life at the end of the universe

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).

15 years ago today marks the beginning of what today is a large, worldwide, rocking team producing Free Software. We’re creating programs that are used by so many people all around the world – on their desktop, netbook, tablet, mobile phone and in the cloud – allowing them to be free.

I joined KDE around the time when 3.5.6 or so was hip – I was fascinated by the code and the people behind it. Boy, we’ve come a long way since then on so many levels. It’s been a joy to watch and be a part of. Just as Cornelius, I can say I wouldn’t be where I am today without it. I’ve made the best friends one could imagine, learned more than I could ever wish for, traveled around the world, found love – all that while doing my small part in changing the world. Thanks KDE! I owe you.

But let’s not forget that the ride has just started! In the next years I want KDE to have a significant part in helping make people more free, allowing them to do amazing things that we can’t imagine today. And I want KDE to grow in numbers, scope and financially without losing its identity. It’ll be a challenge but we can make it happen. And you can be a part of it!

October 7th is Ada Lovelace Day, a day where people write about women who influenced them in their science, technology, engineering or math career. KDE wants to celebrate the day a bit differently this year. We will help the next generations of Adas find their way in KDE and Qt. We’ll do this by holding a tutorial day for women and their friends (meaning women are the main focus of the event but everyone else who’s nice is welcome as well). The tutorials will be given by the excellent Myriam Schweingruber and Dario Freddi. Don’t forget to sign up.

• How To Help With Bug Reports (5PM UTC)
  Coding in a Free Software project is a very important part, but by far not the only one. One of the possible fields where non-coders can get involved is bug triaging. This course will give an overview on bug triaging and testing. After the course the participant should be able to pick their preferred application and start helping in bug triaging. Myriam will talk about all the fine details of becoming a bugmaster from choosing the right project for yourself to figuring out what is missing in a bug report. This is probably one of the most valuable skills you can bring to KDE right now.
• Building your own launcher (3PM UTC)
  In this tutorial, you will create a basic application launcher for KDE. Yes, a full-fledged one you can then have fun in turning into a real “start menu” with your new skills. While doing that, Dario will teach you the basics of KDE, Qt and QML, which will empower you to create your first shiny application.

  Requirements:

  • Basic knowledge of C++, mainly syntax-wise
  • Beginner knowledge of Qt could be preferred, but not a requirement
  • A Linux+KDE installation
  • A working KDE development environment (Show up early in the channel if you don’t have that set up yet so we can still do that together.)
  • KDevelop 4.2+ (preferred) or Qt Creator, or your IDE of choice

  You will learn about:

  • Basic usage of CMake for building your project
  • Basic Qt paradigms
  • Some of KDE’s basic APIs such as KService, KIO, Solid
  • Basic QML programming
  • The Model/View paradigm and how to use it with Qt/KDE
  • Interaction between QML and C++

Join us and spread the word to your friends

The Desktop Summit is barely over (said bye to my last DS guests last night *sob*) and KDE e.V. is already working hard on the next conference. It never stops We’re looking for proposals for Akademy 2012, KDE’s annual gathering. If you’d like to do an amazing service to the community and your city consider sending in a proposal. We’re collecting them until October 1st, 2011. Check the dot and this pdf for more information. If you have questions feel free to contact the board at kde-ev-board@kde.org.

Only one week left until the Desktop Summit. Man, I’m so excited. Unfortunately not everyone will be able to be with us in Berlin in person. If you’re one of them, here’s what you need to stay up-to-date on things happening at the Desktop Summit:

• identi.ca:  search for #ds2011, the @desktopsummit account and the !desktopsummit group
• twitter: search for #ds2011, the @desktopsummit account
• flickr: search for the ds2011 tag
• irc: the #desktopsummit channel on freenode
• Planet KDE and Planet GNOME
• the dot
• the conference program
• slides will be uploaded on the DS website after the talks
• videos will be recorded of all talks on Saturday, Sunday and Monday and if there are no problems uploaded a day or two later

Most of these have RSS feeds you can subscribe to – use them

See you in Berlin next week!

The European Space Agency is running their own Summer of Code-like program this year as a trial. It’s called ESA Summer of Code in Space. Wohooo for ESA! ESA selected KStars and Marble as two of 20 projects taking part this year. So if you want to hack on Marble or KStars and become famous here’s your chance. For more details check out Torsten’s blog post.

Oh and hurry: Application deadline for students is on July 27th, 11:00 AM (UTC). Don’t miss your chance to show us how much you rock!

We’re still looking for more volunteers to help with a few things at the Desktop Summit in Berlin. The following tasks still need volunteers:

• registration
• session chair
• video operator
• odd tasks

Another 6 months passed pretty quickly if you ask me. It’s time again to get together and celebrate a release together with fellow KDE contributors and users.

Ingo was so kind to prepare a wiki page for the 4.7 parties at http://community.kde.org/Promo/Events/Release_Parties/4.7. Organizing a get-together? Add it quickly. The release is planned for 27th of this month.

If you have no idea what this is all about:

• KDE people will meet all around the world for nice chats and a fun time for everyone to celebrate the 4.7 release.
• Everyone can organize a party. Just add it to the wiki and let people sign up.
• What happens at the party is up to you! Everything from meeting in a bar for a drink to a full event with talks and stuff is allowed. Be creative!
• Everyone is welcome – contributors, soon-to-be contributors, users and close FOSS friends alike.

If you have questions email me or kde-promo at kde org.

The last release party here in Karlsruhe was great fun and got KDE a new awesome maintainer for Step.

And now go and reserve a table at a local restaurant (There really isn’t more to do than that, a blog entry and maybe emailing a few locals. Oh and you should of course show up for your party )

I have two announcements for the Desktop Summit participants:

1. Please register for the event asap if you have not done so already. We need a good estimate of how many people will attend for a lot of things very soon. Please help by registering for the event. Registration is free but mandatory to attend.
2. Propose your BoFs and workshops. You have time for this until July 3rd. There will also be opportunities for scheduling BoFs and workshops at the conference.

See you all in Berlin