FOSDEM is the Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting, a free and non-commercial two-day weekend event that offers all open source contributors a place to meet, share ideas, learn and collaborate.

After 5 successful years we will host another design devroom at FOSDEM 2020!

The Open Source Design devroom will take place on Sunday, February 2nd, in the Solbosch campus of the Université Libre Brussels. The exact room will be confirmed in the coming months.

This will be a full day of talks about design work on free, libre and open source projects.

We invite you to send in your submissions about design work on free, libre and open source projects.

We mean ‘design’ in the broadest sense: user research, interface and interaction design, information architecture, visual design, typography, illustration, iconography, spatial, accessibility (and anything you can think of) – all in the context of open source projects, which we believe introduces unique challenges.

Designers and developers working with designers (or on a design-minded project) are welcome to submit proposals.

Possible topics include:

  • FOSS design tools
  • Unique challenges that open source brings
  • Design techniques and deliverables
  • Design/engineering collaboration approaches
  • User engagement and design research activities
  • Project case studies

If you’re interested in seeing all previous talks, have a look at the schedule, and videos for 2019 and 2018,

Recording and licensing of talks

The talks in the Open Source Design devroom will be audio and video recorded, and possibly streamed live too.

By submitting a proposal you consent to be recorded and agree to license the content of your talk under a Creative Commons (CC-BY) license.

What and how to submit

Submission format

20-minute presentations

Submission deadline

1st December 2019

How to submit

All submissions are made in the Pentabarf event planning tool at https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM20/

When submitting your talk in Pentabarf, when asked for the ‘Track’, you must select the ‘Open source design devroom’.

If you already have a Pentabarf account from a previous year, please reuse it. Create an account if, and only if, you don’t have one from a previous year.

If you have any issues with Pentabarf, do not despair contact - amit dot lzkpa at gmail dot com

Who co-ordinates Open Source Design devroom

The Open Source Design Devroom is co-ordinated by the Open Source Design community.

Check out the links below to learn more about us:

Examples of past talks:

Date & Location

  • Date: Sun, 2 Feb 2019
  • Time: full days
  • Location: Room not yet confirmed, Solbosch campus - Université Libre Brussels, Brussels, Belgium