Late at night on the twenty-first of January, the former Keynote Talk by Jack Dorsey at FOSDEM disappeared from the website. FOSDEM had earlier in the week removed the Keynote designation from the talk after Drew De Vault's suggestion of a sit-in. [1]
In Mirror Mirror part 1, I covered the keynote and what folks thought about Dorsey keynoting at the biggest free-to-attend FOSS event on the planet. Some folks couldn't see why this was a problem. They even felt that this was denying Dorsey's Free Speech. [6]
As usual, some folks ignore the Freedom of Association aspects. If you aren't sure what I mean by this. Look at the UDHR and if that's still too hard for you go look at the XKCD comic about Free Speech. [3] , [4]
I do think there's a massive disconnect between the Organisation Committee and a large proportion of their attendees. Because some folks do feel rather strongly about letting a cryptocurrency grifter talk on the main stage of FOSDEM. [5]
So far as I'm writing this post in the afternoon, there is no official statement from FOSDEM. No confirmation that the talk has been cancelled. No reason why they thought having Jack Dorsey keynote this event was a good thing. No statement on why they are cancelling.
Do you not think that the thousands of attendees deserve an explanation? Or those of us who have presented at FOSDEM in the past? Or most importantly do you not think that your large group of current and past volunteers deserve an explanation?
Okay, yes it is in response probably to the sit-in. [2]
But some form of official statement would be a start. I don't think FOSDEM should be trying to sweep this under the carpet with no form of explanation or accountability.
I've attended FOSDEM several times. It's an amazing event, but it can be a bit overwhelming at first. It can also be lonely for attendees until they get to know some folks.
One of the ways folks can get to know folks is by volunteering at the event. It hooks you into a great group of people and you can get an idea of what's involved in staging a conference like this.
FOSDEM has always been volunteer-driven. The community of volunteers, dev room organisers and speakers make FOSDEM an amazing community event. Those of us who criticise FOSDEM would like to make it even more amazing.
It is a crowd-sourced event, and to my knowledge, they get the University campus access for Free. The main organisers to my knowledge donate their time. They get the sound equipment donated. The dev rooms, which are the lifeblood of the event are mostly left on their own with very little support.
You can donate to FOSDEM, it has a bank account. But it's not a charitable foundation so you can't get a tax deduction.
So other than sundries like T-shirts and toilet paper, what is the budget? How much is it to run this conference? What is the budget spent on?
Why do we have so little information on the FOSDEM site about the budget and just how incorporated is FOSDEM as an organisation? How do the laws of Belgium affect the legalities of the organisation? How is the bank account administrated? How much money goes into the costs of this year, and how much of the budget goes into startup costs for the next year?
These are reasonable questions to ask of an organisation soliciting sponsorship and donations.
I don't need to know what the review committee scores on talks. But I would at least like to be able to find just how cheap a date FOSDEM is for its sponsors.
Perhaps if the talk is really cancelled the sit-in could be converted into a discussion space for the hour for the attendees of FOSDEM to discuss this and ask the Organisational Committee of FOSDEM for some more transparency to this event that so many of us love.
[2] https://drewdevault.com/2025/01/16/2025-01-16-No-Billionares-at-FOSDEM-please.html/
[3] https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
[5] https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/10/23162314/jay-z-jack-dorsey-bitcoin-academy-brooklyn-free-classes/