<div dir="ltr">Is it just me, or do the 'desired topics' listed here overlap quite a bit with the respective list from the Community devroom?<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 2:04 PM, Tom Marble <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tmarble@info9.net" target="_blank">tmarble@info9.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><br>
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<br>
Call For Participation<br>
Legal and Policy Issues DevRoom at FOSDEM 2018<br>
<br>
CONFERENCE DATE: Saturday & Sunday 3-4 February 2018 in Brussels, Belgium<br>
DEVROOM DATE: Sunday 4 February 2018<br>
CFP DEADLINE: Sunday 26 November 2017 at 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)<br>
SPEAKERS NOTIFIED: Sunday 3 December 2017 (on or before)<br>
<br>
CFP Introduction<br>
================<br>
<br>
Copyright law provides many of the basic legal underpinnings of Open<br>
Source and Free Software. Patent and trademark law and legal<br>
frameworks relating to data privacy and security also have significant<br>
effects on Free Software development. Governance and policies around<br>
free software projects set the rules for collaboration and can be<br>
critical to a project's success.<br>
<br>
Our community has substantial expertise in this area yet there are few<br>
venues to discuss these matters in a forum open to all. Hackers,<br>
lawyers, policy experts, and community leaders all possess expertise<br>
in these matters.<br>
<br>
TL;DR<br>
=====<br>
<br>
Hackers, contributors and lawyers alike are encouraged to submit on<br>
any project policy or legal topic. Successful proposals will cover<br>
topics of interest at a medium to advanced level. Fill out an<br>
application on FOSDEM's Pentabarf. (See below for details.)<br>
<br>
Topics Sought<br>
=============<br>
<br>
This DevRoom seeks proposals for 25 minute talks and/or open<br>
discussion sessions in an unconference format that address issues of<br>
software freedom project policies and legal issues that extend beyond<br>
and/or are orthogonal to technical issues faced by projects. Such<br>
topics could include, but aren't necessarily limited to:<br>
<br>
* Who controls the copyright, trademark, or patent licensing, release<br>
plans, CLA administration, or security bug reporting policies of your<br>
project, and why? What challenges have you faced in these policy areas<br>
and how are you seeking to change it?<br>
<br>
* How is your project governed? Do you have a non-profit organization,<br>
or a for-profit company that primarily controls your project, or<br>
neither? Do you wish your project governance was different? Who<br>
decided your governance initially? What politics (good and bad)<br>
have occurred around your governance choices and how have you<br>
changed your policy? Does your project have a "shadow governance",<br>
whereby technical governance is open and fair, but some entity has<br>
its own opaque political structure that influences your project?<br>
Are you worried that your project might and you don't know? Are you<br>
exploring any new solutions for governance? Do you want to ask questions<br>
of a room full of experts about your project's governance?<br>
<br>
* Legal topics of all sorts and their interaction with software<br>
freedom culture and work remain welcome, and could include: How does<br>
your project make use of legal advice? What legal advice do you<br>
give projects and what topics do you put first on the list to worry<br>
about in projects? Discuss in detail a legal and/or policy issue your<br>
project faced and how your community dealt with it. What lessons<br>
did you learn? Are some of your developers afraid to discuss legal or<br>
quasi-legal issues without their lawyers, or their employers' lawyers,<br>
present? How has that impeded or helped your project? Are your<br>
lawyers really your lawyers (e.g., do corporate lawyers for companies<br>
in your community advise the project even though not all contributors<br>
work for that company)?<br>
<br>
* Contribution and engagement policies: how does your project engage<br>
new contributors and what policy decisions did your project make to<br>
welcome new contributors? What legal issues or policy concerns has<br>
your project faced historically in its community engagement efforts,<br>
and what did you learn from these experiences?<br>
<br>
* How does money affect your community? How is funding of developers handled<br>
in your project? What policies do you set to welcome volunteers to join a<br>
community where most developers are paid? Does your project have policies<br>
that forbid funding developers directly? Does reliance on volunteer labor<br>
lead to lack of diversity since only the affluent can participate?<br>
If you had unconstrained resources at your disposal, what would you change<br>
about the funding structure of your project? Given the resources you have,<br>
what have you tried to change? Have you succeeded or failed? Would more<br>
money in the ecosystem hurt or help your project?<br>
<br>
* How do projects handle conflicts of interest and make sure<br>
that relevant interests of contributors are disclosed in important<br>
decision making discussions?<br>
<br>
* Strategies and plans for addressing harassment, exclusionary and/or<br>
discriminatory behavior in FLOSS communities. Do you have a Code<br>
of Conduct? Have you needed to enforce it? Was it successful in<br>
improving behavior and diversity in your community?<br>
<br>
* Talks on license compliance, licensing business models, and anything<br>
akin to, or building upon, what you've seen in our DevRoom before are of<br>
course welcome. (URLs to talks from previous years are below.)<br>
<br>
Regarding topic relevancy, here's the only "don't": please don't propose<br>
introductory talks; there are other venues appropriate for those.<br>
FOSDEM is the meeting place of experts in Open Source and Free Software<br>
project governance, law, and policy. This DevRoom is for intermediate<br>
to advanced topics surrounding just about anything you might call a<br>
"legal" or "policy" issue for your project!<br>
<br>
Should I Submit?<br>
================<br>
<br>
However, do consider that what may seem elementary to you may in fact be<br>
an intermediate topic in this area. In particular, while we expect to receive<br>
submissions from lawyers, we've found in our careers that non-lawyers<br>
often know just as much (and often more) about these topics than<br>
lawyers. Developers and other Free Software project participants who regularly<br>
face complex policy and legal questions are strongly and particularly encouraged<br>
to submit proposals. Historically, some of the most lively and intriguing<br>
talks in this DevRoom's previous years have been from developers who<br>
have been thrust (often due to circumstances beyond their control) into<br>
dealing with legal and policy issues for Open Source and Free Software.<br>
<br>
Look at past talks in our DevRoom for inspiration:<br>
<a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2017/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.fosdem.org/<wbr>2017/schedule/track/legal_and_<wbr>policy_issues/</a><br>
<a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2016/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.fosdem.org/<wbr>2016/schedule/track/legal_and_<wbr>policy_issues/</a><br>
<a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2015/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.fosdem.org/<wbr>2015/schedule/track/legal_and_<wbr>policy_issues/</a><br>
<a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2014/schedule/track/legal_and_policy_issues/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.fosdem.org/<wbr>2014/schedule/track/legal_and_<wbr>policy_issues/</a><br>
<a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/track/legal_issues/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.fosdem.org/<wbr>2013/schedule/track/legal_<wbr>issues/</a><br>
<a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2012/schedule/track/legal_issues_devroom.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://archive.fosdem.org/<wbr>2012/schedule/track/legal_<wbr>issues_devroom.html</a><br>
<br>
CFP Schedule And Submission Details<br>
==============================<wbr>=====<br>
<br>
Submit proposals NO LATER THAN 26 November 2017 at 23:59 AoE<br>
(Anywhere on Earth)<br>
<br>
Please use the following URL to submit your talk to FOSDEM 2018:<br>
<a href="https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM18" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://penta.fosdem.org/<wbr>submission/FOSDEM18</a><br>
<br>
and follow these rules:<br>
<br>
* Select as the Track "Legal and Policy Issues devroom".<br>
<br>
* Include a title. (Note that "Subtitle" entry doesn't appear on<br>
all conference documents, so make sure "Title" can stand on its<br>
own without "Subtitle" present.)<br>
<br>
* Include an Abstract of about 500 characters and a full description<br>
of any length you wish, but in both fields, please be concise, but<br>
clear and descriptive.<br>
<br>
* Indicate a 25 minute time slot. If you select any other time amount,<br>
your submission is very likely to be rejected. Only choose a longer<br>
slot if your proposal is exceptionally interesting and is a group<br>
discussion rather than a solo talk.<br>
<br>
* Use the "Links" sub-area to your past work in the field you'd like<br>
to share. Particularly helpful are recordings (audio/video) of<br>
your past talks on the subject or past papers/blog posts you've<br>
written on the subject.<br>
<br>
* You are encouraged to enter biographic information under the<br>
"Person" section (e.g. you may upload an image, enter your<br>
background in the "Description" tab, and sites of interest<br>
under the "Links" tab).<br>
<br>
* State that you agree to CC BY-SA-4.0 or CC BY-4.0 licensing of your<br>
talk in the "Submission Notes" field. Add a statement such as this:<br>
<br>
"Should my presentation be scheduled for FOSDEM 2018, I hereby<br>
agree to license all recordings, slides and any other<br>
materials presented under the Creative Commons Attribution<br>
ShareAlike 4.0 International license.<br>
<br>
* Also in the notes field, confirm your availability to speak on Sunday,<br>
4 February 2018 in Brussels. (You may include time slots<br>
of non-availability on Sunday, but this may negatively<br>
impact acceptance decisions.)<br>
<br>
Failure to follow these instructions above (and those on the FOSDEM<br>
2018 site) may result in automatic rejection of your talk submission.<br>
However, if you have trouble with submission via the official system,<br>
please do contact <fosdem-legal-policy at <a href="http://faif.us" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">faif.us</a>> for assistance.<br>
<br>
Diversity Statement<br>
-------------------<br>
<br>
The organizers of this DevRoom are committed to increasing the<br>
diversity of the free software movement. To that end, our CFP process<br>
takes demographic information into account in order to build a program<br>
that features as many different voices and perspectives as possible.<br>
If you are comfortable doing so, please share any demographic<br>
information about yourself in the "Submissions Notes". Such disclosure<br>
is not mandatory by any means.<br>
<br>
No Assurance of Acceptance<br>
--------------------------<br>
<br>
The organizers (listed below) realize many of our friends and<br>
colleagues will respond to this CFP. We welcome submissions from all,<br>
but an invitation from any of us to submit is *not* an assurance of<br>
acceptance. We typically must make hard decisions.<br>
<br>
This year, our DevRoom is one day, so unfortunately we expect that<br>
most proposals will be rejected. Please, submit your best possible<br>
work and put effort into crafting your submission to give yourself the<br>
best chance of acceptance.<br>
<br>
About the DevRoom Organizers<br>
============================<br>
<br>
The co-organizers of the FOSDEM 2018 Legal and Policy Issues DevRom are<br>
(in alphabetical order by surname):<br>
<br>
- Richard Fontana, Member of Board of Directors of the Open Source<br>
Initiative; Senior Commercial Counsel, Red Hat<br>
<br>
- Bradley M. Kuhn, Distinguished Technologist of Software Freedom<br>
Conservancy and Member of Board of Directors of the Free Software<br>
Foundation<br>
<br>
- Tom Marble, Creative Technologist, Informatique, Inc.<br>
<br>
- Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the Software Freedom Conservancy,<br>
pro bono counsel to the Free Software Foundation and the GNOME<br>
Foundation, Visiting Scholar/Faculty team of Center for Research in Open<br>
Source Software, University of California Santa Cruz<br>
<br>
You are welcome to contact us all at <fosdem-legal-policy at <a href="http://faif.us" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">faif.us</a>> with<br>
questions about this CFP.<br>
<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br></div>