My first FOSDEM

I haven't been to many IT conferences over the last 10-15 years, as I switched my IT job for self-employment as a photographer. But being active in the Fediverse and becoming more digitally independent again over the last 2-3 years has brought back some old interests. I actively follow the development of the Fediverse and am a big fan of the fundamental change it brings to the social web. It made me realise: there are still good people out there who want to change the world for the better. And FOSDEM is a conference that brings a lot of those people together.

What is FOSDEM?

FOSDEM stands for Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting and is a conference and meetup of thousands of open source developers from around the world. Here you will find those who build the backbone of basically everything you use in your daily life: your car, your coffee machine, every single app you use and your smartphone itself. The world depends on free and open software and the majority of people building it do this in their free time and without being paid. They do this because they generally believe in core principles of freedom, transparency, collaboration, and social good. They do this because of their philosophical commitment to democratising technology and ensuring software serves the public interest rather than proprietary control. And those principles apply to the Fediverse with its open protocol as well - as a social web for the people, not for corporates.

In 2025 I followed FOSDEM from my laptop, watched the talks, read the reports from my Fedi friends - and had a lot of FOMO. The happier I was when Elena asked me to join her with my camera for this year's edition.

The Conference

In his opening talk Richard pointed out why I was here: digital independence.

Independence from companies that harvest every click, every move I make online. Companies that know every message I send to every friend I have. Intimate, private conversations about mental health, about physical health, about 3am thoughts, about deepest fears and sexual adventures. Companies that know exactly where I am at any given time and know where I'm likely to go next from the sheer amount of movement data they have collected from my phone or watch. Companies that form profiles with all the knowledge they have gathered from me and sell them to anyone willing to pay for them.

Digital independence also from fascist-turned global tech players who try to undermine our democracy with the backing of their government. The suspension of all accounts belonging to the Chief and other high prosecutors of the International Criminal Court in The Hague on US platforms should be a hard wake-up call for us all. Personal email accounts, credit cards, weather and map apps - all of these are gone because someone spoke up against injustice that was not in favour of the US. And all of this possible because of a hard dependency on closed source technology that wasn't theirs.

Open source is what protects our personal independence and the independence of our democracy from the whim of mega corps and the blackmail of democracy-hostile nations through technological dependence.

So, FOSDEM set a tone and it was in one word: overwhelming. Thousands of people running around from talk A in building C to talk B in building H, a schedule that is impossible to align with human time (thank God there are video recordings of every talk) especially when trying to grab something to eat from the food trucks with their long queues. I read the FOSDEM survival guides beforehand, but it still caught me off guard. I guess attending every marked talk, even in the same room, doesn't work without preparation. Fresh air was soon gone, my headache played techno music in my veins. I was wasted by the end of day one.

But what an experience it was.
Because of the people I met.

The People

I decided to join mainly the social web room, the room where it was all about the Fediverse and federated networks. There they were, all the people I know from the new social web; from talks, podcasts and blogs. And they were sharing their passion, projects and beliefs in a better web without surveillance, constant ads and addictive algorithms.

After writing for several months I finally met Elena in person. That alone was a wonderful joy as I really admire her level of activism, her clear thinking and all she does to spread the word and help people self-host their services.

I met Christine and Evan, who work on the source of all this, the protocol, and listened to Jessica's and Christine's talk: How to level up the fediverse

I met Matthias who's plugin brings every Wordpress site willing into the Fediverse - a possible 43% of the global internet: Democratise the Fediverse

Hannah and Andy from Mastodon were there to present a new way to distribute their new users to a much broader network of instances, working towards a truly distributed net for the major platform in the Fediverse: Tending the Herd: Community at Mastodon

And Ben, who hold an inspiring closing keynote and brings end-to-end encrypted messages to the Fediverse together with the folks from Bonfire. Finally!

Since the social web room only took place at day one, the second day had thankfully a much slower pace and I visited a bunch of talks in the decentralised communication room where Matrix held their State of the Union this year.

But one of the highlights for me was also something that brings me back to the beginning of the conference: a political discussion.

In Jordan's panel with Alexandra from the EU Parliament, political and media scientist Sandra from offene-netzwerke.eu and Felix, executive director of Mastodon, the group discussed the Fediverse's place within the EU's Digital Services Act with an interesting inside about the dynamics of journalists and politicians and why a lot of both groups are still on Twitter's fascist successor X:

FOSDEM 2026 - The Fediverse and the EU’s Digital Services Act: solving the challenges of modern social media?

fosdem-2026

Recap

Of course there were a lot more great people I've talked and listened to. I had wonderful discussions on and off the conference (shout out to Elmine here) and met old and new favourite weirdos along the way who are eager to rebuild the social web as a service for the people again or align with the wish to be less dependant on software that abuses us.

So for me, FOSDEM was a conference of the people who want to change things for the better. I enjoyed the chitchat with the people I've only known online for now, to meet with other Fedi fellows and share ideas and thoughts about a better world with people with a good heart.

Will see you next year, most probably!