Springtime in Berlin

A group of KDE contributors converged on Berlin, Germany for five days at the end of March to collaborate on a variety of KDE related projects. The scope was broad and included artwork, human interface guidelines, Tenor (a contextual linkage engine), alternatives to traditional file managers and groupware applications.

Graciously sponsored by Novell with additional support from basysKom, Creadativ and Relevantive, this group of individuals came from as far away as Canada and from as near by as 15 minutes away.

During the intense day-long meetings attendees broke out into small focus groups, occasionally coming together for presentations and brainstorming sessions. The creation of eye catching, usable interfaces was a common thread in these sesssions, which often extended well into the evening hours.

In attendance were artists Frank Karlitschek, Torsten Rahn, David Vignoni, and Ken Wimer who are working on a wide array of artwork for KDE. Joining them were usability experts Jan Mühlig and Ellen Reitmayr who explored how to refine the most commonly used interfaces in KDE, such as Konqueror and the KDE PIM applications. A collection of KDE hackers, including Stephan Binner, Eva Brucherseifer, Daniel Molkentin, Hans Oischinger, Kurt Pfeifle, Cornelius Schumacher, Aaron Seigo and Scott Wheeler helped bring technical expertise to the meeting.

This first Appeal meeting provided a hot-house for focused, interdisciplinary KDE development. Looking forward, the group aims to grow organically in scope as others with a similar drive for realizing visual beauty, interface clarity and technical creativity in KDE come together. Additional APPEAL meetings are already being planned.

A web site, descriptions of the current Appeal projects and outreach to the broader KDE, Open Source and business communities is underway. Until then, enjoy some pictures taken during the event.