Looking at the Location of FOSSY

May 12, 2025

We at Software Freedom Conservancy are excited to bring you the third edition of the FOSSY (Free and Open Source Software Yearly) conference in Portland, Oregon. We have staffers living locally in Oregon, and the long history of OSCON in Portland are among the reasons we started FOSSY there.

We signed the FOSSY 2025 venue contract with Portland State University, which has been an excellent venue, just a few days after FOSSY 2024 (in August 2024). At the time, we didn't imagine 2025 would present so many challenges (similar to those we dealt with in 2017) with regard to international travel. We believe that in-person conferences are crucial to our work and are concerned that we face a moment in history where travel to the United States is so difficult and even impossible for many international FOSS enthusiasts.

We also know that the reverse problem also exists: many residents of the United States fear they may face difficulties in returning home if they travel outside its borders. For these people, a conference in the United States has increased importance.

Because of this situation, it's extremely difficult to decide where to host an in-person conference.

After much consideration, we have decided on the following plan:

• We will continue with FOSSY in Portland, Oregon on July 31st — August 3rd, 2025. We believe at this moment, there is value in an event about FOSS in the United States — particularly for attendees who cannot leave the United States at this time. We will miss much of our international community this year, but we understand completely why you cannot join us.
• We have begun exploring the possibility of hosting FOSSY 2026 in Canada. We hope to announce a final decision for 2026 during FOSSY 2025, and encourage anyone who has thoughts about the host city for FOSSY 2026 to reach out to us at <info@sfconservancy.org>.

Long term, we have always hoped that, like FOSDEM, FOSSY will begin as a North American event but slowly but surely over many years grow to welcome a fully international audience. We were so excited to see how many traveled for our first and second editions of FOSSY. If you can't make it for whatever reason, we'll miss you at FOSSY 2025, and hopefully we can see you in 2026.