Microkernel Devroom at FOSDEM 2021 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

On-line version of this CfP: http://fosdem.microkernel.info/

The developers and users of several free and open source microkernel-based operating systems will meet on-line as part of FOSDEM 2021 [1] and will share a developer room. The devroom is currently looking for content in the form of talks and activities related to the area of microkernel-based, unikernel-based, component-based operating systems and similar topics.

The devroom has been preliminarily scheduled to Saturday February 6th 2021. The devroom will take place during European day hours.

Possible topics of the devroom include, but are not limited to:

* introduction of a specific OS or framework * design of subsystems and the general architecture of an OS * used languages, tools and toolchains * enabling support for hardware (architectures, device drivers) * enabling support for programming languages * development processes, debugging * maintenance, testing and release engineering * security and robustness * trends and challenges * community and governance * use cases, experiences and status updates * best practices, lessons learned and demos

This is a call for your participation. We kindly ask you to submit your proposals no later than on December 26th 2020. Please use the Pentabarf website [2] to submit your proposals. If you already have a user account in Pentabarf, please do not create a new one.

Please make sure to select the Microkernel devroom as the track when submitting your talk and include at least the following information in your proposal:

* title of your talk * your full name * short abstract of your talk (one or two paragraphs) * duration of your talk (at least 20 minutes and no longer than 50 minutes), excluding a Q&A part * your short bio * your photo

The talks will be pre-recorded in advance in January and streamed during the event. This means that you will need to complete and submit your talk by around mid January. However, each speaker should be also present on-line just after the streaming of the talk for a live Q&A. You can specify your prefered time slot of your talk. The communication language of the devroom is English.

The official devroom schedule (along with the accepted talks) will be announced on December 31st 2020 on the devroom's mailing list [3] and the speakers will be notified via e-mail. The schedule will also be published on the FOSDEM website.

You are also invited to send any other suggestions for what you want to see or do at the devroom to the mailing list.

About the Devroom

Since the first Microkernel devroom at FOSDEM 2012 [4], this devroom has been part of each following FOSDEM. The focus gradually widened to include component-based and unikernel-based operating systems. By now it has become a somewhat institutionalized tradition for the community to meet there. To this date, over a dozen projects have participated in one way or another. Each of the projects face similar challenges but come up with partially different solutions. Therefore, the goal of the devroom is to bring the various projects together, let them exchange ideas, cross-pollinate and socialize.

Extraordinary Circumstances in 2021

Due to the extraordinary mode of organization of FOSDEM 2021 (being an on-line event for the first time), many practical aspects of the devroom are still in the process of determination. For example, the devroom talks will be required to be pre-recorded in January and streamed during the event (with a live Q&A), but the technical details are still sketchy at this moment.

The talk videos will be published under Creative Commons license by FOSDEM. By submitting a recorded talk, the speaker agrees to have it made available publicly indefinitively. For organizational purposes, we also need contact information of the speakers of accepted talks.

Please check the official CfP page [5] of our devroom regularly. We will keep updating it as new guidelines will be determined by the FOSDEM organizers.

Sadly, it will not be possible to arrange our traditional microkernel dinner and other in-person social gatherings in Brussels this time. However, we plan to organize an on-line replacement. The details will be announced later in January.

On the other hand, the on-line nature of the devroom allows us to "overflow" to a second day in case we receive a substatial number of quality proposals.

About FOSDEM

FOSDEM [6] is a two-day event organised by volunteers to promote the widespread use of free and open source software. FOSDEM is widely recognised as one of the best such conferences worldwide. FOSDEM covers a wide spectrum of free and open source software and hardware projects and offers a platform for people to collaborate.

To this end, FOSDEM has set up developer rooms (devrooms) where teams can meet and showcase their projects. Devrooms are a place for teams to discuss, hack and publicly present latest directions, lightning talks, news and proposals. Besides developer rooms, FOSDEM also offers main tracks, lightning talks, and in the past instances certification exams and project stands.

In recent years, FOSDEM has been hosting more than 5000 developers at the ULB Solbosch campus. Due to the circumstances, FOSDEM 2021 will be organized as an on-line event. Despite this, the participation in FOSDEM is still totally free, although the organisers gratefully accept donations and sponsorship. No registration is necessary, but attendees are expected to follow the FOSDEM's code of conduct [7].

Important Dates Recap

* 2020-12-26: Deadline for talk proposal submission * 2020-12-31: Schedule published and speakers notified of acceptance * mid January 2021: Time frame for talk pre-recoding * 2021-02-06: Devroom taking place on-line

Contact

In case of any questions, comments and suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact the devroom organizers via the devroom's mailing list [3].

The primary organizers of the devroom in 2021 are:

* Martin Decky * Jakub Jermar

Links

[1] https://fosdem.org/2021/ [2] https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM21/ [3] https://lists.fosdem.org/listinfo/microkernel-devroom [4] https://archive.fosdem.org/2012/schedule/track/microkernel_os_devroom.html [5] http://fosdem.microkernel.info/ [6] https://fosdem.org/ [7] https://fosdem.org/2021/practical/conduct/