GNOME Foundation

Month: October 2010

  • GNOME Project Receives $15,000 for Accessibility Work

    October 25, 2010 — BOSTON, Mass. — The GNOME Project has received two grants for a total of $15,000 from Mozilla and from the F123.org-Mais Diferenças partnership for accessibility work.

    Mozilla has once again stepped up to support GNOME accessibility (a11y) work with a $10,000 grant. The F123-Mais Diferenças partnership has awarded a grant of $5,000 in total. This is the second accessibility grant that GNOME has received from Mozilla in the 2010 calendar year.

    The F123.org-Mais Diferenças partnership has awarded GNOME for its design and implementation of cursor and focus tracking on the eZoom module of Compiz fusion, and other accessibility improvements in GNOME to benefit persons with low vision and other disabilities.

    Mozilla is helping to fund improvements in the Orca screen reader. The Mozilla Project has helped to identify performance problems when Orca interacts with Gecko-based applications and other desktop applications. The funds will be used to perform a review of Orca performance bottlenecks and help fix problems that are identified. Orca is an extremely important tool for users of GNOME with reduced vision.

    “The web is an integral part of everyday life and it’s important for it to be accessible to everyone.” says David Bolter of Mozilla. “I am thrilled we are again contributing funds to the GNOME Foundation for critical efforts, including Orca, and events like the accessibility hackfest at CSUN.”

    GNOME used the previous funds for accessibility to participate in the CSUN Conference. CSUN is one of the largest and most important gatherings on the topic of technology and persons with disabilities. While most technology that was showcased at this event was proprietary and typically had a high price point, GNOME offers a free personal computing platform that was feature rich, easy to use, and accessible to people with many disabilities.

    Because of different laws and regulations, technology accessibility is a consideration and concern primarily to large employers and government agencies. It is deeply important that free software solutions be at par with proprietary applications in order to gain adoption by government and large employers. The GNOME Project held three talks at CSUN, demonstrating Orca, smaller assistive technology projects, and an introduction of the collaborative development model employed by open source projects like GNOME.

    The GNOME Foundation and Mozilla are committed to open source, open standards, and open formats. Both organizations and their contributors contribute to numerous projects to ensure an open Web and open desktop platform for all users. Part of that effort is working hard to ensure users with physical disabilities are able to make use of a free desktop and Web browser.
    About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

    GNOME is a free-software project whose goal is to develop a complete, accessible and easy to use desktop for Linux and Unix-based operating systems. GNOME also includes a complete development environment to create new applications. It is released twice a year on a regular schedule.

    The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. GNOME is a standard part of all leading GNU/Linux and Unix distributions, and is popular with both large existing corporate deployments and millions of small business and home users worldwide.

    Composed of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation is a member directed, non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap.

    More information about GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at www.gnome.org and foundation.gnome.org.
    Media Enquiries

    GNOME Foundation Executive Director
    Stormy Peters
    Email: gnome-press-contact@gnome.org
    Phone: +1-617-206-3947

  • Boston Summit is coming!

    We are just over two weeks away from the Boston Summit! Thank you to J5 for helping organize the Boston Summit and finding rooms. More information is available on the Boston Summit wiki page.

    A couple quick notes:

    We’ll see you there!

  • Upcoming GNOME Foundation IRC Meeting: October 27th, 2010

    Howdy fellow GNOMErs!

    It’s been a while since we last had an IRC meeting of the GNOME  Foundation, so we’d like to invite you all to join us once again!

    When: Wednesday, October 27th, from 14:00 to 15:00 UTC
    Where: irc.gnome.org,

    Foundation IRC meetings are just that, meetings held on in irc.gimp.org to discuss current matters related to the GNOME Foundation. Any GNOME Foundation member or non member are welcome. As long as you contribute positively to the discussion you are welcome.

    The meeting is moderated by Board members that are present, and they will guide the discussion through all the Agenda topics. Everyone can comment and speak at any time, just remember to be respectful and concise so it’s easy for everyone to follow the discussion.

    We already have a few topics to discuss but this is a great opportunity to discuss the topics you care about, or to get more information from the Board if you think we’re not communicating enough on some topics 😉 The agenda of the meeting is really up to you!

    So please add the agenda items you’d like to discuss to http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MembersAgenda

    Your topics will automatically appear on the meeting page:
    http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/MeetingAgenda

    For reference, the minutes of the last meeting are available at:
    http://live.gnome.org/FoundationBoard/Minutes/IRC20100327

    Thanks,

    Og Maciel, on behalf of the GNOME Board of Directors

  • GTK+/MeeGo Handset integration work, call for bids

    The GNOME Foundation is looking for developers to enhance the developer experience of using GTK+ to port and create applications on MeeGo Handset devices.

    Knowledge of the MeeGo Handset development process, and GTK+ internals will be required to carry out the work.

    The tasks to be achieved are:

    • Ensure that GTK+ applications display as expected on the MeeGo Handset platform, including checking that fixes to the compositor are made if necessary.
    • Add to upstream GTK+ helper functionality to create stand-alone GTK+ applications to run on MeeGo.
    • Merge Hildon widgets functionality into GTK+ upstream, where it makes sense to do so.

    The money available for the project is $50,000, and the bidder selection will be made by a group including professional consultants with GTK+ and MeeGo experience and GNOME Foundation Board members.

    Bids should include:

    • Results of testing stock GTK+ applications on the MeeGo Handset platform
    • Details of your research into what GTK+ functionality needs to be added to ease porting of stock applications to MeeGo Handset.
    • The list of widgets and functionality ported from Hildon to upstream GTK+, including a review of how the functionality would be integrated (extending existing widgets, new widgets, etc.)
    • A time line and schedule for the whole project
    • References to previous MeeGo, MeeGo Handset, Maemo, or GTK+ work.

    Note that the goal of the GNOME Foundation for this project is upstream acceptance of the various modifications made during the project.

    Please send your proposals to board-list@gnome.org with the subject line “MeeGo Handset Bid”.

  • KDE and GNOME Desktop Summit 2011 from 6 to 12 August

    The Desktop Summit is a co-located event which features the yearly contributor conferences of the GNOME and KDE communities, GUADEC and Akademy. Next year the conference will take place from 6 to 12 August, 2011 in the city center of Berlin at the Humboldt University, Unter den Linden. The event will feature keynotes, talks, workshops and team building events.

    Find the official announcement of KDE e.V. and the GNOME Foundation here and the Desktop Summit website here.

    Desktop Summit

    The GNOME and KDE communities develop the majority of Free Software desktop technology. Increasingly, they cooperate on underlying infrastructure. By holding their annual developer flagship events in the same location, the two projects hope to foster collaboration and discussion between their developer communities. Furthermore, KDE and GNOME aim to work more closely with the rest of the desktop and mobile open source community. The summit presents a unique opportunity for all of us to work together and improve the free and open source desktop for all.

    At the Desktop Summit 2011 the organizing team expects well over a thousand core contributors, prominent open source technology leaders, government, education and corporate representatives and hundreds of open source desktop engineers, usability experts and designers. Local and international IT industry are invited to learn about and join in developing the latest innovative desktop technology. The event is locally supported by the TSB Innovation Agency Berlin GmbH and the Berlin Senate.

    Location


    Berlin Mitte with the University

    The conference will take place at the 200 year old Humboldt University in the district of Under den Linden, part of the city center of Berlin. This area has plenty of good hotels and hostels, great restaurants and shopping areas and good public transport – all that in walking distance. Cultural needs can be met by the near-by Deutsches Historisches Museum, the City Library of Berlin and many other prominent buildings and institutions. A must-see for visitors of Berlin, the Brandenburger Tor, can be found on the street the university is on.

    The registration for the Desktop Summit will open on 1 February 2011 and a call for papers will be issued. Talk submissions will be due on 15th of March and one month later the conference program will be announced. Saturday 6 August kicks off 3 days of joint keynotes, talks and social events followed by four days of collaborative workshops. The conference officially ends on Friday, 12 August.

    Important dates

    • 1 February: registration for Desktop Summit will open; Call for Papers issued.
    • 15 March: Deadline for travel & hotel reimbursement requests. Registration remains open until the conference.
    • 15 April: Feedback on travel and hotel reimbursement requests.
    • 6 – 8 August: Kickoff and joint keynotes, talks and social events
    • 9 August: General Assembly of KDE e.V.; Gnome Foundation meeting
    • 9-12 August: Collaborative workshops

    Website up

    Meanwhile the website went online on DesktopSummit.org where you can read a bit of information on the conference, its history, the upcoming desktop summit and the location. More content will be added over the coming months. You can also subscribe for news on the conference so you will be notified whenever there is something going on.

  • Desktop Summit 2011 to be held in Berlin, Germany August 6th – 12th 2011

    Berlin, 6th October, 2010 – The Desktop Summit is a co-located event which features the yearly contributor conferences of the GNOME and KDE communities, GUADEC and Akademy. Next year the conference will take place from 6 to 12 August, 2011 in Berlin at the Humboldt University in Unter den Linden. The event will feature keynotes, talks, workshops and team building events. The Desktop Summit website is now online at desktopsummit.org.

    The GNOME and KDE communities develop the majority of Free Software desktop technology. Increasingly, they cooperate on underlying infrastructure. By holding their annual developer flagship events in the same location, the two projects will further foster collaboration and discussion between their developer communities. Moreover, KDE and GNOME aim to work more closely with the rest of the desktop and mobile open source community. The summit presents a unique opportunity for main actors to work together and improve the free and open source desktop for all.

    “We are proud to be able to welcome the participants of the Desktop Summit 2011 to the capital region next year,” says Almuth Nehring-Venus, Permanent Secretary for Economics, Technology and Women?s Issues from the Berlin Senate. “I hope that the joint conference of the two largest Free Desktop projects GNOME and KDE will provide an additional boost for our Open Source/Open Standard initiative within the framework of Berlin?s IT strategy and therefore also to further high-value jobs in our region.”

    At the Desktop Summit 2011, KDE and GNOME expect well over a thousand core contributors, prominent open source technology leaders, representatives from government, education and corporate backgrounds, and open source desktop engineers, usability experts and designers. Local and international IT industry are invited to learn about and join in developing the latest innovative desktop technology. The TSB Innovation Agency Berlin GmbH and the Berlin Senate are supporting the event locally.

    The registration for the Desktop Summit will open on 1 February 2011 and a call for papers will be issued. Talk submissions will be due on 15th of March and on 15 April the conference program will be announced. Saturday 6 August kicks off three days of joint keynotes, talks and social events followed by four days of collaborative workshops. The conference officially ends on Friday, 12 August with a closing.

    About the Desktop Summit

    The Desktop Summit is a joint initiative by GNOME and KDE to encourage the development and use of a free desktop. The shared objectives include the exchange of technology, cooperation on projects and developing new opportunities with Free and Open Source Software on the desktop.

    The first Desktop Summit in 2009 was a huge success: More than 850 free software advocates from 46 countries gathered together in Las Palmas on Gran Canaria to discuss and enhance the free desktop experience. The summit accomplished its goal of increasing co-operation and throughout the conference there were many examples of improvements to current and development of new shared technologies.

    The Desktop Summit website can be found on http://www.desktopsummit.org.

    About GNOME and the GNOME Foundation

    GNOME is a free-software project whose goal is to develop a complete, accessible and easy to use desktop for Linux and Unix-based operating systems. GNOME also includes a complete development environment to create new applications. It is released twice a year on a regular schedule.

    The GNOME desktop is used by millions of people around the world. GNOME is a standard part of all leading GNU/Linux and Unix distributions, and is popular with both large existing corporate deployments and millions of small business and home users worldwide.

    Composed of hundreds of volunteer developers and industry-leading companies, the GNOME Foundation is an organization committed to supporting the advancement of GNOME. The Foundation is a member directed, non-profit organization that provides financial, organizational and legal support to the GNOME project and helps determine its vision and roadmap. More information about GNOME and the GNOME Foundation can be found at http://www.gnome.org and http://foundation.gnome.org.

    About KDE and KDE e. V.

    KDE is an international community that creates Free Software for desktop and portable computing. Among KDE’s products are innovative workspaces for Linux and UNIX platforms, the KDE Platform for rapid development and a comprehensive range of applications. KDE offers hundreds of software titles in many categories including communication and groupware, office producitvity, web applications, multimedia, entertainment, education, graphics and software development.

    KDE software is translated into more than 60 languages and is built with ease of use and modern accessibility principles in mind. Applications built on KDE Platform 4 run natively on Linux, BSD, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X.

    KDE e. V. is a nonprofit association that represents the international community supported KDE operating legally, financially and organizationally. More informations about KDE and KDE e. V. can be found at http://www.kde.org and http://ev.kde.org

    For further informations and interviews please contact us:

    • Offical contact Desktop Summit 2011:
      Mirko Böhm, Spokesman c/o KDAB (Deutschland) GmbH & Co. KG Tempelhofer Ufer 11, D-10963 Berlin phone +49 (0)30 – 5 21 32 54-70 http://www.desktopsummit.org
    • Press contact Desktop Summit (WORLD): Jos Poortvliet, jos@opensuse.org
      mobile +31(0)6 22 37 75 45

  • Stormy’s Update: October 4th, 2010

    I interviewed the final candidates for the system administration position, we made an offer and … welcomed Christer Edwards as our new system administrator! He’s already done great work in just the past couple of weeks. Thanks to our interviewers Jonathan Blandford, Bradley Kuhn and Brad Taylor and a special thanks to Paul Cutler for putting it all together.

    Kicked off some work with InitMarketing to do some of the template presentations for GNOME folks to use when presenting about GNOME.

    Attended a few of the GNOME a11y meetings. Had conversations about GNOME a11y with the team, the FSF and others. There’s lots of good stuff happening there and people are working out how best to get things done and collaborate across projects and organizations. I wish I was at the GNOME a11y hackfest at AEGIS this week! (Speaking of which I feel terrible that Bryen Yunashko got robbed in Barcelona before his trip even really started. Terrible because I feel like Barcelona is my home town and crime has been climbing as fast as unemployment and I didn’t warn him. And terrible because his computer and his camera are part of the way Bryen communicates with the world and now he’s on a two week trip without them. If you’d like to help Bryen get set back up again, there’s a Pledgie campaign where you can donate.)

    Had a GNOME advisory board meeting where we updated them on all the things going on and asked them for feedback. We had discussions about hackfests and events (including plans for the Desktop Summit 2011), the Outreach Program for Women, 2011 budget planning and GNOME a11y. The advisory board meets once a month; let me know if you have suggestions for meeting topics.

    Talked to a CiviCRM contracting company about getting some of the integration and customizations done that we need, like integrating it with Paypal and Friends of GNOME. If there are any CiviCRM experts in the GNOME community, let me know!

    Met with Peter Brown from the FSF and Brian Cameron from the GNOME Board of Directors to discuss areas where we might collaborate, like accessibility.

    Put together the Free and Open Source Software booth for Grace Hopper with lots of help from these awesome women and all the organizations (Canonical, Red Hat, Novell, FSF, GNOME and Oracle) that sent us goodies to hand out. And thanks to the Grace Hopper folks who gave us the booth space!

    Free and Open Source Software Booth at Grace Hopper. Sitting: Leslie Hawthorn, Amber Graner, Deb Nicholson. Standing: Stormy Peters, Selena Decklemann, Cat Allman, Terri Oda, Carol Smith, Corey Latislaw.

    We handed out 180 fliers about the GNOME Outreach Program for Women program too. I also helped out with the Open Source Track and that was a great success finishing with a Sahana codeathon. Thanks to Jennifer Redman for making the track and the codeathon happen. Thanks to the NSA for sponsoring it!

    Both the attendees and the conference speakers at GHC were all extremely motivating. I got to meet with lots of interesting people including Heidi Ellis whose class is working on Caribou as part of GNOME’s a11y and HFOSS program.

    Kept up to date on the Desktop Summit 2011 planning. A big thanks to Andreas Nilsson, Dave Neary, Reinout van Schouwen, Kat Gerasimova and others for representing GNOME at the Desktop Summit 2011 planning meeting.

    Sent out the notice about the 2010 Q2 Quarterly Report. (It was published in August.) Thanks to all the teams that are already sending out a call for the Q3 report!

    Reviewed the GNOME 2.32 release notes. Thanks to Paul Cutler for keeping the release notes going! He could use help with writing and with screen shots.

    Put together email and website for launching the GNOME Ambassador program. Need to launch it now!

    Announced that the GNOME Foundation and LWN will be giving an LWN.net subscription to all Friends of GNOME subscribers! Thanks, LWN! Sent out a call for people to help with our end of the year subscriber campaign.

    Exchanged a few emails with women who applied to the GNOME Outreach Program for Women that are interested in marketing. Thanks to Marina Zhurakhinskaya for answering all the rest of the mails (even a few difficult ones) and making the whole program happen!

    Met with Phil Robb from HP. Talked about Palm, GNOME and Accessibility.

    Worked with the marketing team on a GNOME ad for Linux 92. Thanks to Joey Ferwerda and Máirín Duffy.

    Funding.

    • Cat Allman gave me the good news at Grace Hopper that Google has some funding for the GNOME Outreach Program for Women!
    • Mozilla is funding the Snowy hackfest! Snowy is the server side of Tomboy Online.
    • Working with several organizations on some funding for a11y. Worked with Joanie on a write-up of goals.

    Pinged a lot of people about a lot of things. Extremely grateful to the GNOME community for all the hard work they do!

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