Babies first FOSDEM! I’ve been thinking about going for several years but was never able to make it happen, in particular without a solid reason to be there, it was hard to justify. But this time around, I had updates on KiConnect to present and the FreeCAD Project Association graciously provided a travel grant to get me out there. And because I don’t fly around the world for a weekend, my partner decided to join me and we made a vacation out of it.

FOSDEM, talks and friends⌗

Being my first FOSDEM I wasn’t sure what to expect, though I knew it was going to be stacked full with people and oh boy was it. My first day was a bit jarring trying to orient myself but did manage to get around to some tables and talk with a handful of people. Also got to catch up with some old friends and meet in person some friends from the Interwebs.

I was in and out of FreeCAD Day 2026, not managing to participate as much as I planned as my scheduling got a bit messed up and sometimes… well sometimes you get a impromptu tattoo. If I attend again (more on that below..) my focus would be more on FreeCAD Day than the rest of the main event. But event my short participation was nice as I got to catch up with some friends outside the chaos of the main event.

Sessions⌗

I only managed to make a few talks but a couple stand out as very relevant to KiConnect.

ECAD / MCAD collaboration with IDX was extremely interesting as the IDX protocol aims to create an industry standard for ECAD/MCAD collaboration. Something I’ll be watching closely as possible future inclusion in KiConnect.

LibrePCB 2.0 – More Than Just a New Look was an overview of the state of LibrePCB with it’s 2.0 release. I don’t have any hands on experience with LibrePCB but a goal from the start of KiConnect was to make the sync interfaces module for potentially including other ECAD interactions. I plan to use LibrePCB in a couple simple projects to familiarize myself with it and explore its API for possible inclusion.

And a less CAD focused session I missed in person but am very excited about after watching on my flight home is PyInfra: Because Your Infrastructure Deserves Real Code in Python, Not YAML Soup. I’m a long time Ansible user but have also felt like I’m held hostage by it. A classic least worst tool. I’ve already started working on some pyinfra code and am very excited at the potential of switching. Post coming soon.

I gave a talk!⌗

The whole point of my heading over was to deliver a talk, KiConnect 1 Year In. I wasn’t quite as prepared as I would liked to have been and particularly frustrated as I decided to ditch my laptop the day before while getting stuck in a 6 hours transit nightmare where I could have been finishing the talk. womp.

Regardless, it was well received. I got some good feedback after the session and some really good questions. A big part of the talk was outlining my FPA Grant in addition to an intro to KiConnect (a condensed version of my KiCon talk) for people curious but less informed about the project.

The Talk and The Slides

HUGE shout out to Jo and Chris for doing such a great job running the Open Hardware and CAD/CAM room. From a technical perspective my talk went really smoothly, as did the couple other talks I stuck around for.

Nice Dinner with Nice People⌗

On the last night a few of the remaining FreeCAD folks got together for dinner and a drink. It is really nice to finish off a weekend likes this NOT talking about tech, but getting to know some of the people you are collaborating with. The UK has some truly bat shit traditions, turns out.

Would I FOSDEM again…⌗

I’m a bit on the fence here for a handful of reasons. The folks organizing FluConf ain’t wrong, for many reasons. I learned about this just a few days before leaving but it makes sense to me. This feeling was further driven by how few people where wearing masks. Interesting side not, I probably saw 25% as many people bust out or mention CO2 monitors, as there were people actually wearing masks.

Local impacts⌗

I honestly feel really bad for anyone who lives or works along the 71 bus line. For at least 3 days, it was basically useless during commuting hours (yes, some people work on weekends). At one point I had 3 71s pass me with only a few people actually able to get on, and being as anxious as I was, I ended up walking a few blocks to the 8 tram, which was less impacted, but still impacted by FOSDEM. I’m not sure what a better solutions is, maybe encouraging less in person participation like FluConf? At one point someone was trying to get people to jump in a car share with him, I oppose these but thinking more about it, it was probably the less impactful mode for that weekend. He ended up riding it alone :/

Do I even like these people?!?⌗

This is a joke. But also… there where a couple incidences where I found myself thinking, do I want to be associated with this behavior? The total lack of masks was one part. The first bus I got on I couldn’t escape the gaze of the dude wearing the Facebook Surveillance Raybans (seriously, fuck off with that). On my way out there was a clearly elderly man, pushing through the mostly oblivious crowd, speaking in French and gesturing to the jump seats in the handicap area. I had to basically push someone out of the way, “WhAt dOeS hE WaNt??”. A seat. He wants a seat. I actually got thanked for “translating”. I don’t speak French.

/rant.

This isn’t meant to cast shade on particular people, but just sort of my frustrations with crowd navigation and people being oblivious in public spaces. Do better, please?

And The Rest⌗

After this my partner and I had a lovely vacation playing in the snow and enjoying some excellent food in France.

fin.