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The widget must be activated by the user, as it is not merely available by default on the desktop. After activation, the widget shows othe KDE users in the region who have also activated and are using this widget. When other users are marked as “friends”, they are permanently marked as such in the Friend-Plasmoid which displays whether friends are online at the time or not.

In order to be seen by others, users have to publish their IPs by means of a specific button included in the interface. The software then converts the IP address to Geolocation data. However, the option remains to hide one’s identity via a “private” function, emphasizes Frank Karlitschek, one of the main creators and developers of the Social Desktop, “that’s especially important because there are a lot of people who get nervous when it comes topersonal data.” Both of the other important developers involved in the first implementation are board members of the KDE e.V.; Cornelius Schumacher and Sebastian Kügler.

The complete back-end for such widgets is also included in KDE 4.3. The conversion from the past year provided a vaguely formed idea from a general API to a content provider of variation: the interface to a database. The KDE forum, first started in September 2008, as well as the cross platform site Opendesktop.org are the first projects to make use of this data engine.
The community is now encouraged to develop more widgets, plasmoids and complete applications using this social desktop engine on platforms such as the KDE forum or Opendesktop.org. It is now possible to develop clients for functions such as “ be a fan of application x”, “upload/download artwork” or “ask the Knowledge Base.”

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