Here at XDA, you’ve probably seen us talk about collaboration. The dictionary defines collaborating as “to work with another or others on a joint project.” We take collaboration seriously, so much so that we actually frown when we see members of the community not take it as seriously. What makes us even more upset is when manufacturers don’t take it seriously, though that rant is for another day.

There have been numerous instances of OEMs that have claimed to be “developer-friendly,” but whose actions spoke louder than their words. On the other hand, there are only a few instances of OEMs actually having their actions match their words, with one of those being Sony over the last 12-18 months and another being a relatively new entry to the Android world, Chinese manufacturer Oppo. If you recall we’ve spent some time discussing Oppo’s recent wins in the Android space, not the least of which is their GPLv2-required release of kernel source for the Find 5. On the surface this is not that noteworthy given it should already be done by default, however with Chinese manufacturers that is not a given. Given the negative track record of Chinese manufacturers adhering to licensing, Oppo is doing something extraordinarily rare by signaling a desire to position themselves in the Western market. Unlike other Chinese companies (Huawei comes to mind), Oppo is showing they have some understanding of, or are attempting to learn, what it takes to succeed.

As OEM Relations Manager for XDA, it is my job to contact OEMs and build a dialog with them. This usually starts with establishing a relationship where XDA, with its 5 million users and tremendous independent developers, and the respective OEM can begin to discuss ways to collaborate (there’s that word again) on win/win opportunities. Sometimes it is met with open arms, as has been the case with Oppo. When approached with the idea to work together with XDA in growing development, we immediately began to discuss ways to facilitate collaboration (!) to bring about a good relationship with the developer community.  We also knew that in order to make any collaboration a win/win for both parties, there would have to be value for the OEM.

After those initial discussions, I spoke with some veteran CyanogenMod maintainers (and members of the now-defunct Team Hacksung) XDA Elite Recognized Developer Entropy512, and Recognized Developers XpLodWILD and nebkat, about their interest in taking on a new device and bringing CM to it. All three were definitely interested, and I began working together with them and Oppo to make it happen. After a few weeks, CM10.1 was brought to Nightly status by the team.

Oppo was ecstatic, and so recently I reached out to XDA Recognized Developers, and Paranoid Android developers, molesarecoming and aaronpoweruser, about their interest in such a project. As was expected, their answer was in the affirmative. And after just a few days, aaronpoweruser posted on G+ that he was close to having an alpha build of PA soon.

All of this hasn’t come easily though, given the state of Oppo’s kernel source. The kernel source that was released was not fully GPLv2 compliant as it was released late (though better than some other companies we could name), had different config files (debug worked, release didn’t), and the kernel source has not been updated even after they’ve made kernel updates on recent firmware updates. With all that being said, the teams have done a great job bringing their respective projects to where they are today. And with language and cultural barriers between our developers and theirs being what they are, Oppo does appear to be trying to overcome those issues.

We know you look forward to seeing the great things that are bound to come out of this collaboration. And to the other OEMs out there, take this as a suggestion: It doesn’t hurt to embrace the developer community, and only makes your stock rise in the eyes of that community. When that happens, the word will spread, and consumers (who incidentally are highly influenced by what members of that developer community have to say about your products) will follow with their currency. It’s a cycle which can, and should, be repeated. If you’re interested, contact me and XDA.