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F in FOSDEM stands for free. In my eyes, one of FOSDEM's goals is to legitimize FLOSS software for any software use-case. Also in my eyes, lack of professional

by kmarc 8y ago

F in FOSDEM stands for free. In my eyes, one of FOSDEM's goals is to legitimize FLOSS software for any software use-case. Also in my eyes, lack of professionalism (or the intent of improve) undermines legitimization efforts. Thus, with all the respect to those who really care about the volunteering, I don't think it's a legit excuse to repeat "but it's free!" And don't forget, after all for us: It's not free. I, and many of the attendees paid heavy €s to fly there, book accommodation, eat out, etc. I don't mind to invest into going to conferences, networking, meetups, like OpenStack summit, kubecon/dockercon, Google cloud summit, react confs etc. However... FOSDEM in it's current format is best consumed from your couch at home, following the live online streams. And one of the reasons for this apparently is that FOSDEM is unfortunately "free".

jononor 8y ago
In my eyes FOSDEM proves that the community-driven FLOSS model also works for producing a conference (including the talks that we can enjoy from our couches), not 'just' for producing software. I think we are mostly beyond the need for legitimization of FLOSS these days. But as you mention there is no shortage of professional events.