Hi all, Please see the CfP for the Safety and Open Source dev room below. Kind regards, Shaun Mooney --- # FOSDEM 2021 (Online) - Safety and Open Source Call for Participation Submission deadline : 26/12/2020 ## About FOSDEM FOSDEM is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and collaborate. * FOSDEM is free to attend. There is no registration. * FOSDEM [website](https://fosdem.org/2021/) * FOSDEM [code of conduct](https://fosdem.org/2021/practical/conduct/) ## New rules / changes since last year For obvious reasons, this year the event will not take place in a physical location but online. * The reference time will be [Brussels local lime (CET).](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/belgium/brussels) * Talks will be pre-recorded in advance, and streamed during the event * Q/A session will be live * A facility will be provided for people watching to chat between themselves * A facility will be provided for people watching to submit questions ## Key dates * Submission deadline: 26 December 2020 * Announcement of selected talks: 31 December 2020 * Conference dates 6 & 7 February 2021 online * Safety and Open Source devroom date: Saturday 6 February 2021 online ## The Dev Room The Safety and Open Source Software dev room is dedicated to everything relating to using Open Source Software for safety critical applications. The advantages of Free and Open Source Software are numerous. More than ever companies choose to use FOSS in their projects, however the world of safety is behind the curve. Software developed for safety applications typically employs traditional development practices that, although well-used, are increasingly outdated, and the code is often closed source. This is because safety standards are stringent, and it is important that safety applications have rigorous quality assurance practices applied during development. Sadly, this means that using FOSS which has not been developed to a safety standard from the start is extremely difficult. This dev room is looking for talks which can help to showcase how we can use FOSS in safety applications, including overcoming obstacles faced, legal issues for industry and contributors, and how we can advance state-of-the-art safety practices to allow industry to benefit from the many advantages that FOSS provides. ## Talks We recommend about 45 minutes including discussion for talks, although will consider variations (please include the talk length in your submission). Example topics include (but are not limited to): * Pros and cons of using Open Source software in safety * Examples of Open Source Software being used in safety applications today * Legal and moral implications for contributors who have their code used in safety applications * Safety analysis techniques for complex software systems * Requirements elicitation, and verification and validation techniques (including creating argumentation to prove that software is safe enough to use) * What we need to do as FOSS creators to shift the industry mentality around the use of FOSS vs. current safety standards * Open Source Development practices and how we can map these to practices such as the V-model which are needed for current industry safety standards (e.g. IEC 61508, ISO 26262 ect.) ## For accepted talks * Presentations have to be pre-recorded and streamed before the event. * Once your talk is accepted, we will assign you a deputy to help you to produce the pre-recorded content. * The deputy will review the content and ensure it has the required quality. They are also responsible for ensuring that the content is ready to broadcast on the day. * During the stream of your talk, you must be available online for the Q/A session. ## Submit a talk Visit the [FOSDEM 2021 Pentabarf website](https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM21), and if you don't have one already create an account. Create an "event" and click on "Show all" in the top right corner to display the full form. Your submission must include the following information * Your contact Email * The title and subtitle of your talk (please be descriptive, as titles will be listed with ~500 from other projects) * Select "Safety and Open Source" as the track. * A short abstract of one paragraph * A longer description if you wish to do so * Links to related websites / blogs etc. ## Contact If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us: * Shaun Mooney: shaun.mooney@codethink.co.uk * Beth White: beth.white@codethink.co.uk