FOSDEM is the Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting, a free and non-commercial two-day weekend event that offers all open source contributors a place to meet, share ideas, learn and collaborate. Every year, thousands of free and open source software contributors from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels, Belgium. After the roaring success of FOSDEM 2023, we are gearing up for the next edition of FOSDEM, taking place at the Université Libre Brussels on 3rd and 4th February 2024.
Open Source Design has been part of FOSDEM for close to a decade now, giving designers who work with free, libre and open source software a platform to share their ideas. Much like the previous years, Open Source Design will have a devroom at FOSDEM 2024, and this year it will on the second half of the first day of FOSDEM (13:00 to 17:00 of 3rd February 2024, a Saturday). It will be an in-person event, with a livestream online for the folks who are unable to make it in person. More details about exact location of the devroom will be shared as they are released.
We invite you to give a talk about contributing design to open source projects!
"Design" can mean anything including typography, graphic design, interaction design, user experience, human-computer interaction, accessibility, information architecture, content strategy, service design, user research, design research and more. You don't have to be an expert in the field -- you could have been involved in a project for as little as a year or as long as a decade. As long as you have been involved with design in any respect in an open source project, we're interested to hear what you think!
Here are some topics that may inspire your talk:
Your experiences contributing to design in an open source project
How you use FLOSS tools to design
An open source project which is an example of great design
Your design process, research methods, and go-to resources while working with open source projects
Your ideas on fostering diversity and inclusion in design and open source
Anything else related to design and FLOSS!
Building a UX research toolkit: How a UX Research Toolkit is being built for the Open Source Ecosystem by Mogashni Naidoo at FOSDEM 2023
Accessibility & Open Source: How open source is key to building a more inclusive world by Mike Gifford at FOSDEM 2023
Calling all UX Designers! Attracting and keeping UX designers on FOSS projects by Scott Jenson at FOSDEM 2022
Documenting a Design System: Lessons learned from open sourcing the Orbit docs by Aaron Collier at FOSDEM 2022
Mentoring designers in open Source Software: What I've learned mentoring and supporting designers in OSS by Eriol Fox at FOSDEM 2021
Open Source Design movement in Africa by Peace Ojemeh at FOSDEM 2020
This year, all talks at the Open Source Design devroom will be in-person. You will have the stage for 25 minutes in total, so you can have a 20-minute talk with 5 minutes for questions from the audience, or a 25-minute talk with no questions. Talks cannot be longer than 25 mins otherwise you get gently moved off 'stage'.
To submit a talk, go to FOSDEM's pretalx tool and click "Submit a proposal". Then all you have to do is select "Open Source Design" as the track and fill out the details of your talk according to the instructions.
Talk proposals must be submitted on or before 8 December 2023.
Accepted talks would be announced latest by 15 December 2023.
All deadlines are 23:59 UTC. If your talk is accepted, an Open Source Design volunteer will keep in touch with you to help you meet deadlines and with any technical difficulties you may face.
The Open Source Design devroom at FOSDEM 2024 will be at the Solbosch campus of the Université Libre Brussels, Belgium, with the option of virtual attendance for those who are remote. The exact room will be announced closer to the date of the event.
Be sure to read the FOSDEM Code of Conduct
If you have any questions, reach out to us on the Open Source Design forum.
We are looking forward to seeing you at FOSDEM 2024!