FOSDEM
Encyclopedia
FOSDEM is a non-commercial volunteer organized European event centered around free and open source software
development
. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open source software movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the awareness and use of free and open source software.
FOSDEM is held annually during the first weekend of February at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
Solbosh campus, situated in the southeast of Brussels, Belgium
and easily reachable by public transport from the central station.
This encouraged the team to repeat the event. The F (of FOSDEM) was requested by Richard Stallman
, because a majority of the software presented the previous year was under GPL.
The event has been annually in February since then, with growing numbers of visitors, talks and tracks.
At present, the meeting hosts about 4,000 visitors every year.
Award for the Advancement of Free Software ceremony was held at FOSDEM from 2001 to 2005.
Free and open source software
Free and open-source software or free/libre/open-source software is software that is liberally licensed to grant users the right to use, study, change, and improve its design through the availability of its source code...
development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open source software movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the awareness and use of free and open source software.
FOSDEM is held annually during the first weekend of February at the Université Libre de Bruxelles
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...
Solbosh campus, situated in the southeast of Brussels, Belgium
City of Brussels
The City of Brussels is the largest municipality of the Brussels-Capital Region, and the official capital of Belgium by law....
and easily reachable by public transport from the central station.
History
FOSDEM was started under the name OSDEM (Open Source Developers of Europe Meeting) by Raphael Bauduin. Bauduin has said that, since he felt he lacked the brains to properly contribute to the open source community, he wanted to contribute by launching a European event in Brussels. It was an immediate success, with speakers coming from all over the world.This encouraged the team to repeat the event. The F (of FOSDEM) was requested by Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, because a majority of the software presented the previous year was under GPL.
The event has been annually in February since then, with growing numbers of visitors, talks and tracks.
At present, the meeting hosts about 4,000 visitors every year.
- 2001 - Event named OSDEM, started by a small team of five people. Organized in two months.
- 2002 - Event renamed to FOSDEM, on request of Richard Stallman. Attendance grew to a few thousand.
- 2003 -
- Keynotes: The History of Free Software (Jon 'Maddog' Hall), FSFFree Software FoundationThe Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
(Richard Stallman) - Tracks: databases, desktop, education, multimedia, security, toolkit, tutorials
- Developer rooms: embedded software, gnome developers, GNUstep, KDE, Mozilla, PostgreSQL
- Keynotes: The History of Free Software (Jon 'Maddog' Hall), FSF
- 2004
- Keynotes: The open source paradigm shift (Tim O'Reilly), FSFFree Software FoundationThe Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
(Richard Stallman) - Tracks: accessibility, Java, Linux kernelLinux kernelThe Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
, Scripting languages, security, X&Co - Developer rooms: Debian, Java, OpenMosix, MySQL, Embedded software, KDE, Mozilla, Tcl
- Tutorials, unofficial talks served as a platform for ad hoc talks.
- Keynotes: The open source paradigm shift (Tim O'Reilly), FSF
- 2005
- Keynotes: Wikipedia (Jimbo WalesJimmy WalesJimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company....
), FSFFree Software FoundationThe Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
(Richard Stallman) - Tracks: Desktop, Development tools, GRID/Clusters, Linux kernel, Packaging tools, security
- Developer rooms: Calibre, Clustering, Dokeos, Embedded software, Gnome, GNU Hurd, KDE, Opengroupware, PHP/Pear, GNU Classpath, Debian, Drupal, Gentoo, GNUstep, Jabber, Mozilla, Perl, Tcl
- Unofficial talks were again present.
- Keynotes: Wikipedia (Jimbo Wales
- 2006
- Keynotes: Richard Stallman, GPLv3 discussion
- Tracks: Desktop, Development, Security, Systems, Voice over IP, Web 2.0
- Developer rooms: Ada, GNU Classpath, Embedded software, Gnome, Jabber, Linux on Laptops, Opengroupware, Tcl/Tk, Calibre, Debian, Gentoo, GNUstep, KDE, Mozilla, openSUSE, X.org
- 2007
- Keynotes: OLPC (Jim Gettys), Liberating Java (Simon PhippsSimon Phipps (programmer)Simon Phipps is a computer scientist and web and open source advocate.Phipps was instrumental in IBM's involvement in the Java programming language, founding IBM's Java Technology Center. He left IBM for Sun Microsystems in 2000, taking leadership of Sun's open source programme from Danese Cooper...
) - Tracks:*
- main tracks: Opening/closing talks, Security, Desktop applications, Development and languages, Kernel, Web, Internet Services
- side tracks: Lightning Talks, Key Signing
- Developer rooms: CrossDesktop, KDE, Gnome, openSUSE, Mozilla, GNU Classpath+OpenJDK DevJam, CentOS+Fedora, Jabber, OpenGroupware+GNUstep, Python, Research Room, X.org, Gentoo, Debian, Embedded
- Keynotes: OLPC (Jim Gettys), Liberating Java (Simon Phipps
- 2008
- Keynotes: "Tux with Shades, Linux in Hollywood" (Robin Rowe), How a large scale opensource project works (Robert Watson), Status update of Software Patents (Pieter Hintjens)
- Tracks: Opening/Closing talks, Languages, Build Systems, Games, Packaging, Virtualization, Web
- Developer rooms: BSD+PostgreSQL, CentOS+Fedora, CrossDesktop, Debian, Drupal, Embedded, Free Java, GNOME, JBoss, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Research Room, Ruby on Rails, X.org
- There were lightning talks about miscellaneous subjects.
- 2009
- Keynotes: "Free. Open. Future?" (Mark Surman), Debian (Bdale Garbee), Google Summer of Code: A behind the scenes look at a large scale community (Leslie Hawthorn)
- Tracks: Distributions, Languages, Security, Systems, Collaboration, Kernel
- Developer rooms: Ada, BSD+PostgreSQL, CentOS+Fedora, CrossDesktop, Debian, Drupal, Embedded, Free Java, GNOME, GNUStep+Groupware, Jabber+XMPP, KDE, Mozilla, OpenOffice.org, openSUSE, Ruby on Rails, X.org
- There were lightning talks about miscellaneous subjects.
- Various activities: Key Signing Party, Open Source Initiative special session, etc.
- 2011
- Keynotes: "Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever" (Eben MoglenEben MoglenEben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder, Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, whose client list includes numerous pro bono clients, such as the Free Software Foundation....
), "LLVM and Clang" (Chris LattnerChris LattnerChris Lattner is an American software developer, best known as the primary author of the Low Level Virtual Machine project and related projects, such as the clang compiler. He is currently the chief architect of the Compiler Group at Apple Inc.- Background :...
), "How kernel development goes wrong and why you should be a part of it anyway" (Jonathan Corbet) - Tracks: Systems, Web browsing, Cloud, Languages, Office, Web frameworks
- Developer rooms: Crossdesktop, Data analytics, Cross distro, Embedded, Free Java, GNU, Jabber & XMPP, Mono, Mozilla, MySQL & friends, Security & hardware crypto, World of GNUstep, Accessibility, Configuration & Systems management, LibreOffice, New challenges in virtualization, Open source telephony, Perl, PostgreSQL
- There were lightning talks about miscellaneous subjects.
- Various activities: PGP key signing, certifications, beer drinking, etc.
- Keynotes: "Why Political Liberty Depends on Software Freedom More Than Ever" (Eben Moglen
Financing
The event is entirely free. It is financed by sponsors who accept the non-commercial nature of the event, and by donors amongst the visitors. Donors receive an incentive in form of a token present. Everything is organized and set up by volunteers.FSF Award
The Free Software FoundationFree Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
Award for the Advancement of Free Software ceremony was held at FOSDEM from 2001 to 2005.