[Appeal] Draft for a "vision" document (based on Aaron's initial
one).
Kurt Pfeifle
k1pfeifle at gmx.net
Sun Apr 3 08:03:13 CEST 2005
<Start of my draft>
The Appeal Mission
------------------
KDE has come a long way. Now it has arrived at a chasm to overcome.
From the beginning KDE has aimed to provide a complete desktop. Its
creators worked to make it suitable for everyday use by average computer
users. And every release has brought KDE closer to this goal.
But we have reached a threshold. We stand at a small moat that must be
lept successfully to establish KDE's continued prosperity as a vision, a
technology and a marketable product.
KDE started out to create a desktop for Unix from scratch. 9 years ago,
there was no "modern" GUI for Unix/Linux that could compare or compete at
all with other, vastly more popular platforms.
That initial gap is now closed. We *can* compete. KDE desktop systems are
started to be rolled out in enterprises, offices and organizations,
sometimes even in large numbers. We begin to take pockets in places where
proprietary systems where 100% predominant previously. But still, our
competitive strength is not yet enough for "world domination".
Our mission is not yet completed. To transform ourselves into the next
stage, we must consider the differences between yesterday's work and
tomorrow's:
* Up until now, we worked to close the gap. In the future, we must
establish ourselves in the leadership of desktop technology.
* Previously, we worked for becoming an *integrated* platform. We
plugged all our "own" native KDE applications into one framework.
Next, we must become an ecosystem that is *integrative*, that also
conveniently hosts "foreign" technologies as first-class and welcome
citizens.
* In the past, we were mainly seeen as imitating. We indeed could look
for and find inspiration from other models. These models are in the
meanwhile exhausted - from now on, we must strive to innovate by our
own means.
* Looking back, we were struggling to catch up with superior, proprietary
environments. Looking forward, we will be working to overtake our
competitors.
Past Innovation
---------------
Of course, the KDE project never was a purely imitating endeavour. In the
last 9 years it has created some very innovative technologies already.
* DCOP is a reliable interprocess communication (IPC) framework. DCOP
even allows scripting and remote control of KDE applications. It was
so successfull, that it has served as the working model which helped
to define new desktop standard: DBUS, adopted as a general standard
specification for desktop IPC technology by Freedesktop.org, and
intended to re-use the best ideas from DCOP and improve where there
are seen shortcomings.
* KParts is a very advanced mechanism to embed program windows and logic
in other programs. Konqueror is the oldest and most voluminous example.
It can not only be used as a file manager and a web browser, but also
as an image viewer, a PostScript and PDF viewer, a manpage reader, an
info browser, a printer admin tool and much more. Kontact/KDEPiM are
a living proof about how to construct a powerful groupware client by
merging several component programs into one, while at the same time
letting users who prefer to use them "standalone" and non-integrated
still do so.
* KIO Slaves are the truely amazing foundation for KDE's omnipresent
network transparency. They allow users to gain seamless file, protocol
and program access from remote resources across the network.
Still, some of the ideas behind these features were present already on
other platforms.
KDE's innovation largely consisted in pragmatically reproducing features,
albeit always in a new way, and with big enhancements and originary
additions. But the external perception was still that of "purly copying
from superior paragons".
Future work
-----------
Six major areas need work. They can be summed up in:
* Look and Feel
* Usability
* Integration
* Development Platform
* Innovation
* Even more Network Access
We also realize that some additional structure, management and mechanisms
are needed to help coordinate these efforts. This coordination will help
in two ways:
* First, make KDE internal processes click better.
* Second, provide a way to effectively work with forces external to KDE.
The structural and management mechanisms are not a matter of this paper.
Here we'll rather concentrate on discussing the substance of our future
work.
=========================================
"Look and Feel": Breathtakingly Beautiful
=========================================
Appeal will help make KDE breathtakingly beautiful.
C. Identity Guidelines (CIG)
----------------------------
Creating new desktop beauty must start with first completing our new C.
Identity Guidelines (CIG). The CIG must then be promoted to help
coordinate the growing KDE artist community. We have "cat herders"
already emerging but they need direction. The CIG will help provide that.
It will also help establish a vision of what KDE will look like as enabled
by the Appeal Project.
Innovative UI Widgets & Animations
----------------------------------
Our artists will have to work to design innovative user interface widgets.
First mockups will hopefully be available soon.
Where appropriate, a system of useful animations should help the user to
receive feedback from the system. The feedback must support the user's
workflow. It must show him in which stage of the work process he is, and
what next steps there will logically occur.
A new widget theme will play a good part in the Breathtaking Beauty of
KDE's near future: a theme that plays out a calm look as would be
appropriate in a corporate environment but which can also attract the
home user's attention.
Qt4 and New X.org Extensions For X11
------------------------------------
The upcoming Qt4 technology innovations ("Arthur", the new paint engine;
"Scribe", the new text engine; "Interview", the new data modelling
framework; "Tulip", the new template classes), will greatly help to
explore new, untapped areas of user interface design.
Thankfully, our link to the Trolltech developers is already very close.
This relationship will be made even more productive and creative by
our new efforts.
All the new powerful extensions and innovations of the X11 technology
provided by X.org will be invaluable assets to implement our plans.
This includes utilizing 3D effects, transparency, shadows, animations.
non-rectangular shapes and much more.
The Appeal Project will seek close and continuous cooperation with X.org
to achieve and foster that.
============================
"Usability": Logically Clear
============================
Appeal will halp transform KDE's user interface to logical clarity.
Defining the Desktop
--------------------
What is the desktop, exactly? The answer will provide scoping for many of
the initiatives we undertake.
The definition should include all components that are common to all KDE
desktop environment experiences. This involves elements like kdesktop,
kicker, konqueror for sure... but probably not things like games or
educational software.
By creating a tight and concise definition for the future KDE desktop we
can effectively concentrate resources. It will present KDE with a greater
degree of clarity as a "desktop solution" to the market.
Taming the GUI
--------------
In compliment to the CIG, the KDE Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) must
be completed out. The menus and toolbars of all the core desktop apps
must be attacked with prejudice. [ ???? wording ???? ]
Menus should be consistent across applications. They must be logically
organized from a usage perspective and be kept to reasonable minimums.
Toolbars should contain only the most important and required actions.
Configuration dialogs should reflect an emphasis on clarity and logic.
The common and KDE-wide dialogs as found in the libraries, such as the
toolbar configuration, shortcut config, get hot new stuff, file dialog,
printing and more should all be scrubbed into shiny cleanliness.
The artists, usability people and developers will need to collaborate on
these things for the greatest results.
Next Generation KDE Control Center
-----------------------------------
Currently, the KDE control center is a mess. A completely new aproach is
required to make this work. A search-centric interface with a beautiful,
clear icon view that makes the current treeview a thing of the past will
be a great boon to all desktop users.
The focus of the control center must be better defined as well: It is not
there to configure applications. It does not exist to provide system
information. Its task is not to do a type of system administration that
the normal desktop user would not need to perform.
The control center must undergo a radical slimming diet. Its functions
must have a clear focus. This increased focus will without doubt orphan
some currently existing control center modules. These orphans should be
reparented where appropriate, or dropped into oblivion altogether.
A new look must be created for this new control center. That look should
make the most out of the new CIG driven icons and widgets. The future KDE
control center should be a showcase rather than an emberrassment.
Like all other tasks put here, the creation of the next generations KDE
Control Center needs input and work from usability experts, artists as well
as developers.
=======================================================
"Integration": 'Foreign' Software Becomes KDE-empowered
=======================================================
Appeal will help make KDE the most hospitable platform for "foreign"
technologies.
Native KDE Applications and "Foreign" Programs
----------------------------------------------
It goes without saying, that all native KDE applications will continue
to benefit from their native integration into the KDE environment.
However, we have largely achieved the limits of inter-KDE integration
and cross-application communication.
The next challenge is to offer access to KDE's most advanced technologies
for non-KDE programs.
KDE System Dialogs
------------------
Who ever had the challenging task to train a class of corporate users who
have newly been migrated to a Linux desktop?
You surely may remember your uneasiness when having to announce "And now
we proceed to deal with topic 'printing'." Five distinctively different
print dialogs to learn for OpenOffice.org, Acrobat Reader, Mozilla &
Firefox, KDE applications and other desktop environments.
The same is true for all other system properties: Five distinctively
different "File Open" dialogs. Five distinctively different icon looks.
Five distinctivly different widget behaviours. And KDE a long time could
not do anything in order to better that ugliness.
The "Look and Feel" side of the problem has been considerably improved in
the past year by using similar themes and icons that match the look and
feel of the desktop.
The part of the distinctly different system dialogs remains open.
KDE will in the future sport an easy access for "foreign programs" (such
as mentioned above) to its native system dialogs, such as printing, file
management and content browsing. In KDE, users' eyes will only see one
type of printing dialog, one type of file browsing, one type of icon look
and one type of widget set for all applications, divergent as their origin
may be.
KIO Slaves
----------
KIO Slaves empower all KDE programs with an easy and quick access to
resources hosted somewhere on the network. All programs can open and save
files over HTTP, FTP, SSH, WebDAV or many other remote communication
protocols.
Non-KDE programs currently by default lack this empowerment.
In the next generation of KDE, we will extend the reach of our KIO Slaves.
We will offer all programs running inside a KDE desktop to take advantage
of KDE KIO Slave technoogy.
An initial implementation of this is already here: it is known as the
"kio_fuse" KIO Slave. It works reasonably well. But it needs to be made
more robust and more encompassing.
Eyecandy
--------
Jointly used icons and icon themes and a common "look and feel" are
crucial to give a smooth and pleasant user experience.
Standardized theming engines sharing the same icon sets and colors
will go a long way already.
Freedesktop.org
---------------
[ insert some appropriate sentences here.... ]
Mozilla & Firefox
-----------------
All Konqueror web browser users know how well the KDE HTML rendering
engine works. KHTML is lightweight, fast. standards compliant and cleanly
designed. It were these virtues that made Apple chose to put their stakes
on KHTML. KHTML is now the core rendering engine for Apple's own Mac OS X
web browser "Safari". Safari was used to ditch the Internet Explorer from
Mac OS X.
However, a considerable share of KDE users still prefer to use Firefox or
Mozilla for web browsing.
This is the reason why a small group of KDE developers have started to
port Mozilla's HTML rendering core (named "Gecko") to KDE. This will make
possible to switch Konqueror from KHTML to Gecko rendering at will (and
back to KHTML again). In effect, this will create a KDE-ized Firefox for
the KDE platform.
Enterprise customers who want to standardize and consolidate on Firefox
and Mozilla technology will be pleased to know this. They can do so now
without compromising their other choice for advanced KDE system
technology.
We are very excited about this initiative. We will support and work for
its completion at the earliest possible time.
We will also seek a much closer and long-term cooperation with the
Mozilla Foundation. This is to ensure that the "Firefox on KDE" effort
works with no friction. We also want to make sure that Firefox will be
fully enjoying the benefits of the looming new KDE technologies such as
the Context Search Engine and the Content Browser.
OpenOffice.org
--------------
We will help to make OpenOffice.org a first-class citizen on the KDE
desktop. This includes of course the adaption of a native look and feel.
But more important, it also includes the utilization of KDE's system
utilities, its print and file dialogs as well as its KIO Slaves.
The next generation of OOo and KOffice will share the same file format
anyway (OASIS"). This in itself will naturally lead to a growing
interoperability between OpenOffice.org and KDE.
We will actively strive to work with the OOo developer community to
make sure that we can cross-fertilize our projects by sharing and
exchanging ideas, code, technology and discussions.
===============================================
"Development Platform": New Killer Applications
===============================================
Appeal will help keep KDE the most productive and creative development
platform that regularily spawns new killer applications.
Best Of Breed Software
-----------------------
The KDE environment is already a development hothouse. This is currently
true mainly for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developers. It is not
yet true for commercial entities and independent software vendors (ISVs)
-- but we can see signs of change.
The KDE ecosystem continuosly outputs new programs and utilities, as can
easily be seen by scrutinizing the "KDE-apps" website for a few weeks.
How productive developers can be if they choose to develop on the KDE
platform is aptly demonstrated by some of the newly emerging killer
applications that recently originated from the KDE ecosystem.
Some of these programs have rapidly evolved into "best-of-breed". They
are superior to their analogous counterparts on other platforms: k3b for
CD burning, amaroK for music enjoyment, Kopete for instant messaging,
Digikam for work with photos and Kontact for a groupware client are only
a few examples.
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)
-----------------------------------
KDE offers 2 major benefits for hosting software development:
* an opulence of development tools and utiliies available free of
charge.
* a world class desktop infrastructure of interoperation with existing
programs, provided by the LPGL-ed KDE libraries
Commercial entities now too start to discover KDE as a viable development
platform.
Applications developed to run in a KDE environment can immediately take
advantage from all built-in KDE goodies. That involves "eyecandy" level
provisions (themes, icons, look and feel) as well as all the basic system
utilities needed by nearly every program (easy access to printing as well
as "file open" or "save as" dialogs) or state of the art integration
technologies (DCOP, KIO Slaves and KParts).
Rapid Application Development (even by Non-Developers)
------------------------------------------------------
In the past, to develop a GUI utility or application required a certain
level of training as a "developer". One had to learn at least one
programming language, plus an amount of shell scripting to be even able
to start with some moderate program.
The emerging "Kommander" application is a new and innovative way to make
possible the creation of native KDE GUI programs virtually within minutes
(small dialogs) or hours (small applications). Such Kommander applications
may even be created by non-developers with no knowledge of any programming
language.
The Appeal Project does not need to take any action here. The Kommander
developers are on an excellent path of progress. ;-)
We will help Kommander by creating the necessary awareness and promotion
it deserves.
===============================
"Innovation": Excitingly Useful
===============================
Appeal will help make KDE to produce new, exciting and truly innovative
useful desktop technologies.
The Content Browser
-------------------
The content browser is the next (some might say obviously right) step
for the age-old "file manager" concept.
Instead of literally managing files via *names* and *paths* in their
on-disk structure (something Konqueror is adept at) it will provide
a way to manage information by interacting with and operating on their
*meaning*.
The content manager should allow the user to easily find and access files
of various types such as images, videos, office documents. But it should
also allow the user to search their content, to define restrictions such
as where the file(s) came from or when they were created or by whom.
The content manager should also allow to follow or note *relationships*
to other bits of information. It should automate for the user creation
and storage of as much of this new contextual and relationship information
spin web as is possible or desired.
Of course, the best parts of traditional file managers should be kept
and implemented even smarter, including embedded previewing and quick
access to common actions.
Clarity reigns supreme: if a file is being shown in a view-only embedded
component, that must be communicated in an obvious fashion to the user;
there must be an equally obvious means to switch to an editable mode
available.
Feedback should be present at all stages of using the content browser,
and it should not be hidden away between context menus and collapsable
sidebars.
New ways of interacting with traditional elements should also be explored,
for example:
- a new approach to selecting/launching/acting on file icons is already
being discussed.
- ways of filtering files in a view are also explored.
We've exhausted the limits of traditional file managers with Konqueror.
It's time to take that extra step.
The design of the content browser should reflect our "Breathtakingly
Beautiful" mantra in how it displays icons, sidebars and other
interactive elements.
As much interoperability between classic Konqueror and the "content
browser" should be maintained as makes sense (e.g. using the service
menus for actions, using the same .directory files, etc).
Again, the artists, usability experts and developers will all have to
collaberate on these issues.
Contextual Linkage Engine
-------------------------
A little known, infant KDE technology currently known as klink ("k-Link"?)
provides contextual linkage between information on the desktop.
k-Link will be a cornerstone of the future KDE desktop experience. It
will be completed and melded into all core applications of KDE.
This engine will work largely behind the scenes. It will provide a new,
transparent and permanant gathering of correlating information from all
user actions, program executions and document processing as they occur.
Thus, k-Link will allow applications, such as the content browser and
the control center, to present information in a new workflow oriented,
organic fashion.
Just as KConfig unified and simplified the configuration system (making
such things universal in KDE applications) and eventually lead to the
rise of Kiosk and KConfigXT, the Contextual Link Engine will make search
and contextual navigation a universal feature in KDE applications.
[ It also needs a better name ;) ]
[ and a set of a stock widgets for applications to use. ]
==========================================================
Even more Network Access: Omnipresent KDE Desktop Mobility
==========================================================
Appeal will help users to work with their own KDE Desktop from wherever
they happen to roam (but let them leave their computers always back home).
Remote Desktop Access Over Any Link
-----------------------------------
It has been a decade-old dream to make any computer and any program
accessible and usable from any place in the world and from any device
or OS platform over any link.
KDE will make true this dream very soon for all its users.
NX Compression Technology
-------------------------
The revolutionary NX technology, developed by our friends from
NoMachine.com and provided to KDE under the GPL license is a boon
that we intend to fully exploit in the coming KDE versions.
It will enable KDE to even extend its original concept of seamless and
fully network transparent access. This concept is deeply rooted in KDE's
very own genomes. KDE's builtin network transparency traditionallly
allowed any user to get access to all file which are assigned to him,
whereever the resources may be physically hosted, and from whichever
machine the user may happen to use KDE.
With NX, KDE will not only take advantage of file and data resources,
but also of programs and applications that are hosted on remote servers
and even foreign platforms. All this will happen securely over SSH
encrypted connections.
KDE and the New Mobile Devices with Tiny Displays
-------------------------------------------------
Various types of wireless networks will become omnipresent, affordable
and very reliable in the next few years. In some locations they are
already: GSM, GPRS and UMTS are now established technologies. Not long,
and "wireless" will be in every hotel room, ever airport corner, every
train cabin and every airplane seat. Little mobile gadgets like PDAs,
MP3 players, mobile phones and game consoles are increasingly getting
equipped with network jacks and antennas for wireless links.
This solicits to use these appliances for accessing one's own personal
KDE desktop remotely, for one reason or another, occasionally or
frequently.
The challenge is to create well working user interfaces for those small
sized screens those tiny mobile devices tend to have.
One way to meet this challenge is to closely cooperate with the Open
Palmtop Integrated Environment project (OPIE):
* If we give OPIE programs a good and comfortable home inside KDE
desktop installations (an "OPIE Virtual Machine", so to speak),
they are a perfect UI match for any user's desire to access his
KDE-hosted workstation data from his mobile phone or PDA.
* If we create good OPIE and KDE data synchronization, we can share
out the CPU power and the immense storage size of modern dual core
workstation processors even to the tiniest palmtop devices.
New Mobile Work Patterns
------------------------
"Tele-working" has already become a common occurance for the IT industry
and some layers of offices workers.
KDE's traditional and new networking capabilities will be a perfect match
for many use cases. It will allow users to enjoy freely the benefits of
mobility, while still working with their same personal desktops and data
collections from anywhere.
Employees don't need to miss the joint family dinner with their kids just
because there is a last minute change to be completed before tomorrow
morning. They can still go home on schedule for the evening meal -- and
afterwards complete their document by accessing their company office KDE
workstation from their home PC.
You don't have your personal notebook with? You are on a weekend trip?
But you still need to acces data on some company workstation? No problem.
Use KDE and NX to create a secure tunnel! A Knoppix CD will do. A short
term loan or otherwise granted access to any standard PC will let you
boot it.
You need to access a non-Unix platform from a Linux system? No problem.
KDE and NX can do that for you.
You need to access your office KDE desktop from a non-KDE device? No
problem either: NX Clients are available for all major OSes.
New Corporate Use of Desktop Application Servers
------------------------------------------------
Server-based computing is experiencing a revival. This trend is expected
to increase greatly in the coming years.
"Personal" Computers and their use and administration patterns will be
put onto the defensive by genuine market forces, "big iron" marketeer
efforts, total cost of ownership (TOC) considerations. mal- and spyware
abuse, mail spamming, virus epidemies and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.
"Thin Clients" will see a new revival. Despite all underlying hardware
and technology changes, users wil still need a GUI, even on the thinnest
and diskless clients. ;-)
KDE therfor is not much affected by these paradigm shifts of the IT
industry. KDE runs equally well on PCs or Fat Clients. It is excellently
designed for use on Terminal Servers for Applications and it runs equally
well on Thin Clients.
In fact, fat application servers and thin client workstations will very
often be the new choice: those corporations and organizations that will
ditch Windows and decide in favor of a migration to Linux have much to
benefit from such a change.
A Terminal and Application Server system eases the initial rollout.
It reduces the number of administrators to be trained. It saves costs
(as many legacy hardware systems which will not be good enough to run
Longhorn will still be excellent Thin Client-alikes). It centralizes the
crucial tasks of data backups and system software upgrades.
Towards Ubiquitous Desktop Computing with KDE!
----------------------------------------------
Current and future KDE-native and KDE-adapted technologies will extend
the traditional network awareness of our desktop platform. It will evolve
into the next level. Not only files and data, but also programs and
applications can be savely accessed and shared with and from remote
machines and users.
A new type of network usage for every computer user on the world will
soon become established. KDE possess all the technology assets to be a
leading part of this new mainstream
HTTP browsing of the WWW, largely consisting of (initially static, more
lately dynamic) HTML content hallmarked the last decade of network usage.
It lead to the blossoming of (partially cross-platform) web applications
and web services. Web-enabled user interfaces however are largely still
regarded as poor, slow and of limited usability. They are accepted as a
"crutch" that is used in order to be able to "walk the net" at all.
A new type of world wide web and peer-to-peer networking is about to
emerge. Here everybody will...
...use fully cross-platform, performant, interactive and truly GUI-enabled
services
...be secured by industry-standard SSL encryption
...be driven by the proven and tested X11 protocol and
...become re-juvenated by the highly efficient NX compression
Current hardware and software development is preparing the ground on many
fronts for this: the new generation of dual and multi-core CPU engines as
well as the various OS virtualisation concepts (from VMWare and QEmu to
UserMode Linux and Xen).
KDE is already well equipped to be a major factor in thes developments.
However, we will make additional and conscious efforts to shape our
software even more to these newly emerging environments of the near
future.
KDE platform and infrastructure software
...will incorporate all system technologies that make remote desktops
computing easy to use and safe to execute
...will be made by us into the most excellent hosting platform for
these new GUI application services
...will provide many of its best-of-breed program suites to be shared
from Application Terminal Servers to many home and corporate users
...will by default include the most easy to use and beautifully designed
client technology for accessing and utilizing remote programs and
run them seamlessly inside the KDE desktop.
=======
Summary
=======
The Appeal Project Team members discussed the challenges for KDE's
future roadmap. We resolved to continue work for KDE on the basis of
our common ideas. These ideas are presented in this paper to the whole
of the KDE community of developers, artists, designers, usability
experts, documentation writers, tranaslators, beta testers, bug hunters
and enthusias users.
However, this is still work in progress. We are open to discussions.
Please contribute your ideas if you are also prepared to work for
and implement them.
Together we will firmly establish KDE as a leading desktop platform,
not only on Linux and Unix, but also in comparison to other OS
platforms.
The next stage of KDE development poses several challenges:
The Artists' Challenge:
-----------------------
* We help make KDE breathtakingly beautiful.
* We create desktop prettyness and art that is unmatched by any other
system.
The Usability Challenge:
------------------------
* We halp transform KDE's user interface to logical clarity.
* Reduce visual complexity -- increase of ease of use -- set no l
imits to the user.
The Integration Challenge:
--------------------------
* We help make KDE the most hospitable platform for "foreign"
technologies.
* We estend our platform from the best "integrated" to the most
"integrative" desktop.
The Development Platform and ISV Hosting Challenge:
----------------------------------------------------
* We help KDE to stay the most productive and creative development
platform.
* We keep improving an environment that regularily spawns new
killer applications for our users.
The Innovation Challenge:
-------------------------
* We help make KDE to produce new, exciting and truly innovative,
useful desktop technologies.
* We have successfully "catched up" -- now we must "overtake" our
competition.
The Ubiquitous KDE Desktop Computing Vision:
--------------------------------------------
* We help users to work with their own personalized KDE desktop
from wherever they happen to roam (but let them leave their
computers always at home).
* We make any computer and any program accessible and usable from
any place in the world and from any device or OS platform.
</End of my draft>
--- Start comments ----------------------------------------------------
Concrete goals, tasks, TODOs that may better be included in a separate
document (maybe named "Implementing Appeal's Vision"?). I cut these from
Aaron's draft, because I feel they are too technical, too organizational
or too much detailled for a "Vision" document. However, they are of course
important ideas and suggestions:
"a new set of icons that reflect the CIG and the "breathtakingly
beautiful" should emerge. these icons should be clear and not
overly symbolic. they will also be divided into clear categories
visually between action icons, application icons, and other
categories as set out by the artists."
"augmenting this will be a complimentary KDM theme, splash screen
(and perhaps a new ksplash engine to drive it?) and a small set
of tasteful backgrounds."
"An Advisory Board
-----------------
An advisory board made up of various industry interests who can
then interact with KDE more directly than has been possible in
the possible will be set up. This will allow KDE to tap their
collective knowledge, contacts and resources while creating a
sense of stake holder status in KDE for them."
"Appeal Management
------------------
The project should find some person/people willing to help manage
the Appeal Team's processes. someone who can ensure we stay on
track when it comes to timelines as well as challenging our vision
both for scope and realization."
"larger icons than currently traditional in KDE should be used in
the standard view."
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