Xosia doesn't really stand for any one thing in particular but since we get asked a lot about it, the name is meant to be an acronym and originally came from playing around with various combinations of words such as, for example:

eXtreme Open Systems Integration + Architecture

It additionally has the following virtues that programmers will hopefully appreciate:

• It is short
• It has an OS in it

Xosia is meant to be pronounced with the 'X' as a clicking 'k' sound: "cosier".

• Adam Boardman (adam@xosia.com)
  Adam started his career in a web design house, but was soon employed by Zenobyte (formerly SGSoftware), and following a management split became part of PANSoftware. While there he wrote AdTrasher an Open Source advert filter for web content on the Symbian OS platform. Adam has worked in Symbian's SyncML, Connectivity and Messaging teams and for Opera in Oslo working on their browser. He recently completed a two year contract with MobileInnovation working on the UI framework for future Symbian OS smart/media/business phone devices.

     everyone@xosia.com

Xosia offers a range of high quality software consultancy services mainly based around Symbian OS and Bluetooth. The main areas where we work are as follows:

• Symbian OS consultancy: We have significant experience of the Symbian OS platform and can provide consultancy and programming expertise in wireless comms, application and UI development for Symbian OS.
• Bluetooth consultancy: We have developed Bluetooth software on a range of operating systems including Symbian OS, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows.
• Mac OS X and Linux consultancy: We have experience of both the Mac OS X application development environment and Linux application development. We can also help give you advice on using Linux as an environmentally friendly computing platform.
• Web infrastructure consultancy: Like this web site? It is based around CMS web technology. If you want some advice on putting one together like it, we can help.

If you are interested in talking to us about how we can help you in any of these areas then please contact us.

• Symbian OS software development and consultancy
• Bluetooth consultancy
• Mac OS X and Linux application development

Using technology to enable positive social and environmental change.

At Xosia we believe that software cannot exist independent of society and our surroundings. We feel that we have a moral and environmental responsibility to develop software that will make a positive contribution to social and environmental change.

The principles that form the basis of our organisation are:

• No organisation can exist independent of the rest of society. Social and environmental responsibility must inform all our work.
• We aim to design sustainable solutions. Think globally, act locally.
• Collective ownership by the members for the members free of external stakeholder influence represents the best way to fulfil our purpose.
• All members opinions deserve equal consideration and consensus between members should direct decision-making.
• The best software emerges from self-organising and self-motivated teams. Members are free to self-organise as they see fit.
• We embrace agile development methodologies as the best way of delivering high quality software.
• Sharing builds the bonds of community. Members are expected to work on free software projects whenever possible and to use the GNU GPL in all their own work.

Xosia is constructed as a programmers co-operative. All our members have the same share in the company and therefore the same standing within it. The members are the sole owners of Xosia so we are free to pursue projects independent of shareholder pressure. Initially at least, all members have one share in the company and equal voting rights in all company meetings. We operate transparently within the organisation, sharing information relating to prospective projects, contract issues, tools and programming approaches.

Anyone working as a freelance contract programmer can join our organisation. You need to get two members of the collective to vouch for your integrity and ability. We don't select people as such - it's more a case of people selecting themselves because they are aligned with our purpose and principles.

At Xosia we believe our principles are the key to our growth and they will remain constant. However, we encourage innovation and evolution of our organisational structure since our internal structure and practices are mutable. We expect our organisation to evolve significantly over time. Members are free to lobby for changes to the way the organisation is structured or run. Furthermore, a group of members can decide to combine forces in order to bid for larger external contracts.

At all times, members are expected to adopt the approach that best suits the particular task at hand. In most cases, it is expected that this will align with the general philosophy of the Agile Alliance. In particular we aim to be as lightweight in bureaucratic overhead as we can be. In addition we advocate the use of remote working technology wherever possible to lower our environmental impact.