March 17, 2008
gnome, marketing
1 Comment
Lucas wrote a comment on one of my “Links of the day” posts which had several GNOME 2.22 links.
I love those links about 2.22 you post in your blog! They save me a lot of time on searching for user feedback. 
For those of you who are del.icio.us users, if you tag articles related to the release “gnome222″ then we’ll be able to find them all in the one place at http://del.icio.us/tag/gnome222 - I’ve been doing this for several releases, have a look at the gnome220, gnome218 and gnome216 tags too.
So join in - I don’t see any articles in languages other than English and French, it’d be nice to have a collection of articles from around the world tagged gnome222 so that we can see how far the release is reaching. As Lucas says, this also gives us a valuable source of user feedback after a release.
March 10, 2008
gnome
2 Comments
I just ordered a hard copy of the GNOME annual report (PDF) from lulu.com. At €9.05 postage included it’s a little pricy for a 24 page printed document, so I’m expecting top quality. I almost backed out when I saw the final bill, but I figured that a good chunk of that is going to the foundation, so what the hell, I’m a happy guy. Congratulations to Lucas and all the others who made this possible this year. I’m honoured to have been listed in the credits, given that I did so little this year to help.
Important update: I just heard back from Lucas that the reports are being printed at cost at Lulu; so €6 is the cost of printing the thing (€3 delivery on top for Europe), and nothing is going to the foundation. Also, lulu doesn’t cancel orders under any circumstances. Not saying that you shouldn’t buy it, only that you should only do so if you think it’s decent value for money.
March 7, 2008
gnome
5 Comments
Wouldn’t it be cool for GNOME to have partnerships with bookshare.org and Project Gutenberg? How about integrating evince to provide books for download?
March 6, 2008
gnome
2 Comments
The GNOME LinkedIn group has finally calmed down - over the last 2 days I have had 12 requests to join (just approved) to bring the total number of members to 277 members, just a week after announcing it! I expect to top out around 300 members next week.
And we’re an international bunch! A quick sample showed: 53 from the USA, 24 from the UK, 17 people from India, 13 from France, 13 from Spain, 10 from Italy, 9 from Brazil, 4 from Chile, 4 from China, but only 3 from Germany! And half the members come from outside those countries (for those whose countries aren’t mentioned, if you *really* want to know, say so in comments, I’ll tell you).
It would be interesting to cross reference this group of GNOME fans with others we have - the GNOME map, the Facebook group, and even GNOME Foundation members
Not to mention the SVN committers list…
February 28, 2008
General, gnome
Comments Off
I’m always amazed at the network effect of free software communities - the LinkedIn GNOME group which I talked about 9 hours ago now has 107 members and growing as the time zones move westward. Update: A few hours later, roughly 12 hours after mentioning the group, we’re now at 143 members.
Colour me impressed!
February 28, 2008
gnome, guadec
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To the surprise of everyone involved in the GNOME project, GUADEC 2008 has been announced, and will be held in AnkaraIstanbul (just kidding).
OK - so this isn’t a surprise to anyone. GUADEC this year will be great, I’m sure, and we’ll all have our fill of Turkish Delight this summer. I for one am looking forward to it.
Some of the things I’m most looking forward to are the keynotes which I have been organising this year. For the moment, we have decided to limit the number of keynotes to 3 invitees - we will add one or two community keynotes, based on what happens in the project between now and the end of March, these will likely be papers submitted through the Call for Papers which will be “promoted” to keynotes by the program committee.
This years keynotes are a varied bunch, and I’m very happy with them.
Leisa Reichelt is a renowned user interface designer whose name is pronounced as “Lisa”, and who comes highly recommended. Some of her past presentations are available online, including this presentation which she gave at the IA Summit 2007, or this one from BarCamp London, or this one from te Future of Web Apps talking about “ambient intimacy, the idea that what we really get from social networks is the impression that we’re close to friends & family whenever we want to be, regardless of distance & time constraints.
Eric Sink is the author of a blog I’ve been reading for a long time - particularly for his articles on “business for geeks”, which talks about stuff as varied as accounting, marketing, sales, fixing prices, … It’s a lot like Joel Spolsky’s blog without the overwhelming sense of self-importance. He also happens to be a founder of AbiSource, the company which funded and wrote the initial versions of AbiWord, before going out of business. He’s going to give a presentation on the business of software, with particular emphasis on free software, and the challenges of finding a business model that will allow people to make money on free software.
Matt Webb, co-author of “Mind Hacks” and consultant in product design and R&D with Schultze & Webb has been described to me as “inspiring and devastatingly smart and just wonderful” - that’s a lot to live up to. He’s promised to speak on interaction design, the future of technology and software, and generally to be entertaining.
So here’s looking forward to seeing you all on the banks of the Bosphorus from the 7th to the 12th of July!
February 28, 2008
gnome, marketing
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A while back I created a GNOME group in LinkedIn (still one of the few social networking sites I find useful).
LinkedIn Groups let you see the profiles of other people in more detail, even if you don’t know them personally, because of the shared affiliation. For that reason, they are moderated, but I will be quick approving group requests.
Those who would like to join the group can join here.