Camp KDE Takes off in Jamaica

In a warm Jamaica around thirty KDE developers have gathered for the first Camp KDE. The following article is an impression of the first days of this event, a short summary of what is going on here. Read on for the full report!

In a warm Jamaica some thirty KDE developers have gathered for the first Camp KDE. The healthy growth of the KDE community created the need for a combined North/South American meeting. The release event showed it is possible. It has been a year since the KDE 4.0 release event by San Fransisco, and we see many of the faces we saw back then at Google headquarters.

Last year has been an exciting journey for the KDE community. The 4.0 release was made to some joy and some criticism. But the release increased activity and resulted in a fast growing number of contributors and code commits. Thus the 4.1 released around Akademy brought many improvements. Now it is the upcoming release which aims for the general public. And again the American community event is in the sweet spot, we will be releasing the KDE 4.2 software suite a couple of days after we leave the golden island of Jamaica. Of course this meeting is not only about the 4.2 release, far from it. It is about continuing what we started last year. We will continue to grow and create great software. And have fun while doing it.

The location for this event is amazing. Most of us have traveled a long way, and arriving in Jamaica after such a journey is very rewarding. It is a beautiful country and even late at night, it is warm and we can sit outside. Many arrived rather late, and met the others at the beach. Many went for a swim and there was a KDE Plasma meeting held in the Caribbean sea - the water is lovely.

As usual at KDE events there is a large variety of developers. There are PIM people, Edu developers, Plasma developers. We have them in every colour and taste. There are some Pardus developers looking for bonding with the KDE community. Of course, besides enjoying each others company, food and the weather, work is in progress already. There is wireless and power everywhere, even at the beach. As is often the case the heavy network usage proved too much for the network, but after persistent efforts of the organisers we got connected again. After being introduced to several kinds of fruit we never knew existed by a great Jamaican breakfast we started to move to the conference room.

Wade introduced us to the conference, outlining the reasons for this meeting. Then Winston Wellington, the owner of Travellers Beach Resort and founder of the Negril Education Environmental Trust told us how results of our work are affecting this place. This organisation is dedicated to educating the Jamaican people by bringing cheap computers and books to them. This year alone they opened several libraries with thousands of books and over fourty computers. As Wade concludes, it is often easy to forget what happens with the software we develop. We worry about text drawing, widgets and memory usage - here the results are applied and used to help improve the life of people. After Wade's introduction several developers gave a talk. Those will be covered in a separate article available in the coming days.

When the last talk was over a big group of contributors went to town under supervision of our "security team" (Roger Pixley and Dmitri Dawkins). After a visit to the supermarket for drinks we had a portion of the famous Jamaican Jerk Chicken alongside the road. Eating chicken, sitting on benches between the Caribbean sea on one side and the road with a reggae party going on on the other side. That is how life is around here.

Returning at the hotel, one group went to the beach and sat on the benches just before the hotel (2 metres from the sea). Accompanied by various kinds of Jamaican rum, juice, good company and a warm sea, the evening was great.

A second group went out for pizza but was less lucky. A local pizza place had a hard time serving the whole group. So it took a while to get food, but in the end they joined the others on the beach with their belly full.

Sunday again offered talks about various topics. During and between talks developers went downstairs to the beach for a swim and we also had a great lunch.

While this article is being finished your author is looking out over the beach, watching the community enjoy the waves and have a good time. This must be one of the most enjoyable KDE meetings ever... You can count on more articles, blogs, inspiration and of course code resulting from this event!