(to quote the post Juan made on our website) Yes, it's that time of the year again. No, not the time to get the plants inside. If you live anywhere near the Northern hemisphere, I'd say it's a tad too late for that anyway. No, it's time to slowly start migrating to Brussels of course, for what will be the 9th edition of the biggest, bestest Free and Open Source Software Developers' meeting in Europe: FOSDEM. Organizing such a big event is quite a chore, but one (we hope) we manage pretty well. However, during the event itself, helping hands are in short supply as we count our own and lament not being Hindu gods. That's why we came up with a pretty crafty scheme to ease our burden and leverage all that organic energy we manage to attract every year. Initially codenamed "operation exploit your visitors", later renamed to "operation free labour", we've gone public with the program some years ago under the name "call for volunteers" at the dorky PR guy's advice. The way it works is very simple: * You send an email to volunteers@fosdem.org telling us which talks you wish to attend, and during which timeslots you don't mind lending us a hand or two. Or hey, if unlike us you are a Hindu god, make it four! * We start bargaining with you for your free time, in return for some heavy karma. Guaranteed 98.7% pure, commercial grade karma. Except for you Hindu gods. We'll work out a separate deal with you guys since you're our supplier and well, you probably don't want to haul your own goods back home after the conference. * Together we come up with a schedule that works for you, and lets us breathe a little easier during the weekend of February 6, 7 and 8. So, what are the tasks involved then, you ask? Well, all sorts of things, really. You could be assisting the speakers by helping out with the moderation of the talks, greeting your fellow visitors and supplying information, handle donations or put your linguistic skills to good use translating for our foreign visitors. Then there's also calling taxis, guarding the equipment, helping with the setup, teardown or cleanup of the venue and I'm sure I'm forgetting half of it... Oh, and management has requested I plug the following message: if you happen to be arriving earlier, and can help out on Friday, you're more than welcome too. Afterwards, we can all go to the Beer Event together and play a round or two of "pull Philip's beard". I'm sure the man would love that... So, there you have it. Are you visiting FOSDEM, and can you spare a couple of hours on friday and/or over the weekend, let us know, and become part of the team. Uncle FOSS wants YOU!!! -- Christophe Vandeplas cvandeplas@fosdem.org http://www.fosdem.org