for firmware updates and unambiguous instructions for firmware upgrade procedures are virtually inexistent.
As a consequence, questions about software functionalities, malfunctions, errors, bugs, firmware upgrades, feature requests, etc. tend to appear scattered throughout this forum. When a problem shows up, users can do little more than contact the technical service, post a question in this forum or browse the forum for old posts. This is not only inefficient. Expecially for new customers, it can be very frustrating.
Communicating roadmaps is outside the reach of Naim users. But private initiatives could take advantage of standard issue tracking systems (Mantis, Bugzilla, OpenPrroject, Track, etc.), git providers (GitHub, Codebase) or wiki providers to, at least, alleviate the current situation.
Would it make sense to organize what is known (and unknown) about Naim software in a form which would allow such knowledge to be easily accessed, verified, updated? If so, what would be the right tools to organize such knowledge? Would Naim support such initiative? Is this something which is perhaps already in the pipeline?
Please, discuss.
Posted on: 21 February 2015 by nbpf
Originally Posted by Tog:
I think this would understandably conflict with Naim's need to protect their commercial interests and intellectual property.
Tog
Tog, in which sense do you think collected information would conflict with Naim's interests? We are talking about information which is already available in a scattered, hard to reuse form. Best, nbpf
Posted on: 21 February 2015 by Simon-in-Suffolk
Nbpf, I think your project could be interesting, however I don't think this is the place to do it.. You could set up your own forum site and build up from there.. I suspect you already know they are not difficult to setup, and that way as long you are not breaking the law you can do what you want with no fear of conflict of interests with Naim.
Simon
Posted on: 21 February 2015 by Mike-B
Surely it up to Naim to run & manage such a program. The last thing any manufacturer needs is a public place to post every problem, real or imagined, moans & groans - this forum does that albeit pebble dashed & stirred daily.
I agree with Tog to some extent; in my previous life I managed just such a public facing system as nbpf suggests. Input was from all (global) dealer/distributor inputs & our own field peoples issues, but from there it became restricted to internal depts & responsibilities. Once a problem was verified (fully understood & translated) it was then assigned to a person either in my dept, engineering, manufacturing etc. as a Service Defect. But no matter what, the distributors could only communicate (verbal or e-mail) with my dept, not least because mnft people are not good at public speaking, but did not have the language skills. The assigned person was required to follow it through to a solution. When the solution was approved, & I had written up Service or Warranty Bulletins, then it was posted on the Service Defect www for our field & distributors to read & action.
Posted on: 21 February 2015 by nbpf
Originally Posted by Simon-in-Suffolk:
Nbpf, I think your project could be interesting, however I don't think this is the place to do it.. You could set up your own forum site and build up from there.. I suspect you already know they are not difficult to setup, and that way as long you are not breaking the law you can do what you want with no fear of conflict of interests with Naim.
Simon
Absolutey agree. The idea comes in fact from the observation that certain information could be better represented on a wiki (or a issue tracking system, perhaps) than in the forum. Almost every day or even every hour we witness very useful posts (there was lately one from Phil, for instance; and interesting findings in NDX support for USB sticks in another thread) in reply to precise questions. But these posts tend then to get buried in the flow of contributions and are hard to retrieve. I understand wiki and tracking systems should be quite easy to set up but I have no direct experience. Let's see, maybe Naim has some ideas.
Posted on: 21 February 2015 by nbpf
Originally Posted by Mike-B:
Surely it up to Naim to run & manage such a program. The last thing any manufacturer needs is a public place to post every problem, real or imagined, moans & groans - this forum does that albeit pebble dashed & stirred daily.
That would be the best of course but also require some resources, I am afraid. An issue-tracking system does not actually need to be bad for a manufacturer: it can be strongly moderated (but this, again, needs resources) and require contributors to provide detailed technical descriptions. These can be very useful for other users but also for the manufacturer. But maybe a more collaborative approach would be better than an issue-tracking system. I do not have any concrete proposal or even a strong opinion, just interested in opinions. Maybe Naim already has some good ideas or even concrete plans.
