<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear QGIS users and developers<DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>We are pleased to announce that Martin Dobias has been appointed to work on getting QGIS 0.8 ready for release as part of our sponsored developer programme. From Slovakia, Martin is an established developer on the QGIS team, having contributed the new canvas system for QGIS 0.8. He is also working on Python bindings for QGIS (see <A href="http://blog.qgis.org/?q=node/29">http://blog.qgis.org/?q=node/29</A>) which will be available in a future release of QGIS.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>We would like to thank the many people who have already contributed to our funding drive (<A href="http://qgis.org/content/view/131/105/">http://qgis.org/content/view/131/105/</A>) for their generous support. If our funding drive continues to be so successful, their is always the option of hiring additional bug squashers. So if you are interested please send Gary a note expressing your desire to be considered.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Martin's main job will be to kill bugs in the QGIS bug tracker marked as 'critical' and 'must fix'. Once these bugs have been resolved QGIS 0.8 will be released.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>We will post regular reports on Martin's progress.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Best regards</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">-- </DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Tim Sutton</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; ">(on behalf of the QGIS Project Steering Committee)<BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Visit <A href="http://qgis.org">http://qgis.org</A> for a great Open Source GIS</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Home Page: <A href="http://linfiniti.com">http://linfiniti.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Skype: timlinux</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">MSN: <A href="mailto:tim_bdworld@msn.com">tim_bdworld@msn.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Yahoo: <A href="mailto:tim_bdworld@yahoo.com">tim_bdworld@yahoo.com</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jabber: timlinux</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Irc: timlinux on #qgis at freenode.net</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>