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.

Every year, thousands of free and open source software contributors from all over the world gather at the event in Brussels, Belguim. This includes the community of designers contributing to free and open source software.

In 2022 the event will be online as it was in 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic.

Open Source Design at FOSDEM

Open Source Design have for the last 7 years have curated a design track room at FOSDEM. You can watch the talks from Open Source Design dev room 2021 on the FOSDEM website.

The Open Source Design devroom showcases design work happening within free and open source projects, because yes, there is design alive in FOSS. We hope to see you there.

When will the devroom take place?

We have 1 full day of the conference on Saturday the 5th of February, exact times will be released in 2022.

The event will be online and all presentations will be pre-recorded.

What do we mean by design?

We mean “design” in a broad sense including typography, graphic design, interaction design, user experience, human-computer interaction, accessibility, information architecture, content strategy, service design, user researh, design research and . We hope to see you there.

Here’s some ideas of the kinds of topics we’re interested in:

  • How you have contributed as a designer to OSS and your experiences
  • What OSS can do to include designers in their OSS
  • Show design work, methods, examples and guides
  • Inclusion, diversity, mentoring and governance of OSS from a design perspective
  • Anything else related to design and OSS!

What is the talk format?

  • The length of your talk should be 20 minutes with 5 mins of Q&A (leaves us with 5 mins change over for talks)
  • We are open to talks of up to 40 minutes (35 mins talk and 5 mins of Q&A) for talks with a bigger scope, but we would encourage sticking to 20 minute durations
  • Be able to pre-record a talk in advance. In order for us to review recordings, videos must be submitted by January 22nd 2022

How will the online event run?

You’re required to be online and be present during your presentation and for 5-10 minutes after to answer any questions the audience watching your talk may have.

  • Since FOSDEM is held during UTC +1 (CET timezone) day hours you need to be available during the day on the 5th of February for your presentation and the ensuing Q&A.

How do I submit a talk?

To submit your talk you will need an account on the FOSDEM talk submission system.

  • If you already have a FOSDEM Pentabarf reuse that.
  • If not, you need to create one and make the submission through the FOSDEM pentabarf system
  • When prompted to select ‘Track’ be sure to select ‘Open Source Design’ devroom otherwise we will not recieve your submission.
  • (The Pentabarf beginner’s guide) will help if you’re not familiar with it.

Important Dates and Deadlines

All deadline times are 23:59 UTC.

Submission deadline for talk proposal: December 28th 2021 December 23rd

Selected talks announced: December 31st 2021

After all talks are rated, we will inform you about the status of your submission starting Mid-December.

Video recording submission:January 22nd 2022

Date Open Source Design devroom talks place: Saturday the 5th February 2022. Exact times will be released in early 2022

Additional support

If you are accepted you will be paired with an Open Source Design volunteer to help prompt you to meet deadlines and also check over your recording. They will also be there on the day to facilitate your 5 mins Q&A.

Date & Location

  • Date: Saturday 5th February 2022
  • Time: 1 day
  • Location: Online, Remote via FOSDEM website