FOSDEM13 Free and open source software developers’ European meeting

Not coming to FOSDEM? Still want to participate? Do not despair!

As during last year, FOSDEM will be streaming talks live onto the internet from a select number of our rooms. If you can't make it, this is the perfect way to avoid getting depressed for not being able to be there :-)

If you're watching the streams, you may want to join us on IRC (on the freenode network). That will allow you to provide some feedback on the streams; it could also allow people in the room relay questions.

To tune in, point your favourite media player to one of the following URLs:

• Janson: WebM; IRC: #fosdem-janson
• K auditorium (aka K.1.105): WebM; IRC: #fosdem-k-auditorium
• Ferrer: WebM; IRC: #fosdem-ferrer
• H.1301: WebM; IRC: #fosdem-h.1301
• H.1302: WebM; IRC: #fosdem-h.1302

Note that these streams will not work before the event; you'll need to wait until saturday morning.

In addition, for general status updates and feedback, you may join us on IRC at #fosdem-video on freenode.

Like last year, we will provide two 'community meeting rooms' (formerly called BoF rooms).

The concept is simple: any project/community can reserve a timeslot (15 minutes to an hour), during which they have the room just for them.

It is meant for ad-hoc discussions, meet-ups or brainstorms. It is not a replacement for a devroom and it certainly is not meant for talks, so there will deliberately not be a projector. The rooms are cosy and small with around 30ish seats.

Reservation can only be done on site and *during FOSDEM*. The reservation sheets are at the infodesk in the H building. The rooms are not far from that infodesk. Reservations are on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Here is the third round of interviews with our main track speakers:

• Dimitri Merejkowsky: Aldebaran Robotics and Open Source
• Florian Weimer: Trends in Open Source Security
• Jonas Sicking: Firefox OS
• Sara Golemon: Scaling PHP with HipHop
• Thomas Petazzoni: ARM support in the Linux kernel
• Wolfram Sang: Maintaining a kernel subsystem

Next week we'll publish the last set of interviews. Only 11 days until FOSDEM 2013 kicks off!

We love the mobile schedule apps, and we would like to thank all the mobile app developers!

You can find a list of apps we know about here: https://fosdem.org/2013/schedule/mobile/
Do you know about more apps? More platforms? Tell us about it!

To thank the mobile app developers, and to stimulate the continued development of the apps, we are offering them a free FOSDEM t-shirt!

Here is the deal:

• The app must work with the 2013 schedule (preferably pre-loaded)
• Must be open-source, with browseable sources
• Simple forks don't count, ports to other platforms do if build scripts are available
• Only applicable to the developers that will be at FOSDEM in person

To get the t-shirt(s), the lead developer of the mobile app should contact us on info@fosdem.org with the list of developers that will be at FOSDEM and that have made a significant contribution to the project.

Small print: we reserve the right to modify the conditions of the offer to avoid abuse or clear out ambiguities.

We have just published the second batch of interviews with our main track speakers:

• Amelia Andersdotter: The Devil is in the Details
• Bill Hoffman: Open Science, Open Software, and Reproducible Code
• Cathy Malmrose: UEFI SecureBoot
• Denis Defreyne: Static site generation for the masses
• Gilles Van Assche and Joan Daemen: Keccak, More Than Just SHA3SUM
• Leslie Hawthorn: The Keeper of Secrets
• Michael Meeks: LibreOffice: cleaning and re-factoring a giant code-base
• Vincent Untz: Has the GNOME community turned crazy?

If you can't wait for FOSDEM 2013, read these interviews to get a preview of the talks. More interviews are coming in the next two weeks.

FOSDEM needs you! Every year, the FOSDEM team is assisted by an enthusiastic team of volunteers to help out with various tasks and make the event a fun and safe place for all our visitors. Although we've become pretty good at organising a large conference, we're a small team and can not be everywhere at once. Which is why we enlist volunteers from among our visitors every year. If you would like to help out and give back to the community, please come join the ranks. You can do so by subscribing to the volunteers mailing list. This is where we will coordinate tasks so the event can run smoothly. We promise it'll be fun!

Extra hands are especially welcome during buildup on Friday, starting at noon, and more so during cleanup on Sunday evening. In case you're worried about missing lunch, free pizza will be provided for volunteers so nobody will have to go hungry.

A short overview of the tasks:

• Setting up the venue on Friday: this mostly involves carrying tables to their destination and setting them up, putting up signage, covering the walls in brown paper, ...
• Deploying the network on Friday: rolling out, neatly securing and crimping UTP cables. People with experience crimping cables are very welcome to help out!
• Manning the infodesk: help out fellow visitors who have questions, sell T-shirts, ... Must be a good English speaker, but if you know other languages besides that it certainly won't hurt.
• Moderation: make sure all talks end on time by giving speakers cues near the end of their time slot. Keep an eye out on room security and report potential issues such as overcrowded rooms before it becomes an issue.
• Safety: keep an eye out for potentially hazardous situations such as patches of ice that could trip people up, overcrowded rooms, ... This also involves barring entrance to rooms that are at full capacity so we can keep the conference safe for everyone. This can be combined with moderation.
• Teardown and cleanup on Sunday evening: collecting beer bottles, tear down the network, pull brown paper off the walls, take down the signage, stack the rental tables in neat heaps, broom the floors, ...

In addition to general volunteer work, we are also looking for volunteers specifically to help out with video-related work. This involves:

• Operating a camera in one of the five rooms which will be recorded by the FOSDEM video team;
• Regulating the audio in one of the rooms;
• or operating the DVswitch station.

While A/V experience is of course always welcome, all that's really needed is that you're interested; on-the-job training will be provided.

People interested in helping out with the video team should subscribe to the video team mailing list before the event where important announcements will be made, and be prepared to join us on IRC during the event.

Note that it's perfectly okay to subscribe (and volunteer) to both; just make sure to let the respective coordinators know when necessary.