X/Graphics DevRoom at FOSDEM 2012? (4-5 February)

[Luc Verhaegen]

(after my short talk here at XDC chicago, let's get this out to 
everyone)

It's time again to start planning for the next FOSDEM. After our poor 
showing in 2010 (where in the end openmoko got given half our time, as 
we had not managed to schedule more than 3 talks 2 weeks before the 
event), I didn't bother organising this for 2011. And this year I am 
putting down some hard requirements before I go and talk to the FOSDEM 
organizers.

So... FOSDEM. Not that it needs more introduction... One weekend in 
February, 5000+ geeks on a university campus in Brussels (not that 
anyone knows exact numbers). 3 main rooms, Tons of DevRooms, 20 or so 
talks in parallel, project specific booths. The biggest, and most open 
free software event of Europe, probably of the world.

We have had 5 DevRooms in a row there, and even when we had a 150 seat 
room (2008), we were almost at full capacity all the time, and at times 
had to refuse entrance to people (for safety reasons). In 2010, when 
quite a few people had to be refused, we received remarks along the 
lines of: "Why doesn't a project like X have a bigger room?" "This is 
the only real opportunity we get to interact with the developers 
directly"

So... After our terrible showing in 2010, i now need more to convince 
the FOSDEM organizers that we are worth of a DevRoom, that we can 
deliver. So, with a deadline of oktober 1st, i am now asking for 6 
people (basically fill up saturday afternoon) to step up and promise to 
hold a talk at FOSDEM, even when their employers end up not paying for 
their expenses, even when there is some other conference that might turn 
up in the next 5.5 months.

Of course, these talks should not be just X, anything related to free 
software and graphics goes. For example: one of the really cool talks a 
few years ago was about a PCI card with an FPGA which did VGA.

So. Get me something that i can take to the FOSDEM organizers and state 
"This time, we will fill our scheduly properly", and we will have 
another marvellous FOSDEM in February.

Luc Verhaegen.