Akademy 2008 - Day 1

Sunday, 10 August 2008 | Jpoortvliet

Akademy 2008, the annual KDE desktop summit, officially kicked off on Saturday, 9th August in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium, with a schedule packed full of talks, discussions, and development. Read on for the highlights of the first day of the conference.

Friday, August 8. There is a small cafe (appropriately named "Friends Cafe") close to the train station in Mechelen - and the staff will surely remember the date. The three hosts had to draft beer and carry food like they haven't in a long time. What's so significant to a more-busy-than-usual night in a Belgian Cafe? Well, us, of course. The registration point for Akademy was just next to the cafe, and most KDE members found the beer before they found the bags and badges. After we registered and sorted through our swag, some spread out over the city looking for more food and refreshments, while others returned to one of the two hostels or various hotels for an early night. The next day was going to be very busy...

Saturday, the introduction started a little later than planned - which was good, as people still streaming in. Adriaan de Groot received immediate attention by hitting the front table with his pink whip. Yes, he had one of those motivational tools to ensure we'd listen. He then welcomed us to Akademy 2008, and gave way to Patrick Pelgrims from the De Nayer Institute who welcomed us to the campus and wished us a great time. Adriaan came back to the stage, as he had some important administrative issues. First of all, he's looking for the person who lent him 20 Euro for the train; secondly, the bikes outside are being moved to the bikeshed. Does anybody know the color of the bikeshed? We really want to know... After we worked out these urgent issues, the first keynote began.

The keynote was given by Frank Karlitschek who talked about the KDE community. In 2001, Frank founded kde-look.org, a well-known collaboration platform for KDE. Before then, artists needed to work with CVS to be able to contribute to KDE, a major obstacle to many. Thanks to the kde-look.org website, the artwork community grew from 2 to 2000 in a year. There is of course no "top-down" control - this is about power to the people; voting, discussing the artwork, and a general sense of community. In time, sharing between the different Free desktops and interconnecting them became possible.

After this history lesson, Frank started to talk about our project - KDE. And our community. He argued our community should be what makes us special - after all, it's what drives us. If you look at the default KDE desktop - you can't help but wonder: where is the community? Why isn't there a "KDE users nearby" Plasmoid? Could the agenda in Kontact be filled with local KDE and F/OSS related events? Brainstorming further, Frank talked about many other parts of KDE which could be improved to facilitate involvement from the community. Asking questions, cooperating on documents, allowing an user to become a "fan" of an application, and more direct input and communication between community members and users from within the KDE interface. And all this isn't just random ideas - far from it.

The first draft of the Open Collaboration Services Platform is already out there, and work is going into implementing this, and more! The ideas and plans were interesting and stimulated some creative discussion. The questions asked already proved this - the talk quickly turned dangerously in-depth and technical, and went in every direction imaginable. The ideas put forward in this talk will surely be the topic of many discussions during Akademy. Starting Akademy with such an original and thought-provoking talk was an incredible idea - it sets the standard for a full week of high-bandwidth, high-quality talks and discussions about new solutions to problems we didn't even realize we had just a day ago. There are so many opportunities and ideas out there - it's up to us to grab them and do something with them!

The morning saw many more talks, from Riccardo Iaconelli about Oxygen and Till Adam & Volker Krause about Akonadi to a story about large-scale KDE deployments in Brazil by Mauricio Piacentini. The vibrant atmosphere, set by the first talks, was amazing. Everyone was enthusiastic, happy to meet their fellow contributors, and immersed in interesting talks and discussions. All the presentations have been recorded, and will be online as soon as possible - check the Dot for an announcement over the coming days. The talk about the "Future of KDE Development" will have a separate article.

Between and during the talks you can find KDE developers in every corner of the building, preparing and discussing presentations or code in every language you can imagine. Alone, in pairs or small groups, behind laptops or playing with all kind of gadgets. Sitting, on chairs, behind tables, or on the floor. Of course, the "food corner" acts as a gravitational force, a place you can always find some people. Next to it is a Nokia corner, sometimes less busy but at other times buzzing with activity. We found a lost GNOME walking around, who happened to be the GNOME release manager Vincent Untz, who just attended the talk by Sebastian Kügler and Dirk Mueller about KDE development. We would like to thank Vincent for coming, and for his great input. Vincent also gave a talk about FreeDesktop.org collaboration, and joined us for beers and more talk in the evening.

After lunch, we listened to another keynote, this time from Nokia's Sebastian Nyström about deepening KDE and Qt collaboration. While we waited for him to start talking, the screen was filled with a huge "Qt loves KDE" slogan. Trolltech as an entity is no more - it is now "Qt Software" (yes, still pronounced "cute"), continuing as an internal Nokia endeavor.

After introducing Nokia (with a slogan of "connecting people") and its colorful history, Sebastian turned to Nokia and its relationship with open source software. He pointed out Nokia greatly believes in F/OSS, and wants to learn how to work with a community. This was definitely a factor in their acquisition of Trolltech - the symbiotic relationship between Trolltech and KDE is very interesting. Nokia plans to take full advantage of the capabilities Qt brings with it - the power of Qt means easier deployment across devices. Trolltech also brought in great developers, and the KDE community provides even more access to a range of smart hackers. As Sebastian puts it - no matter how big you are, not all smart people in the world work for you.

Besides, the aims of KDE and Nokia align very well - their work on the desktop, integrating online data and the desktop - these things are of great interest to both. Nokia will continue to sponsor people and projects, and want to become more active within KDE. Sebastian tells us Nokia realizes they have made mistakes in the past - and they are sorry for their behavior. Currently Nokia is looking for a conversation: how can we help you reach your goals as a community?

Here Sebastian describes the opportunities for KDE:

Nokia wants to do a long-term investment in KDE
Nokia offers a potential whole new market for KDE: with over 30 devices sold every second, there is a huge opportunity
And of course, Nokia needs good engineers, and we've got plenty of those. As became clear during the questions, Nokia not only allows their developers to work some paid hours on F/OSS projects, but also doesn't consider the work they do in their free time to be "owned" by Nokia.

The keynote ended with a request from Nokia: How can we continue to develop together to drive innovation faster?

The Nokia keynote wasn't the only presence from Nokia - besides them being the Platinum sponsor and sponsoring the food & drinks at the Saturday evening social event, and few guys wearing Nokia t-shirts. A short talk with one of them revealed they were Nokia engineers who volunteered to visit Akademy to mingle with the KDE community. We would have a much harder time identifying them tomorrow, he promised, as they wouldn't wear their Nokia t-shirts anymore... the assimilation has begun!

Nearing the end of the day we all gathered outside for the group photo. As usual, it was a little painful, more so than last year, due to having more visitors than ever. Yes, this year Akademy crossed the 300 contributors threshold - and still everything is going quite smoothly. After the picture had (finally!) been taken, it was time for the first social event at the "Het Anker brewery". Then they day ended, though later for some than for others! Most people we talked to said it had been very productive - let's see if we can top this tomorrow...

Comments:

pictures - jospoortvliet - 2008-08-10

Yes, we would love more pictures... please send them to danny or me!!!

Re: pictures - jospoortvliet - 2008-08-10

oh, of course there ARE many pictures out there - just look at what sebas posted http://vizzzion.org/?id=gallery&gcat=Akademy2008 (or go and read the planet...)

Is there a transcript - D Kite - 2008-08-10

of the Nokia talk? I understand (understood) the Trolltech/KDE symbiosis, in a way Trolltech needed KDE as much as KDE needed Qt, the benefit ran both ways. How does Nokia need KDE? Other than 'not all smart people in the world work for you'? I deal with large corporations, and the only, no ONLY way for a small organisation to have a viable relationship is if they need you badly. Otherwise, you are roadkill. Nice intentions are utterly meaningless, and in fact dangerous because they entice you to let down your guard. From one of the blogs, I got the impression that there were some hard questions from some of the KDE folks. What were the answers? Derek (and no, I don't believe the Nokia bought Trolltech to get into the toolkit business)

Re: Is there a transcript - Bart Cerneels - 2008-08-10

The video will be online by Wednesday or early Thursday, presumably someone will make a transcript shortly after that.

Re: Is there a transcript - suy - 2008-08-10

That depends on what are the visions of Nokia engineers on how powerful will be mobile devices in 3-5 years. Saw the Samsung Omnia? It's a device with Windows Mobile that has a "desktop" where you can put Gadgets (small applications in the desktop... familiar, isn't it?). I don't know if those gadgets are the same, or have some compatibility with the ones that you put in Vista, but in 5 years, is quite likely that there will be applications that can run both in a PC and a mobile device. Maybe some tweaks will be needed, and that's where the toolkit and the APIs fill the gap. Nokia provides mostly hardware, with some commodity software. KDE provides a lot of software, and it's broadening its platform spectrum due to the license changes in Qt/Win and Qt/Mac. Both parties can gain, but the ball is on Nokia's side.

Diversifying - T. J. Brumfield - 2008-08-10

It is always smart to diversify and look for new revenue streams. I'm not sure Nokia needs KDE for their phones, but KDE would be great for their internet tablets and such. Nokia could expand past the internet tables into the UMPC market as well. They could also just venture more into the software market.

Anyone asked Nokia about software patents? - markit - 2008-08-10

Nokia was one of most active promoter (with M$) of the first try of legalization of software patents in Europe. This is a direct attempt to shut down Free Softare and small business as well. Are they changing their position upon this fundamental subject? Since software patents = kill Free Software, they have to clarify.

Open Formats - T. J. Brumfield - 2008-08-10

They were also the most vocally opposed to using open formats in HTML 5.

Re: Open Formats - Segedunum - 2008-08-11

I'd also like them to seriously modify their views on that score, because I have no idea how their current position helps them or helps them to sell more devices. Unless they have a proprietary format like Windows Media which they use to lock people in, then I'm puzzled by their willingness to embrace proprietary formats they have no control over and to dismiss formats like OGG that would actually help them.

Re: Anyone asked Nokia about software patents? - Janne - 2008-08-11

Since the Nokia-folks at Akademy probably have nothing to do with software patents, I fail to see what meaningful answer you might get from them. Remember, Nokia is a huge company with lots of departments and even more employees.

Video Recordings - Dominic - 2008-08-10

Do you record the presentations as last year?

Re: Video Recordings - Aaron Seigo - 2008-08-12

some of them, yes. it will take a few days to process the video, but then they will be put online.

Interesting Idea - Socceroos - 2008-08-11

While reading this article, and idea popped into my head regarding the KDE Community. Along the lines of the Keynote speaker, why don't we have a plasmoid for 'KDE users nearby' but make it a really useful tool where it could display nearby users as well as users who are willing/able (through stated preference) to help out with problems, and then integrate a simple chat/communication mechanism whereby a user can instantly contact a nearby 'support member' (kubuntu forum support member - FOR EXAMPLE) and get help from them via chat, video link, email, remote control. This could be done so that the plasmoid could show only 'support members' who speak the same preferential language as the user. It would require a registration system (for 'support members') where they can set their language, support categories/preferences, visibility and such stuff. I think this kind of thing (if done properly/carefully) would make support for end users awesomely easy and would raise the profile of KDE immensely! Thoughts?

Re: Interesting Idea - Stephen - 2008-08-11

I like it. As a new KDE user, it's precisely the sort of plasmid I wish I had right now, you know, for the little things like why my mouse isn't working properly despite (I think) following the instructions in the help file. A place where you can drop a quick question and receive an instant answer would be priceless. It would help if answers were centrally archived in some sort of wiki/database so "support members" wouldn't end up re-typing common requests. Ideally, this would be integrated into the interface, which would learn over time which entries are often selected by "support members" in response to certain queries and pre-fetching them in the order of likely response.

Re: Interesting Idea - Janne - 2008-08-11

Instead of "KDE-users nearby"-plasmoid, how about plasmoid that could work with any community? I could see such a plasmoid to be very useful if it could display any nearby co-workers for example. In my workplace, people are really mobine, traveling all over the worl all the time. It could be fun if they had a plasmoid that told them that "there's a co-worker from the Berlin-office nearby!". Of course, the plasmoid would be tied to Akonoadi, automatically letting you know if one of your contacts is nearby. Besides people, how about locations and tasks. The plasmoid could notify you that "You are near the store X. You were supposed to buy Y from that store".

Re: Interesting Idea - Frank Karlitschek - 2008-08-11

Thats exactly the idea. :-)

Re: Interesting Idea - Socceroos - 2008-08-12

I agree with Janne. You could have 'layer' like functionality where you can tick a box to show contacts/coworkers, nearby support, nearby tasks, nearby KDE fellows, nearby anything really. Why not call it the Nearby Community Plasmoid. heh. :) I guess a key piece of functionality for this kind of plasmoid would be that while you can see nearby stuff, you can also *interact* with that nearby stuff instantly (chatting, calling, viewing, emailing, etc). Hmm, is there a more appropriate place to discuss this?

Re: Interesting Idea - Socceroos - 2008-08-12

For myself, reference and anyone else who is wondering, perhaps a better place to discuss plasmoids is the plasma irc channel at irc://irc.kde.org/plasma .

I18N - yman - 2008-08-12

Instead of having to translate apps through some sort of weird interface, where all text strings are taken out of context, why not have a special key combination that when pressed would allow the user to translate an element he clicks on?

Re: I18N - jospoortvliet - 2008-08-12

Sounds like something worth writing... It's probably not even that hard. Question is - who will ;-)