KDE Americas

Well folks, as you can see by the amount of traffic on the planet, the dot, and news from the event being plastered all over the internet, I would be happy to declare the KDE release event a success. However, being on the organizational team makes me biased, so whether or not it was an ultimate success will depend on what other people think, and not solely what I think.

During the event, I didn't even bother to check my email, nevermind find the time to read the planet, so while I know that there were many successful events worldwide, the first news I had from those events when by reading the planet via Wade's fancy unhacked iphone :P

To see that there were such turnouts abroad watching the feed is great! This may end up serving as a template for future Akademy-type events where videos from the talks would be considered an asset to those that are not able to attend directly.

The other side effect of this event is that there was a really good turn out for a three day event, which is amazing! We actually were running out of food, and had to turn away some locals at the door due to the room approaching its fire-code-defined capacity.

The large turnout is a good sign for future events on this side of the pond. We held a BoF on the Saturday to discuss locations for future events. The criteria for selection goes something like this:

• The location is not voted on by the EU dominated KDE e.V., as the decision should be made on this side of the pond.
• The event should not be held in the same country more than once every three years.
• The event should be near an international airport.
• We need a strong team of KDE people on the ground for any location to be considered.
• We need a hotel/hostel that is better than the one that was used in Dublin, but is still relatively inexpensive.
• A location needs enough bandwidth and power to be able to handle 150 people using laptops simultaneously.
• There should be local food that is eatable by our vegetarian members. If the local language is not English, then we would be best served if there are locals that can help our members find food to meet their requirements.
• Lastly, since this event is scheduled to occur approximately 6 months opposite of Akademy, it will occur in winter. Putting it in Winnipeg in Winter would be a bad idea :P

There were three groups at the conference that volunteered to look into hosting this future annual event, representing Jamaica, Tijuana (Mexico), and Brazil. I had given these teams two weeks to get together a proposal, after which we can then decide on where to go. I've already been getting emails to report on progress from a few teams, so it should be a healthy competition. Additionally, those teams that are attempting to set up events know that the other teams will support them if they are not chosen, knowing full well that we will need additional locations in the future.

The turnout at this event, and positive reports from people like Jason Harris (who has worked on kstars for years, but never met a KDE hacker before) will help to retain KDE hackers that are spread throughout the world, and help to remove the impression that KDE is entirely euro-centric.

Cheers folks, and see you folks around the globe :)