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First timer's Guide to IndiaFOSS

If this is your first IndiaFOSS or your first experience with the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) community, this guide will help you prepare for the conference and make the most of your experience.

You don't need to be an experienced open source contributor or an expert in technology to enjoy IndiaFOSS. Be curious, ask questions, meet people, and explore opportunities. Everyone starts somewhere, and we hope this IndiaFOSS is the beginning of your open source journey.

1. Understanding FOSS

Before you dig deeper into this guide, spend some time understanding the open source ideology and what is Free and Open Source Software:
- The four freedoms of Free Software by Free Software Foundation
- Why Open Source Misses the point of Free Software? By Richard Stallman
- The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Open source is built through community collaboration. Contributions go beyond writing code and include:
- Documentation and Archiving
- Design
- Testing
- Translation
- Community building & Event volunteering

You do not need prior open source experience to participate but people will appreciate you having an understanding of the ideology.

2. What is Digital Commons?

Digital commons refers to shared digital resources that anyone can use, improve, and contribute to.

Examples
- Open Source Drug Discovery by CSIR led teams offering a collaborative drug discovery platform for neglected tropical diseases
- OpenSpeaks project, founded by Subhashish Panigrahi, is to co-design open resources for indigenous, endangered and other marginalized languages.
- OpenStreetMap is map database maintained by a community of volunteers
- Kannada language work by Omshivaprakash around language documentation and archiving
- CoRE Stack project is a digital public good to empower communities to plan and manage their landscapes in a social-ecological manner

Check out more on Forklore, FOSS United’s repository of open source creators and maintainers in India.

3. About FOSS United

FOSS United is a non-profit foundation that aims at promoting & strengthening the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and Digital Commons ecosystem in India through programs that involve education, advocacy and supporting maintainers and creators.

Read more at:
- Website: https://fossunited.org
- Chapters: https://fossunited.org/city-communities
- Events: https://fossunited.org/events

4. About IndiaFOSS

IndiaFOSS is the FOSS United Community’s annual festival of FOSS and Digital Commons. It features:
- Technical talks - 10 to 20 minute talks explaining someone’s work in the open source ecosystem with emphasis on the technical implementation
- Workshops - A hands-on event where you get to build and break things on the go
- Community booths - An interactive setup where community members and other non-profit organisations tell you more about their work and ways to get involved
- Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions - An informal gathering with people that share a common interest. There’s often a moderator but never an assigned speaker.
- Panel Discussions - A group of invited speakers discussing a particular topic. There is always a moderator who asks questions to the panelists and drives the direction of the discussion.
- Devrooms - Half-day mini-conference tracks that run in parallel with the main conference, focusing on specialised and niche open source topics. These are curated by community volunteers who are active in a particular area of open source.

Learn more at https://fossunited.org/indiafoss/

5. Before You Arrive

Before travelling:
- Review the schedule and booths.
- Shortlist sessions you want to attend. You may use this unofficial conference planner by a community member.
- Once you’ve shortlisted talks and booths of your interest, read about their work and list down interesting discussion points.
- Update your GitHub, LinkedIn, GitLab, or other relevant professional profiles so people can know you better when they cross paths with you at the festival.
- Carry a notebook or use a note-taking app for key takeaways.
- Make it a habit to ask questions! Use the Diversity Scholars Telegram or FOSS Clubs channel, whichever is applicable to you.

6. During the Conference

Make the most of your time by:
- Attending sessions that interest you. There'll be parallel sessions at almost all times so it's important to plan out where you want to be.
- Visiting booths (community and sponsors)
- Hang around in the hallway as much as you sit inside halls. Some of the most valuable learning and networking happens in the hallways and at booths.

7. Networking Tips

Networking starts with a simple conversation.

You can introduce yourself by mentioning that you're attending IndiaFOSS for the first time or that you enjoyed someone's talk. While we encourage you to do your research pre-event, feel free to reach out to a volunteer when you need a conversation starter or an introduction to someone.

Don’t push yourself to interact with everyone. There will be thousands of people at a typical conference and it’s humanly impossible to have so much social energy. Instead, make a list of people that you want to meet and focus on them.

When you feel low on social energy, it’s perfectly alright to step away and relax. Everybody has a different capacity for social interactions so take a break when you need to!

While it’s not a mandate, you may exchange GitHub or LinkedIn profiles with fellow attendees to stay connected after the festival.

8. Event Etiquette

  1. Follow the FOSS United Foundation Code of Conduct and report any incidents to volunteers
  2. Be respectful to speakers, volunteers, and attendees.
  3. Don’t restrict yourself from making friends at the conference. More the merrier!
  4. You’ll share the event space with thousands of other open source enthusiasts. Please maintain an inclusive environment by arriving quietly if you are late to a talk, keeping devices on silent, and always asking for consent before taking photos of individuals.

9. After IndiaFOSS

Stay involved by:
1. Joining a local FOSS United chapter or Talk to our team about starting a FOSS Club in your college
2. Attending community meetups by FOSS United and other communities
3. Use and contribute to open source projects
4. Join the FOSS Clubs and FOSS United Telegram Groups
5. Staying in touch with people you met
6. Sharing your conference experience online. Share it with us to feature on our newsletter.
7. Signing up to be a mentor for Diversity Scholars next year.

10. Credits

This guide is inspired by and uses work from the following:

  1. First timer’s guide to FOSS conferences
  2. Free Software Foundation

and others who have been linked and mentioned above.