2.0 -//Pentabarf//Schedule//EN PUBLISH 3ERGX7@@program.foss-backstage.de -3ERGX7 When business models are conflicting with security en en 20240304T100000 20240304T104500 0.04500

When business models are conflicting with security

“In cybersecurity, sharing is caring. Sharing threat intelligence, tools, and knowledge is the best way to collectively improve our security posture. But our business models conflict with this sharing. Through the sands of time, countless non-commercial and open-source initiatives either went “freemium” or were absorbed into multinationals and disappeared completely. It all goes wrong when open-source projects get involved with Venture Capital. It makes some hackers wealthy, but where does this leave the hacker community and the world? Are acquisitions and IPOs collectively achieving our goals of making the world more cybersecure? Or is this all one large distraction? We need to conduct an uncomfortable but necessary discussion within FOSS communities about this.” PUBLIC CONFIRMED Keynote https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/3ERGX7/ Stage Auditorium Melanie Rieback PUBLISH Y9MZD8@@program.foss-backstage.de -Y9MZD8 Looking at Open Source Security from the Community Angle en en 20240304T110000 20240304T113000 0.03000

Looking at Open Source Security from the Community Angle

The people behind OSPOs can bring strong potential and opportunities to strengthen the security of open source projects. The recent results from the new State of OSPO report find that 96% of organizations with an OSPO or similar open source initiatives use these entities to provide advice on security decisions and risk mitigation strategies. People working at OSPOs usually act as the linchpin and point of contact where maintainers of open source projects can reach out and better identify project health issues. Questions arise, such as: How is the working environment of the community that sustains the open source projects critical to my organization? Are maintainers having issues dealing with all the feature requests and problems? Do they need help with infrastructure, funding, etc.? This talk aims to shed light on different ways OSPOs and security teams can work together, not only from a project risk assessment perspective but also from a more human, relational network of people sustaining those projects. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/Y9MZD8/ Stage Auditorium Ana Jimenez Santamaria PUBLISH FFMBDN@@program.foss-backstage.de -FFMBDN Changing the governance model of an established project en en 20240304T113500 20240304T120500 0.03000

Changing the governance model of an established project

Picture the scene, you're leading a popular open source project used by tens of thousands of businesses, and suddenly your founding company and primary funder steps back from the project. What will happen to the project? How do we move forward given that all of our governance model and decision making was tied up with the founding company? This session will explore some of the governance challenges that faced Mautic when this situation arose back in April 2023, and in particular we'll dive into more detail on how we developed an entirely new governance model and decision making process. We will touch on issues including how we actually went about creating a new community-driven governance model in a collaborative way, allowing members of the community to have a say, through to the practicalities of how we implemented our new Community Portal (using open source software) for democratic decision making. This session is for you if you're curious about all things governance and open source, if you'd like to know more about collaborative decision making and how this can be facilitated with open source software. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/FFMBDN/ Stage Auditorium Ruth Cheesley PUBLISH NEE9SL@@program.foss-backstage.de -NEE9SL OSPOs in Energy, Transport, Automotive & Public Sector en en 20240304T121000 20240304T125000 0.04000

OSPOs in Energy, Transport, Automotive & Public Sector

In today's world, many organizations are recognizing the importance of Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) in managing their open source activities by adopting a holistic approach to integrating open source into the organization's IT strategy. However, some companies who are not primarily software companies face unique challenges in adopting OSPOs. To bridge this gap, this panel will explore best practices that panelists have used in their industries towards building an OSPO. During this session, our panelists will focus on the following areas: - Why form an OSPO? - What are the OSPO responsibilities? - What are the considerations organizations should take care of BEFORE setting up an OSPO? (e.g organizational culture, open source project audit, existing procurements, and regulations, etc) - How is the OSPO organized and staffed? - Examples of how OSPOs work with policymakers and security teams in the EU? - What are the biggest successes and challenges of the OSPO? Each of these areas presents its own set of strategic considerations that can serve as transition paths to successful OSPO adoption. Join us for a deep dive into the practical steps organizations can take to build an OSPO. Panel Lead: - Ana Jimenez - TODO Group, Linux Foundation Panellists: - Jonas van den Bogaard - Alliander OSPO - Karel Rietveld - Dutch Tax and Customs Administration OSPO - Cornelius Schumacher - Deutsche Bahn OSPO - Alexander Butzlaff - Bundesdruckerei OSPO - Wolfgang Gehring - Mercedes Benz Tech Innovation OSPO PUBLIC CONFIRMED Panel https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/NEE9SL/ Stage Auditorium Ana Jimenez Santamaria Cornelius Schumacher Dr. Wolfgang Gehring Jonas van den Bogaard Alexander Butzlaff karel rietveld PUBLISH SL7DWQ@@program.foss-backstage.de -SL7DWQ A Journey to Inner Source en en 20240304T140000 20240304T143000 0.03000

A Journey to Inner Source

So you have decided that Inner Source is the way to go for your enterprise. Good for you! The rest is a piece of cake. You only need to explain to your employees what this is all about. Oh yeah, and talk to the people from corporate tax, should be no problem, you know a guy there. Then get the legal department to answer some simple questions, and off you go! Alright, tooling is an issue, too. And governance... Ok ok, so you haven’t thought about all the minor details, but you just get everybody’s attention and spread the word. Easy! Right?!? Let me talk about our journey at Mercedes-Benz. We haven’t solved everything yet, but we’re on a good path, and maybe our experience can help you a bit, too. We will look at what factors can make an Inner Source project successful, what some of the stumbling blocks can be and how to overcome at least some of them. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/SL7DWQ/ Stage Auditorium Dr. Wolfgang Gehring PUBLISH LRRF8A@@program.foss-backstage.de -LRRF8A Embracing your weird: Community Building through Fun & Play en en 20240304T143500 20240304T150500 0.03000

Embracing your weird: Community Building through Fun & Play

I believe that the community that plays together, stays together. It sounds cliche (and it is), but the first rule of community building is to remember that communities are made of people, not code. Over the last 15 years, I've been experimenting with creating opportunities for the communities that I am a part participated in to play and have fun, at first subconsciously, but later, mindfully and intentionally. In this talk, I will share some of the ideas I have tried, along with some efforts that I have seen done in other communities. I hope to try to convince you to invest in creating opportunities for your communities to connect as people through laughter and play, and critically, and how that can help in growing the size, resiliency, and sustainability of open source communities. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/LRRF8A/ Stage Auditorium Tom "spot" Callaway PUBLISH MPJV9Z@@program.foss-backstage.de -MPJV9Z How you write matters in open source en en 20240304T153000 20240304T160000 0.03000

How you write matters in open source

Form follows function in writing: you compose a postcard to your Gran in a particular voice, attorneys draft contracts using specialized terms and grammatical structures, marketing pros formulate content with specific language to sell products, and you probably should write in a distinct way when the topic is open source. In this session, Kyle will go over some unique writing challenges presented by open source projects and how to overcome them to be inclusive and accurate in your communication. This session will dive into how seemingly innocuous terms and grammatical structures embed meaning that may be sending subtle, unintended messages. Additionally, time will be spent discussing how to select and use style guides to concretely establish a consistent voice and approach for both general writing and technical documentation. In this talk, you'll learn about: * Understanding the types of open source writing and audiences * Linguistic code switching * How writing about open source software differs from writing about other software & services * Owning your project’s “voice” * Practical grammar and writing * Problems around anthropomorphizing * Ambiguous plural pronouns and unintended dominance * Picking the grammatical person for your project * Ensuring inclusive terminology * Voice and style guide shopping (and building) * Providing good writing feedback in GitHub PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/MPJV9Z/ Stage Auditorium Kyle J. Davis PUBLISH M397Y7@@program.foss-backstage.de -M397Y7 Talking with management about open source en en 20240304T160500 20240304T163500 0.03000

Talking with management about open source

For those of us who already know how important open source is, it can be challenging to persuasively make the case to management, because we assume that everyone already knows the basics. This can work against us, confusing our audience and making us come across as condescending or concerned about irrelevant lofty philosophical points. In this talk, we take it back to the basics. What does management actually need to know about open source, why it matters, and how to make decisions about consuming open source, contributing to open source, and open sourcing company code? PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/M397Y7/ Stage Auditorium Rich Bowen PUBLISH LEQ8GJ@@program.foss-backstage.de -LEQ8GJ How contribution programs benefit mentors and participants en en 20240304T164000 20240304T171000 0.03000

How contribution programs benefit mentors and participants

Eclipse Adoptium is a top-level open source project under the Eclipse Foundation where Temurin and AQAvit are developed with assistance by ‘new to open source’ contributors under industry mentorship. In this session, we share our experience mentoring new contributors through programs such as Outreachy, Google Summer of Code, and CANOSP. We will survey these programs and share both challenges and success stories. There are some vivid examples demonstrating the advantages for both participants and the open source projects. All of these open source programs have similarities but also their own unique flavor, with variations in goals and term lengths. Outreachy provides paid internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living. Google Summer of Code focuses on bringing new contributors into open source software development. Canada Open-Source Projects (CANOSP) is an academic program that connects top students from Canadian universities to work on open-source projects. In all cases, the value of collaborating with new contributors who bring a diversity of experience and world view is the essence of open source. This talk gives practical tips on working with open source programs but also serves to enlighten others on the mutually beneficial reasons they should engage. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/LEQ8GJ/ Stage Auditorium Carmen Delgado PUBLISH GHXWJS@@program.foss-backstage.de -GHXWJS Open Source and Inner Source for APIs - Can you treat your APIs like your code? en en 20240304T171500 20240304T172000 0.00500

Open Source and Inner Source for APIs - Can you treat your APIs like your code?

This session is part of the lightning talks at FOSS Backstage 2024. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Lightning Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/GHXWJS/ Stage Auditorium Johannes Nicolai PUBLISH JDPF3Q@@program.foss-backstage.de -JDPF3Q TYPO3's successful approach to supporting government FOSS adoption in the Global South. Example: Rwanda en en 20240304T172000 20240304T172500 0.00500

TYPO3's successful approach to supporting government FOSS adoption in the Global South. Example: Rwanda

This session is part of the lightning talks at FOSS Backstage 2024. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Lightning Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/JDPF3Q/ Stage Auditorium Mathias Bolt Lesniak PUBLISH PB7PYP@@program.foss-backstage.de -PB7PYP Bringing Open Source into the Digital Check for New Legislation en en 20240304T172500 20240304T173000 0.00500

Bringing Open Source into the Digital Check for New Legislation

This talk is part of the lightning talk session at FOSS Backstage 2024 PUBLIC CONFIRMED Lightning Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/PB7PYP/ Stage Auditorium Miriam Seyffarth PUBLISH QBG8DY@@program.foss-backstage.de -QBG8DY A proposal for a scalable way to fund Open Source with Kudos at Semicolons en en 20240304T173000 20240304T173500 0.00500

A proposal for a scalable way to fund Open Source with Kudos at Semicolons

This talk is part of the lightning talk session at FOSS Backstage 2024. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Lightning Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/QBG8DY/ Stage Auditorium Matt Mankins PUBLISH MN3MBM@@program.foss-backstage.de -MN3MBM Working in Open Source and Public Service in Germany (and the Sovereign Tech Fund) en en 20240304T173500 20240304T174000 0.00500

Working in Open Source and Public Service in Germany (and the Sovereign Tech Fund)

This talk is part of the lightning talk session at FOSS Backstage 2024. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Lightning Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/MN3MBM/ Stage Auditorium Powen Shiah PUBLISH EHMZBC@@program.foss-backstage.de -EHMZBC Get-Together en en 20240304T180000 20240304T200000 2.00000

Get-Together

What better way to end the first day of FOSS Backstage than with a Get Together? Take the opportunity to meet old and new friends or maybe the person to collaborate with on your next project in a relaxed atmosphere. Thanks to our partner [Mercedes-Benz Tech Innovation](https://opensource.mercedes-benz.com), food and drinks will be provided: We will offer a range of vegetarian and vegan snacks as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Off Stage https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/EHMZBC/ Stage Auditorium PUBLISH 3DHGWR@@program.foss-backstage.de -3DHGWR A Strategic Approach to Assessing Viability of OSS Projects en en 20240304T110000 20240304T113000 0.03000

A Strategic Approach to Assessing Viability of OSS Projects

The ease in adopting open source software means that organizations sometimes use open source software without giving much thought to whether the projects that produce that software are likely to be viable over the long-term. What happens when a project changes their license, stops making security updates, or has other issues that impact its usage? When an open source project that later becomes unviable has already been incorporated into your products or services, this can have implications for your users, customers, and reputation. It’s worth spending time to critically assess whether a project is likely to be successful and continue to meet your needs over the long-term. Open source project decisions have strategic implications that should be proactively evaluated to identify risks that can be mitigated. Ultimately, whether to use an open source project boils down to balancing the risk vs. the reward for your use case. This talk will compare the risks and rewards associated with projects under neutral foundations vs. those controlled by companies and look at how the people leading and contributing to the project can influence risk. The presentation will contain details about how to assess project policies, governance, security practices, adoption, and community dynamics that can impact the stability and overall success of a project. Throughout the presentation, there will be discussions about techniques for measurement and which collections of metrics might be appropriate for your evaluations. The audience will walk away with practical advice about how to strategically evaluate the viability of open source projects and assess the risks and rewards for their situation. The presentation also provides insight into how other people might evaluate the sustainability of your organization’s projects. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/3DHGWR/ Stage Wintergarten Dawn Foster PUBLISH SVRP9E@@program.foss-backstage.de -SVRP9E EU cybersecurity regulation and Open Source governance en en 20240304T113500 20240304T120500 0.03000

EU cybersecurity regulation and Open Source governance

Non-commercial FOSS development is excluded from the scope of the EU Cyber Resilience Act, and so are individual volunteer developers. Businesses are not. But where is the line between an incorporated FOSS community and an open source business? Depending on the answer, making FOSS releases comes with significant obligations like implementing maintenance and vulnerability reporting processes, self or third party certifications or providing patches for the 5 years or more lifecycle of the product. This will impact the viability of some FOSS development models like that of part-time maintainers supported by donations, or business-sponsored communities. The governance setup of FOSS projects may have to be sharpened to match the roles required in the law. The presentation will break down the obligations, when and how they apply and what actions communities can take to handle them. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/SVRP9E/ Stage Wintergarten Mirko Boehm PUBLISH EL7CEP@@program.foss-backstage.de -EL7CEP FOSS and Security Risk Management en en 20240304T121000 20240304T124000 0.03000

FOSS and Security Risk Management

Recent and ongoing EU legislation concerning data protection, product and service security fundamentally change how insecurity is supposed to be dealt with. For FOSS, managing security risks is crucial, and this talk is examining its intersection with these recent legal changes. The talk will focus on practical approaches, strategies and frameworks for assessing, prioritizing, and mitigating security risks. Whether you're a FOSS enthusiast, developer, or security professional, this talk provides valuable insights into safeguarding FOSS use within a shifting regulatory landscape. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/EL7CEP/ Stage Wintergarten fukami PUBLISH MLAFCH@@program.foss-backstage.de -MLAFCH Open Source Contributions in Today’s World en en 20240304T140000 20240304T143000 0.03000

Open Source Contributions in Today’s World

We will start by outlining the drawing up the legal and technical framework between copyright and, patent law, new EU regulations (Cyber Resilience Act and Product Liability Directive) and different FOSS licenses.We will explain, explaining some crucial terms and the change of their meaning in the past few years (such as distribution). Against this background, we will share, from a technical position, suggestions on FOSS compliance in real-world scenarios examples, such as publishing artifacts on package managers, repositories, docker and in the cloud. From a technical point of view we show real-world scenarios, e.g. publishing code and the according legal documentation under different OSS licenses and making build artifacts publicly available on package managers, Docker and the cloud in a FOSS-compliant manner. Using these examples, we will show from a lawyer’s angle how the legal requirements need to be reflected in the composition of software applications and what the practical consequences are for contributors in the modern FOSS world. We will, in particular, give some hints on how to deal with (a lack of) license compatibility in the cloud, specific license obligations and other requirements that might result from working with Open Source Software. To round things up, Lina will share an update on new obligations for FOSS distributors resulting from the Cyber Resilience Act, the Product Liability Directive and AI. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/MLAFCH/ Stage Wintergarten Dr. Lina Böcker Angelika Wittek PUBLISH 9JVKJG@@program.foss-backstage.de -9JVKJG Automating Open-Source License Compliance en en 20240304T143500 20240304T150500 0.03000

Automating Open-Source License Compliance

X-Road® is open-source software and ecosystem solution that provides unified and secure data exchange between organisations. X-Road is a digital public good verified by the Digital Public Goods Alliance, and it’s released under the MIT open source license and is available free of charge. X-Road is used as a national data exchange solution in Estonia, Finland, Iceland and many other countries around the world. X-Road utilises many third party open source libraries and components that are licensed under various open source licenses. The dependencies are managed using different package management systems depending on their implementation technologies, e.g., Gradle / Java, NPM / Javascript. Overall, the number of direct dependencies is counted in tens and the number of transitive dependencies is counted in hundreds. The main challenges regarding the open source license compliance are how to meet the requirements of the licenses of different 3rd party components and how to know that they're not conflicting with the main license? Until 2021 the legal qualities of the X-Road’s software packages were validated approximately once year using a project based approach that required a lot of manual work. In summer 2021, the open source compliance was automated to the largest effective extent by taking into use Open Source Review Toolkit (ORT) and integrating it into the development process and CI/CD pipelines. In my talk, I'm going to give an overview of X-Road first. Then, I'm going to discuss the open source compliance automation project, its different phases and deliverables. The main scope of the presentation is to discuss the benefits of open source compliance automation and what should be taken consideration in the process. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/9JVKJG/ Stage Wintergarten Petteri Kivimäki PUBLISH BZ8RG7@@program.foss-backstage.de -BZ8RG7 Distributed teams that actually work! en en 20240304T153000 20240304T160000 0.03000

Distributed teams that actually work!

Do distributed teams really need to spend most of their time in video meetings to make things happen? Drawing from over two decades of experience in Open Source projects and corporate distributed teams, this talk goes back to the fundamental principles of remote collaboration to explain why the answer is no. Discover the power of asynchronous decision-making tools and techniques, communication patterns that prioritize clarity and brevity, how being nice and constructive matters, and the art of choosing the right communication tools and using them efficiently. Many learnings from successful Open Source projects apply to all organizations, but there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Understanding the core principles will help you tune our recommendations to your team's shape and experience. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/BZ8RG7/ Stage Wintergarten Bertrand Delacretaz PUBLISH LQUUXM@@program.foss-backstage.de -LQUUXM Why is there no new Release? Nobody pays for the basics :-( en en 20240304T160500 20240304T163500 0.03000

Why is there no new Release? Nobody pays for the basics :-(

ReaR was born out of a single customers' need and a consulting project, to offer a cheaper and better alternative to a commercial disaster recovery product. Since then it has grown by many contributions to cover nearly any disaster recovery situation for Linux servers and desktops - and it is used in many data centres around the world. Red Hat and SUSE even provide commercial support, with their package maintainers also acting as ReaR maintainers. With all this success, we still struggle to provide regular releases, test automation or even good architecture documentation. This talk explores the reasons for that and shows some of the approaches that work, and some that didn't work. I'll be happy for a conversation with other maintainers/projects about how they solve this problem. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/LQUUXM/ Stage Wintergarten Schlomo Schapiro Gratien Dhaese PUBLISH X7PCWD@@program.foss-backstage.de -X7PCWD How to explain your project better 🛈 en en 20240304T113500 20240304T123500 1.00000

How to explain your project better 🛈

Many open-source projects are technically brilliant, with great intentions and approaches, but poorly communicated. Potential users aren't clear on what a project is, what it does, why it might help them, and why they should try it. Even if they get past that initial point of confusion, they will likely find documentation and other resources that are unclear, incomplete or don't work. All these people a project loses or confuses are potential users, contributors, and community members. In this workshop, I cover a series of easy-to-follow nuggets of tips and advice to communicate your project better, including: - Explaining what you do as an elevator pitch - How to decide on consistent terminology - How to communicate clearly - How to make your communication more confident without losing important details - What resources to create and maintain to help with communication - And more! 🛈 This workshop won't be recorded and participation is only possible onsite. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Workshop https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/X7PCWD/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Chris Chinchilla PUBLISH LLAFBT@@program.foss-backstage.de -LLAFBT Single Developer Community? About community architecture. 🛈 en en 20240304T140000 20240304T150000 1.00000

Single Developer Community? About community architecture. 🛈

Most FOSS projects are a one-man show, so a key question remains: How do we build a functional, diverse and vivid community? What decisions do we want to make, who should be allowed to contribute and in what area? How to get the community involved? It seems simple: whoever writes the code is right, and their decisions are simply implemented. But there is no one right answer, and fundamental questions can lead to forking and weakening of the community. After a brief introduction to the development of community structures and their impact on the software produced, based on research in various Linux distribution communities and the Android FOSS community, we will discuss the pitfalls and key elements of community design and Human Centered Design as a practical approach to community-driven research in a world café. 🛈 This workshop won't be recorded and participation is only possible onsite. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Workshop https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/LLAFBT/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Daniel Guagnin Antonios Hazim Anett Hübner PUBLISH RPNDEV@@program.foss-backstage.de -RPNDEV Bridging Both Sides: A FOSS Funding LARP 🛈 en en 20240304T153000 20240304T163000 1.00000

Bridging Both Sides: A FOSS Funding LARP 🛈

Over the span of a captivating and fast-paced hour, participants will, with a touch of space-time manipulation, navigate the intricate landscape of a many-month-long funding process. Participants playing as FOSS funders will be designing, and carrying out the funding processes for fictitious funding bodies, while those playing as FOSS creators will be applying to them with fictitious projects. Throughout the experience, participants will: - Gain empathy and understanding for people’s experiences on both sides of the process - Discover friction/leverage points in the overall funding system - Identify and codesign structures, patterns, and approaches to better provide and pursue funding - Have fun! 🛈 This workshop won't be recorded and participation is only possible onsite. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Workshop https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/RPNDEV/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Carolyn Beer Eric Bear ngọc triệu PUBLISH M8NDTK@@program.foss-backstage.de -M8NDTK Accessibility Clinic 🛈 en en 20240304T104500 20240304T153000 4.04500

Accessibility Clinic 🛈

Does your open-source project need a second opinion to improve accessibility features? Are you building/designing software and want to learn more about how to make your product accessible? Come visit the Accesibility Lab's help desk clinic hours to chat with the experts that can consult with you directly to cater to your needs. One in 6 people across the world suffer from a disability. Many designers meanwhile know of design accessibility and may even recognize the growing need to ensure a design that is accessible to people with disabilities. Yet how to address web accessibility is commonly not well understood, and there are often sensitivities and myths. Our idea is to explore the intersection of accessibility for people with disabilities with other disciplines, including language support, artificial intelligence, privacy and data protection, security, and safety. For example, how do AI bias, dark patterns, and lack of language support lead to discrimination, and how can we work together to ensure the inclusion of everyone? This clinic brings together expertise from various disciplines and geographies to share insights on interdisciplinary approaches for an inclusive design that enhances the navigation capacity of people with disabilities. This accessibility clinic is a bold endeavour to encourage FOSS tool teams or individuals (designers, developers, decision makers, project managers, etc.) to talk about accessibility challenges and coach them in any way they need. We perform live audits, training & testing with their tool, website or app using assistive technology to simulate disabilities. 🛈 This session won't be recorded and participation is only possible onsite. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Off Stage https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/M8NDTK/ Lobby Nancy Reyes Raashi Saxena PUBLISH BFTPXD@@program.foss-backstage.de -BFTPXD CERN’s Open Source Program Office en en 20240305T100000 20240305T104000 0.04000

CERN’s Open Source Program Office

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is considered the world’s largest physics lab and sits on the border of France and Switzerland, close to Geneva. It is known for operating the Large Hadron Collider, and also runs many other research projects as well as all the supporting infrastructure. CERN’s community is a strong user, supporter and contributor to Open Source and is proud to have been the founder of many Open Source innovations, among them being the World Wide Web. Open Source is one of the key elements of CERN’s Open Science activities. Last year, November 2023, CERN launched an Open Source Program Office to better support Open Source practices at CERN. In comparison to other OSPOs around, CERN’s OSPO takes a novel approach by including Open Source Hardware in it. The internal and external mandate of the OSPO underlines its a service “from the community to the community” to make sure CERN’s Open Source projects, contributions and usage is consistent, long-lived and following best practices. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Keynote https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/BFTPXD/ Stage Auditorium Giacomo Tenaglia PUBLISH A8WREG@@program.foss-backstage.de -A8WREG Has Open Source outgrown the OSPO? en en 20240305T110000 20240305T113000 0.03000

Has Open Source outgrown the OSPO?

The fundamental concept and purpose of having an open source programme office has largely stayed the same, since Sun Microsystems launched their OSPO in 1999. The TODOGroup definition of OSPOs still focuses on centering open source compliance, policies and communities around an OSPO. But the world and the criticality of Open Source has dramatically changed the last 25 years, and we See both a greater maturity inside companies making the OSPO largely unnecessary, as well as bigger challenges which an OSPO Is not enabled to solve, but should rather be an integral part of the companys IT strategy as a whole. Open source is no longer a fringe activity, but something which 97% of companies use, and for the large part is a very critical part of their IT strategy and investment. At the same time the vendor landscape as well as internal Security, Legal and compliance teams have matured their understanding of open source and no longer need an OSPO to support them. So what does the OSPO of the future look like? Is there even a need and a space for such a function? In this session I will bring in my learnings from 10 years in an open source start up and from establishing OSPOs in 2 of the largest european tech companies and give my view on how OSPOs should position themselves to still be relevant and support open source going forward. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/A8WREG/ Stage Auditorium Per Ploug Krogslund PUBLISH WANZN8@@program.foss-backstage.de -WANZN8 Open Source Excellence: Munich's Journey towards Public Code en en 20240305T113500 20240305T120500 0.03000

Open Source Excellence: Munich's Journey towards Public Code

The City of Munich has a long open source history. We have been using open source products and frameworks in both infrastructure and software development since the turn of the millennium. We reached a new level of our open source development in 2021 when our city council decided that all open source in-house developments would be made publicly available - according to the principle of public money - public code. With our presentation, we would like to show what the success factors for open source development are, what advantages it has and what legal and organizational requirements we had to create for this. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/WANZN8/ Stage Auditorium Dr. Dirk Gernhardt Klaus Mueller PUBLISH M9JRSR@@program.foss-backstage.de -M9JRSR Freedom vs Sustainable Business: A Candid Necessary Debate en en 20240305T121000 20240305T125000 0.04000

Freedom vs Sustainable Business: A Candid Necessary Debate

Open source software, the bedrock of innovation and collaboration in the modern software industry, faces a critical juncture as the interplay between freedom, sustainable business models and sustainable open source models becomes increasingly complex. The choice of open source license, once considered a technical decision, now carries profound ethical and legal implications, impacting its community, its development, distribution, and usage. This discussion panel will explore the current landscape of open source licenses - from permissive, ethical, dual and business-source, examining the impact of recent developments and changes on individual developers, communities, and its effects on society. Through a debate-style format, panelists will engage in a discussion on the following topics: 1) The ethical implications of different open source license types: the ethical considerations surrounding copyleft, permissive, and hybrid licenses, examining the impact of license choices on the freedom to modify, distribute, and build upon open source software. 2) The impact of license changes on existing software projects and communities: the challenges and opportunities presented by license changes, discussing the ethical implications of altering the terms of existing open source projects and the potential impact on communities of developers and users. 3) The role of open source licenses in addressing issues of intellectual property, copyright, and fair use: explore the legal and ethical complexities surrounding open source licenses, examining how different license types address issues of intellectual property, copyright, and fair use in the context of open source software development and utilization. 4) The ethical considerations of using open source software in commercial products: discuss the ethical implications of incorporating open source software into commercial products, examining the balance between leveraging open source contributions and ensuring fair compensation for developers and contributors. 5) Real cases to have a candid conversation from both sides: Recent news and changes on companies like HashiCorp and Red Hat can be analyzed and the implications can be explored in a non defensive or offensive way, favoring dialogue and deepening the discussion 6) Balancing open source principles with sustainable business models: the challenges faced by companies in balancing the principles of open source with the financial realities of running a business, examining the need for sustainable business models that support the development and maintenance of open-source projects. This panel will provide a platform for open and honest dialogue on the ethical complexities of open source licenses, fostering a deeper understanding of the ethical implications of our technological choices. By engaging in this discussion, we can collectively work towards developing a more ethical and responsible approach to open source software development and use, ensuring that open source remains a force for innovation, collaboration, and societal benefit. *I'll be mediating the debate. I will invite 3 panelists who will be prepared for the debate. The choice of panelists will depend on people who confirm their presence at the event, either because they have tickets or are confirmed speakers. In this way, we can avoid extra costs for production and/or panelists **Debate rules will also be put in place to encourage honest and non-inflammatory discussions, since the proposal is to deepen discussions in a safe space. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Panel https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/M9JRSR/ Stage Auditorium Thomas Steenbergen Dr. Lina Böcker Paloma Oliveira Fiona Krakenbürger PUBLISH KRPEVQ@@program.foss-backstage.de -KRPEVQ What the AI revolution means for Open Source and our society en en 20240305T140000 20240305T143000 0.03000

What the AI revolution means for Open Source and our society

In the last year we saw the rise of AI systems like ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Dall-E and others. Large Language Models like GPT are enabling a lot of new innovative features and products which will revolutionise the world. But this large autoregressive language models come with a lot of challenges that can have negative effects on the Open Source and Open Tech community. For example it’s unclear if in the future everyone will have access to the same ML models and training data. Can students, startups and open source people build innovative new products using AI in the same way the open source communities build Open Code and Open Tech. How can we make sure that the AI system are not discriminating underrepresented minorities? What is the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of this new big AI systems? This talk will discuss the current challenges around AI. In the second half it covers the new innovative local and open source AI features that the Nextcloud community is building. At the end the talk looks into the new Ethical AI framework and what it means for existing SaaS AI solutions and the open source local alternatives. It also covers the ongoing discussion to define an Open Source AI definition in the OSI community. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/KRPEVQ/ Stage Auditorium Frank Karlitschek PUBLISH YRNQMR@@program.foss-backstage.de -YRNQMR The Cuckoo in Bidding: When the Manufacturer Loses to Itself en en 20240305T143500 20240305T150500 0.03000

The Cuckoo in Bidding: When the Manufacturer Loses to Itself

Open Source often means more than just "free and accessible source code"; it also encompasses license models for free, unrestricted use. Yet, there are companies that successfully develop high-quality, commercially viable software with significant financial investment and a dedicated team of developers. Revenue is generated through "service and support" contracts, quality-tested releases, troubleshooting with short SLAs, or assistance with rollout and operation. This is based on the general understanding and acceptance that manufacturers need to be financially compensated for the use of their software, even if it is available as FOSS. As Open Source becomes more popular in public administration, procurement projects are increasingly being tendered solely on price. This attracts bidders who neither internalize nor share the principles of free software: Parasitic freeloaders offering third-party software on pure operational terms without any manufacturer compensation, consistently outbidding the manufacturer or its partners. Like a cuckoo, they shirk the work of raising their young onto others, even killing their offspring and peers in the process. The consequences are devastating. If this happens systematically and regularly, it rapidly deprives any further development of Open Source software of its financial foundation. The Open Source ecosystem is ruthlessly destroyed by freeloaders who play against the rules. How can Open Source projects protect themselves against this abuse? Various associations and providers are currently launching initiatives to ensure fair and sustainable procurement of Open Source software. A "Code of Conduct" could foster a common understanding. Ultimately, the tendering entities and public procurement officers need to be convinced that pure tenders seeking only the cheapest bidder destroy their future choices. And there are legal tasks to be accomplished: What might legally robust "Fair Use" clauses look like that could become mandatory criteria for tenders? PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/YRNQMR/ Stage Auditorium Peer Heinlein Daniel Zielke PUBLISH CPMH8W@@program.foss-backstage.de -CPMH8W A modern OS information system for the french fire fighters en en 20240305T153000 20240305T160000 0.03000

A modern OS information system for the french fire fighters

Camptocamp has been working with its partners for over four years on the technical implementation of the NexSIS 18-112 project, the future information and command system for the French fire and rescue services. The project is being carried out on behalf of the Agence du Numérique de la Sécurité Civile (ANSC), which reports to the Ministry of the Interior. The Camptocamp teams, responsible for implementing the NexSIS geographical information system, faced several challenges in order to develop a modern, resilient and ergonomic solution. True to its DNA, Camptocamp is building this solution exclusively using open source building blocks. This desire to promote and contribute to open source tools wherever possible is shared with our customer. Geographical information has a central place within NexSIS. Most of the functions of NexSIS are supplied or enriched with geographical data via mainly cartographic user interfaces: rapid localization of an emergency situation following a call to 18 (or 112); transmission of intervention information to all the forces responsible for this emergency situation (fire department, police, gendarmerie, municipal authorities, prefectures, road or energy network operators, etc.); mobilization of the most appropriate personnel and equipment to be sent on rescue missions. All these functions require heterogeneous geographical data from very different sources: Data producers (Base Adresse Nationale, Institut Géographique National, HERE), organizations and companies (SNCF, RTE, Veolia, Voies Navigables de France, etc.), field reports (fire and rescue services), open data (OpenStreetMap), etc. This heterogenity leads to a certain technical complexity, but above all to an extensive set of functions in NexSIS, ultimately providing a better service for the end users, the firefighters. The aim of the presentation is therefore to use the example of NexSIS to show how open source tools and data can make the work of the emergency services easier, so that they can respond more quickly and efficiently to emergency situations and ultimately offer citizens a better service. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/CPMH8W/ Stage Auditorium Olivia Guyot PUBLISH PWXM7V@@program.foss-backstage.de -PWXM7V Success through a thousand emails: Fundraising and outreach en en 20240305T160500 20240305T163500 0.03000

Success through a thousand emails: Fundraising and outreach

All of the most successful fundraising campaigns come from three categories: services rendered, shared identity, or urgency; and are driven by thousands of small actions and follow up to create opportunities clarity and collaboration. Getting the right people to care is a beheamoth task. Large corporations that are expected to write a check and fill the gap of a worthwhile initiative don't show up like we expect; why does money never seem to flow to the right place at the right time? Through this presentation I'll discuss ways grassroots campaigns strike a cord with their audience to get over the fundraising finish line with some common gotchas: - The audience you thought would care, doesn't. - Who has the bank account? - How much is a handshake worth? - Getting Western donations to African initiatives. - Reduce the "I'm going to get yelled at" factor when asking corporations for contributions. - Creating the next wave of financially and fiscally aware in Open Source. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/PWXM7V/ Stage Auditorium Dawn Wages PUBLISH UCPFAJ@@program.foss-backstage.de -UCPFAJ Aligning wishes of multiple orgs into an open source project en en 20240305T164000 20240305T171000 0.03000

Aligning wishes of multiple orgs into an open source project

Having a public and up-to-date roadmap for an open source project can encourage new contributors to join a project, guide the efforts of existing contributors, and give confidence to adopters about the direction and sustainability of the project. However for a roadmap to work you need commitment from its participants. In a company, management can commit to a product roadmaps top-down but you can't do that in an open source project with various organizations contributing. Nick and Thomas are working on a solution in two of their open source projects (ClearlyDefined & OSS Review Toolkit) to try to solve this commitment challenge. Multiple organizations and individuals are working together in the ClearlyDefined and ORT, the call for a public roadmap became stronger. For example, people want to know when improvement requests relevant to their organization will be implemented. Whether something gets implemented and when, depends on the priorities of the people making and reviewing the contributions. In most open source projects small requests can often be quickly addressed but bigger changes usually require a commitment from people’s employers. This was where ClearlyDefined and ORT - like other open source projects - ran into a demand and supply mismatch: each organization has their own wishes, priorities and resources towards the projects, but every big change requires the involvement of the project maintainers who are either volunteering their time or need to get time from their organization to be involved. In this session Nick and Thomas will present an innovative governance and funding model created by the ORT community to align demand and supply between organizations so they can agree to implement items together resulting in a roadmap with committed delivery items. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/UCPFAJ/ Stage Auditorium Thomas Steenbergen Nick Vidal PUBLISH 8CR8UG@@program.foss-backstage.de -8CR8UG Closing Session en en 20240305T171000 20240305T172500 0.01500

Closing Session

PUBLIC CONFIRMED Lightning Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/8CR8UG/ Stage Auditorium PUBLISH AMDURF@@program.foss-backstage.de -AMDURF Adventures with Open Source Business Models en en 20240305T110000 20240305T113000 0.03000

Adventures with Open Source Business Models

I became involved in open source full time in 2001 when I joined the company behind OpenNMS, an open source network monitoring platform. In 2002 I became the primary maintainer when that company decided to stop supporting the project. Becoming the maintainer was easier than explaining to my wife that I was quitting my job to sell free software. I was able to grow the company up until 2019 when we sold it, and I stayed with the acquiring company until 2021. Our customers were some of the biggest companies in the world, and we explored every possible way to make money while keeping the product 100% free and open source software. In this session I will talk about how we got started, what worked and what didn't, and what I would do differently if I had to do it all again. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/AMDURF/ Stage Wintergarten Tarus Balog PUBLISH WTPUCL@@program.foss-backstage.de -WTPUCL More than developers: growing your maintainer community en en 20240305T113500 20240305T120500 0.03000

More than developers: growing your maintainer community

A consistent question across all open source projects is how to grow their maintainer communities. More specifically, as projects grow they move from needing generalists to looking for specialized roles, like documentation, community management, and security. It can be challenging to shift from bootstrapping a project to growing a community because these roles require different skillsets and outlooks, and it can be hard to shift your mindset and figure out how to accommodate diverse kinds of contributors. In this talk we’ll learn the importance of growing your community in a balanced way that includes roles beyond developers, and how to attract and retain those contributors. In this talk we’ll go over: From 5 to 500: the challenges a project faces as it goes from a small team of developers to a diverse set of contributors The different ways to open source something (through a foundation, sponsored by a company, all on your own) and what that means for your growing contributor base How to keep new contributors and grow them into project leadership The importance of defining and documenting specific roles in your open source project Smoothing the path for non-code contributors to open source This talk will benefit maintainers and community owners who manage open source projects in large companies in specific, as it focuses on business-led opportunities for maintainer growth. At the end of this talk you’ll have the hints on how to manage the growing pains for your open source project community, recruit new contributors and keep them. We’ll give you examples from successful open source projects that you can emulate and use in your own growth. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/WTPUCL/ Stage Wintergarten Celeste Horgan PUBLISH G9CAHP@@program.foss-backstage.de -G9CAHP Measuring the Impact of Community Events en en 20240305T121000 20240305T124000 0.03000

Measuring the Impact of Community Events

One of the mainstays of the open source ecosystem are community events. Open Source Summit, Community Over Code, SCaLE... all examples of community events with vitality and influence within open source. But unlike more commercially focused events, community events are not as simple to measure in terms of benefits to organizations that participate. Without sales leads or conversions, how does a commercial organization measure the gains of participation? And for community projects, what's the return on investment in running a booth or giving talks at such events? In this presentation, Brian Proffitt outlines the challenges of figuring out the ROI of community event participation, and then will offer multiple potential solutions Red Hat has been experimenting with to measure impact and gains. These solutions will include: * Collateral delivery * Messaging impact * Calls to action Brian will also discuss measuring the health, ROI, and strategic fit for events, in order for organizations to determine which event will have the best impact for an organization's primary mission. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/G9CAHP/ Stage Wintergarten Brian Proffitt PUBLISH WNHFDT@@program.foss-backstage.de -WNHFDT Who Funds FOSS Foundations? en en 20240305T140000 20240305T143000 0.03000

Who Funds FOSS Foundations?

Have you ever wondered how open source organizations get funded? Not just the developers, but the whole ecosystem around major open source projects, either at a FOSS Foundation, independent projects, or an open core project at a company? Most major software projects we all rely on are hosted at Foundations like Apache, Eclipse, Linux, or Software Freedom Conservancy. Those foundations provide a wide variety of support to project communities, including legal and licensing assistance, trademark management, event support, and more. As non-profits, these foundations rely on donors and sponsors for all of their work. So who funds all of this critical support for open source foundations? Come find out what companies are behind the popular open source foundations and major independent projects, and who's actually paying for all of the other support work that's done to keep the servers running, press releases coming, and license compliance work. Surprises are guaranteed; I know I was surprised when I realized how many different FOSS projects that Microsoft is an annual sponsor for, what projects a few other companies supported with their cash, and how big one foundation has gotten. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/WNHFDT/ Stage Wintergarten Shane Curcuru PUBLISH LYCLBX@@program.foss-backstage.de -LYCLBX Size matters: Why some projects can't do UX well en en 20240305T143500 20240305T150500 0.03000

Size matters: Why some projects can't do UX well

There are strong opinions about UX and how it should fit in open source but what's clear is that one size does not fit all. How you can do proper UX (if at all) depends on the size and shape of your group. After interviewing many different repo maintainers, there is a clear pattern about which projects are better at doing UX. This talk will explain what I've found and how projects of any size can still incorporate UX into their process flow. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/LYCLBX/ Stage Wintergarten Scott Jenson PUBLISH YCKULE@@program.foss-backstage.de -YCKULE Why UX and FOSS clash and what we can do about it en en 20240305T153000 20240305T160000 0.03000

Why UX and FOSS clash and what we can do about it

This talk focusses on a central difference between UX designers and Open Source developers: The ideas of what a "good" user is and one should relate to them. Given their different cultures and histories, both have come to different conclusions: The ideal user for open source projects is a programmer themselves and thus similar to the people already working on the software – whereas for UX designers, the users are seen as unlike designers nor programmers and understanding them and transporting that understanding in the project is seen as a major and difficult task. Based on these differences, the suggestion is not to educate one profession to act like the other. Instead, I look at existing modes of cross-professional collaboration assuming that the strenght of working together are also the very different skills and assumptions that designers and developers bring to the project. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/YCKULE/ Stage Wintergarten Jan Dittrich PUBLISH HGJAQP@@program.foss-backstage.de -HGJAQP A UX Toolbox for Usability, Accessibility, and Security en en 20240305T160500 20240305T163500 0.03000

A UX Toolbox for Usability, Accessibility, and Security

In today’s landscape of increasingly riskier digital experiences, successful software development requires more than just functionality and aesthetics. The challenges faced by software teams require prioritizing user experiences while carefully addressing potential harms and respecting human rights. While traditional technical security audits serve a valuable purpose, they do not typically focus on the socio-technical aspects of a tool that make systems insecure, like its usability. Similarly, accessibility practices and audits often happen in addition to, not in concert with, usable security reviews, and sometimes they don’t happen at all. As UX practitioners, we’ve learned that there is interplay, overlap, and synergistic benefits between each of these aspects, and developed our open UX Toolbox for Risk Mitigation and Accessibility to provide tool teams, designers, and product managers with an adaptable set of resources that help them work holistically toward secure, usable, and accessible user experiences. This talk will explore the research and landscape analysis that led to the development of the toolbox, discuss use cases for some of the open resources included, and seek community feedback to help improve it collaboratively. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/HGJAQP/ Stage Wintergarten Katie Wilson PUBLISH LQSRZN@@program.foss-backstage.de -LQSRZN The secret lives of designers in OSS en en 20240305T164000 20240305T171000 0.03000

The secret lives of designers in OSS

We will cover the main topics that we found were important for designers in OSS and OSS from the diary studies. These include: - How designers decide to contribute to OSS - Communication and collaboration with developers - How designers measure design success in OSS - Processes and tools used by designers in OSS - What states designers would like to leave OSS in after they finish contributing Along with this data we'll present Superbloom's recommendations on how to address the challenges raised by our diary study in OSS We'll also outline and offer up how we structured this study and our future hopes for research into design in OSS. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/LQSRZN/ Stage Wintergarten Eriol Fox Nimisha Vijay PUBLISH X8KZGM@@program.foss-backstage.de -X8KZGM Open Source Inclusivity: Empowering Newcomers en en 20240305T110000 20240305T113000 0.03000

Open Source Inclusivity: Empowering Newcomers

In the realm of open source development, the influx of new contributors is vital for innovation and progress. However, first-time contributors often find themselves at a crossroads, daunted by vast codebases and extensive issue lists. This talk aims to dissect and address these barriers. We will delve into the psychological and technical hurdles that new contributors face, such as selecting the right issue to tackle and overcoming the intimidation of large-scale projects. By examining case studies and current practices, the talk will reveal how these barriers not only deter individual learning and growth but also deprive organizations of potential talent. Furthermore, the session will introduce actionable strategies that projects can implement to make their environments more welcoming and accessible. These include structured mentorship programs, clear documentation, beginner-friendly issue tagging, and inclusive community practices. The talk will also highlight the importance of fostering a culture that values diversity and inclusivity, ensuring that open source is a field where all voices, regardless of experience level, are heard and valued. Attendees will leave with a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by new open source contributors and a toolkit of strategies to implement in their projects or communities. This talk is particularly relevant for project maintainers, community managers, and anyone interested in enhancing the diversity and inclusivity of open source projects. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/X8KZGM/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Mayank Jindal PUBLISH 9CZALK@@program.foss-backstage.de -9CZALK Navigating the gold rush: Of influencer economies and FOSS en en 20240305T113500 20240305T120500 0.03000

Navigating the gold rush: Of influencer economies and FOSS

Raise your hands if you, as a maintainer, have been traumatised by the influx of spam PRs during Hacktoberfest every year. With trends like "Learning in public", "What prevents you from contributing like this?", and "Every typo edit matters", the last few years have witnessed open source contributions soar in popularity like never before. While this messaging was initially helpful to attract more contributors by promising them better visibility & career opportunities, its eventual virality across platforms on account of promotions by tech influencers and contributors alike has resulted in a slow spiral toward unsustainability. Not only has the ecosystem become a hot bed for such clickbait messaging, various organizations and projects continue to enable this shifting of balance with their outreach & messaging strategies. This isn’t meant to be a critique of the influencer economy or its adoption by the open source ecosystem. However, with issues like maintainer burnout, lesser promotions across the contributor ladder, deteriorating project health, and terrible work-life balance staring back at us, it is essential that we talk about the elephant in the room - how do we navigate past this wreck to sustainably scaling open source communities? How do we fix forward so as to handover a healthy contributor ecosystem to the next generation of maintainers? Can the ecosystem and the influencer economy co-exist sustainably? This talk aims to cover the above topics broadly with suggestions and anecdotes drawn from the speaker's experience as a documentation maintainer, open source DevRel, and contributor to several open source projects. While it is impossible to solve this problem with one talk alone, the speaker hopes to set the ball rolling on this discussion with this session. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/9CZALK/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Divya Mohan PUBLISH 7S9WGD@@program.foss-backstage.de -7S9WGD Docs For All: Improving Open Source Accessibility en en 20240305T121000 20240305T124000 0.03000

Docs For All: Improving Open Source Accessibility

In a world that’s increasingly diverse and championed by technology and development, ensuring that the tools users need serve their diversity is paramount. This is why factors like accessibility, diversity, and inclusion within technical documentation need more amplification. This session unfolds the pivotal role of crafting technical documentation that speaks to a broad audience, ensuring that open-source projects are not just universally accessible but also resonate with a diverse global user base. Examine the art of creating comprehensive documentation that caters to various demographics while being accessible by incorporating assistive technologies like screen readers, subtitles, etc. We navigate through the intricate web of creating documentation that is not just a guide but a gateway to making technology inclusive, ensuring no one is left behind in the use of important technological advancements. Join us as we embark on a journey from understanding to implementing strategies that boost accessibility through technical documentation in the open-source space, fostering a community that is sustainable, inclusive, and universal. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/7S9WGD/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Zainab Daodu Omotola Eunice OMOTAYO PUBLISH XPQNQN@@program.foss-backstage.de -XPQNQN What being a Biker Gang Investigator taught me about FOSS en en 20240305T140000 20240305T143000 0.03000

What being a Biker Gang Investigator taught me about FOSS

My talk will go into the nuances of participating in open source, and how there are unwritten rules within the community which n00bs (or "hangarounds" as we might want to call them...) may not know right away. As with any community, the reasons for joining can vary from person to person, but with both OMG's and OG coders, there are a lot of shared ideologies. The notions of shared brother/sister/personhood are of course, one of the biggest reasons. We all like being a part of something that is bigger than ourselves, and a sense of contributing to the greater good and looking out for "the little guy" (aka: not MS) is a common thread in both groups. In partnership with this is the need or desire for Freedom - where can we go that others haven't gone? How can we be more nimble? How can we make this bike (or process) go faster? And possibly greatest of all - the thrill! Whether it be customizing a sweet ride, or a piece of code, there isn't a lot more exhilarating than seeing all the pieces come together! Of course, there are other things - like codes of conduct, patches (on your leather OR in your latest release...) and meet-ups - but ultimately, this is a talk about how folks who are not always understood by others have built an astounding community of people that is far more than meets the eye! PUBLIC CONFIRMED Talk https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/XPQNQN/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Ashley Sametz PUBLISH N3VMFY@@program.foss-backstage.de -N3VMFY Exploring the Intersection Between OSS and Exit to Community en en 20240305T153000 20240305T163000 1.00000

Exploring the Intersection Between OSS and Exit to Community

This workshop intends to help FOSS contributors and enthusiasts learn about Exit to Community (E2C), an economic justice strategy that empowers players in the digital economy to move towards ownership and governance by the users, workers, and other stakeholders who give platforms their value, ensuring long-term sustainability and benefits for all. In this workshop, we’ll briefly introduce the notion of “Exit to Community” and explore how it resonates with the values of the free software movement. We will overview 3 case study “snapshots” that embody the values and practices of Exit to Community in the software world: Debian, Python, and BuyTwitter.org. (While the former two exemplify E2C’s resonance with open-source values, the latter imagines turning a proprietary platform into a public utility, demonstrating the imaginative potential unlocked by thinking between E2C and FOSS.) In approximately 5 minutes, each overview will map out 1) motivation to pursue community ownership/governance and 2) the practical path to achieving it. We will then guide participants through the design of a speculative Community Exit Strategy for a tech platform or utility that matters to them. This could be a FOSS project they are involved with as a contributor or user, or a proprietary platform that they fantasize about bringing into alignment with open-source values by taking it under collective ownership. Whether participants choose to plot a new governance strategy for an existing FOSS project based on our case studies or speculatively re-envision a proprietary platform as an open-source project, we hope this workshop will catalyze conversations about the many forms community ownership of software can take, clarifying the idea of Exit to Community and building awareness of what it entails. By refining our collective understanding of how community ownership functions in practice, we’ll aim to define some lessons that can be applied to the organizational design of successful open-source software projects. 🛈 This workshop won't be recorded, participation is possible both online and onsite. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Workshop https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/N3VMFY/ Monday: Workshop Room / Tuesday: Remote Stage Adina Glickstein Eli Zeger Hazel Devjani PUBLISH HWYSUB@@program.foss-backstage.de -HWYSUB Usability Clinic 🛈 en en 20240305T143500 20240305T163500 2.00000

Usability Clinic 🛈

Are you an open source maintainer? We provide free (as in free beer) design support for your project, including UI, UX and User Research. Talk to us in person and receive pro-bono design support at the event and after! What we can help with: Discovering: At the start of the project we can help explore with you the problem space and find potential pathways to help you ask the right questions. This can include understanding your audience, designing for the right audience or figuring out potential user journeys for new features. Refactoring: You have a technically working solution but need some support with tidying up, regardless if it’s information architecture or layout. We can support you with some design housekeeping without relying on major design changes. Auditing: You have a working solution and need to test and audit it for potential shortcomings. We do conduct UX heuristics evaluations as well as accessibility audits (web, mobile or desktop). Refreshing: Communicating technical feasibility as part of a visual identity can prove to be difficult. We work with you to ensure your project can communicate its values efficiently. Implementing: We specialize in supporting to shape your product with frontend implementation, accessibility considerations, as well quality assurance. More information: https://ura.design/probono 🛈 This session won't be recorded and participation is only possible onsite. PUBLIC CONFIRMED Off Stage https://program.foss-backstage.de/fossback24/talk/HWYSUB/ Lobby Elio Qoshi Marit Brademann