BeagleBoard.org Approved accessories

I've been bugged quite a bit lately for permission to use the
BeagleBoard.org logo on accessories. Some folks have even mistakenly
applied the BeagleBoard Compatible logo (http://beagleboard.org/logo)
on packages and this is a no-no. That logo is only meant for people
doing interesting board spins of their own where they engage Robert
and myself to make sure the default software image still runs on their
board and they pay a license fee into the Foundation to hopefully help
us fund open development and sponsorships.

Anyway, I'd like to try to provide some kind of logo people can use
for accessories (capes, cases, peripherals, etc.). There is already a
list, mostly maintained by Gerald, on the wiki at
http://elinux.org/Beagleboard:BeagleBone_Black_Accessories. This is a
great place to start and I'll import all of the items listed there if
people believe this is a useful exercise (and back annotate as well).
However, making some sort of page on BeagleBoard.org backed by a logo
people can put on their products and web pages seems like a good next
step. I'm open to the thought that this is a bad idea or needs
tweaking, so please review and respond.

http://beagleboard.org/approved/

Here's my first attempt at "how to get approved":

There's no charge for being "BeagleBoard.org Approved", just a
verification that needs to happen. There's no promise your product
will be approved, but we want people to know to use your product if it
is of good quality and compatibility.

First, you'll need to send samples of your product to Robert, Gerald
and Jason at a minimum so that they can test compatibility. Jason will
send you shipping addresses and you can find his e-mail address on
http://beagleboard.org/about. The product won't be returned because it
will be used in testing future compatibility as well.

Second, if any software is required to support your product, you'll
need to make sure it is in the default images built by
http://bit.ly/beagle-image-builder.

Finally, you should wait to get a confirmation e-mail from jkridner at
beagleboard.org with a vector PDF of the logo for inclusion on your
website, package or product.

Only other feedback I got from this on IRC was to not approve any
hardware that required closed source to function properly. Sounds like
a pretty reasonable request. Seems like this is a go.

Approving accessories is a little tricky. No revision control and no source control. We see this all the time on Wifi modules. Different revision silicon and different silicon all together.

You would need this to be a direct relationship with the supplier of the accessories. And we woudl need to find a away to test hem and stay in step with the suppliers on any changes. We also have the case where the Linux kerenl gets updated every now and then which can lead in some cases to an accessory no longer working.

This will take some hard resources to do this correctly.

Gerald