Build your skills – join our online hackfest during the LibreOffice conference!

Who makes LibreOffice? How can you – as a user – get involved in the community? And what can you contribute to the project? Well, we’ll answer all of these questions, and more, in an upcoming online “hackfest” during the LibreOffice conference. This is a virtual event where the world’s foremost LibreOffice experts will be at hand, to answer your questions about contributing to the project. You can see how they work and “how the sausage is made”, as they say! There are many ways to help out: Designing the user interface Improving the features and functionality with C++ programming Updating the documentation Translating the app and website Starting cool marketing campaigns Confirming bug reports from other users And much more. By joining a well-known and well-established FOSS project like LibreOffice, you can build up your skillset for future career options. And also meet new people and have fun! So, do you have a question about contributing? If so, please send your questions to ilmari.lauhakangas@libreoffice.org by 27 September 2020. A panel of experts will convene to present on your questions and topics. Everyone is welcome to join and ask further questions. In the case that your spontaneous questions render the

Annual Report 2018: LibreOffice Hackfests

Most LibreOffice developers are working from their home offices, so hackfests provide a unique opportunity to spend some time working shoulder-to-shoulder with their peers. In 2018, LibreOffice developers and community members met at four hackfests in Brussels, Hamburg, Tirana and Munich. Brussels (Belgium), February 5-6 The first hackfest of the year was organized at ICAB in Brussels immediately after FOSDEM, the largest European gathering of FOSS developers and advocates, which is organized every year at ULB (Brussels Free University) during the coldest weekend of the winter season. The hackfest was attended by over 30 people, equally split between those focused on development and those taking care of non technical tasks such as localization, documentation, certification and marketing. In term of development, there were achievements in various areas of the office suite and in quality assurance. Hamburg (Germany), April 6-8 The community gathering started with a walk through the fascinating Hanseatic city of Hamburg, with its river, canals and lake in the centre (Binnenalster), and a sample of local food at the Groeninger Privatbrauerei. On Saturday, around 45 people attended the hackfest, divided in two groups: the first focused on coding for fixing bugs and working on new features, and the

LibreOffice Paris HackFest

The LibreOffice Paris HackFest 2019 will take place on the weekend of July 5th-6th, at le 137, which is at 137 Boulevard Magenta, Paris 10e, France. The event is sponsored by INNO3, hosting the hackfest in their building, and The Document Foundation, providing reimbursement for travels and accommodations. LibreOffice Paris HackFest will start on Friday at 10AM. During the day there will be an informal meeting of the French community, to discuss local activities, while developers and other volunteers will hack the LibreOffice code. The venue will be available until 2AM. On Saturday the venue will open at 10AM, to allow people to continue working, and share hackfest results. The event will officially end at 8PM, but on Sunday there will be a city tour. More details on the LibreOffice Paris HackFest are available on the wiki at the following link: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Hackfest/Paris2019.

Munich Hackfest, October 2018: Roundup and photos

Hackfests are great opportunities for LibreOffice developers and community members to meet face-to-face, work on new features, fix bugs and enjoy good food! In late October, CIB hosted a hackfest in Munich, Germany, with 25 participants over the three days. Check out the achievements section for full details on the results, but in summary: many bugs were fixed, some features were polished, and knowledge was shared. Two participants learned about building LibreOffice from source code, while others discussed non-technical topics such as marketing and local events. A big thanks to everyone who took part – it was great seeing you! Here are a few photos, starting with the first evening, when a few quick presentations were given. Andreas Kainz discussed his work on the NotebookBar user interface design (also check out his blog): Then it was time for pasta – penne all’arrabbiata and fusilli radicchio and gorgonzola… On the second day, developers worked on various features and bugfixes: Izabela Bakollari from the Albanian LibreOffice community worked with Bjoern Michaelsen to build the source code and commit some code changes: Then it was time for more Italian food – this time, pizza! On the final day, participants presented their achievements: Most