[FOSDEM] [CFP] Decentralized Internet & Privacy devroom

[Julien Rabier]

Welcome to Decentralized Internet & Privacy at FOSDEM 2018
(Brussels, Belgium, February 4th).

Open Source and Free Software initial promises were to empower individuals
when it came to computing. Three decades later, computing practices are
tightly coupled to the Internet ecosystem. PCs are less and less used
while smartphones are soaring and data is collected and stored on servers
on which we have very limited control as users. What happened to user's
freedom and privacy in the meantime? The outlook is not so great: we
have less and less control over our digital environment. Network neutrality
is heavily attacked and mainstream software products are usually proprietary or
run on servers we don't have control over. Modern technology has given
the powerful new abilities to eavesdrop and collect data on people - with
critical social and political consequences.

FOSDEM is a free software event that offers free software communities a place to
meet, share ideas and collaborate. It is renown for being highly developer-
oriented and brings together 8000+ participants from all over the world.  It
is held in the city of Brussels (Belgium). In 2018, FOSDEM will take place
during the weekend of February 3rd-4th 2018. More details about the event
can be found at http://fosdem.org/.

On Sunday, February 4th, the Decentralized Internet & Privacy devroom
will be a place for development teams to present the state of their project
and future directions, answer questions from the audience and followup in the
hacking rooms nearby afterwards.


Call For Participation
======================

There is a bright future ahead of us if we unite our efforts toward 
decentralized services and Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD as defined by EFF). 
This devroom welcomes all technical projects and initiatives, to share their 
progress and inspire others.

Presentation topics could include:

Technologies and initiatives focused on decentralization:

- Community-driven networks
- Community based around self-hosting or local hosting
- Self-hosting solutions
- Ethical hosting providers / alternatives to GAFAM (Google, Apple, Facebook, 
  Amazon and Microsoft)
- Decentralized / federated network protocols and platforms
- Decentralized / distributed instant messaging, file sharing and content storage

Technologies and initiatives focused on privacy:

- Anonymous overlay networks
- Whistleblower platforms
- Privacy oriented Operating Systems
- Infrastructure supporting anonymous browsing
- Operational security: how to minimize the amount of information someone can 
  collect about you online and on the streets
- Basic threat modeling: what sort of paranoia do you realistically need to have?
- Steps to minimize damage in the event of a breach

Talks are expected to be technical as it is FOSDEM.

** Important dates

 - 26 Nov 2017:  submission deadline for talk proposals
 - 15 Dec 2017:  announcement of the final schedule
 -  4 Feb 2018:  Decentralized Internet & Privacy (Sunday)

Talk proposals will be reviewed by a steering committee:
- heartsucker (SecureDrop // Freedom of the Press Foundation Volunteer)
- Loïc Dachary (SecureDrop // Artisan Logiciel Libre)
- Tristan Nitot (Cozy Cloud // Chief Product Officer)
- Julien Rabier (Ilico)
- Bram (YunoHost // Neutrinet)

Use the FOSDEM 'pentabarf' tool to submit your 
proposal: https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM18

- If necessary, create a Pentabarf account and activate it.
  Please reuse your account from previous years if you have
  already created it.

- In the "Person" section, provide First name, Last name
  (in the "General" tab), Email (in the "Contact" tab)
  and Bio ("Abstract" field in the "Description" tab).

- Submit a proposal by clicking on "Create event".

- Important! Select the "Decentralized Internet & Privacy" track
  (on the "General" tab).

- Provide the title of your talk ("Event title" in the "General" tab).

- Provide a description of the subject of the talk and the
  intended audience (in the "Abstract" field of the "Description" tab)

- Provide a rough outline of the talk or goals of the session (a short
  list of bullet points covering topics that will be discussed) in the
  "Full description" field in the "Description" tab

- Provide an expected length of your talk in the "Duration" field. Please
  count at least 10 minutes of discussion into your proposal.

Suggested talk length is 20 minutes and 10 minutes for questions.

Recording of talks
==================

The FOSDEM organizers plan to have live streaming and recording fully working,
both for remote/later viewing of talks, and so that people can watch streams
in the hallways when rooms are full. This requires speakers to consent to
being recorded and streamed. If you plan to be a speaker, please understand
that by doing so you implicitly give consent for your talk to be recorded and
streamed. The recordings will be published under the same license as all
FOSDEM content (CC-BY).