[FOSDEM] How was the final list of devrooms built?

[Wouter Verhelst]

On Mon, Dec 06, 2021 at 11:41:39PM +0300, Konstantin Osipov wrote:
> * Johan Van de Wauw <johanvdw at fosdem.org> [21/12/06 22:42]:
> > > Year over year I am watching the procedure for compiling the final
> > > list of devrooms and each year I am surprised.
> > > 
> > > I know each year there are a lot of devroom submissions and a lot
> > > of competition. But how is the final list compiled? It would be
> > > nice if this process is more open with the community.
> > > 
> > > I can see there is a devroom for Ada and Dart but no devroom for
> > > Rust or C++. There is a devroom for MySQL and MariaDB and no
> > > devroom for *all* NoSQL systems combined. Are there no free nosql
> > > databases?  Were there no devroom submissions for Rust or other
> > > emerging programming languages?
> > > 
> > 
> > We have not received devroom proposals for any of these topics (C++, Rust,
> > NoSQL) this year.
> > 
> > Note that you are more than welcome to submit any talks which are not
> > covered by a devroom to the main tracks and or lightning talks.
> 
> This doesn't clarify how the selection is made, especially now
> when the rooms are virtual, so there's no venue limit and we could
> have more rooms.

This is not actually correct.

It's true that without a physical conference the hard limit imposed by
the number of physical rooms that we have available is gone, but that
does not mean there is no limit to what we can do.

More devrooms means more required resources (jitsi servers, matrix
rooms, transcoding infra, etc) and more work for the FOSDEM team in
supporting everything, to make sure things keep running smoothly. While
we can definitely have more rooms (and we do have more rooms as compared
to a physical FOSDEM!), to say that there is "no limit" is inaccurate.

> Wouldn't it make more sense to: 
> 
> - accept and publish all room submissions,

No. We reserve the right to refuse devrooms when we deem it necessary
(e.g., for reasons explained above, or for legal reasons should that be
necessary).

> - encourage room submissions from many, so each room is organized
>   by 3-5 submitters, which naturally form the room programme
>   committee?

This is already done (well, we require 2 people, but more is always
better).

> - run a public poll and create a shortlist?

I'm not sure what that is meant to accomplish. Can you clarify?

> If there is a published procedure serving the same purpose, where
> can one read about it?

There is no published procedure. The devrooms team looks at the
incoming devroom proposals and makes a selection based on limitations
provided to them by other teams in the FOSDEM team, and editorial
decisions over devroom subjects that are their responsibility to make.

> I withstood from submitting a room proposal
> because I expected the topics I'm interested in (nosql databases, 
> distributed systems, rust) to be super popular and submitted many
> times over. 

If that happens, the devrooms team will be happy to put you in contact
with the other people who submitted a devroom proposal for the same (or
a similar) proposal -- this has happened in the past. I suggest you just
go ahead next year and do make a proposal for the subjects you think are
important; or you can ask within your community if someone is interested
in proposing a devroom.

Meanwhile, I'm afraid the deadline has now obviously passed, so it'll be
for next year.

-- 
     w at uter.{be,co.za}
wouter@{grep.be,fosdem.org,debian.org}