FOSDEM 2022 (Fee and Open Source Developers European Meeting was just announced a few days, a few days ago, as a for sure online conference, with the possibility of it to eventually become hybrid (but it’s yet to be confirmed).
This conference which is no longer just a developers conference but a general community conference is the biggest Free Software/Open Source Software conference in Europe (by far), with past IRL events have almost 10 000 participants.
While the Ubuntu Community Members have been present, and more than frequently event within the conference organization volunteers and even managing rooms like the containers room, and met for an Ubuntu community dinner, the Ubuntu Community hasn’t had a booth at FOSDEM at least for a few years, and I want to change that!
I propose that we organize ourselves and request FOSDEM for a stand/booth, for our community, with participation from Canonical, all the flavours, and even including the UBports Community (since they actually do Ubuntu Touch).
What do you all thing, and are you willing to help?
No matter what format it is, whether completely virtual or hybrid, I completely and enthusiastically support a booth, and will help staff it, promote it, and get the community what it needs to make it a success, whether it’s in person or online! Thank you so much for posting about this and getting us thinking about planning!
Is it okay if I Tweet a link to this post from the official account?
The dev rooms have just been announced, so I imagine next week the call for stands will go out, similar to how it did last year. I’ll signal boost this post , so we can be ready with our submission and have an idea of who we’ll have to virtually staff the booth, give demos, etc.!
So, I am 98% sure that we have a virtual stand! There wasn’t a call for stands, as they are going to use the participants from 2021, but I got in touch with the organizers, completed the application, and we’re added to the stand mailing list so we’ll keep everyone posted. Many thanks, as always, to @diogoconstantino and @zyga and others who’ve been advocating for the return to FOSDEM, even if this year is a virtual appearance!
We do indeed have our virtual stand! From what I understand, here’s what we need to get it ready for FOSDEM (which is the first weekend in February):
A Hugo page that will act as our virtual stand - here is the README on the FOSDEM stands website repo.
Community members to staff the booth during the conference, which will happen during CET hours
Community members to host demos and workshops
Community members to host social hour events
Something else we should do!
If you’re interested, please fill out the interest form - and if you have an idea for the stand but won’t be able to participate, leave it in a reply here! Let’s get brainstorming, planning, and make this virtual stand a great experience!
Honestly, anything on either contributing to Ubuntu (for example, packaging, QA, Flutter apps) or things building on Ubuntu (for example, smart home management using Ubuntu on a RPi) or our products (making Snaps, charms, etc.). It’s pretty open! What would you feel confident and comfortable doing a demo about?
Hello all! Friendly reminder if you are interested in helping out (even for an hour!) at the FOSDEM stand, please take a moment to fill out the interest form!