This post is pre-released on my blog. It will be published at Lydia’s blog and it will be aggreagated to planet KDE from there. Also, this was my Google Code-In task :)

It’s been over four months now from previous major KDE release and it’s time for a new one. KDE 4.6 is about to be released on 26th of January and it is party time again! Successful release parties can be very fun and educational for visitors. If parties has represented KDE well and it has given a good image about KDE community, you can even get new local KDE community members.

Although organizing KDE Release Parties can be though and reserve some time, it
can be a very good experience. Release parties bring the local community together. With stronger community, organizing next event will be a lot easier.

If your community is not very large and there are not that many people interested in KDE, release parties can be just going to have a beer at local pub(writer doesn’t have any experience on that…obviously) with friends. However, if you do have a large KDE community, you can go as big as you want…and can.

If there are people new to KDE, remember to explain and introduce KDE to them first. It would be a very bad first touch on KDE Community if it feels closed for outsiders. Release parties should be fun, that’s the main purpose of them. Parties ain’t parties if you just sit and talk seriously. Participating in parties should be a great experience and worth of the spend time.

To put it simply, all you need for a party is people at same place at same time. However, you most likely need someone to organize the whole thing, otherwise it will not work. Organizer is not a person who decides about everything, he or she just gets things done in a way that community wants. Place depends on parties size and program, for smaller discussion parties a local bar or restaurant is fine. If you are coming with bigger group, remember to contact the place and reserve a table. You can also advertise the event at IRC channel topics, microblogging services, blogs and even at Facebook. Also, add your party to KDE 4.6 Release Parties information page

The program itself is a good to have, because if something like ten strangers gather in one table, discussion may be a little sluggish. At first, everyone can introduce and tag itself. After that you can have a preselected topic to talk about at first. If the event is something bigger, you need to have a little more specific program to follow.

Release parties has always been, and they will always be. They indicate how strong and active local community is. According to KDE Community Wiki, there were 26 KDE 4.5 Release Parties organized in twelve countries including Argentina, Austria, Brazil, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and the United States. If your country isn’t listed here, like mine isn’t, you can change the situation for this release!

Have nice parties!

Like in the software development, user experience(What now? Visitor equals for user for me :P) is the most important part of release parties. At this point, you may want to hear few words about people who was participating in one of many KDE 4.5 Release Parties.

Michael Leupold, where and when the release party that you participated in took place?
- It was held at Stuttgart, Germany on 7th of August 2010. The place is called “Letzte Instanz” and it’s located in Untertürkheim
How many people took part in the party?
- 13 developers, translators and users. They had came from all over the southern German area.
What did you do at the parties? Were there any difficulties?
- We enjoyed food, drinks and ourselves. Actual release was unexpectedly delayed till after
our event (effectively making our event a pre-release event), we still had a
great time talking about KDE and getting to know each other.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Valorie Zimmerman, where you had your party and in what group?
- I met with the LinuxChix Seattle, at the Caffé Vita Coffee Roasting Co. on Capitol Hill in Seattle.
How many of you were there? How many of them was a KDE user already?
- We had three women attending. I was the only Kubuntu/KDE user.
What did you do there?
- We worked on creating a bootable USB key, sipped delicious coffee and nibbled wonderful mini-cupcakes.
Pics or it didn’t happen.
- Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.