We launched interesting new features on openDesktop.org lately and made progress on the Social Desktop. So I think I should blog about the news and give you all an overview over the cool new stuff and the plans for the next few month.
One idea is to integrate openDesktop.org, KDE-Look.org and KDE-Apps.org more with existing social networks and other services.
So if artist or developers publish their work on KDE-Look.org or KDE-Apps.org their friends and fans get notifications. We do this be integrating Microblogging like Twitter and identi.ca and by launching a Facebook App.
Microblogging
All new artwork and applications are published on this feeds
You can follow this feeds if you want to stay up to date about the latest stuff our community creates and develops.
Facebook
We have a new Facebook App. If you are an openDesktop and a Facebook user you can install this App on your Facebook profile. If you release a new application or artwork on KDE-Look.org, KDE-Apps.org or any other openDesktop.org site the announcement will be automatically pushed to your Facebook page. Your Facebook friends get notified about your work. So this is OpenSource Marketing 2.0 🙂
Social Desktop Contest
The Social Desktop Contest is over. I must say that I´m very impressed by the work of all participants. Lots of great stuff was implemented and submitted. The contest also produced a lot of new ideas and concepts. I´m really looking forward to all the exiting new upcomming features.
It was a difficult choice but the jury members decided about the winner of the contest and I will announce the winners of the Netbook soon.
The Social Desktop in KDE 4.4
A lot of interesting stuff is coming together for KDE 4.4 and the Social Desktop idea. I think this will be a really great release where we begin so see the potential of the integration of people and social networking principals with desktop applications. I´m especially exited about the new GHNS uploading and downloading features. where Jeremy, Frederik and Eckhart are working on at the moment. This will be really powerful. Other Stuff like notification, friends management, messaging and fan management is also growing nicely.
We will also have a central place where users can configure their different content providers and identities. So every KDE application can access the social features in a transparent way without caring about providers, login or passwords.
I will give a talk at the Open Web Conference at the end of October. And I hope to give a preview about the new cool features there. You can find more information about the Open Web Conference here: www.nluug.nl/activiteiten/events/nj09/index-en.html
Event API
I´m constantly working on new API features. Today I published an improved version of the Event API. It is now possible to create, edit and delete events via the API. Read support is of course possible since a few month. This is useful for integration with other event databases, Desktop Widgets or even Akonadi. You can find the documentation here is you want to use the API: www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/open-collaboration-services
Social Desktop Sprint
I´m planing a Social Desktop Developer Sprint for later this year. We meet for 3 days here in Stuttgart and work on ideas and code together. Please send me a email if you want to participate. The KDE e.V. has probably some money for sponsoring.
By the way. A few days ago we reached a new traffic record on the openDesktop.org sites. Over 42000 simultaneous visitors. This is a really impressive number.
So if you want to help or have some ideas about the Social Desktop vision please don´t hesitate to send me an email.
Cheers
Frank