Desktop Summit 2011: Akademy and Guadec Reunited in 2011

The Gnome Foundation and KDE e.V have praised the 2009 Gran Canary desktop Summit as a great success. After an intermezzo with separate events this year, the communities are looking for a host for another joint annual conference in 2011, announced yesterday.

The two desktop giants may have shared the same venue for GCDS 2009, the two events were held separately. This will change, and be better in 2011. According to Vincent Untz, board member at Gnome, collaboration between the parties is to be extended and a common program decided. "We enjoyed working with our KDE friends at GCDS in 2009, and want to increase our cooperation in 2011. We plan to go beyond simple co-location this time, and actually plan a combined schedule in 2011 so that KDE and GNOME contributors have every opportunity to work with and learn from each other."

KDE e.V and Gnome are now looking for a suitable European venue, big enough and with the necessary infrastructure to accommodate around 1000 participants. Applications must be entered by May 15, 2010. Details of requirements can be found on the KDE homepage (Akademy) and at the Gnome page, (Guadec).

This year the main conferences with KDE and Gnome will be held separately, starting with Akademy from July 3 to 10 in Tampere (Finland) and Guadec in Holland's The Hague, (July 24 to 30).