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Desktop Summit 2011 Conference Program Announced

Biggest Free Desktop event with more than 170 talks to take place in Berlin

The Desktop Summit 2011 Team is pleased to announce this year's conference program, featuring over 170 exciting presentations from key contributors to GNOME and KDE, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and beyond. The conference will take place in Berlin, Germany, from 6 to 12 August. It will feature more than 170 talks on topics as diverse as desktop and mobile applications, developing for tablets, community management and accessibility. The conference focuses on cooperation and shared interests of the Free Desktop community.

You can view the detailed conference program here: https://www.desktopsummit.org/program

This Year's Desktop Summit

The Desktop Summit is a joint conference organised by the GNOME and KDE communities, the two dominant forces behind modern graphical software on free platforms. Over a thousand international participants are expected to attend this year.

The main conference takes place from 6-8 August. The annual membership meetings of GNOME and KDE are scheduled for 9 August, followed by workshops and coding sessions on 10-12 August.

Keynotes, Tracks and Panels

The Desktop Summit team welcomes keynote speakers from outside the GNOME and KDE world: confirmed speakers are Claire Rowland (Fjord, UX Design) and Thomas Thwaites (Technologist & Designer), with more to come! There will also be keynote addresses from representatives of both the GNOME and KDE communities.

The focus of the conference is collaboration between the Free Desktop projects. This year's conference tracks reflect the shared interests of its community. Just as the Desktop Summit unites the annual conferences of GNOME and KDE, each track similarly includes speakers from both desktop camps. "We received a lot of really high-quality and interesting proposals and spent a lot of time finding the best selection.It is fantastic to see how much the community has to talk about and show. It will surely be an interesting event with lots of opportunity to collaborate." says Lydia Pintscher, program committee member.

Topics addressed will be:

  • Accessibility & Help
  • Administration & Government
  • Applications
  • Community
  • Development
  • Platform
  • Tablets
  • Toolkits

There is far too much going on at the Desktop Summit to give full details here. However, there are a few talks that highlight the quality and range of speakers and topics that will be presented, including:

  • Karsten Gerloff (president of the FSFE) will speak about Free Desktops for Europe's public sector
  • Knut Yrvin of Qt Development Frameworks will discuss ways of winning organisations over to free software
  • Asheesh Laroia will explain how to get new contributors (and diversity) through outreach
  • Dave Neary cautions against The Cost of Going it Alone
  • Aaron Seigo will present the KDE Platform 4 Roadmap
  • Benjamin Otte and Matthias Clasen speculate on GTK 4 - The future of your favorite toolkit
  • Owen Taylor looks forward to GNOME Shell Version π
  • Michael Meeks will talk about Liberating Open Office Development
  • Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri will provide a Quick Overview of Enlightenment Foundation Libraries and E17
  • Clemens Buss tells us all about Design Thinking and how the Free Desktop may benefit from it
  • Vincent Untz answers a common question: Swimming upstream or downstream? Both!
  • Federico Mena Quintero introduces Software with the Quality that Has No Name
  • Pockey Lam talks about GNOME a continent, starting from Asia.
  • Pradeepto Bhattacharya presents KDE India

The annual conferences always generate a lot of discussion. This year's summit is no exception, with a panel discussion on one of the hot topics in free software: copyright assignment. Representatives from Canonical, Novell and the Software Freedom Conservancy will discuss the pros and cons of copyright assignment.

About

GUADEC and Akademy are the world's largest gatherings of people involved in Free Desktop and mobile user interfaces. Over a thousand participants are anticipated at the combined Desktop Summit this year, covering both the GNOME and KDE projects as well as related technologies. Developers, artists, translators, community organisers, users and representatives from government, education, businesses and anyone else who shares an interest are welcome.

GNOME and KDE are Free Software communities that drive the user interfaces of many Linux-powered devices, ranging from smartphones to laptops, or personal media centers. 2011 is the second joint event that both communities have decided to organise together.

Stay Informed

Follow and discuss news about the Desktop Summit:

Book a special discount accommodation here before 30 June: https://www.desktopsummit.org/accommodation

If you have any questions, let the team know by sending an email to: ds-team@desktopsummit.org

Register Now

The Desktop Summit 2011 is free to attend but you must register. You can do so at: https://www.desktopsummit.org/register