Call for Community-Led Tracks at FOSSY
by on January 31, 2023
Today Software Freedom Conservancy is officially opening our call for track proposals for our first annual FOSSY conference! We will be holding the conference in Portland, Oregon July 13-16, 2023 at the Oregon Convention Center. We are looking for community driven tracks that can balance important and in depth technical and non-technical issues, while uplifting contributors of all experiences. Tracks will be modeled after the DevRooms at FOSDEM and the miniconfs at linux.conf.au. They may be between 1 and 4 days, and the organizers of the tracks will be in charge of outreach, calls for submissions, communicating with potential speakers in the track, determining the schedule and hosting the track in person at FOSSY.
We're looking for organizers who can give us a really good idea of what we can expect from their track. The description should give a detailed explanation of the topic, ideally along with some of the issues you expect to cover. Example talks you expect, what kind of audience are you aiming for, and how this topic fits into the larger FOSS ecosystem are good things to mention.
You'll note that we ask for two people to be listed as organizers for the track. It's easy to underestimate the work involved so having more than two organizers could also really help to take care of all of the work. We'll be there to help and support you, but this will be your show!
We'd like you to tell us why the organizers are the right ones for the job. Do they have experience running conferences, unique perspectives due to involvement with the topic? Conference organizing is a demanding job that requires a balance of logistics, people centered concerns and technical skills. We trust you to assemble a group of people that can cater to those needs and want to put on a great event.
Given that this is the first FOSSY, we will be creating this space together! How is the topic you are proposing beneficial for the FOSS community and how does it fit into this new space? The hope is to have a balance of technical and non-technical topics, and we want to hear from you about what's important on those issues. Given that we want to shape the conference into something that uplifts contributors of all levels and experience, how will you approach a varied audience?
How long will your track be? Are you planning a quick and deep dive into a single topic or do you dream of having a 4 day long track dealing with tough issues that you want attendees to sit with and reflect on over the weekend? We don't need you to lock yourself into this choice, but we do need a rough figure how much participation and space you'll need if you are hoping to do something specific.
Anything that gives us a sense of the organization and spirit of your tracks will be helpful.
Please use our submission page or email us at conference@sfconservancy.org if you have any questions.
The deadline for application is Sunday March 19th, so be sure to reach out soon!
We're very excited to hear from you about how we can shape this conference into something for us all. Thanks so much for your interest and we hope to see you in July!
Please email any comments on this entry to info@sfconservancy.org.
