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diff --git a/content/fosdem-2024.md b/content/fosdem-2024.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9722589 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/fosdem-2024.md @@ -0,0 +1,95 @@ +Title: FOSDEM and Guix Days 2024 +Date: 2024-02-12 +Category: +Tags: +Slug: fosdem-2024 +Lang: en +Summary: About my personal FOSDEM 2024 experience and Guix Days + +This year I gave a talk at FOSDEM, summarizing our work on the Guix +bootstrapping for RISC-V, so I decided to get a couple of free days more and +also visit the Guix Days, that where happening before the FOSDEM itself. Let's +do a short summary of my experience here. + +### Guix Days + +I visited the Guix Days but not full-time because I wanted to spend some time +in Brussels itself, rather than being locked in a place for the whole day. + +We had some interesting discussions about Guix, the most interesting for me was +the Guix Governance, where we discussed how Guix is managed and how it works +internally in a social level. This discussion was specially important for me as +an external contributor because I believe Guix has a complex but opaque +internal structure that is difficult to grasp from the outside. Being in places +like the Guix Days themselves let's you understand it but it's our +responsibility to make Guix accessible for people that doesn't have time to +come to these kind of events. + +I say all this because I'm basically that person. I don't enjoy this kind of +events that much and I feel I was a little bit forced to be there to be a +little bit more than a random string in the IRC chat. + +I had the chance to be there, but it was an effort to me. I'd like it not to be +the same for others. + +It's not like I'm an antisocial, in fact I feel I'm a very social person, but I +don't like the politics of things and this event, more than anything else, I +felt it was a political event where I had to be just to show up. + +This is not just a Guix problem. Most large enough project fall into this kind +of dynamic, where people that show up are better considered that those who +don't. It makes sense (this is how the world works), but at the same time it +doesn't (I don't like how the world works). + + + +### FOSDEM 2024 + +We arrived FOSDEM on Saturday. It was literally impossible to do anything +there. It was basically supercrowded. We tried to watch some talks, all were +full. Waited for a long queue to enter one and we didn't have the chance to +enter in the end and we decided to leave. We had a nice day in the city instead. + +[Sunday morning I gave a talk][talk]. Sunday was way better: we could walk +around and do things but we spent the morning in the Declarative and +Minimalistic Computing Devroom until my talk happened. After my talk, we +watched a couple more there and left for a very good lunch. + +I think the talk went well, but I'll leave further judgement to you. Feel free +to watch and send me feedback if you like to do so. + +[talk]: https://fosdem.org/2024/schedule/event/fosdem-2024-1755-risc-v-bootstrapping-in-guix-and-live-bootstrap/ + + + +### My feelings + +In a personal level, traveling (taking flights and all that...) is mentally +exhausting for me, and it's also expensive. I don't feel like I would do this +often in the future, as I didn't do it in the past. + +Also, I don't enjoy geeky events like these that much. I don't use Guix or any +other software as a part of a tribe, I just think it's useful. I enjoy other +kind of social interactions more. I just felt like an outsider in both events, +but I don't really want to become anything else than that. I don't feel +comfortable with becoming "part" of anything. I believe software is not a cult, +and everyone should have the freedom to contribute and enjoy in a purely +practical way, with no identities involved. + +Also I felt like people around those higher latitudes are colder, they laugh +less than I do and they don't have the boiling blood that I have. Maybe that's +why my talk made people laugh and react. There's nothing wrong about that, +culture is always cool, but the culture mismatch I felt it was a little bit of +a barrier. + +Apart form all that, I had the chance to visit a cool city with my significant +other and with my friends, who came to support me in my talk and enjoy a +conference. We probably didn't enjoy the conference that much, but I +experienced being surrounded by people that love me and had a lot of fun with +them, and that's more valuable than anything else. + +On the other hand, I don't need FOSDEM for that. I feel grateful for my people +every single day of the year. + +Don't expect to find me in many geek events like these, but I don't totally +discard showing up from time to time. |