# Modern Email DevRoom at FOSDEM 2027 - Call for Participation Email, the probably most ubiquitous open and decentralized technology is about to make an astonishing comeback. Built on aging technology stacks and suffering from abuse as well as fierce competition by social networks, enterprise chat and instant messaging, it has been called "dead" various times. For many years, there had been no major novel projects and no dedicated email DevRoom at FOSDEM. This has changed in recent years. On the technical side, new servers, clients and software libraries are emerging - especially in novel programming languages such as Flutter, Go, and Rust. Standards-wise, a long term effort of creating the JMAP family of protocols is beginning to show effects. Email is still the workhorse of digital communication and consumers as well as enterprise users are increasingly questioning their dependency on cloud-based solutions. Government initiatives for digital sovereignty are pushing for Open Source solutions. In this process of "modernizing email", protocols need to be updated, specifications and implementations written, and tested for compatibility. The Modern Email DevRoom, provides a platform for open source/standards developers/experts/enthusiasts, sharing code, knowledge and getting to know people in the community. ## Call for Participation We'll have a "**Modern Email**" devroom again at FOSDEM 2027, and we're looking for speakers! We want to get together as email developers/users, learn about each other's projects, have technical discussions, exchange implementation/operational experiences, and share plans and visions for the future of email. FOSDEM is an annual conference about free and open source software. It takes place at the ULB Solbosch Campus, Brussels, Belgium on 30/31 Jan 2027. See https://fosdem.org/2027/. The devroom will be **held on Saturday 30 January 2027** (full day). The **submission deadline for talks is Saturday, 21 November, 2026** (end of day). **Please distribute this CfP as widely as possible to interested parties!** ## Topics Some suggestions for talks: - Self-hosting email, to stay in control of your communication (data sovereignty), and to keep email decentralized. What are the experiences, bottlenecks, and how can we make it easier? - Your free/open source software project(s) related to email. From demo to details. - Current developments, upcoming standards, e.g. [JMAP](https://jmap.io), [structured email](https://structured.email), ... - Email and AI, Agentic Email - Efforts to modernize our email ecosystem, e.g., through implementations in modern languages - Integrating email with other software, e.g., through APIs - Message/transport security/authenticity - Experiences with deliverability, email operations, anti-spam, hosting, ... - Email in the wider sense of groupware solutions involving address books, calendaring, text and video collaboration, and files - Visionary talks ## Submission We ask for a short talk abstract (+ proposed duration) and a speaker biography (+ contact info). Any material that shows your affinity to the field is also appreciated, e.g., a collection of links to your work, talks, projects, blog posts, etc. Submissions must be made through Pretalx (https://fosdem.org/submit) no later than **Saturday, 21 November, 2026**. Be sure to propose a talk at [pretalx.fosdem.org](https://pretalx.fosdem.org/fosdem-2027/cfp) and select the "Modern email Track". The suggested duration for a talk is **25 minutes** (20 minutes presentation + 5 minutes Q&A). However, we *explicitly* invite you to propose the best duration for your talk. If the best way to present your project is a **5-minute lightning talk**, we'll happily arrange a lightning session! Depending on the proposals, we may contact you to adapt the time of the session to fit the DevRoom schedule. Once the DevRoom schedule is finalized, we will contact you to help you prepare your talk. ## Important dates * 27 Oct: Modern Email DevRoom open for talk submissions * 21 Nov: Modern Email DevRoom submission deadline * 7 Dec: Announcement of final schedule * 29 Jan: Pre-FOSDEM Modern Email Hackathon (TBC) * 30 Jan: FOSDEM - "Modern Email" DevRoom day! * 30 Jan: Modern Email dinner in evening ## Side events ### Pre-FOSDEM Hackathon (Friday before FOSDEM) We plan to organize an informal **pre-FOSDEM email hackathon on Friday before FOSDEM** (29 January). Please contact one of the organizers through email or the matrix channel and/or put your name up at https://github.com/modern-email/FOSDEM-27/wiki/Hackathon-and-Dinner if you're interested in joining. We need to know who'll attend by January 25 due to building access registration policies. ### Friends-of-Email Dinner Following last year's good practice, we will reserve a table for an informal "friends of email" dinner/drinks session, on Saturday evening, January 30, at the end of the DevRoom day. Put your name up at https://github.com/modern-email/FOSDEM-27/wiki/Hackathon-and-Dinner and/or contact one of the organizers so we can guess the group size (in 2025 we reserved for 15 and 40+ showed up). Venue proposals welcome as well. ## Recordings Talks and Q&A sessions at FOSDEM will be recorded. The recordings will be published under the same license as all FOSDEM content (CC-BY). By being present in the DevRoom, you give permission to be recorded. The organizers will agree to make exceptions only for exceptional and well-reasoned cases. ## Contact For the latest details, see: https://github.com/modern-email/FOSDEM-27 Join the matrix room (also for coordination during FOSDEM): https://matrix.to/#/#modern-email:matrix.org Contact the organizers: * Mechiel Lukkien, mechiel@ueber.net * Hans-Jörg Happel, happel@audriga.com * Arnt Gulbrandsen, arnt@gulbrandsen.priv.no * Damian Poddebniak, poddebniak@mailbox.org * Benoit Tellier, btellier@linagora.com * Mauro De Gennaro, hello@stalw.art * Ben Bucksch info@beonex.com We are looking forward to a great day at FOSDEM with you!