[FOSDEM] [Free-RTC] VoIP and XMPP/Jabber rooms 2014?

[Lee Azzarello]

The realtime track at FOSDEM 2013 was by far the best conference track
I've ever attended. It's a shame FOSDEM organizers didn't recognize
how influential it was.

-lee

On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 4:36 PM, Daniel Pocock <daniel at pocock.com.au> wrote:
>
>
> 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
>
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