FOSDEM 2008 Trip Report or "How to turn Tam Tam into something so dirty that it makes a German blush"

[Tom Callaway]

Having just returned home from FOSDEM in Brussels, several things are
very clear to me:

- Fedora is lucky to have such a large base of dedicated and motivated
Ambassadors in EMEA. Their enthusiasm showed throughout the entire
weekend, from the handmade stickers and pins, to the beautiful high
quality posters, and the matching ambassador polo shirts. I am truly
proud to be a part of the Fedora community, and specifically, a member
of the Fedora Ambassadors. 

- FOSDEM is an extremely popular, well attended event. However, it
really needs to find a new home, as it has significantly outgrown the
space at the ULB Campus. It was truly 10 pounds of awesome in a 5 pound
sack, people literally in gridlock throughout the entire event. We gave
out hundreds of Fedora 8 DVDs, and ran out several hours before the
event was over on Sunday.

- It was good to see the CentOS folks come out again as our partner.
Even though I may strongly disagree with some of their "community"
participants, I support their mission wholeheartedly.

- I have high hopes for RPMFusion in the Fedora 9 time frame. Even
though they cannot solve any problems in the patent encumbered, DMCA'd
United States, they provide a useful service to the rest of the Free
World.

- Steak Americain is not American. French Fries are not French.
Ukrainian dessert wine is AWESOME (thank you again kad, that was such a
nice gift).

- Tam Tam (one of the OLPC activities) makes animal noises. Somehow, I
ended up making an incredibly filthy joke about that which made most of
the ambassadors near by blush and laugh out loud. I apologize again.

- For 1 Euro, the BSD dominatrix will spank you. For 2 Euro, she will do
it properly.

I spent most of my time at FOSDEM at the Fedora booth, talking with
people about the technical details around Fedora, and generally feeling
bad for only speaking American (I believe I was the only Fedoran who
only spoke a single language)! The OLPC and the Asus EEE were huge
attention draws, and posters seemed to be the "swag" most in demand
(many people were disappointed that we had no posters for sale). A lot
of the attendees were relatively new to Linux, but there were also a lot
of experienced Fedora users who stopped by to thank us and ask about
Fedora 9. I spent some time talking about the next RHEL, and how Fedora
can help shape that direction, which was very interesting to the CentOS
folks.

This was my second year at FOSDEM, and I felt very welcomed by the
locals. With the NPO established, it can only get better from here!

Thanks,

~spot