What is FOSDEM?

FOSDEM is a free and non-commercial event organised by the community for the community. The goal is to provide free and open source software developers and communities a place to meet to:

• get in touch with other developers and projects;
• be informed about the latest developments in the free software world;
• be informed about the latest developments in the open source world;
• attend interesting talks and presentations on various topics by project leaders and committers;
• to promote the development and benefits of free software and open source solutions.

Participation and attendance is totally free, though the organisers gratefully accept donations and sponsorship.

A bit of history

FOSDEM began in 2000 when Raphael Bauduin, a supporter of the Linux movement in Belgium, organised a small gathering for Open Source developers called the "Open Source Developers’ European Meeting" (OSDEM). A mailing list, a simple website, and word of mouth quickly attracted interest, and several prominent figures in the Open Source community, including Carsten Haitzler (Rasterman), Gordon Lyon (Fyodor), and Jeremy Allison, joined the inaugural event. The enthusiasm for the meeting set the stage for its future growth.

The following year, OSDEM was renamed FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers’ European Meeting). Since then, FOSDEM has evolved into one of the largest gatherings of Free and Open Source enthusiasts in the world. Today, it hosts over 8000 developers annually at the ULB Solbosch campus in Brussels, offering a platform for collaboration across hundreds of projects and diverse technical tracks.

Over the years, FOSDEM has adapted to changing community needs: introducing new tracks and adding more developer rooms, reaching out to younger generations, offering more space to emerging technologies and fostering collaboration across communities. FOSDEM also aims to stream and record all events, to ensure accessibility for contributors around the globe.

Since its inception now more than 25 years ago, the event has grown into a community-driven initiative, coordinated by a dedicated team, solely consisting of volunteers, that continues to carry the FOSDEM mission forward.

The team has drafted and signed into effect a charter, which outlines the core values and rules by which the organisation operates, and has been published in full here.

The team

• Linda Calders
• Dan Clark
• Quint Daenen
• Gerry Demaret
• Julien Detroz
• Pieter De Praetere
• Michael De Swert
• Philippe De Swert
• Tatjana Dubrovica
• Christian Eisenhammer
• Koen Glotzbach
• Geert Goossens
• Sebastian Grömcke
• Jan Gyselinck
• Richard Hartmann
• Alex Howe
• Vasil Kolev
• Thibault Molleman
• Marthe Parada Delgado
• Jonas Scheers
• Kristian Schuhmacher
• Sebastian Schubert
• Wouter Simons
• Ieva Supjeva
• Louis Taylor
• Johan Van de Wauw
• Mark Van den Borre
• Wouter Verhelst
• The many volunteers who help out during the weekend
• ...

FOSDEM vzw

FOSDEM vzw is a Belgian non-profit. Its goal is to support the team organising the yearly FOSDEM conference.