Two DevRooms for FOSDEM 2012

I am really excited to be part of two DevRooms for FOSDEM 2012: Free Java and Legal Issues.

I first participated in the Free Java DevRoom in 2007 just after Sun announced the liberation of Java. This was an amazing time to be able to represent Sun and meet the developers who had actively sought open source Java for so many years. Just after FOSDEM 2008 I left Sun, but I got involved in the the Free Java DevRoom again last year and had a blast. From the interest so far I suspect we will have even more great speakers this year!

Having been part of Sun's team that navigated tricky copyright, patent and trademark issues in publishing OpenJDK I cultivated an appreciation and fascination for the legal frameworks that make FLOSS possible. The obvious success and growth of software in our everyday lives makes the vitality of software freedom a huge concern. This year "legal geeks" will be thrilled to learn that we have just proposed a new Legal Issues DevRoom for FOSDEM. This is a "Saturday Only" DevRoom which will culminate in a one hour interactive panel with all our speakers.

Of course the big challenge with FOSDEM is there are far too many DevRooms to go to at the same time. I apologize in advance for making your decisions even trickier! I can assure you that the FOSDEM "hallway track" will be better than ever....

So please check out the CFP's for each DevRoom and submit a talk idea or share the pointer with someone who would be a great speaker.

Merci!