Fosdem:2011
FOSDEM 2011 will take place in Brussels, Belgium at the Université Libre de Bruxelles on 5-6 February, 2011.
What and Where is FOSDEM?
FOSDEM is probably the most developer-oriented European Free and Open Source conference. It is taking place in Brussels, Belgium on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 February 2011. Apart from having many invited speakers, the conference offers developer rooms, stands and lightning talks to projects from the Free and Open Source community. More info...
FOSDEM will take place at the ULB Campus Solbosh.
ULB Campus Solbosh
Avenue Franklin D. Roosevelt, 50
1050 Bruxelles
(see map)
Registration
All participants who are official speakers in the by Mozilla DevRoom will be eligible for sponsorship.
Mozilla DevRoom
Every year Mozilla developers and contributors have a dedicated room (ie. Mozilla DevRoom) for the 2 days, in which to hold talks and sessions.
This year, Mozilla will have :
- room H.1301 on Sat 5th from 13:00 to 19:00 and on Sun 6th from 09:00 to 17:00,
- a video projector (with VGA cable)
- power (C/E plugs)
- wired (RJ-45) network with Internet access at the speaker's desk,
- best-effort shared wireless Internet access (a and b),
- publication of the schedule on the FOSDEM website, including speaker bios and talk abstracts.
Schedule
The schedule is currently under construction. If you have any questions about it, please contact one of the members of the programme committee, this year made up of Axel Hecht, Brian King, Gerv Markham and William Quiviger.
Mozilla Booth
There will be a booth manned by Mozilla volunteers in the main conference building. The goal is two-fold:
1) to evangelize and answer questions
2) distribute merchandise.
If you would like to volunteer to help man the booth, make sure to sign-up in the chart below. In general, if you notice that someone has been at the stand for a while, please don't hesitate to switch places with him/her!
| Hours | Name |
| 10h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 11h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 12h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 13h00 | |
| 14h00 | |
| 15h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 16h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 17h00 | Milos Webatou |
| Hours | Name |
| 09h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 10h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 11h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 12h00 | Webatou |
| 13h00 | Milos |
| 14h00 | Milos |
| 15h00 | Webatou |
| 16h00 | Milos Webatou |
| 17h00 | Milos Webatou |
Food, Beverages, and Saturday evening party
Breakfast will be served for Mozillians staying in one of the hotels Mozilla has secured for the event.
Any other food or drink expenses (including room service and in-room minibar charges and lunch at FOSDEM) are at the expense of the attendee.
A dinner for Mozillians will be organized on Saturday, 6 February. the dinner will be followed by free bowling and laser-tag. The details of the event will be sent to everyone who has registered to attend the dinner. participants. A link will soon be available on the wiki for people to register for the dinner.
Room capacity = 120 people max.
Friday Beer Event
As every year, there will be a FOSDEM beer event on Friday night before FOSDEM.
http://fosdem.org/2011/beerevent
Mozilla staff will be distributing FREE beer tokens to sponsored participants. You'll recognize them by the orange "I Support the Open Web" bracelets they'll be wearing on their right wrist. Tokens are limited so if you get to the bar too late, don't be surprised if there no more tokens left!
Getting Around in Brussels (MAP)
All sponsored Mozilla speakers will receive a 3-Day travel pass in their hotel welcome pack (subject to availability - it could be that we've run out of them when you ask for one). If you haven't received one, contact William to see if you can get one. Mozilla cannot guarantee that you will have one.
On the day of validation, this pass allows an unlimited number of journeys on the entire public transport network of the STIB (except for the NATO-Brussels Airport section of lines 11 and 12 and the Noctis night network).
A practical Google map is available with all the relevant spots for Mozillians during their stay in Brussels.
Traveling by air to Brussels
...the airport is less than 20 minutes from the city centre. From 6am till nearly midnight, the AIRPORT CITY EXPRESS train brings you to Midi, Central and North stations four times per hour. A one-way ticket costs 2,60 € second class and 3,90 € first class. The city express train is located in the basement (level -1) of the terminal building itself.
Traveling by train to Brussels
If you are traveling by train to Brussels, it is best for you to get off at the Central Station stop.
Hotels
Mozilla speakers and staff will normally be staying either at the Novotel Brussels Grand Place or the Novotel Toure Noire or the Hotel Atlas.
- Information how to reach your hotel from Central station is available here
Here are the hotel details :
Novotel Brussels Grand Place 120, rue du Marché Aux Herbes 1000 BRUSSELS BELGIUM Tel: (+32)2/5143333 Fax : (+32)2/5117723 E-mail: H1030@accor.com Nearest metro stop : Brussel Centraal See website here
Novotel Brussels Centre Tour Noire Rue de la Vierge Noire 32 1000 Bruxelles Tel: +32.2.5055050 Fax: +32.2.5055000 Nearest metro stop : De Brouckere See website here
Atlas Hotel Rue du Vieux Marché aux Grains 30 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium Tel: +32 2 502 60 06 Nearest metro: Bourse or Sainte-Catherine See website here
Other accommodation options
Other great accommodation options exist in Brussels. There are local residents renting couches and private rooms for as little as $30. Also some have reviews.
WiFi
At Fosdem
At FOSDEM, a FREE WiFi network called "FOSDEM" will be very "strong" and there should not be any ambiguity about which network to use. Most 802.11 stacks will likely do the Right Thing[tm] automatically. :-)
At the NOVOTEL
For sponsored speakers who are staying at a NOVOTEL hotel, WiFi access is available but it is very expensive.
If you ABSOLUTELY need WiFi access in your hotel room, please contact William (william at mozilla dot com) or at +33 6 26 05 17 84.
Getting from the Hotel to FOSDEM
It takes about 35 min from downtown Brussels to FOSDEM by public bus.
A detailed map of the ULB campus and of the FOSDEM entrance, can be found here : http://fosdem.org/2009/maps/campus
Detailed instructions on how to get there by public transportation can be found here : http://www.fosdem.org/2010/transportation
Leaving FOSDEM to leave Brussels
From Sunday afternoon till Sunday evening, FOSDEM will provide free transportation by bus from the conference site (ULB Campus Solbosch) to the Brussels-South railway station which has the best connections to Brussels Airport and neighboring countries.
More info soon...
Sponsorship for Travel and Accommodation
All travel and accommodation costs for Mozilla speakers who have received a personal email invitation by Mozilla Europe will be covered by Mozilla Europe.
All sponsored Mozilla speakers will be staying at one of the above-mentionned hotels Mozilla has secured for the event. Emails containing detailed information on their hotel will be sent to all sponsored participants who have registered.
Sponsorship policy (pending confirmation from MozEU board)
All contributors of the Mozilla project are encouraged to attend FOSDEM, and many do. Mozilla Europe would love to sponsor all of those who go, but as every year, its budget is limited. Moreover, this year, we would like to allocate more funds to sponsor more contributors to attend Mozilla Camp Europe 2011 (scheduled to take place a few months after FOSDEM).
Therefore, this year's sponsorship policy is as follows:
- Mozillians who will give talks in the Mozilla DevRoom will be sponsored for travel and accommodation
- Mozilla staff who have had sign off from their managers to attend
NB: Mozilla has 20 rooms reserved at the Novotel Grand Place for speakers and staff. As rooms are limited, rooms will be assigned to Mozilla staff who first request a room to William, so please make sure to contact him ASAP while there are still rooms available. Everyone is strongly encouraged to share their rooms.
Reimbursement Policy for Travel
Mozilla sponsored speakers traveling by train will be asked to purchase their own tickets.
If you are sponsored by Mozilla and have purchased your own travel, please fill in the Mozilla Europe expense form and send it to William Quiviger (william at mozilla dot com). Also, please make sure to send William a scanned copy of ALL receipts relevant to your expense form.
Once their expense form has been received and reviewed, participants will get full reimbursement via wire transfer.
Contact Persons
If ever you need anything during your stay in Brussels, or if you need more information, please don't hesitate to contact:
William
william at mozilla dot com
(+33) 626 051 784
IRC
We will set up the #FOSDEM Channel on irc.mozilla.org !
Streaming
TBD