FOSDEM is Europe's best free
software event. In the whole World, I'd guess it's in the top
5. It's happening next weekend, here in Brussels, and I'm really
looking forward to it.
Most events which attract members of our community have a load of
proprietary software vendors and advocates who have businesses or
technologies which simply co-exist with free software and even
compete against free software. FOSDEM is one of the best because it
focusses solely on free software.
Richard Stallman is among the speakers, as usual, and FSF Europe will have a big stall
and will be talking with people and selling t-shirts and other free
software things. It would also be a good place to sign up to the Fellowship of FSFE (which is a good
idea for a
load of reasons).
It is pretty rare for me to meet face to face with the people I work
with. Some months, I have zero face to face contact with anyone
from the free software community. Such contact is part of everyday
life for members of some projects, but many free software
developers, advocates, and campaigners work together for years while
communicating mostly in writing across networks and sometimes by
telephone.
Most of the talks are technical, but these are also interesting for
non-technical audiences since they showcase the recent technical
developments of free software. There are also some talks with a
community, ethical, or legal focus and there are plenty of
opportunities to eat and drink together.
