life at the end of the universe

KDE mentored a lot of students during Google Code-in and I asked some of them to write about their experience.

Arushi writes:

At such a young age working for KDE was like a dream come true. KDE gave me the kind of exposure I have always wanted. It allowed to communicate with different people across the globe and thus enhanced my communication skills. Not only this, I also got to know what opinion other people had about KDE. Surprisingly, all the tasks that I have done are for KDE.
Join The Game, a great program working for a great cause really helped me kick start my work. The very first task that I did was for this organization where in I was required to collect quotes from prominent community members. This task not only encouraged me to converse with people across the globe but also gave me awareness about a magnificent community which encourages free software. Yes, its true :- KDE has awesome technology developed by an incredible community. So, don’t be late Join the Game
My second task that was a survey based task improved my research skills and by all means increased my knowledge and awareness about different non- profit organizations. I was also able to get an inside on what these organizations do for their donating members. Exploring the official websites of the organizations such as FSFE, Mozilla etc. was challenging yet amusing, I really learned lots of new things.
But, the most fun task was to help organize a release party. It was fun and an awesome experience as I got to create different pages and also the opportunity to advertise such a great event. KDE made me realize how much effort and hard work everyone is putting in. I even got the chance of being an amateur blogist as I wrote two articles for the parties to be organized.
KDE has helped me grow in ways which I can’t even explain. I think I owe a lot to KDE

ravst writes:

The whole idea of the contest is to show to young people what taking part in open source projects fells like. Every contestant gets to choose a task form a HUDGE tasks list, where lot of different organizations put jobs that should be done to improve they projects.
I signed up for the event mainly to earn some money and of course also to learn something and gain valuable experience, but when I started working on my first task, everything changed. I felt something I’ve never felt before; I was happy because I knew that what I was doing wasn’t just another school project, which would be marked and forgotten. It was something that could help people. To be honest, it wasn’t anything spectacular, but even though it felt great to be helpful. My first task was to write subtitles for a You Tube video about a pearl environment. It was very satisfying to see those subtitles being uploaded seconds after I’ve sent them to my mentor. Another task I relay enjoyed doing was dividing a big audio file into smaller ones, containing step by step instructions that would be used in a GPS application for a mobile phone. Thanks to the GCI contest I realized what it is like to take part in an open-source project. Believe me, it’s great.

KDE mentored a lot of students during Google Code-in and I asked some of them to write about their experience. I’ll be publishing them here over the next 5 days.

Valery writes:

Google has given school students from all over the world a great opportunity to work with open-source projects, and not only help community, but also earn some money and get a great branded T-shirt. The opportunity is Google Code-In.

It’s the second time I take part in this contest, and the second time I contribute to KDE.

When I claimed my first task in Google Code-In 2010, I felt a little anxious. That task was about improving a sky map application — KStars. I’d already had some experience with C++ and Qt but I had never worked with such a big project before. But when I got in touch with the mentors — Victor Carbune and Akarsh Simha — I understood that there was nothing to worry about! If I had any questions I always got answers to them.

This year I took part in the development of a similar (in some aspect) application — Marble Virtual Globe. This time I had more experience and was better prepared for the tasks. Mentors — Dennis Nienhüser and Torsten Rahn — were really supportive. With their help I’ve managed to improve some of the Marble plugins: Open Desktop social network plugin, Weather plugin, Measure plugin. Also I’ve recorded a new Russian voice set for the navigation speaker. Now everyone can hear my voice while using Marble Navigator!

Also I’ve prepared some Russian translations for KDE applications.

Unfortunately, that’s the last time I take part in Google Code-In. Next year I will be a university student. I am really happy that I was given such a great chance to work with the KDE community. I’d really like to contribute to KDE in future, maybe as part of Google Summer of Code, too.

Thank you very much!

Joan writes:

GCI, Google Code-in, is a project by Google in which FLOSS organizations create tasks for students to complete. KDE is among them, and I completed one task for this organization.

While I did already know about KDE, and have been using it for long, I had never heard of OwnCloud, the subproject for which I completed tasks. My first thought was “how weird, a KDE project without a K!”. However, it turned out to be an amazing project: a cloud computing server, with an HTML interface, which was free and open.

I liked the idea and started working with it. The task consisted in embedding a PDF viewer inside the interface; the viewer to be used was the amazing PDF.js by Andreas Gal, among others. I had heard of it, and thought it would be great to actually work with it, and learning about its internal API.

I completed the task, mentored by Bartek Przybylski. It turned out to be much fun, and I also learned a lot from it. To begin with, interaction with another FLOSS community. I had already worked with other FLOSS organizations, but I found the environment different (new things!). On the other hand, it was really great because I learned a lot about git, the revision control system. Used to SVN, this was a huge step forward. Furthermore, I also had to use it in other tasks, so it was great.

Overall, a great experience. I learned a lot, from it, and was really worth the effort. The initial thoughts about prizes faded away as I began working on this task.

Over the last weeks we’ve had the pleasure to introduce a lot of young people to Free Software through the Google Code-in contest. As in the previous edition the results were awesome. I’ll write about that later though. For now I wanted to do two things:

1. Thank you mentors, admins, Google and of course participants! It wouldn’t be possible without you.
2. We closed nearly 400 tasks (did I say amazing already?). There are another 50 tasks that were not closed within the time of the contest. However I am sure their mentors would still love to get them done. So if you are looking for a nice way to get started contributing to KDE here is your chance. Pick a task and contact the mentor. If you have questions you can join us on IRC in the channel #kde-soc on freenode or you can send an email to the mailing list kde-soc at kde.org.

If you live near Karlsruhe, Germany you’re invited to join us on January 28th at 19:00 at Cafe Stövchen for a release party. KDE contributors and users are welcome as are people from other Free Software projects. Please add your name to the wiki so I can plan better. It’ll be a fun evening.

You don’t live near Karlsruhe? Check if there is a party near you on the wiki page and sign up for that. No party near you yet? Organize one! It’s really not hard and a lot of fun.

I’m looking forward to this since the last parties about 5 month ago. This time I asked one of our Google Code-in students, Arushi, to help me. Here is what she writes:

It is that time of the year again when you can get together and celebrate KDE’s latest major releases. Many people put in their efforts to launch the latest version of the software. So, now it’s time to sit back, relax, have fun and appreciate the result

The party is all about you. A wiki page for 4.8 release parties has also been created for you to add your name as an organizer. The best part is that you get to choose where you want the party to take place . This is a great cause for celebration.

Well then what are you waiting for? Get started and have fun

Yesterday we released the second wave of tasks for students for the Google Code-in contest. Code-in is a fantastic opportunity for high-school kids to get involved in Free Software, earn some money and maybe win a trip to Google’s headquarter in California (been there – it’s awesome ). We’re already half-way through the program but if you or someone you know wants to take part: it is not too late yet. Start right now.

Some stats for the first half: The participants rocked and finished nearly 200 tasks. We had about 50 left. Yesterday we added more tasks and are now at nearly 200 open tasks that can be worked on until early January.

Students: What are you waiting for? Get cracking. Our mentors are awesome and don’t bite This is your chance to rock.

Akademy 2012 will happen from June 30th to July 6th in the beautiful town of Tallinn, Estonia. Mark the dates in your calendar and think about exciting stuff you could do there. A call for papers will be published in time.

Read more on the dot.

The Quarterly Report of KDE e.V. for Q3 2011 has been published. It gives an overview of all the important activities the e.V. supports like the Desktop Summit in Berlin and various sprints but also the annual general assembly and finances. It also contains an interview with me about why KDE rocks at mentoring. Check it out here: http://ev.kde.org/reports/ev-quarterly-2011_Q3.pdf

Special thanks to Carl, Claudia, Inu and Rob and everyone who helped them for working on an awesome report.

You can help make everything mentioned in this report happen by supporting KDE e.V. financially. Become a supporting member today and Join the Game.

I’m excited that KDE has once again been given the opportunity to work with a number of really awesome kids as part of Google Code-in 2011. Find out more about Code-in and the other 17 accepted organisations in the announcement.

This time Valorie, Sandro, Annma, Akarsh and Roger are helping me with admin duties. We’re looking forward to the flood

If you’re interested in taking part in Code-in as a student have a look at KDE’s preliminary task list. Those will be moved to the official place in the next days. The real fun starts on November 21st and then you can start working on the tasks. If you have ideas for tasks that you would like to work on but that are not on the list then please propose them either to a potential mentor or the admins. Be quick with this. We can’t add tasks again until Dez. 16th once the program started. Please also carefully read the eligibility requirements.

KDE mentors: If you still have task ideas please add them to the wiki asap.

Should you have questions feel free to ask either on the kde-soc mailing list or in the IRC channel (#kde-soc on freenode).

We’ve got quite a few tasks for Google Code-in now but still not enough on the wiki page: http://community.kde.org/GoogleCodeIn/2011/Ideas. Please help fill it. It needs to have a lot of tasks (at least 5 in each area) on Nov. 1st (org application deadline). I’m sure there are a lot more of those “oh man I wish I had more time to get this done one day” tasks. This is your chance!

For more details check my initial announcement. There are also more task ideas in the comments there that are looking for a mentor in case you are not very creative today

If you have questions please find me in #kde-soc on freenode.

PS: Please only add tasks with a mentor.