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[Closed] Open Research Tools & Technologies

A FOSDEM devroom to discuss the creation and use of Free Libre Open Source Software in any kind of research context such as: science, investigative journalism, activism...

Notice, Call for contributions

Bruxelles, Belgique

  • Contact: research-devroom@lists.fosdem.org
  • Website

It's been five years that the médialab presents at the european Free, Libre and Open Source developers conference (FOSDEM) to share the open source research instruments produced by the lab methodological research.

For the 2020 édition, the médialab will join the organisation team to propose a thematic track (called devroom at FOSDEM) about the use and development of  Free, Libre and Open Source software in a research context

Devroom "Open Research Tools & Technologies"

Research is understood as the general process to produce knowledge such as scientific research, investigative journalism, NGOs fieldwork, etc.

The Open Research Technologies devroom addresses FLOSS  developers in a broad community concerned with research production and curation: scientists, engineers, journalists, archivists, curators, activists. 

The tools and technologies targeted are typically creating, handling or sharing knowledge artifacts: data, academic papers, books, collections,  web contents, algorithms, artworks. 

This devroom provides a place and time to discuss the issues related to the creation and usage of open research technologies, with the ambition to foster discussions between designers, developers and users, bridging multiple knowledge-based communities together, and with the broader FLOSS community.

The Open Research Technologies devroom aims to:

  • Allow knowledge-based tool developers to publicize their effort and become aware of other FLOSS projects.
  • Facilitate the pooling of coding efforts on (often poorly funded) tools.
  • Create a network where otherwise isolated developers, research engineers can share common FLOSS concerns.
  • Provide social recognition for people who work in fields where  designing and developing tools is less considered than usual outcomes  (e.g. not publishing papers in research, not writing investigation in  data journalism, etc).

So, let's contribute if you have talks about:

  • New software releases of research tools or technologies.
  • Feedback on open technology stacks used in  research contexts (e.g., scientific research, journalistic inquiry,  archive creation or publication, etc.) which collect, analyse, document,  visualize, and/or share data.
  • Tool design and implementation for specific  research contexts, e.g. how to hold an algorithm accountable to social  scientists, how to foster better replicability and interoperability  thanks to FLOSS, how to cope with biases of a chart for a data  journalist, etc.
  • Issues and opportunities about bridging tech culture with research environments (research labs, libraries, newsrooms, museums, etc.).

Talks will last around 20-40 minutes + 5-10 minutes Q&A, have to be in English, will be video recorded by the amazing FOSDEM staff and will be available on the FOSDEM video recordings archive.

How to submit

Deadline: 2019/12/01 23:59 CET

Submissions must include:

  • Abstract
  • Session type (preferably developer room, or lightning talk)
  • Session length (20-40 min, 10 min for a lightning talk)
  • Expected prior knowledge / intended audience
  • Speaker bio
  • Links to code / slides / material for the talk (optional)
  • Links to previous talks by the speaker

Submission process is managed in the Pentabarf system used by the FOSDEM conference.

Apply for a talk: https://penta.fosdem.org/submission/FOSDEM20

When submitting your talk in Pentabarf, make sure to select the ‘Open  Research Technologies Devroom’ as the ‘Track’. If you already have a Pentabarf account from a previous FOSDEM event,  please reuse it. Create an account if, and only if, you don’t have one  from a previous year.

If you have any issues with Pentabarf, do not despair: contact us at research-devroom[at]lists.fosdem.org

By submitting a proposal you agree to being recorded and to have your talk made available.

Organizers

Paul and Mathieu were colleagues at Sciences Po médialab. Achilleas and Michael are colleagues at the German Neuroinformatics Node. They both met because they submitted two very related “Open Science” proposals for FOSDEM 2020!

This conference is co-organized with:

What is FOSDEM?

The FOSDEM (Free and Open source Software Developers’ European  Meeting) is a non-commercial, volunteer-organized European event  centered on free and open-source software development. It is aimed at  developers and anyone interested in the free and open-source software  movement. It aims to enable developers to meet and to promote the  awareness and use of free and open-source software.
https://fosdem.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FOSDEM

Other devrooms might interest you

Even if the FOSDEM is not science-specific, you might be interested  by many other talks. Some developer rooms have a scope that resonates  with research, for instance:

Of course you will also be able to find high quality talks in your own area of expertise in the 50+ devrooms (Python, Java, Rust, PostgreSQL, etc.).

Finally, you may appreciate the prestigious keynotes in the main amphitheater (to be announced).