Keeping OFFDEM along FOSDEM dates or Moving

[natacha]

Continuing the discussion from O₆ffdem?:

OFFDEM is each time building a stronger community and we are moving towards our original aim to focus on the keeping our work focused on building up over the years about specific topics:
Care > Demilitarize
Care > Synware
Care > Bonds
Care > e-Waste

Keeping OFFDEM happening at the same moment as FOSDEM has some inconvenients.

• Our main issue is practical: February is always cold and while we organize with occupations the large spaces we occupy are not heated, and it is very hard to focus and properly work in such conditions.
• Furthermore while it is important for us to work in conjunction with FOSDEM it is also crucial that the people who join OFFDEM really engage and do not only pass by, how ever some people come from FOSDEM and only pass by, they do not prepare work with us ahead of time and do not contribute on the long run.

As we realize more and more people come intown specifically for OFFDEM and do not attend FOSDEM we feel the 2 events might be less correlated than before.

Therefore we are thinking to move OFFDEM sometimes in the month of April where it would be warmer and leave us more time to prepare and organise our encounter.

What do people think about moving OFFDEM in April and work in better conditions… Or do you feel we should keep attached to FOSDEM?

Please aswer below and tell us what you think.

[how]

Without interest there will be no OFFDEM. At petites singularités we’ve been insisting that work needs to be done before and after the events, but this is not happening. We have other engagements that require our attention, like everybody else. OFFDEM has never been about organizing an event: from the start it was a protest about the indifference of the “free software movement” regarding corporate takeover of our community spaces. This position is not about offering an alternative event, but about conveying a political vision for free technology production, that is an active part of shaping the technique and the world we want, criticizing the consumerist and military-industrial dominance in our lives, taking a political stand to affirm the importance of inventing techniques for the people, and making a stand against corporate shaping of our present, and destruction of our very habitat.

If this is something worth fighting for, we should keep it going on. Otherwise, we have other engagements that contribute to these goals.

[msavoritias]

Hey, Im pretty new so take what I say with a grain of salt maybe.

Personally I would also advocate for at least not doing it at the same time as FOSDEM.

I have heard that going into Brussels (besides the cold) its also crowded and expensive. This is one of the reasons i havent attended personally.

Going further I do think that having one conference in the center of EU once a year, is not helpful. It makes it EU-centric among other things. Centralization like this could also be a sign of the corpo thing.

Now where do we go from here i do not know. Fwiw the permacomputing collective https://permacomputing.net/ which has similar goals is going for a more distributed perspective. That is setting up the system (documents, support, etc.) to create local collectives easily. I personally also am slowly starting something up in Finland.

Sorry if I was too late on this. I am not that fast with forums, mostly because i have to open a browser compared to my xmpp app which is there easily. Most movement in permacomputing happens over xmpp too these days fwiw.

[indieterminacy]

FWIW, it seems I have an open schedule at the end of January.

Should this be the case then I have the capacity for doing things in advance of that weekend.

I will distracted performing parallel activity at a minor event in another part of the city on the first part of the Sunday and will be able to do things should OFFDEM be occurring.

My time was heavily split last year - impacting my ability to participate with Guix Days (painful given politics in USA knowing many people close to my heart feel too nervous to leave their nation with security and peace of mind).

In many respects its worth emphasizing how fragile peaceful congregation and communications can be - particularly given the darkening of state apparatae.

This contemporary example does not bode well (not in terms off conferences or initiatives but the vulnerabilities such geopolitical shifts shall expose):

President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to turn to private businesses to help mount offensive cyberattacks against foreign adversaries, according to people familiar with the matter, potentially expanding a shadowy electronic conflict typically conducted by secretive intelligence agencies.

The White House plans to make public its intention to enlist private companies in more aggressive efforts to go after criminal and state-sponsored hackers in a new national cyber strategy, a draft of which has been viewed by industry officials and experts. The strategy is expected to be released by the Office of the National Cyber Director in the coming weeks.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-12/trump-administration-turning-to-private-firms-in-cyber-offensive

I feel there is a value in having numerous attendees in an event that can participate in an environment, emphasizing the advantages of civil, and community orientated technologies.

I understand why you have high expectations, prefer a more articulate definition of values and intentions, and have frustrations regarding PS carrying the load over the years.

However, I consider OFFDEM to have enough value in itself, let alone as a counterpoint to FOSDEM.

[indieterminacy]

oh, additionally:

as Im temporarily a student I have access to renting audiovisual equipment should this be helpful.

[tide]

I believe having an event that puts more political stance than FOSDEM (where it is more focused to projects) would have a positive impact overall. And this surely is something worth fighting for.

Although I have attended to only one FOSDEM so far (2025), it is clear to me that they have focused more on the adoption, and at times this causes them to be detached from the real ideology of Free Software Movement, which is more radical stance.

Regarding the timing: I believe it would be better to do it in a different time. People plan their trips usually to barely visit the FOSDEM, and doing it at the same days results in one choosing between these two. Considering the fame of fosdem, odds are not in our favor. Additionally, traveling in winter to Brussels leaves much do desire.

I am also in favor of hosting the events in one of other states. Having it in Belgium ties the whole ideology to the European identity. It also costs too much.

These said, I would take my opinions with a grain of salt, as I am very new to the community.

[how]

Welcome @tide and @msavoritias. I’m all with you: decentralisation and (multiple) spaces are all the rage. But this requires people. Feel free to organise an OFFDEM in Finland if you like (I’d rather go South personally). We have published How to organize an OFFDEM event? and you’re welcome to use it and make it better.