How to get involved in KDE when you're not a developer Justin Kirby | San Diego, CA, USA | Camp KDE 2010

Justin Kirby 2 About Me ● Bioinformatics analyst ● Avid homebrewer ● Aspiring aikido master ● Linux user since ~2001 ● KDE user for ~3 years ● KDE promo contributor since July 2009

Justin Kirby 3 About my talk ● Long time user but never knew how to get involved ● I'm not a developer, and have zero ambition to become one ● You CAN contribute to KDE without knowing a single thing about writing code

Justin Kirby 4 Overview Documentation Bugs Promotion Art Usability Support

Justin Kirby 5 Overview ● Doing these things for a project – Frees up developer time to work on writing software! – Are great entry points to a project for aspiring developers – Perfect way to give back to KDE if you aren't a developer

Justin Kirby 6 Documentation ● Why does it matter? – Helps new users find their way around – Allows existing users to understand more advanced features ● How can I help? – Userbase ● Wiki driven home for all user related documentation and information ● – Translation ● KDE is global, translation teams make this possible

Justin Kirby 7 Get involved in Documentation ● Klassroom courses – Learn about how to add/edit to the Userbase wiki – Details at ● Send an or join the mailing list – – ● Join the IRC channels (irc.freenode.net) – #kde-www – #kde-forum

Justin Kirby 8 Bugs ● Why does it matter? – Filing bugs notifies developers of problems – Helping triage bugs ● Saves developer's time ● Cuts down on developer frustrations ● How can I help? – Join the Bug Squad ● Participate in “Bug Days/Weeks” ● Participate in “Krush Days” ● Be a dedicated triage person for your favorite KDE application ● Report bugs when you find them

Justin Kirby 9 Get involved in Bug Triage/ Reporting ● Send an or join the mailing list – – ● Join the IRC channel – #kde-bugs on irc.freenode.net ● Visit the Bug Squad homepage – ● Get involved in KDE Bug Weeks – ● Talk with Alex here at Camp KDE

Justin Kirby 10 Promotion ● Why does it matter? – Informs the world about the great things KDE is doing – Keeps the community updated on latest news ● How can I help? – Events/conferences ● Organizing/Presenting/Booths – Writing ● Dot articles ● Blogging (Planet KDE or otherwise) ● Release materials, brochures/flyers – And much more ● Branding, strategy, community building

Justin Kirby 11 Getting involved in Promotion ● Send us an or join the mailing list – – ● Visit our wiki pages – ● Talk to me or Jos at Camp KDE

Justin Kirby 12 Art ● Why does it matter? – Projects in KDE are always in need of good art – Good artwork helps to create an identity for the application or project ● How can I help? – Icons, splash screens and themes for an application – Flyers, brochures, banners for meetings – Designs for shirts, hats, and other KDE gear

Justin Kirby 13 Getting involved in Art ● Visit the KDE art web site – ● Join the IRC channel – #kde-artists on irc.freenode.net ● Send an or join the mailing list – –

Justin Kirby 14 Usability ● Why does it matter? – Makes software easier to use – Improves our users' experience with KDE software ● How can I help? – Educate and provide feedback to developers on usability questions – Work with projects to help design usable interfaces – Generate case studies and usability reports

Justin Kirby 15 Getting involved in Usability ● Visit the KDE Usability web site – ● or join the Usability mailing list – – ● Talk to Celeste here at Camp KDE

Justin Kirby 16 Support ● Why does it matter? – As long as KDE software has users it will need people to help support them – Providing help to KDE users when they need it greatly improves the chances they will continue to use our software ● How can I help? – Answer questions when you can! ● IRC, Blogs, Twitter/Identi.ca, in person – Help point people to useful references ● Userbase, Forums, How-to blog posts

Justin Kirby 17 Getting involved in Support ● Help with documentation on Userbase! ● Write “how-to” blog articles ● Heavy traffic IRC channels – #kde – #kubuntu – #opensuse-kde – #fedora-kde ● Identi.ca groups – !kde – Distro specific groups

Justin Kirby 18 Questions? Comments? The End!