KDE e.V./Sprint2011

This page contains the synopsis of the first KDE e.V. sprint held on 19 and 20th November 2011, at Berlin, Germany.

Goal

The goal of this sprint was to bring together a group of active KDE people to get work done on the most important topics concerning KDE e.V. It was meant as a step and model towards scaling our ability to work on KDE e.V. activities beyond what the board is doing.

We need to support KDE e.V. in its three-fold mission of representing, supporting, and providing governance to the community. Our current strategy is to promote the value of KDE software and the KDE community and its underlying values to individuals and corporations to get financial and practical support. The primary focus of our activities to support the community is to enable people to have productive face-to-face time. Our main activities in this area are Akademy and sprints.

To support our activities we need to intensify our efforts to build a network and ecosystem of individuals and organizations which share our interests and values. This would strengthen our community and broaden the scope and potential of what we are doing and are able to do in the future.

Schedule

Saturday, 19th November

9:00 Welcome and start of sprint, common session to get an overview about the topics and to form small breakout groups for specific topics.

10:00 Breakout groups for specific topics

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Common session to check on the groups, possibly rearrange groups

14:30 Breakout groups

18:00 Common session to review first results

18:30 End of first day

19:00 Dinner

Sunday, 20th November

9:00 Common session to form small breakout groups for specific topics.

9:30 Breakout groups for specific topics

13:00 Lunch

14:00 Common session to review results

14:30 Breakout groups

18:00 Common session to review results

18:30 End of sprint

19:00 Dinner

Most important topics

Join the game campaign

The "Join the game" campaign is our current campaign to acquire new individual supporting members. Individual supporting members are an essential part of our support, as their support is stable and we have a huge base of people out there, who like KDE and are potential supporting members.

• Join the Game website -> http://jointhegame.kde.org/

Desired results of sprint:

• Functional web site http://jointhegame.kde.org, which can be used as a base for an online campaign
• Action plan for online campaign
• talking points for people who attend FLOSS events
• a slide that KDE speakers should include in their talks

Corporate supporting membership program

The corporate supporting membership is one of our biggest source of income. It relies on a small number of supporters, though. We need to broaden the base, acquire new corporate supporters, and actively manage good relationships with them.

• corporate supporting membership program material and patron's forum
  • finish/rework introductory material
  • define goals/tasks/expectations of patron forum
  • define/set-up what corporate partners get in return (mailing list for patrons, jobs list, ?)
  • set-up of initial website

Desired results of sprint:

• Material we can send to potential new members
• Action plan for patron's forum, ideally with a team behind it
• Web page on http://ev.kde.org explaining the program
• Talking points for anyone who speaks to potential corporate supporting members

Thank you page policy

We get quite a bit of support from various parties in form of goods or services. We are missing a structured way to recognize this support and thank them. The current page is at http://www.kde.org/community/donations/past_sponsors.php and it contains support going back to KDE 1.0, but is not complete. We need a policy which says who is listed how long and in which way, so we can more easily maintain this page, and give recognition to our supporters. As we get quite a bit of support in form of goods or services this is important.

Desired results of sprint:

• Policy for "thank you" page
• Up to date version of page
• Action plan how to maintain the page, ideally with team behind it

Budget and goals 2012

The main responsibility of KDE e.V. and the board in particular is to define a budget for KDE e.V.'s work. As we are approaching the end of the year we need to come up with a budget for 2012 based on the goals we want to reach next year.

Desired results of sprint:

• Document outlining the strategy and goals of KDE e.V. for 2012
• Draft for budget 2012

Sprints

Sprints are our main activity to support actual software development. They are essential all over the community to get work done, and are in itself a demonstration for the value of KDE's community and the software it creates. Sprints are also our main expense. We have to responsibly manage them to make the best use of our resources.

• sprints.kde.org

Desired results of sprint:

• Plan how to run the sprints in 2012
• Guidelines for financial support of sprints

Important topics

Formalizing task forces

• formalizing of task forces
  • work out a process and structure for task forces in the e.V. and document them
  • list areas where we should have task forces and who could be on them

Trademark policy

• research/evaluate existing policies
• draft one for KDE and propose it

New members questionnaire

• brainstorm what is wrong with the current one
• draft a new one and propose it to membership

Other topics

• organization of country KDE associations and country-oriented confs
• SugarCRM setup
• KDE swag
  • brainstorm ideas and discuss if this could be a source of revenue for the e.V.

Participants

• No. Name
• 1. Lydia Pintscher (Nightrose)
• 2. Pau Garcia i Quiles (pgquiles)
• 3. Claudia Rauch
• 4. Stuart Jarvis (stujarvis)
• 5. Frank Karlitschek (Karli)
• 6. Agustin Benito Bethencourt (toscalix)
• 7. Paul Adams (padams)
• 8. Sebastian Kügler (sebas)
• 9. Celeste Lyn Paul (seele)
• 10. Till Adam (till)
• 11. Cornelius Schumacher (cornelius)

Summary

Over the weekend of 19 and 20 November, KDE contributors met in Berlin for the KDE e.V. Sprint—the first ever. KDE e.V. is the non-profit organization that represents KDE in legal and financial matters and provides funding to assist KDE development and promotion. We aimed to work on some key areas to form a strong foundation for KDE e.V.'s future development, including:

   The Individual and Corporate Supporting Membership Programs
   KDE's policy on providing public thanks to donors of money, hardware and services
   Budget and goals for 2012
   Setting up a better method for approving sprint financing, planning and reporting

Most of us arrived on Friday evening and had dinner with the attendees of the KDE Mobile Sprint.

Saturday

Our real work began on Saturday morning. We started with a discussion of the topics, then split up into smaller groups to work on them. One subteam reviewed KDE's thank you page to past donors, and set up new criteria for who should get a mention on the page and for how long.

The other team reviewed the Individual Supporting Membership Program—the "Join the Game" campaign—and identified improvements for the main webpage and the supporting infrastructure. We decided to make the whole program more interactive for members. Steps towards this goal include providing Supporting Members with more frequent updates on the progress in KDE and inviting them to local KDE events. We also brainstormed ideas for how to promote the program at events like FOSDEM and created an FAQ for booth volunteers.

To conclude the first day, we got back together to review the results from each team and discuss the topics further. That evening was rounded off with dinner at a local Syrian restaurant. And of course we had more discussion about the tasks finished, those still to be done and KDE in general.

Sunday

On the second morning, the Board members present had a short meeting, while the rest of us worked on the topic of sprints. Sprints are important to KDE because they foster collaboration and friendship in a community that mostly works online. In addition, they are effective at getting a lot done in a short time.

In the past, sprints have been approved in an ad-hoc fashion when requested. This has not been a problem as the relatively low (though growing steadily) number of sprints has made the system workable. However, increasing sprint activity raises the concern that a limit may someday be reached. There's a need for a fairer system than what is now effectively first come, first served. We also determined that more advanced planning would provide an overview of sprint funding needs before money is allocated.

During a quick break for pizza, we were visited by a local researcher interested in building community dashboards, to discuss the potential relevance to KDE. Some of us sat down with her to discuss the KDE community, how we feel it has evolved over time, and the trends that might be interesting to track. Building a dashboard of these trends could help the community be more aware of how it is evolving and how this affects our work. This discussion helped to create some initial interest and to get everyone moving towards a common goal. We are looking forward to seeing this happen.

In the afternoon, everyone got back together to decide on the remaining topics to cover. We had a group discussion of ways to get companies already in the KDE ecosystem more involved, centered around enhancing the Corporate Supporting Membership and Patronage Programs. Agustin presented a proposal for creating a network of companies around KDE, building upon our expertise and existing contacts in companies working with KDE and Qt.

We also discussed the budget for 2012. The Board's draft budget was received positively. There was discussion of the areas in which KDE e.V. spends its money, the costs associated with some of our tasks, and ways to tighten up financial management.

Finally, a draft trademark policy for KDE was discussed. We studied existing trademark policies from other free software organizations and considered options for KDE. We want to protect the term "KDE" from misuse, but not make unnecessary difficulties.

In the evening, most of the team went for a final dinner at a Persian restaurant on the way back to the hotel.

Wrap-Up

Overall, the e.V. sprint was productive. Progress was made on a number of issues that are essential to keeping KDE running smoothly and maintain support for our contributors.

The sprint attendees give thanks to KDAB for providing meeting facilities in their Berlin office.

                        
            Sprint attendees (from left): Cornelius Schumacher, Stuart Jarvis, Paul Adams,
            Lydia Pintscher, Agustín Benito Bethencourt, Claudia Rauch, Frank Karlitschek,
                                     Pau Garcia i Quiles

References

• http://dot.kde.org/2011/12/06/kde-ev-sprint-making-kde-possible
• http://toscalix.blogspot.com/2011/11/kde-ev-sprint-in-berlin.html