[FOSDEM] Call for Participation: Railways and Open Transport Devroom

Fri Oct 25 11:12:43 UTC 2024

# Railways and Open Transport Devroom at FOSDEM 2025 - Call for Participation

(Potential changes and more information at https://github.com/OpenRailAssociation/FOSDEM)

We are excited to announce that for the third time there will be a **Railways and Open Transport devroom** at FOSDEM, after its well-received debut in 2023[^1] and the successful continuation in 2024[^2].

Together, we explore the space of Free and Open Source Software in the context of railways and public transport.

We invite you to participate by presenting your work and projects in this space. We are primarily looking for 30 minutes presentations and also welcome short lightning talks. Please submit them at https://fosdem.org/submit.

Once again, this will be an excellent opportunity to show what you are doing and discuss it with like-minded people from the community.

## Key dates

For the Call for Presentations process:
* 1 December: CfP submission deadline
* 15 December: Announcement of selected talks
* 2 February: Railways and Open Transport devroom at FOSDEM, you must be available onsite to present your talk (tentatively between 13:15 and 17:00 local time)

## Topics

We are interested in presentations on any topic related to Free and Open Source Software in the context of railways and public transport. Possible topics include:

* Dealing with schedules, time tables, live information about trains and public transport
* Simulation of network behavior, traffic, dispatching, schedules
* Open approaches to transport interoperability and standards
* Operation of infrastructure and vehicles, open source in a safety-critical environment
* Information systems for trains, stations, infrastructure, ...
* Geo software, mapping, navigation tools
* Accessibility assistants for travelers
* Railway games
* Research topics, AI applications, AR, conversational UI
* Booking, tickets, travel planning
* ...

The audience is developers and enthusiasts of Free and Open Source Software. This includes a good number of railway fans and people active in related communities.

## Submission process

Please submit your proposals via the FOSDEM's conference system at https://fosdem.org/submit  by 1 December 2024, 00:00 (Europe/Brussels, UTC+1). The account from last year will work. If you still have accounts from FOSDEM editions before 2024, these won't work, please create new ones.

Important notes:
* Your on-site availability is required, we do not accept remote presentations.
* Preferred talk length is 30 minutes including Q&A. We also welcome shorter talks. Please state the length of the talk in the submission notes.
* The conference language is English.

Here is how you can submit a presentation to our devroom:

1. Go to the event website: https://fosdem.org/submit
2. If you already have an account, press "login" on the top-right corner. Otherwise, click "Go to CfP"
3. Click "Submit a proposal" and fill in the form:
    1. Provide the **proposal title**. This will also be in the final program, so make it informative and attractive
    2. Select the **Track**: Railways and Open Transport
    3. Add a meaningful **abstract**. We recommend 1-2 paragraphs that shortly explain what you will be talking about and why people should join.
    4. Add the length of your session in the **submission notes**. Optionally add any other information. The submission notes will only be visible for the organisers and could contain extra wishes.
    5. You may also add **additional speakers** by putting their email addresses in the box.
4. Hit "Continue". Depending on whether you already logged in, you may now create a new account, log in with your existing one, or just be directed to the next step.
    1. Select an **Open Source license** under which the initiative or project you talk about is published.
    2. You may add **extra review material**, only visible to the organisers, e.g. images or a presentation.
    3. Optionally, you can also add **extra contact information** apart from your email address.
5. Hit "Continue" again. Now, you can provide information about yourself:
    1. Upload a **picture** of yourself if you haven't already
    2. Add your **name**
    3. We recommend to add a short **biography**, telling us and the audience a bit more about yourself
    4. Regarding the availability, you don't have to add that. Our devroom will be on Sunday afternoon
    5. Click "Submit proposal!" and wait for our response. Thank you!

If you run into issues with your submission, please reach out to us so we can assist you. See below for contact details.

## Recordings

The talks are recorded on-site. Any recordings will be published under the same license as all FOSDEM content (CC-BY or CC-BY-SA). By submitting a proposal and agreeing to present in the Railways and Open Transport devroom, you give permission to be recorded.

## How can I contact you?

To reach the organizers of the devroom you can open a thread on our discussion board[^3]. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any inquiry or suggestion for the devroom.

Max Mehl, Simon Clavier, Cornelius Schumacher, Loic Hamelin, Peter Keller, Brede Dammen, Tu-Tho Thai - Railways and Open Transport devroom co-organizers

[^1]: https://archive.fosdem.org/2023/schedule/track/railways_and_open_transport/
[^2]: https://archive.fosdem.org/2024/schedule/track/railways-and-open-transport/
[^3]: https://github.com/OpenRailAssociation/FOSDEM/discussions 

—
Cornelius Schumacher <schumacher at kde.org>