[FOSDEM] Call for participation: Modern Email devroom at FOSDEM 2026

[Mechiel Lukkien]

Hi all,

We'll have a "Modern Email" devroom again at FOSDEM 2026, and we're looking
for speakers!

We want to get together as email developers/users, learn about each other's
projects, have technical discussions, exchange implementation/operational
experiences, and share plans and visions for the future of email.

FOSDEM is an annual conference about free and open source software. It takes
place at the ULB Solbosch Campus, Brussels, Belgium on 31 Jan/1 Feb 2026. See
https://fosdem.org/2026/.

The Modern Email devroom will be on Saturday, 31 January 2026 (full day).
The submission deadline for talks is Wednesday, 10 December 2025.

Please distribute this CfP as widely as possible to interested parties!

## Topics

Some suggestions for talks:

* Overview of the current state of email (as a keynote).
* Your free/open source software project(s) related to email. From demo to details.
* Current developments, upcoming standards, e.g. [JMAP](https://jmap.io),
  [structured email](https://structured.email), ...
* Efforts to modernize our email ecosystem, e.g., through implementations in
  modern languages.
* Integrating email with other software, e.g., through APIs.
* Message/transport security/authenticity.
* Experiences with deliverability, email operations, anti-spam, hosting, ...
* Related technologies such as calendaring/PIM.
* Visionary talks
* ...

## Submission

We ask for a short talk abstract (+ proposed duration) and a speaker biography
(+ contact info). Any material that shows your affinity to the field is also
appreciated, e.g., a collection of links to your work, talks, projects, blog
posts, etc.

Submissions must be made through Pretalx (https://fosdem.org/submit) no later
than Wednesday, 10 December, 2025.

The suggested duration for a talk is 25 minutes (20 minutes presentation +
5 minutes Q&A). However, we explicitly invite you to propose the best
duration for your talk. If the best way to present your project is a 5-minute
lightning talk, we'll happily arrange a lightning session!

Depending on the proposals, we may contact you to adapt the time of the session
to fit the devroom schedule.

Once the devroom schedule is finalized, we will contact you to help you prepare
your talk.

## Important dates

* 30 Oct: Modern Email devroom open for talk submissions
* 10 Dec: Modern Email devroom submission deadline
* 15 Dec: Announcement of final schedule
* 30 Jan: pre-FOSDEM Modern Email Hackathon
* 31 Jan: FOSDEM - "Modern Email" devroom day!
* 31 Jan: Modern Email dinner in evening

## Side events

### Pre-FOSDEM Hackathon (Friday before FOSDEM)

We will organize an informal pre-FOSDEM email hackathon on Friday before
FOSDEM (30 January). Please contact one of the organizers through email or
the matrix channel and/or put your name up at
https://github.com/modern-email/FOSDEM-26/wiki/Hackathon-and-Dinner
if you're interested in joining.

We need to know who'll attend by January 25 due to building access registration
policies.

### Friends-of-Email Dinner

Following last year's good practice, we will reserve a table for an informal
"friends of email" dinner/drinks session, on Saturday evening, January 31, at
the end of the devroom day.  Put your name up at
https://github.com/modern-email/FOSDEM-26/wiki/Hackathon-and-Dinner
and/or contact one of the organizers so we can guess the group size (last year
we reserved for 15 and 40+ showed up). Venue proposals welcome as well.

## Recordings

Talks and Q&A sessions at FOSDEM will be recorded. The recordings will be
published under the same license as all FOSDEM content (CC-BY). By being
present in the devroom, you give permission to be recorded. The organizers will
agree to make exceptions only for exceptional and well-reasoned cases.

## Contact

For the latest details, see: https://github.com/modern-email/FOSDEM-26

Join the matrix room (also for coordination during FOSDEM):
https://matrix.to/#/#modern-email:matrix.org

Contact the organizers:

* Mechiel Lukkien, mechiel at ueber.net
* Hans-Jörg Happel, happel at audriga.com
* Arnt Gulbrandsen, arnt at gulbrandsen.priv.no
* Damian Poddebniak, poddebniak at mailbox.org
* Benoit Tellier, btellier at linagora.com
* Mauro De Gennaro, hello at stalw.art
* Ben Bucksch info at beonex.com

We are looking forward to a great day at FOSDEM with you!