The Convergence of HPC, AI and Cloud

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You may have heard of FOSDEM. It is the biggest, all-over-the-place Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) developer conference in Europe, and possibly the world.

Set in the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels over two days (three if you count some of the peripheral events), it now offers hundreds of talks in 2 main tracks and 70 devrooms covering specific topics from Declarative and Minimalistic Computing to Legal and Policy challenges and Energy Transition as well, of course, as HPC, Big Data & Data Science or Open Research, for tracks closely related to StackHPC and its customers.

On top of this, there are tens of projects and companies present with booths or extra “fringe” workshops or social events that happen on the day before, after, at the same time or in the evenings.

This year was the 25th anniversary of the conference and it was bigger than ever.

Why attend community events

While these are impressive numbers. They don't answer the question: why attend FOSDEM and community events in general? I can think of a few reasons.

First, you will learn something new. Whether it's attending a talk, visiting a project's booth or bumping into someone you know or meeting someone new, you will hear of projects, organisations, mistakes, solutions and ideas you've never heard from before.

Second, seeing the community come together is energising. Even if you are not working on how to improve the next generation of compilers, or of FOSS licences, seeing that there are passionate people doing just that is motivating and a great reminder that as each contributes to their specific area, it all comes together as a whole that is other and greater than its parts.

Lastly, revisiting the first point, you will meet new people (if you want to!). From spontaneous conversations after a presentation to Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions to just striking up a conversation next to a food truck, there are lots of interesting and friendly people attending FOSDEM. It is a community event after all.

Why present

If you're thinking of attending, i can only recommend that you also consider presenting!

Community events rely on interesting talks and workshops to give people the impetus to travel (or the material to convince their boss they should). Once there, it's about more than that, but presenting ideas and experiences is core to the fundamental event. And please, no marketing pitches!

Even if you don't think what you've done is interesting enough to be presented alongside major projects and figures of the FOSS community, don't underestimate that others won't necessarily know your area: the world of open source is vast and broad. There is a reaon there are so many specialised devrooms.

And if that still feels like too much, lightning talks might be the right first experience: 15 minutes, questions included.

We still desperately need more diversity in the Open Source community, so if you are (understandably) hesitant, consider finding a mentor or supporting community to help guide you through answering the call for proposals.

What to expect

Cold. Brussels in early February is not known for its balmy weather. But it is vibrant, beautiful and has many great places for food and drinks.

People. Lots of them. FOSDEM is bigger than ever: more buildings being used, more people, more university cafés and food places open. But at the same time, the volunteer team running the event does a great job of making it not too hard to find your way to that next talk.

Not to see everything you want to. Rooms reach max capacity (before you reach them). Speakers get sick before they get there. Tech problems. It's ok, maybe that talk in the room next door will turn out to be great.

Serendipity. Or a bit of chaos. Trying to get through a hall full of booths and excited FOSS enthusiasts. No more veggie burgers. Bumping into people and never reaching building UA for the next talk on your schedule. It's all part of being there, and what happens there is the most important part. You can always catch up on the talks back at home, they are recorded.

Some suggested talks or devrooms to catch up on

Talking of which, here is a small selection of devrooms and talks you might find interesting.

And while it was not recorded, it's also worth mentioning that the OpenInra Foundation organised a OpenStack Community Meetup BOF (Birds of a Feather) meetup, which was quite packed!

A few parting thoughts

It is really good to see themes like Energy and Climate being part of the event. Even though FOSDEM is a software development conference first and foremost, it is one full of people trying to improve things and exists in a world where climate is in crisis: seeing steps to take it into account is a good thing.

Lastly, when attending large events like this, it’s worth wearing a mask to protect yourself and others.

All this being said, i hope you will consider attending and presenting at FOSDEM and community Free and Open Source events in general. We'll see you at the next one!