aKademy 2008

Akademy 2008 is close to end and I this is my own summary.

Organization and atmosphere

As it always happens, nothing is always perfect. But this year the job done has been amazing and the result is relevant. We will have to work really hard to make it better next year than this one. That is good news. The people related with the organization have done a good job and I only can thank them all for the effort.

Celebrating Akademy in the middle of europe (Mechelen, Belgium) has made possible that 350 people have came to the event. We expect 400 for next year, eventhough it will be in the Canary Islands (Gran Canaria). It seems that KDE is growing faster than it used to. Probably helps that KDE 4 is now a usable result in comparassion with last year, that was just a great idea in development. It is amazing that so many people have made agreements about desktop innovation and have respected the decisions taken eventhough the results are taking a long time to appear and many good job will be left behind (3.5 series). Although a lot of work is still needed, the actual state of KDE 4.1 makes more people believe it is not just possible, but it is desirable to keep pushing in this direction. KDE 4 series will be a perfect example of genuine innovation. I feel proud of being a tiny part of this.

Talks

This year I haven’t been able to assist as much talks as other years since I had many things to accomplish during these days. In general I am satisfy with them. Maybe, since the project is getting bigger, we have to begin to separate pure technical confs. from other types of talks, since there are people and level enough to satisfy everybodys wishes. More non technicians are getting involved and they get absolutely lost in pure technical talks. The opposite also happens. Since there are only 2 days of talks, we have to be more accurate in the design of the schedule. But I inssist, this year have been a good one in this particular point.

The place

It is well known that sun and sea are a combination I need in order to be happy. From that point of view Mechelen is not the best place in the world for me. But, hey, it almost didn’t rain and it hasn’t been cold most of the time. So, comparing with other years…Mechelen was not bad at all. If next year in Gran Canaria rains, … I’ll shave my head. That cannot happen.

The job

Beside my homework, I of course attended to some BoFs related with next year event. Everybody looks happy about the job done so far. Everybody has gave us a lot of good energy and information related with present and past events. It will be extremely useful for us. I come back with tons of suggesstions and the feeling that co-hosting the event with GNOME have been a smart move made by both projects.

We need to become players of the same team to go for the 98% of the market that doesn’t use any desktop libre. That is the real goal, the true challenge. Do we want to add efforts or play the game by our own? We will be able to answer this question after next year’s event probably.

KDE-España

One of the multiple good news about KDE during aKademy 2008 is that KDE-España has born (or almost). We made a non official assembly here to talk about many stuff that our president, Albert Astals Cid, will explain soon. I’ll just say that we have talk with Pedro Jurado (ermelenas) about collaboration between KDE-Hispano and KDE-España. Good things will happen.

Hopefully next year, in Gran Canaria Desktop Meeting, the association will have a general assembly, like GNOME-Hispano. It will be a huge chance for spanish developers to show how good we are doing.