[FOSDEM] FOSDEM'15 Distributions Devroom Call for Participation

[Andreas Thienemann]

FOSDEM 2015 - Distribution Devroom Call for Participation

++ Please do feel free to forward this CfP to anyone who you do think
might be able to contribute to the distributions devroom ++

FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting) is
a free two-day conference at the Université Libre the Bruxelles, in
Brussels, Belgium. FOSDEM in 2015 will be held on 31 Jan & 1 Feb 2015,
and the distribution devroom will be held once again this year, on
both Saturday and Sunday in room H.1302 (Depage).

The role of Linux distributions is changing. We are seeing more
standardization between distributions due to the adoption of central
tools such as systemd. Device- and task-specific distributions like
Raspbmc are finding traction in people's houses to run everyday
things. Embedded systems are becoming standardized enough that
formerly PC-centric distributions like Fedora are able to be installed
on ARM machines through their regular installer. Cloud specific
distributions, for instance CoreOS, are opening new venues for
distributions to offer the building blocks for massive Linux
deployments on virtualized infrastructure.

On the other hand, there are voices claiming that distributions are
not providing for all the needs people have. Packaging is said to be
hard. The belief is that there are too many hurdles to jump over which
results in software lagging behind or not offering the best upstream
user experience. Some users are voicing concerns that their use-cases
are not considered.

The purpose of the distributions devroom is to offer a forum for all
people interested in distribution issues to meet and collaborate on
improving the distribution ecosystem. What are the upcoming challenges
facing the distribution space? How can distribution maintainers
collaborate better to solve cross-distribution issues? What are
interesting developments helping distribution developers to excel in
the distribution space?

For this purpose we invite submissions of talks, panel sessions,
round-table discussions, Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions or lighting
talks related to distribution specific issues.

Talks should be between 30 to 55 min in length including time for any
questions the audience might have. Please do not hesitate to contact
us if you require a longer or a shorter slot.

To submit your talk to FOSDEM 2015 please visit the following URL:
  https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM15

If you already have a Pentabarf account, please *do not* recreate a
new one.

If you previously spoke at FOSDEM, chances are you already have an
account. If you forgot your password, do just reset it. If not, follow
the instructions to create an account. If you encounter any problems
with the Pentabarf submission system, please do contact us via mail to
distributions-devroom at lists.fosdem.org and we will help you.

After your Pentabarf account has been created, please click on the
"create event" item in the menu to load the submission form. Then
click on the "Show All" tab in the top right corner of the browser
window. (All the way to the right on a large screen!)

Please do submit the following information:

* A title and subtitle of your talk. (Please be as descriptive as
   possible as the schedule will only show the talk's title in the main
   overview.)

* Select "Distributions devroom" as the track. (Important: We cannot see 
any
   other tracks, so talks submitted for the wrong track will possibly be
   lost)

* A short abstract of one paragraph.

* A longer description explaining the topic, mentioning who the talk
   is directed at and how audience members will benefit by attending,
   e.g. what they will learn.

* Any Links to related websites/blogs etc.

Submissions should be received before Sunday, 7 December 2014 at
23:59:59 UTC. Acceptance mails will be sent out on the 15th of
December 2014.

Should you have any questions or comments you can contact the devroom
organizers at distributions-devroom at lists.fosdem.org.

Cheers,
Andreas Thienemann on behalf of the Distribution Dev Room Program 
Committee

Andreas Thienemann, Christoph Wickert, Jim Perrin, Rikki Endsley and
Robyn Bergeron