Call for Papers
Note: The submission period for FOSS Backstage 2023 is over. If you have submitted a proposal, you can access our CfP platform here.
FOSS Backstage is an open platform and we thrive on your contributions. Together with our dedicated program committee we want to shape a program that truly is “by the community for the community”. Therefore we are looking forward to your input.
We are interested in talks on Open Source project leadership best practices, community management, Open Source project metrics, Open Source strategy for enterprise, adopting Open Source collaboration in corporations (Inner Source), and legal matters when dealing with Open Source.
In the following, we want to help you identify if your idea fits at FOSS Backstage, what types of talks we are looking for, and help you with your proposal for our Call for Papers.
Here are some example questions that might be discussed at FOSS backstage and might inspire your proposal:
- What are best practices for teams scattered around the world?
- How can an Open Source busisness model look like?
- How to grow and maintain your open source communities and allies?
- How to manage your relationship to those stakeholders and what role do OSPOs have in this?
- What is the role of design in good open source projects?
- What are your favourite tools and procedures for working in open source projects?
- How to manage upstream dependencies from a legal and security point of view?
Related topics not explicitly listed above are of course welcome as well. We do not, however, accept product presentations or company marketing pitches. If you are seeking to market your company at FOSS Backstage, we’ll be delighted to send you our sponsoring prospectus and discuss all the benefits that a sponsorship entails. Please reach out to Paul at partner@foss-backstage.de to learn more.
Tracks
This encompasses all community and project management aspects of Open Source Projects. This includes InnerSource and OSPOs, DevRel and more.
How can Open Source projects be economically feasible? What models for funding are there?
Everything about the legal aspects of Open Source projects, such as licencing, copyright law and liability questions.
This track is for all talks that are about Diversity & Inclusivity in Open Source projects specifically, problems and possible solutions, how to increase outreach, and more. We are also looking for talks about accessibility in Open Source, for example accessible technical documentation, technical means or technologies that increase accessibility such as screen readers, subtitles, and more.
This Track is about how to increase awareness and adoption of Open Source in corporations, businesses as well as in government and public entities.
Formats
We are offering the the following formats at FOSS Backstage:
Talks are the standard session format at FOSS Backstage. You present your topic in front of the audience within 30min. Please include time for Q&A.
Lightning Talks are short 10min presentations, that are perfect for pitching a new idea or concept, or a quick explainer. There is no Q&A for Lightning Talks.
Panels are onstage dicussions between a group of experts. Please provide contact details for all participants of your panel when submitting a panel discussion in our CfP.
Remote sessions
We do offer the possibility to hold talks remotely for people who can’t travel to Berlin. If you choose to hold your session remotely, it will be streamed live to our online event platform and to one of our stages at our venue in Berlin. Please note that due to budgetary constraints, remote speaking slots are limited.
Rules & Guidelines
If you want to submit your proposal for FOSS Backstage, please consider the following:
Rules
- We don‘t allow product presentations or company marketing pitches.
- You are not allowed to switch the topic or content of the talk after the CfP submission period is over, except for in emergencies. If the topic is swapped after the CfP is concluded, the talk needs to be reviewed by the program committee again.
- All Cospeakers have to be declared before the CfP submission period ends. Cospeakers that are added after the CfP is concluded do not receive free conference tickets and we reserve the right to reject the addition of cospeakers after the CfP.
- We require direct email contact to our speakers for planing purposes.
- By submitting your proposal, you consent that your talk title and description along with your photo and biography will be made publicly available, if your session is accepted. Talks will be recorded and recordings will be made publicly available on our YouTube-Channel.
- Due to budgetary constraints, we cannot cover costs for travel or accommodation for our speakers.
Guidelines
Make sure you take the following guidelines to heart:
- Titles should be descriptive and must be less than 60 characters long.
- The abstract (or talk description) is the most important part of your proposal, since talks will be rated by our program committee on the basis of your abstract. A good abstract contains a detailed and focused description of your talk, explains why your topic is relevant, what you will be talking about and what the audience will learn.
- Please don’t include your biography or personal details in your abstract, since personal information will be removed before the review process starts to avoid bias.
- Title and abstract of your talk will be visible to everyone and will be used on our talk description pages if your proposal is accepted, so be sure to write a clear and concise abstract in full sentences and don’t just use bullet points.
Procedures
First time speakers
Please don’t hesitate to submit your proposal if you haven’t spoken at FOSS Backstage before. We are always looking for new and exciting topics and speakers, and want to grow a community at FOSS Backstage that is open to new people and ideas, and therefore explicitly encourage first-time speakers to submit their proposals.
If you need help with the CfP process or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at speaker@foss-backstage.de
Speaker perks
As a speaker at FOSS Backstage you will of course get a free conference pass for the entire duration of the conference. If you already bought a ticket before your talk was accepted, we will refund the ticket you bought.
tl;dr
We are looking for talks, workshops & lightning talks on all topics governance, collaboration, legal and economics within the scope of FOSS. Your submissions will go through a blind review by our program committee. We will inform you about the status of your session as soon as the review process is concluded.
In case you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at speaker@foss-backstage.de