KDE, the Leading Open Source Desktop, Holds Conference in Malaga, Spain
2 September 2005
This year's "aKademy", the annual conference of KDE developers and contributors, took place at the University of Malaga's Institute of Computer Science.
The conference opened on 27th of August with the General Assembly of KDE e.V., the association of KDE developers. A new board of directors consisting of the long-term KDE contributors Eva Brucherseifer, Mirko Boehm, Aaron Seigo and Cornelius Schumacher were elected. The KDE community wants to express it's appreciation to Matthias Kalle Dalheimer and Harri Porten, the outgoing board members, for their commitment.
More than 250 people visited the KDE Users and Administrators Conference (27th to 28th August) and the Developers and Contributors Conference (29th to 30st August). A large number of KDE core developers, usability and accessibility experts and artists attended the Coding Marathon that took place on 31st August to 4th of September.
The talks at the Users and Administrators Conference covered the topics "KDE in Corporate Environments", "Advanced KDE Usage", and showcased some of KDE's upcoming applications. Special guest Mark Shuttleworth of Canonical talked about improving the collaboration between open source projects.
Talks at the Developers and Contributors Conference focused on making KDE more beautiful, faster, more usable and more useful for the user. Exciting new technologies were presented by various parties. With presentations by speakers from 5 different continents, the spirit of the conference was open and international. Free Software communities serve as a leading example for collaboration across cultural borders, a momentum recognized by the local Spanish government in their support of the conference.
The Coding Marathon was, as usual, a creative, chaotic hackfest. Developers from many different countries took the unique opportunity to meet and exchange ideas and source code. Also, a terrific party at the club "El Liceo" in downtown Malaga sponsored by Novell gave the geeks the opportunity to mingle with the local Spanish crowd.
KDE e.V. as conference host wants to say thank you to all who have made this event possible, especially our Premium Sponsor Trolltech and Gold Sponsors SUSE (a Novell Company), the Junta den Andalucia, the Costa del Sol Patronato del Turismo & Convention Bureau and the Hewlett Packard Corporation. The KDE e.V. wants to further thank Bronze Sponsors Ingenia, basysKom GmbH, Diputación de Malaga, NoMachine, Silicon Graphics Inc., Klarälvdalens Datakonsult AB, the Mijas Digital Project, the Malaga Port Authority and the CDTEC Project. Further thanks go to MADECA, our Media Partner Linux Magazine, Streaming Provider Fluendo, Compile Cluster Provider Animatika Network, Usability Lab Provider relevantive, Wireless Network Provider CHIPSUR Sistemas Informaticos and Mobile Service Provider Vodafone.
A special thank you goes to the Linux User Group of Malaga, LiMa and the University of Malaga, without their outstanding support this event would not have been possible.
