
Over 550 videos of 870 talks from FOSDEM 2020 have now been uploaded - jonatron
https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/events/
======
ghaff
It's pretty amazing that a volunteer-organized event like FOSDEM can turn
around video from the event like that. Lots of company-run events can take
ages to put video up assuming that they do so at all.

In all fairness, I think companies often feel they have to release polished
videos that have gone through a relatively thorough editing process and then
have to justify the ROI associated with paying to have the videos created and
edited. And the reality is that 30-60 minute filmed presentations often get
just a handful of YouTube views.

Nonetheless, it's impressive that FOSDEM gets all this posted. It's especially
nice because, even if you were there, so much is going on at the same time and
it's often so hard to get into rooms that it's nice to catch up on anything
you really wanted to see but missed.

~~~
sam_lowry_
Is it a volunteer organized event, really? IIRC, there is a non-negligeable
number of staff nowadays. And an NGO that likely pays salaries.

Unfortunately, they do not report annual accounts to the National Bank [1] so
I can't check. They do not seem to have financial statements online, which is
a pity.

[1]
[https://cri.nbb.be/bc9/web/catalog;jsessionid=EB073167100A6A...](https://cri.nbb.be/bc9/web/catalog;jsessionid=EB073167100A6A72CDD39B28F3A682B7?execution=e1s1)

~~~
ghaff
My understanding is that it is primarily volunteer although they have a small
full-time staff
([https://fosdem.org/2020/volunteer/](https://fosdem.org/2020/volunteer/)) who
may also be volunteers and, of course, many of the weekend volunteers are
doing this as a part or quasi-part of their day job. In any case, it's
certainly in a different category than a show that's basically entirely
handled by paid staff and contracted events people.

~~~
raphinou
No one in the organisation gets paid. Some work year-round on it, but it
doesn't mean full-time.

(I started fosdem, and keeping it a volunteer event was always a priority. I'm
not active in the organisation these days, but got the confirmation this week-
end that none of the team gets paid)

~~~
sam_lowry_
Raphaël! Thanks for sharing. "Staff" hoodies are misleading, then. I think
I've seen at least a dozen of those this year, and (wrongly) assumed that
these were made for FOSDEM staff in the the common sense of the term.

P.S. Thank you for starting such a successful endeavour.

------
bil7
went last year. Many talks were so far over capacity you couldn't even squeeze
in to stand, let alone get a seat. If there was a talk you really wanted to
attend, the only way to have a good chance was to go and queue outside 15
minutes before it started, meaning skipping/leaving another talk. Glad I am
watching this year's talks from home.

~~~
koffiezet
Yeah it's getting too crowded... Didn't go this year although it's just a
30min drive for me. Last time I just found myself a quiet spot somewhere on-
campus and followed the livestreams of the rooms I wanted to see, didn't even
bother trying to enter the rooms...

~~~
hujjji
Really? You are always able to get into Janson or the other big one.

I think the atmosphere is definitely worth it.

~~~
ghaff
>You are always able to get into Janson or the other big one.

Not always. The one time I tried on the morning of the first day it was full.

~~~
hujjji
Yes okay sry. If you are trying to get inthe first and only talk in the
morning (the keynote which explains what fosdem is) then you might not be able
to get into that one.

~~~
ghaff
It was the one after that. But fair enough that a lot of people show up for
the opening keynotes to start out. That said, the event was very crowded
generally and you really did need some sort of strategy that took that into
account. I was a lot more organized this year than I've been in some years
past and was able to better use my time and minimize frustration as a result.

------
pojntfx
I absolutely loved going to FOSDEM this year for the first time. It's an
amazing community!

~~~
erikbye
Any talks you can recommend?

~~~
tsukurimashou
Regaining control of your smartphone with postmarketOS and Maemo Leste -
Status of Linux on the smartphone was p nice if you're interested on Linux
running on smartphones

[https://video.fosdem.org/2020/Janson/smartphones.webm](https://video.fosdem.org/2020/Janson/smartphones.webm)

[https://video.fosdem.org/2020/Janson/smartphones.mp4](https://video.fosdem.org/2020/Janson/smartphones.mp4)

------
trenning
That's a lot of videos. What are some that yall would recommend starting with?

------
skinnyasianboi
Will the leftover 320 video also be uploaded? I'm particularly interested in 2
talks which haven't been uploaded yet.

~~~
jonatron
Most will, you can check on the status at:
[https://review.video.fosdem.org/overview](https://review.video.fosdem.org/overview)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Will these videos make their way into the Internet Archive? Or should someone
perform this archival operation themselves?

~~~
toomuchtodo
Replying to my own comment for historical reference purposes: FOSDEM will
upload to the Internet Archive.

------
wolco
I feel like taking off a year and exploring these.

------
tzs
OT: I'm curious if they could run into problems with this over accessibility?

In the US, universities have been forced under the ADA [1] to take down videos
of old lectures because they were not closed captioned. Does Europe (the
videos are hosted in Belgium, at least according to MaxMind's GeoIP database)
have anything similar?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Ac...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_with_Disabilities_Act_of_1990)

~~~
monocasa
Was there case law behind that decision remove those videos, or was it typical
University legal cya running the show?

~~~
marcinzm
Lawsuits most likely, it's fairly common for disabled people to sue entities
over such things and law suits are very expensive even if you win.

edit: For example, [https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahkim/2019/11/29/harvard-
uni...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahkim/2019/11/29/harvard-university-
national-assoc-of-the-deaf-lawsuit/#25f526846699)

~~~
monocasa
That only mandates

> and any new university created audio or video

it doesn't seem like it would require removing blanket access to archived
lectures.

~~~
marcinzm
For that lawsuit and those universities after they paid out the settlement and
legal fees. Another university that has old lectures can still get sued for
those in a separate lawsuit. Then they'd need to pay out a settlement, legal
fees and so on to maybe get to keep old videos up. The lawyers suing won't
care, they just want the settlement money. Easier to just get rid of all the
videos.

------
clvx
Does someone know if this is provided by a torrent file?

------
tsukurimashou
Was my first time as well this year, long time lurker. Especially liked the
closing talk of maddog, but it seems it's not available (yet?) on the page.

~~~
MayeulC
I attended the one that followed
([https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/fosdem_at_20/](https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/fosdem_at_20/),
no video yet), but the sound quality was atrocious, at least in my (left) part
of the amphitheater. So bad that the guy next to me was following the stream
with headphones instead. Which is strange, as I attended some other talks at
the same place, and they were fine.

As a result, I didn't get much of what we were being told at the end. My
friends shamed me a bit for complaining about sound quality to the person who
gave us delicious cupcakes at the exit. If that was someone here, my
apologies!

Second time in a row for me, I'm pretty sure I'll attend next year as well.
Maybe not so much for the talks, but I had some great fun in BoF rooms as
well, and there are a few sprints during the week that I will try to attend
next time. Also, going by bus (11h) was a bad idea, I should at least have
taken a day off.

Last year, I visited building K (with the welcome desk and the information
leaflets) near the end of the last day, which I regretted a lot, as it was
packed with practical info. If that's your first time as well, maybe start
there?

Looking forward to an official Matrix room as well as
[https://nav.fosdem.org](https://nav.fosdem.org) next year :)

~~~
tsukurimashou
Thanks for the advice! I agree the sound quality was not always the best,
especially in small rooms.

The Friday before we went to a bar with colleagues, we ended up going back to
the hotel around 5AM to wake up at 8AM... And then we had a 3 hours trip to go
back, and I was working the next day. I should have taken days off too haha.

I was pretty excited during the Linux on Smartphone talk when the guys asked
how many people were running Android and almost everybody raised their hands,
then he said he would expect most of these people to run Linux at FOSDEM 2021.

------
mehdix
This is great. I was there and couldn't get into some rooms (which was
expected) and I am going to gradually watch those talks that I have missed.

------
lwb
Awesome resource. I thought "State of the Onion" was a Perl thing though? I
guess Tor uses it now too?

~~~
nickik
They have bee using it for many, many years. I didn't know somebody else used
it. Seems pretty clear given the logo, not sure why it fits Perl.

~~~
lwb
News to me. Larry Wall's SOTO speeches are some of the most interesting talks
I've read. I think he just chose the name to be funny.
[https://www.perl.com/tags/state-of-the-
onion/](https://www.perl.com/tags/state-of-the-onion/)

~~~
kaybe
Here are older 'state of the onion' talks:

[https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6251_-_en_-
_saal_1_-_201412301...](https://media.ccc.de/v/31c3_-_6251_-_en_-
_saal_1_-_201412301400_-_state_of_the_onion_-_jacob_-_arma)

[https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7307-state_of_the_onion](https://media.ccc.de/v/32c3-7307-state_of_the_onion)

------
phendrenad2
Waiting for the Maddog video as well. Hopefully these make it to youtube so I
can listen at 2x speed.

------
philippeback
First year I missed in due to my dad going under the knife on that very week
end.

Nice to have the videos indeed!

------
unixhero
Is it just me, or are the mobile pages not showing video recordings each talk
page?

