[FOSDEM] FOSDEM 2021 - Retrocomputing DevRoom Call for Participation

[François Revol]

(better late than never :D)

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    |           FOSDEM 2021 RetroComputing DevRoom              |
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    |                  Call for participation                   |
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Hello,

FOSDEM is a free software event that offers open source communities a
place to meet, share ideas and collaborate. It is renowned for being
highly developer-oriented and brings together 8000+ participants from
all over the world. It is usually held in the city of Brussels
(Belgium), but for a change this year will be a fully online event.

FOSDEM 2021 will take place during the weekend of February 6th-7th
2021. More details about the event can be found at
http://www.fosdem.org.


CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

After success in the past thee years, the Retrocomputing DevRoom will
be back in 2021, with talks about usage of older computing hardware
and software in modern times.

Presentation topics could include but are not limited to:
    - Emulation of old systems to run videogames, legacy software, etc
    - New software, hardware or related to be used with classic systems
    - Open source software emulation/simulation
    - Open hardware
    - Operating systems/executives for retrocomputers/retrosystems
    - Uses of retrocomputing today
    - Other retrosystems topics
    - Opportunities in retrocomputing

You are not limited to slide presentations, of course. Be creative.

Specially this year, we are not constrained by a physical room shared
with another topic, so we can potentially fill the full day, so if you
previously submitted a workshop we couldn't accept due to length, you
may want to try again, but take into account that you might not be
able to have attendees feedback unlike with an in-person workshop.

Also, this year all presentations will have to be recorded in advance,
to avoid all the usual issues like spending 10 minutes getting a webcam
to work, so even if we can't get live Q&A we can still have the talk
proper.

However, FOSDEM is an open source conference, therefore we ask you to
stay clear of marketing presentations. We are not afraid of technical
stuff: devrooms are a place for development teams to meet, discuss,
hack and publicly present their project’s latest  improvements and
future directions.

If you will have special needs for your talk, please note
that clearly in your proposal so that we can provide it.

You can use the Wikipedia definition of retrocomputing as a reference
definition to see if you talk qualifies, although it is not exclusive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retrocomputing

Oh, and it seems this year there is also an Emulator devroom:
https://lists.fosdem.org/pipermail/fosdem/2020q4/003129.html
So if you want to talk in-depth about technical emulator dev,
you might consider submitting there instead. We might redirect some
submissions to them if we feel they are more appropriate.
Hopefully we can also have some shared topics.


IMPORTANT DATES
    -  28 December 2020: submission deadline for talk proposals
    -  31 December 2020: announcement of selected talks
    -  15 January 2021: Recorded presentations upload deadline
    -  7 February 2021: Retrocomputing DevRoom


VOLUNTEERING

This year, due to the online nature of the event and the lack of
previous years experience with that, devroom organizers are asked
to find volunteers to help with running the talks, so if you want
to help please contact us.


USEFUL INFORMATION

Use the FOSDEM Pentabarf tool to submit your proposal:
https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM21

- 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 "Retrocomputing DevRoom" track (on the
"General" tab). If you do not select a track, then nobody, from any
track, will look at your submission!
- 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,
including discussion. The default duration is 30 minutes.
- Slides are NOT required at the moment of submission

Please note neither FOSDEM nor the Retrocomputing DevRoom will
reimburse any expenses you incur.


RECORDING OF TALKS

The FOSDEM organizers aims to have all talks recorded. 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).

As said, this time we will ask you to record your talk in advance.
Once your submission is accepted you'll receive more information on
the devroom organization, things like scheduling is still being worked
out.


Hope to hear from you soon! And please forward this announcement.


CONTACT

The Retrocomputing DevRoom is managed by Pau Garcia Quiles and
François Revol (retro-devroom-manager at fosdem.org).

A mailing list of speakers, audience and the curious is available,
please subscribe at:
https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/retrocomputing-devroom