https://www.kde.org/fundraisers/yearend2014/
They are beautiful!
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Last chance to celebrate KDE 2014 fundraiser
Today is your last chance to get a KDE-branded exclusive postcards! Donate at the KDE End of Year 2014 Fundraising.
https://www.kde.org/fundraisers/yearend2014/
They are beautiful!
https://www.kde.org/fundraisers/yearend2014/
They are beautiful!
Sunday, January 11, 2015
Drawing in new contributors and growing the community
It's a really exciting time to be active in both KDE and Kubuntu. So many new initiatives, projects, new collaborations. And yet.
Comment often heard over the past couple of years: we've lost $person / we're missing people to maintain/lead/do $project. This is understandable, and to be expected in a large, mature organization such as KDE; a dynamic project loses people as well as gains new contributors.
In contrast, almost daily in #kde and #kde-devel IRC channels we have new people trying to find some way to get involved with KDE. In an effort
to bring the solution and the problem together, at Akademy we
brainstormed and came up with the Mission forum.
What that forum needs is postings! When a developer is thinking
about giving up maintainership, please write a Maintainer Wanted
post. When you are fixing bugs, and see a valuable bit of code which needs
porting, please write that up and put it on the forum.
Naturally we always need ideas for possible Google Summer of Code projects, and the forum is a good place to post and develop those ideas. Eventually they will be moved to our GSoC docs, but they can be discussed and refined on the forum.
New skills needed, documentation, internationalization, translation, artwork, promo, and web work tasks are also suitable. If you have written a "help wanted" blog or mail list email in the past, dig it out and post it on the forum. Be sure to clearly outline for people how to undertake your tasks.
In fact, once Google Code-in is over, how about putting some of those tasks which remain into the forum? Those teams who didn't have time to mentor during the contest can still write up small tasks and put them into the forum as well. Once you get into the habit of creating postings, you'll be prepared and want to participate in GCi next year!
I know developers often don't like forums, but guess who does like them?
Beginners and people who are using search engines. We need these
people to join our community and start helping out. That will happen
when we ask in a public place, which is the forum.
One more time: https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291
Comment often heard over the past couple of years: we've lost $person / we're missing people to maintain/lead/do $project. This is understandable, and to be expected in a large, mature organization such as KDE; a dynamic project loses people as well as gains new contributors.
In contrast, almost daily in #kde and #kde-devel IRC channels we have new people trying to find some way to get involved with KDE. In an effort
to bring the solution and the problem together, at Akademy we
brainstormed and came up with the Mission forum.
What that forum needs is postings! When a developer is thinking
about giving up maintainership, please write a Maintainer Wanted
post. When you are fixing bugs, and see a valuable bit of code which needs
porting, please write that up and put it on the forum.
Naturally we always need ideas for possible Google Summer of Code projects, and the forum is a good place to post and develop those ideas. Eventually they will be moved to our GSoC docs, but they can be discussed and refined on the forum.
New skills needed, documentation, internationalization, translation, artwork, promo, and web work tasks are also suitable. If you have written a "help wanted" blog or mail list email in the past, dig it out and post it on the forum. Be sure to clearly outline for people how to undertake your tasks.
In fact, once Google Code-in is over, how about putting some of those tasks which remain into the forum? Those teams who didn't have time to mentor during the contest can still write up small tasks and put them into the forum as well. Once you get into the habit of creating postings, you'll be prepared and want to participate in GCi next year!
I know developers often don't like forums, but guess who does like them?
Beginners and people who are using search engines. We need these
people to join our community and start helping out. That will happen
when we ask in a public place, which is the forum.
One more time: https://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=291
Students, Google Summer of Code is coming, but not quite yet....
We've been seeing more and more questions about GSoC and how to get involved.
GSoC 2015 will be happening, but it is not yet time for orgs to even apply, much less be accepted. So we have no ideas page as yet for GSoC 2015.
That said, the best way to have your GSoC proposal accepted is to join
a team NOW and work with them on triaging and fixing bugs, and working
on old and new projects. As you work with your team members and the
codebase, you will be learn how to create a proposal which fits the needs
of the project, and also find willing and able mentors willing to guide you. Remember, mentoring is hard work. Probable mentors want to choose students they can trust to complete their proposal successfully.
The time to prepare for GSoC is now -- but it is not the time for
creating proposals yet. The important part of GSoC is embedding
yourself into your chosen project.Your energy can transform a project
from one lacking a spark into one brimming with enthusiasm. Go for it!
How to join a team:
GSoC 2015 will be happening, but it is not yet time for orgs to even apply, much less be accepted. So we have no ideas page as yet for GSoC 2015.
That said, the best way to have your GSoC proposal accepted is to join
a team NOW and work with them on triaging and fixing bugs, and working
on old and new projects. As you work with your team members and the
codebase, you will be learn how to create a proposal which fits the needs
of the project, and also find willing and able mentors willing to guide you. Remember, mentoring is hard work. Probable mentors want to choose students they can trust to complete their proposal successfully.
The time to prepare for GSoC is now -- but it is not the time for
creating proposals yet. The important part of GSoC is embedding
yourself into your chosen project.Your energy can transform a project
from one lacking a spark into one brimming with enthusiasm. Go for it!
How to join a team:
- Find the best list(s) and subscribe, and scan the archives.
- Join the relevant IRC channels and hang out there All The Time.
- Search the forum for areas/posts where you can help out.
- Start searching https://bugs.kde.org for bugs which you can test, and fix.
- Learn how to propose your code changes to Reviewboard.
- Read the KDE Developers manual and prepare your development environment.
- Read the GSoC Student Manual.
- As you work your way through the documentation, please fix errors you find, or update it. Remember, documentation is part of the code we provide to both other developers and users.
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