# FOSDEM faces calls for greater transparency and governance

DevFeed: [FOSDEM faces calls for greater transparency and governance](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/join-us-to-discuss-transparency-and-governance-at-fosdem-25-20812.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://drewdevault.com/blog/Transparency-and-governance-FOSDEM/>)

Author: January

Published: 2025-01-23T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Drew DeVault](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/drew-devault.md>)

Topics: [FOSDEM](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/fosdem.md>), [Open Source](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/open-source.md>)

Tags: [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [fosdem](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/fosdem.md>), [governance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/governance.md>), [open-source](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/open-source.md>)

## AI overview

The article discusses the apparent cancellation of Jack Dorsey's FOSDEM talk, while noting that no official statement had confirmed it. It argues that the controversy exposed concerns about FOSDEM's governance, including limited public information about talk selection, sponsorships, conflicts of interest, finances, and decision-making.

## Source excerpt

Good news: it appears that Jack Dorsey's FOSDEM talk has been cancelled! This is a follow up to two earlier posts, which you can read here: one and two. I say it "appears" so, because there has been no official statement from anyone to that effect. There has also been no communication from staff to the protest organizers, including to our email reaching out as requested to discuss fire safety and crowd control concerns with the staff. The situation is a bit unclear, but... we'll extend FOSDEM the benefit of the doubt, and with it our gratitude. From all of the volunteers who have been organizing this protest action, we extend our heartfelt thanks to the staff for reconsidering the decision to platform Dorsey and Block, Inc. at FOSDEM. All of us - long-time FOSDEM volunteers, speakers, devroom organizers, and attendees - are relieved to know that FOSDEM stands for our community's interests. More importantly: what comes next? The frustration the community felt at learning that Block was sponsoring FOSDEM and one of the keynote slots1 had been given to Dorsey and his colleagues uncovered some deeper frustrations with the way FOSDEM is run these days. This year is FOSDEM's 25th anniversary, and it seems sorely overdue for graduating from the "trust us, it's crazy behind the scenes" governance model to something more aligned with the spirit of open source. We trust the FOSDEM organizers -- we can extend them the benefit of the doubt when they tell us that talk selection is independent of sponsorships. But it strains our presumption of good faith when the talk proposal was rejected by 3 of the 4 independent reviewers and went through anyway. And it's kind of weird that we have to take them at their word -- that the talk selection process isn't documented anywhere publicly, nor the conflict of interest policy, nor the sponsorship terms, nor almost anything at all about how FOSDEM operates or is governed internally. Who makes decisions? How? We don't know, and that's kind of we