Open Research Tools and Technologies devroom
Call for participation open.

👉 Saturday 4 February 2023, Université Libre de Bruxelles.

We invite developers and users of open tools and technologies used in a research and investigation context to contribute to the 2023 edition of FOSDEM, the largest open-source conference in Europe. We understand research as the general process of knowledge production and inquiry. This includes scientific research, investigative journalism, data journalism, OSINT, as well as research and investigations undertaken by NGOs, civil society, community and activist groups, etc.

We seek talks about:

New releases of open source software. Introduce a new tool or infrastructure about knowledge production or management. We appreciate context about the project, at the crossroads of open source software and open science.
Present and/or ask for feedback on open technology stacks used in a knowledge creation or production project (research, journalistic inquiry, archive creation or publication…) which collects, analyses, treats, documents, visualizes, and/or shares data.
Discuss tool design and implementation that enhance the understanding and literacy of inquiry outputs: data visualisation techniques and issues, knowledge access and exploration means. E.g., how to hold an algorithm accountable to social scientists; how to foster better reproducibility and interoperability thanks to FLOSS; or how to cope with biases of a chart for a data journalist.
Contribute to the debate about bridging tech culture with research and investigative environments (data journalism, investigative journalism, activism and academia), including tips and best practices for navigating tensions, as well as the contribution of the open source movement to research and investigations sustainability through organizational hosting, funding for projects, support and maintenance, etc.)
Share your experience about building open source devices or communities across a variety of research and investigative contexts.

We welcome talks from various research and investigative contexts: research labs, libraries, newsrooms, museums, hackerspaces, maker labs, community and activist groups. We welcome your experience on various topics: open science, open data, commons, research on research, sustainability... Any subjects related to open source technologies in research contexts are welcome even if not in this list.

You will find a summary of what happened in our devroom the first two years in this blog post: https://reticular.hypotheses.org/1825

Event and talks format

Our devroom is split into 6 hours of physical talks (in Bruxelles) and about 2h of online talks (pre-recorded).

1. Talks

Physical talks will last 25 minutes max, followed by 5 minutes for questions and changing speaker. A 20/10 split also works.
Physical lightning talks will last 15 minutes max or a bit less if you want room for questions.
Online talks consist of a pre-recorded video of 19 minutes max, followed by 5-10 minutes of online Q&A.
Online lightning talks consist of a pre-recorded video of 14 minutes max or a bit less if you want room for online Q&A.

Talks have to be in English and will be recorded (including the live Q&A for online talks) and later on published under Creative Commons CC-BY licence on the FOSDEM video recordings archive.

The FOSDEM's online platform allows the speakers of online talks to stay in their virtual room and chat with the audience while the following talk starts.

2. Event format

The FOSDEM will be physical this year (in Bruxelles), but we reserved 1/4 of our time to online talks. The physical talks can be seen online via a stream, but the speakers will not take questions from the online audience (and there is some lag). The online talks will not be broadcasted in our physical room because another devroom needs it. It can be watched on an individual basis from anywhere, but we may obtain a dedicated room to watch it together somewhere else. This will be addressed when we get closer to the event.

HOW TO SUBMIT

1. Important dates:

Proposal Deadline: 4th Dec 2022 23:59 CET
Accepted talk announced: 15th Dec 2022 at the latest
Conference: 4th Feb 2022 morning + afternoon
Submit early if you can, as we will evaluate the proposals as they come because of the very tight schedule

2. Submissions must include:

Abstract
Session type (Lecture or Lightning Talk)
Expected prior knowledge / intended audience
Speaker bio
Links to code / slides / material for the talk (optional)
Links to previous talks by the speaker (optional)

To get inspired on possible abstracts style, length and format, you can read previous edition talks on FOSDEM archives:

3. Pentabarf tips (submission system)

Submission process is managed in the Pentabarf system used by the FOSDEM conference.

Apply for a talk: https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM23

By submitting your recorded talk you agree to have it made available publicly... forever.

When submitting your talk in Pentabarf, make sure to select the ‘Open Research Tools and Technologies Devroom’ as the ‘Track’. If you already have a Pentabarf account from a previous FOSDEM event, please reuse it. Create an account if, and only if, you don’t have one from a previous year.

If you have any issues with Pentabarf, do not despair: contact us at research-devroom-manager[at]fosdem.org.

The Open Research Technologies devroom

The Open Research Technologies devroom addresses FLOSS developers in a broad community concerned with research production and curation: scientists, engineers, journalists, archivists, curators, activists. The tools and technologies targeted are typically creating, handling or sharing knowledge artifacts: data, academic papers, books, collections, web contents, algorithms, artworks. This devroom provides a place and time to discuss the issues related to the creation and usage of open research technologies, with the ambition to foster discussions between designers, developers and users, bridging multiple knowledge-based communities together, and with the broader FLOSS community.

The Open Research Technologies devroom aims to:

Allow knowledge-based tool developers to publicize their effort and become aware of other FLOSS projects.
Facilitate the pooling of coding efforts on (often poorly funded) tools.
Create a network where otherwise isolated developers, research engineers can share common FLOSS concerns.
Provide social recognition for people who work in fields where designing and developing tools is less considered than usual outcomes (e.g. not publishing papers in research, not writing investigation in data journalism, etc).

For more content information, you can also read about the state of the conversation in the devroom in 2020-2021.

What is the FOSDEM?

The FOSDEM (Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting) is a non-commercial, volunteer-organized European event centered on free and open-source software development. It is aimed at developers and anyone interested in the free and open-source software movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the awareness and use of free and open-source software.
https://fosdem.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOSDEM

Organizers

Diego Antolinos Basso, Sciences Po CEVIPOF, @diegantobass
Paul Girard, OuestWare, @paulgirard
Maya Anderson-González, Free Libre and Open Social Scientist \o/ @MayaAndersonGonzalez
Mathieu Jacomy, Aalborg University TANT Lab, @jacomyma
Sara Petti, Open Knowledge Foundation, @sapetti9
Matthieu Totet

Open Research Tools and Technologies devroom Call for participation open.