More than beer + code: What you missed at FOSDEM 2024
BRUSSELS — The cobblestones of Brussels are likely still humming from the frantic footwork of 8,000 Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting participants. While the coffee cups have been cleared and the beer taps silenced, the impact of this vibrant Open Source conference lingers.
If you missed the chance to dive into code discussions, network with fellow enthusiasts, and (of course) Belgian waffles, fear not! We’re here to recap the key takeaways and explore the event’s highlights.
The FOSDEM is one of a kind – there’s no registration, no fee, and you can bring the kids (and your little dog, too) but one of the best things about it is the lightning-fast turnaround for the videos.
With 35 dev rooms 951 speakers and 67 tracks — ranging from APIs to Rust — there’s enough to keep you busy for weeks. The videos are hosted in the session descriptions or check out the full list of videos already processed here and download the videos after triangulating from the program.
This year was so packed that people parked themselves in dev rooms for hours at a stretch — there was little to no turnover between sessions. We noticed more people streaming from outside the rooms, too, in a boosted hallway track. Our homework for the week is to catch up on some of the sessions we highlighted – but didn’t catch in person.)
So, grab a virtual cup of coffee and settle in for a journey through the Open Source heart of Brussels.
Moving a step closer to defining Open Source AI
The latest workshop in the Open Source Initiative’s mission to define Open Source artificial intelligence led by executive director Stefano Maffulli. The free software movement faces a critical crossroads: defining Open Source AI. Regulations call it “free and open source,” companies like Meta claim “open source” with restrictive licenses, and the landscape shifts rapidly. Without a clear definition, Open Source risks irrelevance.
Catch the slides, check out the recap and weigh in on the OSI forums.
Matrix devroom
A packed half day on the open protocol for decentralized, secure communications. Topics ranged from State of the Matrix to Slack migration and the European Union Digital Markets Act. You can firehose all the sessions in a single playlist.
Reproducible builds for confidential computing: Why remote attestation is worthless without it
The holy grail of Confidential Computing (CC) – auditable trust. Today, opaque reference values used for remote attestation, a key security check, come from shrouded third parties. Speakers Malte Poll
and Paul Meyer have challenged this by building a fully Open Source and reproducible CC ecosystem. The video and slides are already up. The presented code is the base for images used in both Constellation and the Confidential Containers project.
How to chart your career path in Open Source
With tech layoffs continuing even as profits soar, many of us wonder how to plan for what’s next. Enter an all-star panel: Dawn Foster, Ray Paik, Ildiko Vancsa and Allison Randal. These seasoned Open Source pros unpack their 20-year journeys and offer tips for landing your dream job, balancing day jobs with passion projects, and overcoming imposter syndrome.
An Open Source, open-hardware offline finding system
If you’ve ever lost a small gadget with no internet connection, you get the idea behind this Open Source solution inspired by Apple’s AirTags. The system uses beacons on ESP32 devices and secure communication with elliptic-curve cryptography to reunite owners and lost items, even offline. Learn how it works and lessons learned during development. The recording and slides are already up.
OSPO4Good UN Event report & 2024 Call for Participation
Where will the crowd be heading next? The second edition of United Nations event in New York in July, for sure. Check out the takeaways from last year and find out how to get involved.
