[Members] Re: FOSDEM!

Hi, Comments inline below. It might be lengthy, bear with me. On 04/02/2025 08.22, Daniel Gultsch wrote: A bit of history. After Edwin and I had organized the Jabber / XMPP booth for many years, in 2011 the community discussed the concept of a sort of Lounge for realtime technologies, at and around the &yet confererence titled the "The Keeping it Realtime Conference". This resulted in a conversation with the FOSDEM organizing team to find a location with more room than a regular stand (we used to be able to get two tables back then), where we could have a relaxed atmosphere and show off realtime projects. The intent was having proper demos alongside the cushions and tables, etc. As FOSDEM would be using the new K building for the first time in 2012, we had the opportunity to work with them to pick a location, which ended up being the place have been ever since. But initially it was just us, then a few years together with Jitsi, and then various setups after that. For a long time we also brought our own lighting and the printed bean bags came in 2014. I see the point of the branding. One of the reasons why we've used Realtime Lounge, rather than XMPP Standards Foundation or XMPP / Jabber, is that with the enormous increase in popularity and size of the event, and the decline of XMPP in the public eye, we weren't sure that we'd get accepted that way. And while I am not convinced that it has really hurt our cause, I agree that we could totally name it something like "*Realtime Lounge by XMPP Standards Foundation*" or something, just like NLNet did. I am not sure if the name Jabber brings us anything significantly, until (if ever), we will actively start using that name in our community again. I say the latter with sadness. Unfortunately, the concept of doing various demos <https://wiki.xmpp.org/web/Conferences/FOSDEM_2012#Demos> was mostly lost, because we have not been great at planning ahead. I think the concept would still work if we would put some time into it. And yes, they would probably still all be XMPP-based anyway, but I'd very much love to see collaborations with other projects, too. In some years the area was planned with too many other projects for the lounge to work as intended. However, we've always had common visitors in the lounge area, including this year, and I have personally discussed realtime technologies with them, as did others. 2024 was particularly great because for the first time in a long time, we had the whole area to ourselves and many more visitors hung out there. Also, discussions between us are of value. I am not happy about how we had 4 projects in this year's event, and I tried fixing that with the organizers beforehand. The broken lighting didn't help either, although that affected the other projects much more than us. When we still brought our own lights, we actually disconnected the fluorescent tubes to make it more loungy. But the thing I want to point out is this: having the Lounge is a *privilege* born out of our long-term presence at the event, as well as good standing with the FOSDEM organizers. No other project has something like it, or is likely to gain that opportunity. Even if we don't do much with the seating area right now, it provides us with way more room for our booth (even with 3 other projects) than any other project. Imagine the XMPP booth being a single table between FOSSAsia and VideoLan. Also consider that we *may not be accepted* that way, given that demand for a booth is much higher than supply. I don't particularly care if it is tradition that we do it like this every year. The concept probably can use some fresh ideas and effort. I am looking forward to suggestions /and actual help/ for making them work out. I'd love to make us talk of the town (again). Also note that I have talked to the person currently responsible for all the stands. They are “scouting an interesting option for FOSDEM 2026”, so I hope to follow-up with them on that. Whether that would be better is to be seen, but let's not throw away the opportunity to do something more than just a one-table stand. Let's consider what we want to get out of (being at) FOSDEM. For me, it is not just telling people about XMPP or accepting donations to give out swag. It is also to spend more time with people in our community. In the early days, we've also "bracketed" FOSDEM, by doing a hackathon on Friday and the Summit on Monday, to make it a true 4-day event. If I remember correctly, we've moved away from that because not everybody wanted to be at FOSDEM. We used to have a full day of XMPP presentations in the devroom, but here too there is a lot of competition. So this year we only had half a day, with just one presentation on XMPP. I think we can do better there, too. In any case, I'm happy to continue hauling our gear and do many things, but if we want change, I need somebody to step up and organize that. -- Cheers, ralphm