We are pleased to announce that KDE will take part in the Outreach Program for Women (OPW) this year. OPW started in 2006 with an intention to reach talented women who are passionate about technology, but who may be uncertain about how to start contributing to free and open software projects. Since its beginning, OPW has included commercial and non-profit organizations that are leaders in free and open software.

The Pimsters (names here)

A few weeks ago, the KDE PIM team had a sprint in Berlin, and this is the report of it.

Once most people had arrived at the KDAB offices in Berlin, the KDE PIM sprint started around 4 in the afternoon with an introduction by Till Adam. He welcomed everyone and issued a warning: there were only one-and-a-half crates of beer and all KDAB attempts at ordering more had failed. The participants would have to take care of this! Read on to find out how it all turned out.

Digia, the largest Qt contributor, is the 2013 Platinum Sponsor for the co-hosted Akademy and Qt Contributor Summit in Bilbao. Digia is responsible for all Qt activities including product development and commercial licensing and, together with the Qt Project, open source licensing under the open governance model.

On the 23rd of February, a crowd of about 330 enthusiastic people gathered to be a part of the first major open source event in the State of Gujarat, India. Some people traveled hundreds of kilometers to attend, coming from places such as Delhi, Durgapur (more than 1800 km), Nainital, Bardoli and Mumbai. Students from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) in Gandhinagar organized the event—KDE Meetup 2013.

In July 2013, Akademy — the KDE community summit — will host the Qt Contributors Summit (QtCS) in Bilbao, Spain. QtCS is THE gathering of the Qt Project contributor community. It will take place July 15th and 16th in the middle of the KDE Akademy week (13-19 July). By co-hosting, KDE and the Qt Project will increase their existing collaboration even further. Holding their annual conferences at the same time and the same place will foster interaction, knowledge transfer and technical progress.

KDE Meetup will be the largest KDE event in India since conf.kde.in in 2011. It will be held February 23rd and 24th at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT) in Gandhinagar. KDE Meetup will be a great opportunity for anyone who is interested in free and open software or who wants to get involved with the KDE Community.

The Call for Presentations for Akademy 2013 is now open. Akademy is the KDE community conference. If you are working on topics relevant to KDE or Qt, don't miss your chance to present your work and ideas at the conference from the 13th - 19th July in Bilbao. The days for the main talks are Saturday and Sunday, 13 and 14 July. The rest of the week will be unconference sessions and workshops.

For several years, Nokia sponsored and organized Qt Developer Days—the premier annual Qt event. This year, the primary sponsors were Digia, KDAB and ICS. KDE e.V. was also a partner, and KDE associates played a significant part in the conferences—one held in Berlin, and one a few weeks later in Silicon Valley. Qt DevDays in Silicon Valley was organized and produced on short notice by ICS. These organizations each had a major presence there. The following report is about KDE's participation in Qt Developer Days Silicon Valley 2012.

As reported here two weeks ago, KDE e.V. has grown up since it was founded 15 years ago on November 27, 1997. From a body handling a few thousand euros for the yearly KDE meetings governed by a dozen members, it has evolved into a lean execution machine supporting many large and small events each year, taking care of legal matters, promotion, community management and more. Read on to find out some details on what KDE e.V. works on and how it contributes to KDE's success.

For KDE, giving is always in season. In 2012, KDE community members all over the world met and collaborated with a strong desire to produce the best software possible. They've spent countless hours delivering new features, while supporting existing versions with timely releases and bugfixes. Working with students in programs such as the Google Summer of Code, Google Code-In and the Season of KDE, KDE mentors gave time and guidance towards developing new technical talent. Truly, the KDE Community thrives by giving all year round.