[FOSDEM] CfP Safety and Open Source

[Shaun Mooney]

Hi all,

Please see the CfP for the Safety and Open Source dev room below.

Kind regards,

Shaun Mooney

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# FOSDEM 2021 (Online) - Safety and Open Source Call for Participation
Submission deadline : 26/12/2020

## About FOSDEM

FOSDEM is a free event for software developers to meet, share ideas and 
collaborate.

* FOSDEM is free to attend. There is no registration.
* FOSDEM [website](https://fosdem.org/2021/)
* FOSDEM [code of conduct](https://fosdem.org/2021/practical/conduct/)

## New rules / changes since last year

For obvious reasons, this year the event will not take place in a 
physical location but online.

* The reference time will be [Brussels local lime 
(CET).](https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/belgium/brussels)
* Talks will be pre-recorded in advance, and streamed during the event
* Q/A session will be live
* A facility will be provided for people watching to chat between themselves
* A facility will be provided for people watching to submit questions

## Key dates

* Submission deadline: 26 December 2020
* Announcement of selected talks: 31 December 2020
* Conference dates 6 & 7 February 2021 online
* Safety and Open Source devroom date: Saturday 6 February 2021 online

## The Dev Room

The Safety and Open Source Software dev room is dedicated to everything 
relating to using Open Source Software for safety critical applications. 
The advantages of Free and Open Source Software are numerous. More than 
ever companies choose to use FOSS in their projects, however the world 
of safety is behind the curve. Software developed for safety 
applications typically employs traditional development practices that, 
although well-used, are increasingly outdated, and the code is often 
closed source. This is because safety standards are stringent, and it is 
important that safety applications have rigorous quality assurance 
practices applied during development. Sadly, this means that using FOSS 
which has not been developed to a safety standard from the start is 
extremely difficult.

This dev room is looking for talks which can help to showcase how we can 
use FOSS in safety applications, including overcoming obstacles faced, 
legal issues for industry and contributors, and how we can advance 
state-of-the-art safety practices to allow industry to benefit from the 
many advantages that FOSS provides.

## Talks

We recommend about 45 minutes including discussion for talks, although 
will consider variations (please include the talk length in your 
submission). Example topics include (but are not limited to):

* Pros and cons of using Open Source software in safety
* Examples of Open Source Software being used in safety applications today
* Legal and moral implications for contributors who have their code used 
in safety applications
* Safety analysis techniques for complex software systems
* Requirements elicitation, and verification and validation techniques 
(including creating argumentation to prove that software is safe enough 
to use)
* What we need to do as FOSS creators to shift the industry mentality 
around the use of FOSS vs. current safety standards
* Open Source Development practices and how we can map these to 
practices such as the V-model which are needed for current industry 
safety standards (e.g. IEC 61508, ISO 26262 ect.)

## For accepted talks

* Presentations have to be pre-recorded and streamed before the event.
* Once your talk is accepted, we will assign you a deputy to help you to 
produce the pre-recorded content.
* The deputy will review the content and ensure it has the required 
quality. They are also responsible for ensuring that the content is 
ready to broadcast on the day.
* During the stream of your talk, you must be available online for the 
Q/A session.

## Submit a talk

Visit the [FOSDEM 2021 Pentabarf 
website](https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM21), and if you don't 
have one already create an account.

Create an "event" and click on "Show all" in the top right corner to 
display the full form.

Your submission must include the following information

* Your contact Email
* The title and subtitle of your talk (please be descriptive, as titles 
will be listed with ~500 from other projects)
* Select "Safety and Open Source" as the track.
* A short abstract of one paragraph
* A longer description if you wish to do so
* Links to related websites / blogs etc.

## Contact

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us:

   * Shaun Mooney: shaun.mooney at codethink.co.uk
   * Beth White: beth.white at codethink.co.uk