[FOSDEM] VoIP and XMPP/Jabber rooms 2014?

[Daniel Pocock]

Hi,

I just heard about he lack of any dedicated VoIP and XMPP devroom at
FOSDEM 2014

I don't want to criticize the FOSDEM organisers or their decision, it is
a huge task to manage such an event and all the projects that
participate are very commendable.  I have enjoyed attending FOSDEM for
many years and I hope to do so again in 2014.  However, for the wider
community of real-time communications developers, there are some
important points that I would like to raise:

- In 2013, like previous years, both the XMPP and Telephony devrooms
were a huge success, thanks to the efforts of all those who
participated, especially the speakers and devroom managers, of whom all
did substantially more than myself.

- Telephony and XMPP groups have traditionally had dinners and other
side events at FOSDEM every year, many people see it as an excellent
place to meet and engage with the wider community and each other.

- Interest in free and open real-time communications (RTC) technology is
at an all time high.  The reason for this hardly needs to be mentioned.
 I would like to think it was due to FOSDEM 2013 running a panel on the
topic in the main track.  My own free communications software web sites
all saw a spike in activity after FOSDEM - but since the media took an
interest in this topic in June, many websites like Lumicall have been
constantly running hot.  It is an area of demand that the free software
community would do well to tap into.

- The community of free and open communications software developers need
to be particularly pro-active to ensure interoperability between free
software solutions.  Face-to-face (and beer-to-beer) communications is a
crucial part of this.

One thing that comes to mind is the possibility of organising a
follow-up to the 2013 panel in the main track.  We posed the question
"can we replace Skype in 2013?" and I regularly receive emails asking me
whether it was a promise.  There has been progress and there are several
great speakers who could potentially come and talk about that, it could
be any one of those individuals or another panel.

Another possibility is that we can look to expand off-site in 2014,
especially if free real-time communications developers can find a local
business or other venue that is willing to let us use some kind of
meeting room.  There is nothing to prevent people doing that, but it
would be interesting to have some feedback from FOSDEM organisers as
well, for example, could the schedule include events organised in a
satellite venue?  Given that FOSDEM rooms often have to turn people away
due to the event's immense popularity, a DIY expansion may be the ideal
solution, not just for this topic.

For those who are interested, the FSF Europe Free-RTC mailing list might
be a good place to discuss such possibilities:
https://lists.fsfe.org/mailman/listinfo/free-rtc
and I would invite people to join us there.

Thanks again to the FOSDEM team for your efforts for 2014

Regards,

Daniel