Thanks to everyone’s support, LF Europe got off to a great start in September 2022 (see launch keynote). We’re already 42 Members strong and have launched our first project, Sylva, with our second, the OpenWallet Foundation, already on its way.

We’re now launching into the new year with an exciting schedule of events. We will be attending and speaking at the EU Open Source Policy Summit in Brussels on February 3, FOSDEM in Brussels on February 4-5, and the State of Open Con in London on February 7-8. Come along and meet the LF Europe team as well as members of the wider LF community at these events.

Table of Contents

1. EU Open Source Policy Summit 2023 🇪🇺
2. FOSDEM 2023 🇪🇺🌐
3. State of Open Con 2023 🇬🇧🚀
4. Come Say “Hi!” to the LF Europe team 👋

EU Open Source Policy Summit 2023 🇪🇺

We are delighted to be a production sponsor of the EU Open Source Policy Summit 2023 organized by OpenForum Europe on 3 February 2023. This year’s theme is Europe’s Open Source Opportunities. The Summit will explore Europe’s opportunities when levering open source modes of technological collaboration at scale. Global technology and policy leaders will come together to discuss how collaboration and competition are being rethought as we are achieving Europe’s digital policy goals using open source as a strategic tool.

Gab Columbro, General Manager of LF Europe, will be on a panel on “DMA, Data Act, and Interoperability: How Regulation can Enable Open Alternatives.” The panel will discuss how EU regulation has and can break the trend towards market concentration and a reduction in consumer choice, competition, innovation. Gabriele will share insights from his experience in open banking and LF Europe’s plans to launch the OpenWallet Foundation soon.

Cailean Osborne, Researcher at LF Europe, will moderate a panel on “From Software Security to Digital Sovereignty: What’s on the Agenda for OSS Funders?” The panel will convene subject-matter experts from industry and policy to discuss the state of the art of OSS funding and future trajectories. The panel aims to inspire the policy agenda concerning funding as a critical motor for the growth and sustainability of OSS across Europe and beyond.

Hilary Carter, SVP Research & Communications, will be speaking on a panel on "Open Source Opportunities," where she will be joined by world- leading experts from open source communities, companies, and the European Commission.

FOSDEM 2023 🇪🇺🌐

A major event we’re looking forward to is FOSDEM on February 4-5 in Brussels. FOSDEM is such an exciting time of the year. It brings together thousands of free and open source developers from all over the world to meet, share ideas, and collaborate. 

The Linux Foundation team will be there in force: the CNCF is delighted to support FOSDEM as an official sponsor and various teams will be speaking, hosting tables, and participating in panels in several devrooms, including Embedded, Mobile & Automotive, Energy, and SBOM. Come find us in person to exchange ideas about our various projects and communities. 

Brian Behlendorf, GM of OpenSSF, will speak about “Building Strong Foundations for a More Secure Future: Addressing the Systemic Issues in the Software Supply Chain that Led to Log4Shell.” Brian will address how the open source community has become vulnerable to new kinds of attacks on the software supply chain and he will share insights from the OpenSSF’s Mobilization Plan, which outlines approximately $150M of funding over two years to rapidly advance well-vetted solutions to the ten major problems facing open source software security. Find out what you can do to be more secure and support this global security effort.

Hilary Carter will give a talk on "Perspectives from the Open Source Developer: A Window into the Developer Experience from Linux Foundation Research." Hilary will share recent research insights on developer and contributor trends and priorities conducted by Linux Foundation Research. She will highlight current data on contributor sentiment, priorities, responsibilities, and challenges experienced, as well as emphasize the important and unique role many developers play as project and open source ambassadors.

Gab will be on the main stage keynoting on “Making the World a Better Place through Open Source,” in which he will make the case for the unique power of open source communities as a force of social good in today's complex geopolitical landscape. He will explore how contributors, maintainers, public and private sector are, can, and should come together through the positive-sum game that open source is to impact not only the future of technology but drive impactful outcomes is some of the most pressing global social challenges.

Gab will also be on panel in the energy devroom on “What the energy industry can learn from how open source technology has transformed other traditional industries.” Gabriele will be joined by Dan Cauchy of Automotive Grade Linux, Ranny Haibi of LF Networking and LF Edge, and  Kate Stewart of Dependable Embedded Systems at The Linux Foundation. The panel will be moderated by Dr. Ferdinanda Ponci, RWTH Aachen. 

Fatih Degirmenci, Executive Director of the Continuous Delivery Foundation, will be speaking about "Making Continuous Delivery Accessible to All in the CI/CD Devroom" as well as “Securing Your Software Supply Chain One Open Source Project at a Time” in the Friends of OpenJDK Devroom. See his blog about Continuous Delivery @FOSDEM23 here.

Finally, together with several other entities, we'll be hosting a FOSDEM Happy Hour at CASCO (42 Rue de la Bourse, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium) from 6:30pm CEST onwards on Saturday. RVSP as space is limited!

State of Open Con 2023 🇬🇧🚀

The LF Europe and LF Energy teams will be at the State of Open Con 2023 (#SOOCON23) in London on 7-8 February. As the UK’s first open technology conference, it acts as a global launchpad for the future of open source software, open hardware, and open data and brings together stakeholders big and small. 

The six themes of this year’s conference are: platform engineering; open source security; law, policy and government; open hardware; open data; and entrepreneurship. If this sounds interesting to you, come along and say hi at our LF Europe & LF Energy tables. 

And finally, don't miss Gab's panel on "Harnessing the power of open source to achieve industry wide data standardization for capital markets" with Georgina Jarrett, Head of FinTech and Digitalisation at the ICMA; Chris Rayner, Senior Associate for Market Infrastructure and Technology at the ISLA; and Ffion Acland, Vice President at Goldman Sachs.

Come Say “Hi!” to the LF Europe team 👋

We’re looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at these events. Swing by and say hi 👋 If you’re attending any of these events, use the hashtag #linuxeurope and tag us on LinkedIn @Linux Foundation Europe or Twitter @LF_Europe in your photos, so we can feature your photos on our own feed!

If you can’t make it, no need to worry. There’s lots more to come this year for LF Europe, so make sure you subscribe to our monthly newsletter to stay up to date and check out the LF Europe website for the latest information.

We also invite you to consider joining LF Europe if you haven’t done so already and reach out to info@linuxfoundation.eu with any ideas or if you’d like to propose a new project.