Hi folks! It is that time of year when FOSDEM is right around the corner. FOSDEM is an annual Free Software and Open Source conference that happens in Brussels, Belgium on the first weekend of February. Fedora has been a part of the event for at least a decade or more. It is a long-time gathering place for Fedora contributors across Europe and the world.
We currently have a wiki page that is the organizing “home” for the FOSDEM 2024 Fedora presence. You can find more information about the event there:
Currently, we are trying to build a roll call of all the Fedora contributors who will be there at FOSDEM this coming February. Already, the count is at 18 people! If you are making plans to attend FOSDEM, please add yourself as an attendee on the wiki page.
Also, if you are speaking at the conference, there is a separate table on the wiki page for speakers. Please edit the wiki page with the details of your session. This will help our excellent marketing-team to help promote the speakers and Fedora-related sessions we will have at FOSDEM 2024!
I wanted to kick off this discussion topic to provide a home for questions and discussion about what Fedora will be doing at FOSDEM 2024. Leave your questions here, or just say hi to let us know if you will be there!
Last year, I noticed that many people quickly browsed through the boot, took a goody or two, and went away. I did a small experiment and tried to talk to people by asking them how they use Fedora or what they would change if they could, and I had some exciting conversations.
We need to take a step this year and try to:
Talk actively to the visitors and get their opinion about Fedora or on something specific (we need to decide what)
Have French-speaking people as well. I noticed a big group of people interested in asking questions but needed someone to speak this excellent language.
Get a challenge for the people to solve, like a small trivia game with fedora questions or something more innovative to make them return to the booth.
Have specific CFA - we need you for [L10n, QA, …]. Here is how you can join now.
Focus on discovering local ambassadors - it’s an excellent opportunity to get more people from different countries to join as ambassadors.
I am curious, what kinds of things did you learn from those conversations? It would be a nice idea to come up with a good way of tracking the topics people talk to us about.
I added the Goals & messaging section to the event wiki page to try and capture the things I hope we can talk to people about more:
We may be able to have specialized calls-to-action based on the people who are present at the stand. If we know what topics people are most comfortable to represent, we can request input or future follow-up from someone even if it is not their volunteer shift at the stand.
I’d like to talk more about our support for small Fedora release party events.
Not sure where you’re doing this sign-up. I’m running Identity and Access Management devroom at FOSDEM and there’s plenty of Fedora contributors speaking there, none of which is on your list.
P.S. It would probably be good to announce that wiki page on the devel@ mailing list so that package maintainers can be aware about it.
I might add my details but I am more worried about this initiative basically going unnoticed to a majority of package maintainers who often only look at devel@. If you want wider participation, please make sure marketing team is actually spending some time to tell about these initiatives/projects to Fedora developers.
To be honest, I forgot the most of it. I used the tell me one thing you don’t like in Fedora as a conversation started and it worked most of the time. I also approached people that were just looking from the distance on the booth by going to them
I would love to have a fun element into the communication. What about a map of the world on the column next to the booth (if we have it) and people adding small fedora stickers to the countries there come from?
Hi,
I’m René from Berlin, looking forward to my first FOSDEM. While I’ve been a Fedora user for some time, I consider myself more of an enthusiast than a technical expert.
I’m ready to assist at the Fedora stand in any way needed. I’m particularly keen on interviewing Fedora users and getting their opinions. Additionally, I’m more than willing to help with any other necessary tasks, no matter how small or mundane.
Just passing through to point how important this is, and how important it is for folks that will be attending the event to record and take pictures there. We in the marketing team want to make sure people get to see your talks and that get to see what went through in the event.
Hi René, welcome! Looking forward to meeting you in Brussels. Curious, when are you leaving from Berlin? I am traveling by train from Berlin to Brussels.
I am working on getting a volunteer sign-up form ready. In the meantime, please add yourself as an attendee on the wiki page so I can include you in emails and planning details for FOSDEM!
We also have a FOSDEM-specific Matrix room, but I have kept it invite-only in case we share information like phone numbers, travel plans, etc. over chat. I added Marketing Team members there if I recall correctly.
If anyone wants an invite to the Matrix room for FOSDEM, please let me know your Matrix ID!
I’ll be there volunteering at the Fedora booth both days, so I’ll make sure I over do this as much as possible! I’ll ping pictures and videos in to Matrix. I just need to make sure I have data while in Europe since I keep using the 5GB T-Mobile US gives me internationally too quickly.
We are in the final call for registration to our contributor appreciation dinner this Saturday! We have two more seats left. Registration is free, but required due to limited seating.
I suffered from FOMO badly over the weekend. However, I found the cure.
Vibes from FOSDEM live on here in Open UK conference, where I met lovely people from Rocky Linux and chatted over an hour after the event, FOSDEM, and open source collaborations.
If you are making plans to attend FOSDEM, please add yourself as an attendee on the wiki page.
