# Open Source and European Public Policy at FOSDEM 2024 ## Overview [FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/2024/) is one of the world's premier meetings of free software developers, with thousands of people attending each year. FOSDEM 2024 will take place on the weekend of 3-4 February 2024 in-person in Brussels. It is the perfect place for a meeting with policy makers whose work will affect free and open source software development! A group of people who have been engaging the European Union institutions on behalf of the FOSS communities decided to seize the opportunity and plan a unique DevRoom bringing developers and policy makers together to shape future work in Europe. We will explore how easy it is to engage with legislators over policy that will affect open source projects, and hopefully have an opportunity for audience feedback. ## Details The EU Policy Devroom will take place for a full day (09:00-17:00), on Sunday 4 February 2024, and will be an in-person event in room [AW1.120](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/room/aw1120/). Open source software is the power-house of technology innovation in Europe. The EU Policy Devroom at FOSDEM is an informal, in-person event oriented to authors, users, and enthusiasts of FLOSS programs that are created in the European Union. It will also feature the policy experts from the European Institutions who are creating and refining the laws of Europe that affect open source software development. The goal of the devroom is for FOSS Community Members and European policy makers to meet and understand each other so as to ensure future legislation does no harm to the valuable open source sector, and ideally advances the development and use of open source. This devroom is not like others! It is to develop future EU policy, not open source code! We seek to stimulate a genuine and open discussion that will become the fuel for good legislation in the future. We have designed workshops where participants will be grouped together with EU policy experts for a journey from the current state to a future state in each topic area. We aim to produce a report in each policy area arising from each workshop. ## Events **Main Track** - SATURDAY, 13:00: [The regulators are coming](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-3683-the-regulators-are-coming-one-year-on/) > At FOSDEM 2023 we heard directly from the authors of The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and the Product Liability Directive (PLD) about the care they were taking to avoid harm to free and open source software developers. During the year, these legislators received a great deal of help from experts across the communities to make that (even more) true! Now both instruments are in their final state, we can learn lessons how to engage over the next wave. > > In this session we will hear an update from the authors of the legislation on how they see the last year with CRA and PLD, and insights from the open source community members who engaged to change it. We will explore how easy it is to engage with legislators over policy that will affect open source projects, and hopefully have an opportunity for audience feedback. **Devroom** - SUNDAY, 09:00-17:00: [Open Source In The European Legislative Landscape](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/track/eu-policy/) ### Devroom Overview, Sunday February 4, AW1.120 The DevRoom will _not_ involve talks to attend on their own. It is arranbged as four workshops lasting two hours each. The workshops include lightning talks submitted via FOSDEM, an expert panel involving people directly connected with legislation and then an interactive session to get constructive feedback from attendees. Each Workshop includes a rapporteur documenting the session so that there is a legislator-usable report at the end. _Please aim to attend the full two hours of any workshop you join._ | Time | Activity | | -------- | -------- | | 09:00 | Devroom Welcome | | 09:10 | **Workshop 1**: How will the open-source community adapt to the new EU Cyber Resilience Act and Product Liability Directive (CRA & PLD)?| | 11:15 | **Workshop 2**: OSS Exchange with policy makers and policy support of OSS developers two faces of the same coin? | | 13:20 | **Workshop 3**: Free/open source and Interoperable European public services | | 14:55 | **Workshop 4**: Digital Services Interoperability | | 16:55| Devroom Wrap-up | ## Organisers In the random order the FOSDEM system gave us: * [Simon Phipps](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/JZY3N8/), Open Source Initiative * [Enzo Ribagnac](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/WS7KQV/), Eclipse Foundation * [Maarten Aertsen](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/EWQGXS/), NLNet Labs * [Axel Thévenet](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/SNBQPF/), Open Forum Europe * [Deb Bryant](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/MCNHDD/), Open Source Initiative * [Alexander Sander](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/DPAK8T/), Free Software Foundation Europe * [Gijs Hillenius](https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/speaker/ZW7A3H/), European Commission