FOSDEM starting in a bit!

Some talks that could be interesting for workers:

31 Jan, 10:00
FOSS in times of war, scarcity and (adversarial) AI -> war always most hurts working people

We need to talk about war. And we need to talk about companies building bots that propose to rewrite our source code. And about the people behind both, and how we preserve what is great about FOSS while avoiding disruption. How do geopolitical conflicts on the one hand and the risk of bot-generated (adversarial) code on the other influence the global community working together on Free and Open Source software?

cc @techwerkers

#FOSDEM #fosdem2026 #tech #techwork

Curious (or not?) that one of FOSDEM 2026's sponsors is google, which provides part of the tech infrastructure for israel to commit genocide in Palestine through its participation in project Nimbus...

some refs:

• Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel
• Documents Reveal Advanced AI Tools Google Is Selling to Israel
• The Hidden Ties Between Google and Amazon’s Project Nimbus and Israel's Military
• No tech for apartheid

#FOSDEM #NoTechForApartheid #NoTechForGenocide #FOSDEM2026

Curious (or not?) that one of FOSDEM 2026's sponsors is google, which provides part of the tech infrastructure for israel to commit genocide in Palestine through its participation in project Nimbus...

some refs:

• Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel
• Documents Reveal Advanced AI Tools Google Is Selling to Israel
• The Hidden Ties Between Google and Amazon’s Project Nimbus and Israel's Military
• No tech for apartheid

#FOSDEM #NoTechForApartheid #NoTechForGenocide #FOSDEM2026

@onrust I guess it’s standard embrace extend extinguish playbook.

Another talk relevant to workers:

1 Feb, at 16:05
Burnout in Open Source: A Structural Problem We Can Fix Together

This talk identifies 6 factors that contribute to developer burnout:

1. difficulty getting paid,
2. workload and time commitment,
3. maintenance work as unrewarding,
4. toxic community behaviour,
5. hyper-responsibility
6. pressure to prove oneself.

Recommendations for structural changes to address developer burnout:

1. pay OSS developers
2. foster a culture of recognition and respect
3. grow the community
4. advocate for maintainers

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026 #burnout #TechWork

First talk! Michiel Leenaars speaks on FOSS in times of war, scarcity and (adversarial) AI

Live here now: https://live.fosdem.org/watch/janson
Direct: https://stream.fosdem.org/janson.m3u8

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

Leenaars discusses the early days of the internet, how much optimism there was.

And how much, in retrospect, naïvité in choosing partnerships -- both with what became Big Tech and with governments

#FOSDEM #fosDEM2026

Exhibit 1: Github (= Microsoft)

WIth a repo on there, even if you don't share you code with anyone, you still share it with Github/MSFT, which in turn shares it with the US government

"We've been played", says Leenaars

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026 #github

Are these big tech companies your friends? Will they take care of you?

So many of these companies offer convenience. But at what cost?

You become dependent.

There's abuse

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

There's a big opportunity at this moment. Society is in panic mode, because it's become too dependent

And society is looking at tech workers for a solution

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

It's Stockholm syndrome, Leenaars says.

Mentions the example of the Dutch government - ministry of Finance making a big project out of moving to Microsoft, even though this creates:

• More dependence on US-based tools
• Productivity loss

#fosdem #fosdem2026

But don't fall into the trap of jumping into European-based big tech!

That'd be the same predators, just based in a different location

Instead, what this moment needs is social initiative, not more says Leenaars

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

Dependency on short-form content & LLMs is hampering childrens' brain development, suggests Leenaars

It's a form of dementia, but worse, because they're not even developing a fully functioning brains

(disclaimer: i don't know the exact studies on this, just reporting the talk)

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

What does war look like today?

"It's not [just] enemy lines, it's your lines of code that are causing real-world damage", says Leenaars

As a form of warfare, code & computation is:

• Super cheap
• Very low risk
• High yield

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

The pager explosions in Lebanon in 2024, during which thousands were wounded an many Lebanese people got killed, was a zionist supply chain attack

Background: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/9/17/lebanons-terrible-year-from-exploding-pagers-to-israeli-occupation

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

What and who do you depend on in your projects? How fragile is that infrastructure?

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

"There's no Claude, there's just other people's code", Leenaars offers a reality check

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

These models are ingesting everything and anything, indiscriminately. They're over-eating

At a certain point they'll be ingesting their own excrement & barfing that up, suggests Leenaars

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026

These models are ingesting everything and anything, indiscriminately. They're over-eating

At a certain point they'll be ingesting their own excrement & barfing that up, suggests Leenaars

#FOSDEM #FOSDEM2026