e.V. update

I've been meaning to post a quick update with my KDE e.V. hat on for a couple weeks now. I'm in between conference calls, so I figure this is my chance. ;)

Since Akadamy '08, we've had 11 people join KDE e.V. as members. They were all just announced formally on the mailing list, and it's terrific to see the e.V. continue to grow and see the flow of new developers mature into a known contributors who decide to take a step into the foundation that supports so much of KDE. This is how the e.V. stays relevant to the project as it provides a bond of trust that the directions the e.V. takes will reflect the current needs of the project.

KDE e.V. has been ticking out the progress points since Akademy in other ways as well. While Akademy is our Big Event each year, we do a lot more than that. We of course help coordinate (e.g. via our mammoth booth box) and fund (travel and lodging mostly) attendance at events around the world (though primarily Europe still, as that's where most of the "heat" is still), we also have our developer sprints. You'll be seeing news of these upcoming events unfold in the last quarter of this year as topics ranging from IDEs to imaging get addressed in these highly focused and well orchestrated developer sprints.

We also are providing support for the KDE Americas event this year, being held in Jamaica. It's actually the second annual event, with the first one having been the 4.0 launch event in January in California. I expect the location of the event to move around and about the Americas just as Akademy does in Europe. It's likely to keep focus on places with friendly climates in January/February and ease of travel for those in the Americas. That's the long winded way of saying "it's like to be held mostly in the lower USA, Central America, etc".

We're also gearing up to complete some office adjustment in Frankfurt. Based on our our experience this last year with the office, we will be moderately expanding/improving our processes there. Our first year "experiment" has exceeded our goals in terms of benefits and we feel there is yet more room for benefit, so it makes sense to strengthen this area. Our plans remain within reason and our budget while allowing us to continue to fund that effort to grow KDE e.V. in terms of both scope and effectivity. As the plans for the office solidify, we will post updates and be taking input on matters from the membership.

One area that the e.V. staff is really helping us out with is the coming Akademy + GUADEC combined event. Stormy from the GNOME Foundation and Claudia from the e.V. office are working together and providing critical support for the process. I'm increasingly optimistic about the success of next year's event as we lay more and more of the pieces in place. Doing a combined event was never going to be easy as it meant bringing more people to the table, in this case two foundation boards (KDE e.V. and the GNOME Foundation) which means an inevitable increase in communications and coordination (C2) overhead. Fortunately the command part of the equation (C3) is managed by the on-the-ground team in the Canaries, so that remains effective.

Where do we go from here? Onwards, upwards .. but with direction. We are still sorting out many details that have sprung up due to the Nokia purchase of Trolltech (now Qt Software). This has meant things such as working through the relevant details of the FreeQt Foundation agreements. We should see both news and closure on various aspects of the Nokia-buys-Trolltech how-does-that-affect-us chapter in the final quarter of this year.

We are also looking at new opportunities for the e.V. as they arise while ensuring we keep our focus, laserlike, on our most important current targets.

Other than that, one topic that begins to rattle about in my own skull is that of succession. With some of us having been on the board for a few years, it's time we started thinking about who might make good members of a future board. The current board won't be around forever, after all, and I'd like to be prepared for a smooth hand off to new bodies when the time comes. That means laying plans and goals out in the near term so that we don't end up with uncertainty when the inevitable board turnover occurs sometime in the future.

Ok, my e.V. hat is off now ... back to coding. Well, I lie: back to a phone call first, but then back to coding. ;)