Hi, I would like to come to Fosdem next year (with my son maybe) and I would like to know how "Fosdem Junior" was organized last year. is it organized as a workshop ? is there a maximum limit for booking ? Any personal experience ? Thanks Giovanni
On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 02:51:45PM +0200, Giovanni Bechis wrote:
Hi, I would like to come to Fosdem next year (with my son maybe) and I would like to know how "Fosdem Junior" was organized last year. is it organized as a workshop ? is there a maximum limit for booking ? Any personal experience ?
Yes, it was two days full of different workshops, in two rooms at the same time. No talks/lectures - kids would be bored, obviously. You had to book seats for specific workshops here https://codeclub.org/en/clubs/c0468f47-a1a4-43b6-b7f0-170a7d98b30c This was the schedule: https://archive.fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/junior/ Expect changes, because Junior is growing as the concept. It was great to see as a parent, and my small one was overjoyed and didn't want FOSDEM to end :)
* Andriy Utkin <andriy_utkin@fastmail.com> [2025-09-26 14:49:23 +0100]:
On Thu, Sep 25, 2025 at 02:51:45PM +0200, Giovanni Bechis wrote:
Hi, I would like to come to Fosdem next year (with my son maybe) and I would like to know how "Fosdem Junior" was organized last year. is it organized as a workshop ? is there a maximum limit for booking ? Any personal experience ?
Yes, it was two days full of different workshops, in two rooms at the same time. No talks/lectures - kids would be bored, obviously. You had to book seats for specific workshops here https://codeclub.org/en/clubs/c0468f47-a1a4-43b6-b7f0-170a7d98b30c This was the schedule: https://archive.fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/junior/
Expect changes, because Junior is growing as the concept.
It was great to see as a parent, and my small one was overjoyed and didn't want FOSDEM to end :)
If you want to help children understand why they should go there, you can also show them this movie https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann/movie (available in different languages) or read the book with them (several translations here https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/fsfe/ada-zangemann/ ) :) Best regards, Matthias -- Matthias Kirschner - President - Free Software Foundation Europe Revaler Straße 19, 10245 Berlin, Germany | t +49-30-27595290 Registered at Amtsgericht Hamburg, VR 17030 |(fsfe.org/support) Contact (fsfe.org/about/kirschner) Weblog k7r.eu/blog.html Ada & Zangemann - A Tale of Software, Skateboards, and Raspberry Ice cream - For everyone from 6 - 106 years - ada.fsfe.org
If you want to help children understand why they should go there, you can also show them this movie https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann/movie (available in different languages) or read the book with them (several translations here https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/fsfe/ada-zangemann/ ) :)
I didn't want to, but now that the idea came up that FOSDEM Junior will teach children about freedom and openness: In the last years, FOSDEM Junior required registration on a hostile platform that had tons of trackers and wanted to share all sorts of information with a few hundred "partners" that "value the privacy" of the children, and some workshops required children to use an Apple or Google smartphone. Most workshops use free software, but still require registration with the hostile, commercialised platform, and openness definitely does not appear to be a priority at FOSDEM Junior. Teckids offered help, but we never heard back from FOSDEM. -nik
On Mon, Sep 29, 2025 at 09:22:31AM +0200, Dominik George wrote:
I didn't want to, but now that the idea came up that FOSDEM Junior will teach children about freedom and openness:
In the last years, FOSDEM Junior required registration on a hostile platform that had tons of trackers and wanted to share all sorts of information with a few hundred "partners" that "value the privacy" of the children, and some workshops required children to use an Apple or Google smartphone.
Most workshops use free software, but still require registration with the hostile, commercialised platform, and openness definitely does not appear to be a priority at FOSDEM Junior.
Teckids offered help, but we never heard back from FOSDEM.
I think this is an undeservedly negative view. I would even say dishonest. I go there https://codeclub.org/en/clubs/c0468f47-a1a4-43b6-b7f0-170a7d98b30c I click "Use necessary cookies only", I get two cookies: from the domain and from consentcdn.cookiebot.com. "some workshops required children to use an Apple or Google smartphone" - yes, MIT App Inventor is a project which allowed my kid to create a mobile app, it's the outcome of FOSDEM they're most proud. I guess it would work on rooted phone or an Android VM, but, really? You're against *that*?
On 29/09/2025 09:22, Dominik George wrote:
If you want to help children understand why they should go there, you can also show them this movie https://fsfe.org/activities/ada-zangemann/movie (available in different languages) or read the book with them (several translations here https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/fsfe/ada-zangemann/ ) :) I didn't want to, but now that the idea came up that FOSDEM Junior will teach children about freedom and openness:
In the last years, FOSDEM Junior required registration on a hostile platform that had tons of trackers and wanted to share all sorts of information with a few hundred "partners" that "value the privacy" of the children, and some workshops required children to use an Apple or Google smartphone.
Thanks for your feedback. For 2026 we are planning to host our own registration system which we will host ourselves.
participants (5)
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Andriy Utkin -
Dominik George -
Giovanni Bechis -
Johan Van de Wauw -
Matthias Kirschner