sfscon-2025SFSCON 202508:3000:30Check-in SFSCON 2025SFSCONSFSCON0009:0000:15Opening SFSCON 2025https://www.sfscon.it/talks/opening-sfscon-2025/<p>Opening SFSCON 2025</p>
SFSCON - Main trackSFSCON,Main trackUlrich Stofner1109:1500:15Greetingshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/greetings/<p>Greetings from NOI, Vincent Mauroit<br />
Greetings from Gruppo FOS, Giorgio Allasia<br />
Greetings from Telmekom, Sergio Vemic</p>
SFSCON - Main trackSFSCON,Main trackVincent MauroitGiorgio AllasiaSergio Srdjan Vemic1109:3000:30The Heart of Our Softwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/the-heart-of-our-software/<p>When Karen discovered at a young age that she had a life threatening heart condition, the last thing she expected was to have to worry about software. Now, with a heart device implanted in her body, she has come to understand not only how vulnerable medical devices are but how the critical choices we are making about software are having huge societal impact. Karen will discuss her professional and personal view of the issues both as a patient and as a cyborg lawyer. Karen will also touch on potential avenues for accountability, transparency, and access to remedies as we hurtle towards digital life built on proprietary source code that prevents us from knowing exactly how our vital technology works, what data is being collecting and to what ends, what vulnerabilities exist, and the extent to which closed, proprietary software keeps us from developing societal mechanisms and review processes to keep us safe.</p>
SFSCON - Main trackSFSCON,Main trackKaren Sandler1110:0000:15European SFS Award 2025Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan assign the “European SFS Award”Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan assign the “European SFS Award”<p>The award is given to a person who contributed to the introduction of the culture of Free Software.</p>
<p>The European SFS Award 2025 was delivered to <strong>Jean-Baptiste Kempf.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Laudatio European SFS Award 2025</strong><br />
<em>Matthias Kirschner (Free Software Foundation Europe – FSFE) and Raphael Barbieri (LUG BZ – Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan) </em></p>
<p><strong>Raphael</strong><br />
There’s a program most of us have used – on laptops, phones, tablets or desktops computers. It might have run on screens in supermarkets or shops.<br />
It’s small, fast, friendly, and seems to “understand everything you throw at it”.<br />
I’ve always thought of it as “the program that eats everything.”</p>
<p><strong>Matthias</strong><br />
This amazing software did not come from a giant technology company with a huge budget. It began more than twenty years ago – as a modest experiment by a few students at an engineering school.<br />
They wanted to solve a problem they identified. Nothing fancy – just a student project to tinker, experiment, share, and have fun.<br />
No one knew that those first lines of code written for “network 2000” would one day reach billions of users.</p>
<p><strong>Raphael</strong><br />
Like many student projects, it almost faded away when graduation came and the contributors had other priorities. But one young engineer, who had joined the group in 2000, refused to let it die.<br />
He reorganized the code, inspired new contributors, and slowly turned a university experiment into a world-class piece of software.</p>
<p><strong>Matthias</strong><br />
He built a healthy community fostering the software. Hundreds of volunteers joined. They contributed by programming, testing, auditing, helping others, with translations, improving the design, or promoting the software.<br />
Thereby the community grew and people started using the software on every platform – GNU/Linux and other Unix like operating systems, Windows, Android, or MacOS and iOS.<br />
For many people running non-free operating systems, it was the very first Free Software they ever installed. For many people running Free Software, it saved them from installing and booting into a proprietary operating system.</p>
<p><strong>Raphael</strong><br />
With this success our winner was offered tempting deals – big money, advertising, corporate buyouts. Every time, he gently said no.<br />
Because it was not about maximizing profit. It was about maximizing freedom for computer users.</p>
<p><strong>Matthias</strong><br />
To protect that freedom, he later founded a non-profit organization – so the software would always belong to its community. He also founded a company to support the technical side – keeping development professional while staying true to the values of software freedom.<br />
Under his leadership, the initiative has reached billions of downloads, maintained and added amazing features – all without losing its soul.</p>
<p><strong>Raphael</strong><br />
And there’s another thing this community is famous for – its sense of humor.<br />
Their symbol? A bright orange-and-white traffic cone. Legend has it that the original students used to collect these cones after late nights out.<br />
When it came time to pick a logo, they chose it proudly – a playful symbol of creativity, chaos, and collaboration.</p>
<p><strong>Matthias</strong><br />
Nowadays, that little cone has become an icon you find on a huge amount of computers worldwide. At conferences their contributors wear the cones on their heads with pride as a clear sign of who they are and what they stand for.</p>
<p><strong>Raphael</strong><br />
And the person behind it? He’s not just a brilliant engineer. He’s a leader, a mentor, and a true advocate for software freedom.<br />
In 2018, his contributions were honored with the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite – the first Free Software developer ever to receive that distinction.<br />
Yes – a real knight of software freedom.</p>
<p><strong>Matthias</strong><br />
His “Holy Grail” was not fame or fortune – it’s freedom: the freedom for billions of people to watch, listen, and share multimedia files without restrictions or surveillance.<br />
He has shown the world that integrity, community, and a bit of humor can change how we experience digital media.</p>
<p><strong>Raphael</strong><br />
Today, we celebrate someone who has made it possible for all of us to enjoy open, universal access to media – and who continues to prove that Free Software is powerful, beautiful, and fun.</p>
<p><strong>Matthias</strong><br />
It is our great pleasure to present the European SFS Award 2025 to the president of the VideoLAN non-profit, one of the lead developers of VLC media player, the founder of VideoLabs, the bearer of the traffic cone, and a true knight of Free Software….</p>
<p><strong>Matthias & Raphael<br />
</strong><br />
<strong>Jean-Baptiste Kempf</strong>!</p>
SFSCON - Main trackSFSCON,Main track0010:1500:15SFS Award 2025Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan assigns the “South Tyrol Free Software Award”Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan assigns the “South Tyrol Free Software Award”<p>Every year the Linux User Group Bozen-Bolzano-Bulsan assigns the “South Tyrol Free Software Award” (SFS Award). The award is given to a person who contributed to the introduction of the culture of Free Software in the Province of Bolzano.</p>
<p>The Free Software Award 2025 was delivered to <strong>Adrian Kuntner.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Laudatio SFS Award 2025</strong></p>
<p>There are people who ask uncomfortable questions.<br />
Questions like: “Why should just a handful of corporations control how the world communicates?”<br />
Or: “Do we really want Big Tech deciding how we share our thoughts, our conversations, our communities?”</p>
<p>And then there are people who don’t stop at asking those questions.<br />
They start building answers.</p>
<p>Our awardee today is one of them.</p>
<p>A little more than three and a half years ago, something happened that made global headlines: the takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk. Many shrugged their shoulders. But not him. He realized: if one of the biggest platforms for public discourse can be bought by a single billionaire, then something is deeply wrong.</p>
<p>So he looked for alternatives. Something open. Decentralized. A platform built by communities, not corporations. And he discovered what we today call the Fediverse.</p>
<p>But in our region — in Tyrol and South Tyrol — there was no community yet, no entry point, no space where this idea could grow. And so, he decided to build one.<br />
He registered a domain, set up the infrastructure, learned by doing, and on May 22nd 2022, the first version went online.</p>
<p>At the beginning, it was just an experiment. He spread the word with stickers in Bozen, Merano, Innsbruck and other towns. Slowly, people became curious, and the first users signed up. The small experiment started to grow.</p>
<p>More helping hands joined in. Together they stabilized the system and gave it direction. The mission was clear: to create a free alternative to the social media giants.</p>
<p>The beginnings were humble: a server, privately funded, hidden in the basement of a library. Later, thanks to donations and community support, it moved to a professional data center in Vienna. Today, everything runs entirely in Europe — stable, secure, independent.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The results speak for themselves: more than 1,500 registered users, with over 300 active every month — and the numbers keep rising. The project has become one of the largest Fediverse instances in Tyrol and South Tyrol. And more than that: it has become a living symbol that digital spaces can be free, open, and community-driven.</p>
<p>All of this happened not because a company saw profit, but because one person said: “Enough. We need something better. And I will start.”</p>
<p>That founder, administrator, and driving force behind tyrol.social — and the winner of the SFS Award 2025 — is:</p>
<p><strong>Adrian Kuntner!</strong></p>
SFSCON - Main trackSFSCON,Main track0010:3000:30VideoLAN & VLC: a (unique) storyhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/videolan-vlc-a-unique-story/How and Why VLC came to life, and how it grew so big, with a small teamHow and Why VLC came to life, and how it grew so big, with a small team<p>This talk is about the long story of the popular media player VLC and the VideoLAN non-profit organization.</p>
<p>Why did people start VLC? What was it at the time? How was the journey to make it truly open source and GPL? What happened in the 2001 timeframe?</p>
<p>How did we create a VideoLAN non-profit organization and how was it organized? How did we sustain VLC for a long time, with almost no funding?</p>
SFSCON - Main trackSFSCON,Main trackJean-Baptiste Kempf1111:0000:35Ethical Need for Medical Devices as Commonshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethical-need-for-medical-devices-as-commons/<p>Many public services, including healthcare, significantly depend on proprietary products and infrastructure. This tends to inflate the service costs enormously – to a simply unaffordable degree, especially in the global South. The Open Source Imaging Initiative (OSI²) has developed an MRI scanner – which allows everyone to use, study, share, and improve it – thereby counteracting the MRI oligopoly and opening up clinical certification. This talk will give an overview of the ethics of the project, its current state and vision.</p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Martin Häuer1111:4000:35Ethics and software freedomhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethics-and-software-freedom/panelpanel<p>What does it mean to make ethical choices in software development today?<br data-start="288" data-end="291" />This panel brings together four leading voices from the global Free and Open Source Software movement to explore the moral foundations of digital freedom — and the dilemmas that arise when ideals meet real-world complexity.</p>
<p>With:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong data-start="677" data-end="699">Matthias Kirschner</strong>, <em data-start="701" data-end="734">Free Software Foundation Europe</em></li>
<li><strong data-start="630" data-end="646">Simon Phipps</strong>, <em data-start="648" data-end="672">Open Source Initiative</em></li>
<li><strong data-start="528" data-end="545">Karen Sandler</strong>, <em data-start="547" data-end="577">Software Freedom Conservancy</em></li>
</ul>
<p data-start="738" data-end="963">Moderated by the journalist <strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucatremolada" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Luca Tremolada</a></strong></p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Matthias KirschnerSimon PhippsKaren Sandler1112:2000:15Running on Non-Free Softwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/running-on-non-free-software/A Cyborg's Look at Medical Device FreedomA Cyborg's Look at Medical Device Freedom<p>This talk is very close to my heart, quite literally. Many people rely on technology to keep them alive, and that technology runs software. When your life depends on code you can’t see and control, software freedom becomes something very personal.</p>
<p>In this session, I’ll share the story of how I came to care deeply about Free Software, not just as a developer, but as a person directly affected by the limitations of non-free medical systems. What happens when the software behind critical devices can’t be audited, fixed, or even questioned? What does “user control” mean when the user is also the patient and when the consequences of a software bug can be felt in your own body?</p>
<p>We’ll explore the landscape of medical technology: How decisions made by manufacturers and regulators impact real people, how non-free systems can lead to harm or helplessness, and how Free Software principles are at the core of not just transparency, but dignity and autonomy.</p>
<p>This isn’t a technical deep dive, nor a policy lecture. It’s a personal story, a perspective from the inside (sometimes very literally), and a reflection on what it means to live with, and sometimes fight against , the software that runs our most essential systems. Free Software might just belong in places most people never think to look.</p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Florian Snow1112:4000:15From Bias to Balance: TANGO’s Open-Source Hybrid-Intelligence Platformhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/from-bias-to-balance-tangos-open-source-hybrid-intelligence-platform/<p>When an AI system issues a life-or-death recommendation, who stays in charge – the algorithm or the clinician? TANGO answers: both!</p>
<p>Developed by a consortium of 8 partners and more than 40 open-source contributors, the TANGO Platform is a modular, Apache-2-licensed Python stack that lets humans and machines share decision authority without sacrificing transparency or efficiency.</p>
<p>TANGO ships three plug-and-play building blocks:<br />
– fairness & ethics core: auditable bias-detection and mitigation pipes that log every rule check;<br />
– explain-for-whom layer: context-aware explanations tuned to different audiences (experts, citizens or regulators);<br />
– hybrid-learning API: a REST interface (inspired by the OpenAI pattern) that injects human feedback to enhance models – live.</p>
<p>These blocks already power four pilots in high-impact case studies (maternal-care triage, intra-operative guidance for surgeons during the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms, credit allocation by financial service companies and scenario building for policy makers) showing how an ethical AI loop can cut diagnostic delay or flag discriminatory lending in live working conditions.</p>
<p>In Bolzano we will walk through the GitLab repos, wire up an explainer to a sample classifier and stream a live counterfactual explanation – all in under eight minutes – then share roadmap tasks where the community can jump in.</p>
<p>If you are hunting for a pragmatic way to weave EU AI-Act compliance and genuine value alignment into your own codebase, TANGO is yours to fork, probe and improve. Join us and help keep humans in the decision loop – by design, and in production.</p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Marco AnghebenStefano Tavonatti1113:0000:15Ethical AI for Biomedical Imaging: A FOSS Extension for KNIME Integrating YOLO and Segment Anythinghttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethical-ai-for-biomedical-imaging-a-foss-extension-for-knime-integrating-yolo-and-segment-anything/<p>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing biomedical imaging, but its adoption raises serious questions around transparency, data privacy, and algorithmic fairness. This talk presents a community-driven, open-source extension for the KNIME Analytics Platform that integrates YOLO and Meta’s Segment Anything for high-precision biomedical image segmentation.</p>
<p>Built entirely with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), this project empowers researchers and clinicians to process sensitive medical images in a transparent and reproducible way—without relying on opaque black-box systems or commercial cloud services. All processing can be executed locally, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations and promoting digital sovereignty.</p>
<p>The talk will demonstrate how the extension aligns with ethical AI principles:</p>
<p>Transparency: Full access to models, parameters, and processing pipelines.</p>
<p>Fairness: Customizability to adapt models to diverse demographic and clinical datasets.</p>
<p>Security & Privacy: Local execution safeguards patient data, eliminating third-party exposure.</p>
<p>By embedding cutting-edge AI into KNIME—a widely used open-source platform—this project fosters a collaborative ecosystem where researchers can share workflows, reproduce results, and collectively advance ethical biomedical AI.</p>
<p>The presentation will conclude with a live demo and an invitation for the FOSS community to contribute to this ongoing effort.</p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Andrea Rosani1113:2000:15Your Mind, Quantifiedhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/your-mind-quantified/Using Machine Learning and Self-Tracking to Deepen Self-AwarenessUsing Machine Learning and Self-Tracking to Deepen Self-Awareness<p>The quantified self movement empowers individuals to track biological, physical, behavioral, and environmental data with the goal of gaining personal insights and driving change.</p>
<p>But with such a constant flow of information—from phones, smartwatches, and apps—how do we transform raw data into meaningful health insights?</p>
<p>In this talk, I’ll explore how I’ve used data gathered through Nearine, along with techniques like data cleaning, feature engineering, and machine learning, to gain a clearer picture of my own mental health. I’ll show how this process can serve as a powerful tool for cultivating self-awareness through data.</p>
<p>This talk is designed for those at the beginning of their machine learning journey, or anyone curious about how technology can help us understand our inner lives more deeply.</p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Chiara Masci1113:4000:15A tool to manage privacy-first large genomic datahttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/a-tool-to-manage-privacy-first-large-genomic-data/<p>We are developing a tool, called BMOL (BioMedical Object Librarian), to leverage the object storage technology for large genomics data management. The innovations are twofold: a privacy-first approach, so that access to data is linked to privacy processing permissions and separating the archival/classification phase from the querying/retrieval phase. Privacy-first is a tenet of the GDPR when designing systems for human genomics data, while the second concern allows a better management of data. Last but not least, the system has been built to scale into the Petabytes of data in a reliable and efficient way.</p>
HealthHealthhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/health-track-2025/Michele Finelli1114:0000:15Open Source Technologies for Forest Biodiversity Monitoringhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/open-source-technologies-for-forest-biodiversity-monitoring/The Track4BIO CaseThe Track4BIO Case<p>This contribution presents an open source-based approach to the automated monitoring of forest biodiversity, focusing on saproxylic arthropods as ecological indicators. The system integrates open hardware and software components to enable continuous, non-invasive field data collection with minimal human intervention.<br />
At the center of the setup is an IoT device designed for temporary insect capture, high-resolution image acquisition, and automated release. The hardware architecture is built from off-the-shelf, openly documented components, while image analysis is performed via open source AI algorithms for species detection and classification.<br />
The data pipeline adheres to Open FAIR principles, ensuring that sensor readings, images, metadata, and processed outputs are structured, accessible, and reusable. All collected information is organized within a scalable digital infrastructure and made available through a user-facing web interface, allowing access to a wide range of stakeholders, including researchers, land managers, and public agencies.<br />
Remote sensing data—multispectral and radar—are also integrated into the system to map habitat features such as deadwood presence and microhabitat density, providing complementary spatial context to in situ observations.<br />
This case highlights how open source technologies can support biodiversity monitoring by improving reproducibility, reducing costs, and facilitating wider adoption across contexts and user communities.</p>
AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/Giovanni Giannotta1114:2000:15BirdNET: AI listening for lifehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/birdnet-ai-listening-for-life/<p>BirdNET is used in a biodiversity monitoring device to support real-time bird sound recognition in natural surroundings. The device listens to sounds from the environment and records them when something is heard. Once a sound is captured, BirdNET processes the audio to identify which bird species it belongs to. This setup allows us to keep track of local bird life automatically. It gives useful information about which birds are around and when they are active, helping us better understand changes in the area’s wildlife over time.</p>
<p>BirdNET is built on open-source principles, combining artificial intelligence with public accessibility. It uses a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained to recognize bird species based on their vocalizations. As free software, BirdNET’s models and code are openly available,allowing anyone to study, use, or improve them. This openness supports community-driven biodiversity research, especially in areas with limited resources. Combined with open hardware, BirdNET shows how free technologies can democratize environmental monitoring and promote scientific transparency worldwide.</p>
AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/Giovanni GiannottaOrneda Lecini1114:4000:15DigiAgriApp: development of a Free and Open Source app for digital agriculturehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/digiagriapp-development-of-a-free-and-open-source-app-for-digital-agriculture/<p>DigiAgriApp is a free and open-source client-server application built on PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Django (backend), and Flutter (frontend), with an integrated QGIS plugin. The development was started and carried out by the Digital Agriculture Unit of the Fondazione Edmund Mach with the support of a small number of companies. Over the past year, the platform has consolidated its architecture and expanded its features to better support precision agriculture.</p>
<p>Its primary focus is the monitoring of agricultural fields and its sub-elements: subfields, rows, until individual plants. A major advancement was the integration of the Pest Patrol module, which leverages computer vision algorithms to automatically analyze images from chromotropic traps and identify insect vectors such as Scaphoideus titanus and Orientus ishidae. This sets the stage for a robust decision support system for pest and disease management.</p>
<p>In addition to ongoing development work, significant efforts were made toward multilingual support—DigiAgriApp is now fully available in four languages—and in project outreach, seeking collaborators and institutions interested in adopting or contributing to the platform.</p>
<p>A major milestone in 2025 has been the launch of two public instances of the DigiAgriApp server, both released with the support of the Fondazione Edmund Mach. One instance, in Italian (https://digiagriapp.fmach.it), is tailored to viticulture and fruit production. The second, in English (https://digiagriapp-en.fmach.it), offers broader crop support and allows the addition of new species. These public instances are limited in functionality, as they currently do not provide access to remote sensing or weather station data.</p>
AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/Luca Delucchi1115:0000:35Break Seminar 1AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/0015:4000:15Open, connected and compliant. How Oniro builds seamless global smart ecosystemshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/open-connected-and-compliant-how-oniro-builds-seamless-global-smart-ecosystems/<p>The fragmentation of the smart device ecosystem —from consumer IoT to embedded industrial systems— has led to siloed solutions, vendor lock-in, and poor user interoperability.</p>
<p>Oniro, an Eclipse Foundation project, offers a compelling, vendor-neutral, and fully open-source alternative: an operating system platform and development framework designed to power interoperable smart devices across verticals. With Oniro, developers can build once and deploy across a heterogeneous fleet of devices, while ensuring software composability and regulatory compliance from the start.</p>
<p>This talk will introduce Oniro as a global collaborative effort built on transparency, openness, and technical excellence. Furthermore, the cooperation with OpenHarmony and Oniro’s European DNA position it well to comply with emerging software regulations.</p>
<p>Join us to explore how Oniro is shaping the next generation of open, interoperable, and regulation-ready smart ecosystems.</p>
AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/Ignacio Ahedo1116:0000:15SIGRE: A FOSS-First Approach to Smart Cities – Lightweight, Modular, Sovereignhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/sigre-a-foss-first-approach-to-smart-cities-lightweight-modular-sovereign/Simplified ApproachSimplified Approach<p>Smart cities are often associated with heavyweight platforms, black-box integrations, and vendor lock-in. But what if municipalities could take back control—technically, financially, and ethically?</p>
<p>SIGRE (Smart & Intelligent Green Region) is a Free and Open Source Software platform developed in cooperation with Stadtwerke Meran and the city of Merano. Designed as a modular, lightweight solution for managing smart infrastructure, SIGRE covers core domains such as smart metering, lighting, waste, and water management—while remaining fully customizable and transparent.</p>
<p>This talk will explore how SIGRE empowers small and mid-sized municipalities to build their own smart services using open standards, edge-ready architecture, and zero licensing costs. We will highlight:<br />
• Lessons from real-world deployment in Merano<br />
• The ethics of local data sovereignty in civic infrastructure<br />
• How FOSS enables sustainable digital transformation at scale</p>
AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/Stefan MutschlechnerSergio Srdjan Vemic1116:2000:15Creating an online exhibition with Free Software toolshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/creating-an-online-exhibition-with-free-software-tools/<p>This presentation focuses on the creation of an online exhibition by employing Free Software tools. The exhibition is a visualisation of the book Construction Toys and Modern European Culture: Education, Politics, and Technology, 1830 to 1940. The creation of the online exhibition was a pilot project realised at the Research Institute of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, the world’s largest museum of science and technology. The project aim was to demonstrate the potential of digital, Free Software tools for public outreach in museums. In other words, how such tools can enhance the educational impact of museums and inspire new forms of cultural engagement and knowledge discovery among diverse audiences.</p>
CultureCulturehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/culture-track-2025/Artemis Yagou1116:4000:15Questionable South Tyrolean Cultural Open Data?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/questionable-south-tyrolean-cultural-open-data/Historical Data sets, Networks, and the UnknownHistorical Data sets, Networks, and the Unknown<p>Since 2016 the Autonomous Province of Bolzano-South Tyrol offers machine-readable access to selected cultural data sets as Open Data:<br />
The first contains basic information about 160 different museums, collections and exhibition venues in South Tyrol: names, locations, contact information, geolocation, opening times, ticket information, all in three languages (English, German, Italian) (see https://data.civis.bz.it/de/dataset/musei-in-alto-adige). This data set is used by different touristic websites.<br />
The second data set contains data from over 50 collecting institutions in South Tyrol: museums, archives, associations, other collections. This data set contains collection data of more than 310.000 objects, artefacts, art works, photographs, each linked to the respective institution (and its descriptive information). The institutions vary in size, resources and professionalization. People working in this area seldom are digital experts, a lot of them are honorary workers. This object metadata is structured according to national and international standards and comprises object names, description and historical-cultural comments, creator’s names (people and organizations), creation dates and places, titles, fonds, materials, techniques, dimensions, keywords, and image files (including rights information). Standardized terms (objects names, people, institutions, material) contain links to external, internationally established authority files (Linked Open Data). (Link to the data set: https://data.civis.bz.it/de/dataset/catalogo-beni-culturali, will be revised this summer). Data is provided mainly in German and Italian, parts also in English. This data is accessible for the public also on a website (https://objekte-museen-archive.provinz.bz.it/), The data is continuously processed, and more records are constantly being added. The data is used for example on a local (https://myargo.bz/) and national level (https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/). We do not know if others also are using the data on other endpoints.<br />
A third bilingual (German and Italian) data set publishes historical photographs including printable image files (https://data.civis.bz.it/de/dataset/tyrolean-historical-photographs).</p>
<p>The talk will discuss the perspective of a cultural data provider and some of the challenges in this area:</p>
<p>1. The 50 institutions have different focus, approaches and resources at hand. Collections are vast, digitization/cataloging is time consuming work requiring specific skills.<br />
a. Can different digital tools and AI be used to facilitate the work?<br />
b. How much centralized data quality control is necessary?<br />
c. How to keep such a diverse network alive, active and connected?</p>
<p>2. With some of the data stemming originally from historic record cards and inventory books, and after almost 20 years use of a mutual digital system in 50 different institutions, clean-up and standardization are central tasks.<br />
a. How much standardization can the institutions handle?<br />
b. What AI tools might be useful instruments for data clean-up? We use OpenRefine and have experience with database enrichment in an explorative AI project with Axiell using Claude. How can we find competent partners in this area?<br />
c. The idea of clean and lean data is difficult/unrealistic to achieve. Is it still okay to publish data containing uncertainties, mistakes or is incomplete or should we further limit the publication of such data?<br />
d. How to deal with the gap between the elevated trust people have in cultural institutions and the rising mistrust in online information?</p>
<p>3. In an age where all allocatable information is being harvested for the use of generative AI: Is an Open Data approach still helpful for cultural institutions? Should we not return to the old days of gatekeeping the knowledge/information in cultural institutions? Is there any way to ensure that this information is used adequately and respectfully? What kind of data is meaningful data nowadays?</p>
CultureCulturehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/culture-track-2025/Notburga Siller1117:0000:15Project USAGEhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/project-usage/open data and solutions to support environmental policies implementation in citiesopen data and solutions to support environmental policies implementation in cities<p>Through the Green Deal, the European Commission has set the ambitious target of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and the key to this commitment is represented by cities and towns implementing it in their area through Local Green Deals.</p>
<p>This is exactly the process that Project USAGE (https://www.usage-project.eu/) has been supporting for the past years, working to overcome legal and technical barriers to the sharing and exploitation of urban data among public bodies, private organisations and civil society, with the aim of developing actionable data-driven tools to directly support decision makers and environmental policies implementation in cities.</p>
<p>More specifically the outcomes of the project are:<br />
– the creation of data governance frameworks for cities (local data spaces)<br />
– the deployment of software solutions for data-sharing and their exploitation<br />
– the improvement of availability, quality and interoperability of data for Local Green Deals</p>
<p>On top of data products (LIDAR point clouds, hyperspectral and thermal data captured by airborne sensors, multispectral data captured by spaceborne sensors, to name a few), USAGE has implemented algorithms and tools that transform input data into value-added products, most often leveraging on ML algorithms such as Support Vector Machine and Random Forest.<br />
Some of the most relevant results of this type are:<br />
– the hyperspectral image analysis to automatically derive tree canopies extension and tree species identification;<br />
– the classification of roof material type, road pavement type, level of soil imperviousness, all based on hyperspectral images;<br />
– the implementation of an indicator measuring which buildings satisfy the 3-30-300 criterion, coupled with the data about the number of residents, to identify the areas that are most impacted;<br />
– solar potential estimation in public and private open areas, cross-referenced with actual photovoltaic panel installations, to identify available spaces to develop community solar projects;</p>
<p>All of these initiatives were developed having the FAIR approach as the guiding principle: most input as well as derived datasets are discoverable via public catalogues and accessible through open and standard services deployed by the four municipalities involved in the project (Ferrara, Graz, Leuven, Zaragoza), as well as the algorithms and tools developed to elaborate them which are published on the project GitHub (https://github.com/USAGEHub).<br />
More broadly, the project contributed to the creation in the partner cities of local urban data spaces, focused on the green deal domain, but with the ambition of expanding their implementation to many more domains of city policies.</p>
Data SpacesData Spaceshttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/data-spaces-track-2025/Luca Giovannini1117:2000:15AI-Powered Data Validation: Defending Open Data with Intelligencehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ai-powered-data-validation-defending-open-data-with-intelligence/How Catch Solve, with support from AtomHR, is transforming data and image validation across APIs and data systems with an open-source approachHow Catch Solve, with support from AtomHR, is transforming data and image validation across APIs and data systems with an open-source approach<p>In a world where data is the foundation of innovation, ensuring its quality is key. Catch Solve, with the support of AtomHR, presents Data Defender—an open-source, AI-powered framework for validating data and images.<br />
While its potential is demonstrated through its application in the Open Data Hub, its open-source nature makes it easily adaptable to any system that handles data and APIs.</p>
<p>By leveraging artificial intelligence, automation, and a data-driven philosophy, Data Defender enables continuous monitoring, early detection of issues, and efficient corrective actions. This not only saves valuable time but also boosts trust in your data assets—whether you’re dealing with open data, enterprise APIs, or critical internal systems.</p>
<p>In this talk, we’ll showcase how open-source technology and AI work together to simplify validation, improve quality over time, and empower teams to focus on solving real challenges. Join us to explore how Data Defender is making smart, sustainable data validation accessible to all.</p>
Data SpacesData Spaceshttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/data-spaces-track-2025/Hamza jamilMichele MagriDavide Montesin1117:4000:15An LLM Toolchain for Open Data and NGSI-LDhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/an-llm-toolchain-for-open-data-and-ngsi-ld/<p>The Data-Highway Project is an initiative designed to enhance the tourism and cultural heritage by leveraging Linked Open Data, NGSI-LD, and AI-driven technologies. The project aims to create a scalable, interoperable, and intelligent data infrastructure, enabling seamless access, sharing, and reuse of Open Data.<br />
To optimize data extraction and management, the project explores Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with Knowledge Graphs, i.e. structuring data using vectorized text and graph-based entity relationships to improve retrieval and accuracy and invoke with customized prompts, hence utilizing tailored LLM prompts to extract structured data in NGSI-LD format, enhancing interoperability.<br />
The study evaluates multiple AI models, including GPT, DeepSeek, Llama, and Phi, analyzing their effectiveness in structured data generation and compliance with NGSI-LD standards.<br />
Some of the issues include: poor quality and disorganized structured datasets and lack of proper extraction when working with natural language on unstructured ones. Both situations pose challenges for AI models. To address these, the system prompt was refined, the context window was increased, and low temperature settings were maintained to minimize hallucinations and prevent the generation of inaccurate data.<br />
By integrating AI and semantic data structuring, the Data-Highway Project lays the foundation for a smarter, more connected digital ecosystem, driving innovation in cultural and tourism experiences.</p>
Data SpacesData Spaceshttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/data-spaces-track-2025/Giuseppe Tropea1118:0000:15An Open-Source Design Intervention Support Tool for Climate Resilience: Guiding Agroforestry in the Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus Systemshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/an-open-source-design-intervention-support-tool-for-climate-resilience-guiding-agroforestry-in-the-water-energy-food-ecosystems-wefe-nexus-systems/<p>The TRANS-SAHARA project supports climate change adaptation and mitigation in the Greater Northern African Region through scalable agroforestry systems embedded in a Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus framework. This approach recognizes the interdependence of resources and promotes integrated, sustainable solutions in vulnerable contexts.</p>
<p>The main objective of this research is to design and develop a decision-making support tool assisting researchers, policymakers, and local stakeholders in planning agroforestry interventions across regional Living Labs, local community-based sites where innovations are co-created and tested with project stakeholders. The tool aims to enable comprehensive analysis by integrating environmental, hydrological, socio-economic, and governance-related data, facilitating an inclusive evaluation of trade-offs and synergies. By incorporating multi-stakeholder perspectives, it supports more holistic and robust decision-making—an essential feature given the inherently multi-factor nature of the optimization problem the project aims to address.</p>
<p>Effective collaboration and impact in sustainability research hinge on the open sharing of data and metadata. The tool is built upon Eurac’s research data infrastructure, known as the Environmental Data Platform (EDP). It integrates data discoverability through an open metadata management system and cataloging, implemented using Geonetwork. These platforms promote FAIR data principles, enabling reproducibility, discoverability, and interoperability across disciplines and geographic regions.</p>
<p>The TRANS-SAHARA Agroforestry Design Intervention Tool is designed not only as a technical solution but as a platform to foster long-term collaboration, knowledge transfer, and capacity building between European and African partners. It will support the co-design and validation of nature-based solutions in Living Labs in Tunisia, Ghana, and Ethiopia, and contribute to broader initiatives like the UNCCD Great Green Wall.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the tool aspires to become a replicable model for inclusive, data-driven planning in climate resilience and sustainable land management.</p>
<p>This research is funded by the framework of TRANS-SAHARA project, funded by European Union under the Horizon Europe Framework Program Grant Agreement Nº: 101182176.</p>
Data SpacesData Spaceshttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/data-spaces-track-2025/Michele Berlanda1111:0000:35Crisis engineering, digital resilience, and free softwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/crisis-engineering-digital-resilience-and-free-software/<p>Europe’s dependence on American tech is a clear and present threat to Europe’s sovereignty and independence. At the same time, governments and businesses are continuing to migrate more critical infrastructure onto American tech. Why, and what can we in free software do about it?</p>
<p>The field of crisis engineering studies how organizations transform during existential crises – and why it’s so hard to change them without one. Once we understand what makes organizational change so rare, we can find ways for free software communities to be prepared and ready to lead transformative change when the crisis does arrive.</p>
<p>I will share how crisis engineering informed the ways I’m using free software to improve Europe’s digital resilience: starting a local Internet Resiliency Club, moving my online presence to European hosting, and developing CRA standards that support free software. By the end of the talk, you will have your own ideas about how to improve digital resilience in your community!</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Valerie Aurora1111:4000:15Refund4Freedom: Freedom to Choose, Right to a Refundhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/refund4freedom-freedom-to-choose-right-to-a-refund/<p>Refund4Freedom is the campaign by FSFE and the Italian Linux Society to defend the right to purchase computers without imposed software and to obtain a refund for unwanted pre-installed operating systems.<br />
In this talk, we will explain the key demands of the campaign, the legal references, and the first signs of change — such as the Lenovo case.<br />
An initiative to affirm digital freedom and transparency in consumer rights.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Marta Andreoli1112:0000:15How to Get Involved with CRA Standardizationhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/how-to-get-involved-with-cra-standardization/<p>The Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) has been European Union law since December of 2024, and it first comes into effect in Fall of next year. As one of the rapporteurs working on harmonized standards for the CRA’s product class specific “verticals”, I want to share how that project is progressing with an emphasis on what the need to meet these standards could mean for Free Software. Free and Open Source Software doesn’t need to comply with the CRA, and even where it must, Open Source projects can almost always self-certify without reference to EU harmonized standards. Despite this, I want to suggest that Free Software should view the CRA as a partner in efforts to make more ethical and more secure software. The relative ease of CRA compliance for Free Software could be part of a Europe-wide move towards the adoption of Free Software technology and values, as well as a tool to increase maintenance funding for FOSS projects.</p>
<p>More important than its role as a sign of EU openness to FOSS development, or its possible use as a new funding tool, the CRA and its standardization process represent an opportunity for Free Software developers to have an impact on global software development and the laws around FOSS products. The drafts for the CRA will be finalized in December 2025, but until then, the rapporteurs and other experts working on them are seeking public input, including from smaller developers and the FOSS community.</p>
<p>This talk encourages Free Software developers to provide comment on the official harmonized standards’ drafts. I will provide instructions on how to access the drafts and comment on the CRA’s vertical standards. I will also discuss a few ways to make that comment effective by understanding key limits of the standards, the standardization process, and the Act.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/August Bournique1112:2000:15Training the AI systems: who owns the data? Who bears the risk?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/training-the-ai-systems-who-owns-the-data-who-bears-the-risk/<p>Although existing for many years before, AI has recently achieved extraordinary results, emulating the human mind and its creative abilities, such as translating texts, creating images, composing music and designing solutions to technical problems.</p>
<p>The development and the improvement of AI depends on the amount and type of data they collect and the training process.</p>
<p>Some of the most controversial and unanswered legal issues are:<br />
is the data used by AI protected by IP rights?<br />
if so, can the data owner prohibit third parties from using its data?</p>
<p>The talk aims to analyze the different possible answers to this question, in light of the different EU framework and the entering into force of the AI Act (EU Regulation 2024/1689).</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Veronica Meneghetti1112:4000:15Who is the owner of AI-Generated works?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/who-is-the-owner-of-ai-generated-works/<p>As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly capable of generating content—texts, images, music, code, and more—the question of intellectual property (IP) protection for AI-generated works has become both urgent and complex.</p>
<p>This talk explores the legal challenges and emerging frameworks surrounding the use of AI in creative and productive processes.</p>
<p>We will examine:<br />
i. whether and under what conditions AI-generated outputs can be protected under existing IP regimes (such as for examples copyright, patents, trade secrets);<br />
ii. who, if anyone, can claim authorship or ownership of such works;<br />
iii. the potential infringements of using third-party content in AI training and the allocation of liability when AI systems produce content that infringes existing IP rights.</p>
<p>Through legal analysis and real-world examples, the session will provide insights for legal professionals, developers, and organizations seeking to navigate the evolving intersection of AI and IP law.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Cristiana Roda1113:0000:15Smart devices in the AI age: why only open source, collective action and public funding can make us sovereign and prevent dystopyhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/smart-devices-in-the-ai-age-why-only-open-source-collective-action-and-public-funding-can-make-us-sovereign-and-prevent-dystopy/Plea for an extended "social economy" paradigm as a new social contractPlea for an extended "social economy" paradigm as a new social contract<p>Has open source won? When at least 80% of all code on earth is free software, we might think so.<br />
But data capitalism – and its corollary, mass surveillance – had never been so powerful, taking control on our lives, while its main actors became major FOSS contributors.<br />
How do our smartphones and their global ecosystem watch us? Who can we trust? Will AI make things worse?<br />
And what can we do to reinforce and nurture a new “social economy” collaborative paradigm that includes everyone, from businesses to associations, academics, public bodies and individuals?<br />
Open source and open models at large have paved the way, digital commons success stories like Open Street Map or Mastodon open new paths, innovative public funding schemes like EU’s NGI cascade funding have shown a high potential: let’s build the story and tools we need to shape a new reality!</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Pierre-Yves Gibello1113:2000:15Ethical and Legal AI Compliance in the Age of FOSShttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethical-and-legal-ai-compliance-in-the-age-of-foss/Aligning transparency, accountability and digital sovereigntyAligning transparency, accountability and digital sovereignty<p>As AI systems become increasingly embedded in decision-making processes across both public and private sectors, the need for ethical, legally compliant and transparent AI has never been more urgent. The EU AI Act, along with existing frameworks like the GDPR, provides a structured legal backbone for risk management and accountability, but true digital sovereignty demands more than compliance. It calls for proactive design choices that empower users and uphold fundamental rights.</p>
<p>Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) plays a pivotal role in this shift. By enabling auditability, community oversight and modular reuse, FOSS can act as a practical enabler of ethical principles such as transparency, fairness and user control. Yet its deployment in high-risk AI applications also raises questions around shared responsibility, traceability and compliance assurance.</p>
<p>This talk will explore how FOSS can support – and sometimes challenge – AI governance objectives under the AI Act and GDPR.</p>
<p>We will examine:</p>
<p>– The intersection of AI compliance and ethical design, including the role of explainability, risk classification and human oversight.</p>
<p>– How open AI models and datasets can contribute to or conflict with obligations for data minimization, bias mitigation and impact assessments.</p>
<p>– Key governance gaps in the current regulatory landscape, particularly in relation to foundation models and open collaborative development.</p>
<p>– Strategies for building trust and legal certainty into open AI ecosystems through governance frameworks, documentation standards and community norms.</p>
<p>We will also discuss emerging best practices for privacy-preserving and rights-respecting AI development, with examples from real-world projects that combine open innovation with ethical rigor.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the session aims to spark a critical reflection on the dual role of FOSS as both a tool for empowerment and a space requiring careful ethical stewardship. By placing user rights, transparency and compliance at the core of AI development, we can better align innovation with digital sovereignty in Europe and beyond.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Federico Sartore1113:4000:35Building Inclusive Futures: Policy and Software Innovationhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/building-inclusive-futures-policy-and-software-innovation/panelpanel<p>What does it take to build a more inclusive digital future?<br data-start="154" data-end="157" />This panel brings together leading voices from policy, software and community innovation to explore how openness and collaboration can shape a more equitable and resilient digital landscape.</p>
<p>With:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Valerie Aurora</strong>, <em>Bow Shock Systems</em></li>
<li><strong>Jean-Baptiste Kempf</strong>, <em>VideoLAN</em></li>
<li><strong>Jordan Maris</strong>, <em>Open Source Initiative</em></li>
</ul>
<p data-start="738" data-end="963">Moderated by the journalist <strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gianlucadotti/">Gianluca Dotti</a> (<a href="https://www.wired.it/">Wired Italia</a>)</strong></p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Valerie AuroraJean-Baptiste KempfJordan Maris1114:2000:15Translate FOSS licenses into codehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/translate-foss-licenses-into-code/Machine readable Open Source licenses to develop a license incompatibility calculatorMachine readable Open Source licenses to develop a license incompatibility calculator<p>Taming the heterogeneity of software licensing is one of the challenges FOSS compliance faces. Our project aims at creating a common language and a database of elements abstracted from actual licensing text that can be used to compute the license permissions and conditions arising from arbitrarily complex software projects and to calculating license compatibility and license checklists for the most common use scenarios. As complexity grows, more than proportionally also the effort to resolve all incompatibilities and calculate the license conditions grows, reaching a point where using some form of algorithm becomes effective. We want to give a sneak preview into our work and attract contributions, suggestions, criticism.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Carlo PianaAlberto PianonHenrik Sandklef1114:4000:15Why Interoperability is Key for Software Freedomhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/why-interoperability-is-key-for-software-freedom/<p>As societies grow in complexity, interoperability becomes fundamental. From water sewage systems, to transport and telecommunications, interoperability has served to increase human interaction.</p>
<p>However, the history of interoperability is marked by a contradiction: while companies benefit from depending the incentives, they become adversarial when their services become object of interoperability regulations.</p>
<p>An example is how the EU is regulating interoperability under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The DMA is a EU law aimed in increasing fair competition, imposing broad interoperability rules on “gatekeepers”, understood as very large companies dominating digital markets.</p>
<p>This talk presents the work of the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) to make sure the DMA is implemented and enforced in a developer-friendly way. We’ll look at what the DMA means for developers building alternative app stores, emulators, browsers, and other tools empowering user choice and freedom.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, gatekeepers are already making it unnecessarily difficult for Free Software developers to request and obtain the interoperability the DMA guarantees, often through legal, technical, or bureaucratic hurdles. We want to change that, and have been following the developers journey to request interoperability, making sure their issues are highlighted to the European Commission.</p>
<p>We’ll introduce the DMA Interoperability Survey, a project to collect real experiences from developers who request access under the DMA. Free Software plays a key role in reclaiming user control over technology, but to compete fairly, it needs real interoperability.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Lucas Lasota1115:0000:15Open Source as a Compliance Enabler: How the ORC Working Group Helps Industry Meet the CRAhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/open-source-as-a-compliance-enabler-how-the-orc-working-group-helps-industry-meet-the-cra/Tackling the Cyber Resilience Act through Open CollaborationTackling the Cyber Resilience Act through Open Collaboration<p>As the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) comes into force, companies are facing growing pressure to adapt internal processes, demonstrate compliance, and keep pace with evolving regulatory expectations. In this talk, we’ll introduce the Eclipse Foundation’s Open Regulatory Compliance (ORC) Working Group, an industry-driven initiative designed to simplify and accelerate CRA compliance through open-source collaboration.</p>
<p>We’ll explore how the group brings together key stakeholders to co-develop reusable tools, shared documentation, and structured inventories of standards, helping organizations reduce costs, avoid duplication of effort, and build compliant products faster. From FAQs to a harmonized inventory of CRA-relevant standards, ORC provides practical assets for engineering and legal teams navigating regulatory complexity.</p>
<p>This session will offer a clear view of how the open-source model is being used not only to build better code, but to build better compliance.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Francisco Carneiro1115:2000:15The Struggle is real, Free of Charge != Cost-Freehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/the-struggle-is-real-free-of-charge-cost-free/<p>Eclipse Temurin has reached 600 million cumulative downloads, demonstrating strong enterprise adoption; however, many users don’t financially support the project. This talk explores how the Eclipse Foundation enables sustainable open source through membership and diverse revenue models, including sponsorship, while staying vendor-neutral. We’ll examine user needs, the gap between usage and support, and the real costs behind maintaining and scaling high-quality “free”and ready to use software infrastructure.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Carmen Delgado1115:4000:15The CRA: an Open Source Sustainability law?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/the-cra-an-open-source-sustainability-law/How the CRA will help strenghten the sustainability of Open Source projects.How the CRA will help strenghten the sustainability of Open Source projects.<p>The EU’s Cyber Resilience Act has raised a lot of concern in the Open Source world over the past few years. Thankfully, interventions by the Open Source community have steered the law in a better direction, and many fears about the law have been addressed. But the interventions of the Community have gone beyond simply fixing the CRA.</p>
<p>In this talk, OSI’s EU Policy Analyst, Jordan Maris, will explain how the changes the Community made have transformed the CRA into an Open Source Sustainability law, reducing the burden on Open Source developers, while creating funding opportunities for community projects and an new business model for Open Source companies.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Jordan Maris1116:0000:15Why Free Software needs secured long-term fundinghttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/why-free-software-needs-secured-long-term-funding/<p>Discussions about digital sovereignty, cybersecurity, interoperability, strategic procurement and budgets show that we need a dedicated, secured long-term funding programme for Free Software in Europe.</p>
<p>The EU has supported the Free Software ecosystem through funding schemes like NGI and several pilot projects in the last years. However, these funds can be easily removed, as we have seen in the NGI budget cut for Free Software in summer 2024. It is also piecework rather than a well thought-out long-term strategy to achieve clear goal. This exposes a larger issue: that software freedom in the EU needs more stable, secure long-term financial support.</p>
<p>The presentation will discuss clear objectives for such a budget as well as the necessary steps to achieve them. Also I will analyse the current situation and present proposals for upcoming legislation.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Alexander Sander1116:2000:15More Lessons from the EU’s Next Generation Internet Initiativeshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/more-lessons-from-the-eus-next-generation-internet-initiatives/How the past year of upheaval has impacted perspectives of NGI participantsHow the past year of upheaval has impacted perspectives of NGI participants<p>In last year’s SFSCON, the FSFE shared perspectives of the trends in Free Software legal and licensing that we’ve observed over the years while working with Free Software projects that were supported by the EU’s Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiatives.</p>
<p>Since then, much has happened that has affected how all parties working within these NGI initiatives view software and tech development in relation to rapidly changing international norms.</p>
<p>This talk will speak about shifts in perspectives among Free Software developers within the NGI framework that the FSFE has observed in the past year, and the impacts these shifts have on the Free Software ecosystem.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Gabriel Ku Wei Bin1116:4000:15Navigating the AI Junglehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/navigating-the-ai-jungle/The OSPO's New Mandate for AI GovernanceThe OSPO's New Mandate for AI Governance<p>Generative AI and machine learning models are being adopted at a breakneck pace, creating a significant governance black hole in most organizations. The tools and processes we’ve carefully built to manage open source code are often blind to the unique risks introduced by AI technologies.<br />
For years, Open Source Program Offices have been the champions of open source best practices, managing license compliance, contributions, and the security of software dependencies. But the explosion of AI and Machine Learning has fundamentally redefined what a software asset is.<br />
The presentation will address the critical new challenges facing every OSPO in an AI-driven world, since they have to move beyond source code management to explore the new frontier of AI governance. This brings changes to a number of traditional topics like licensing, vulnerabilities, and SBOMs.</p>
<p>Join the session to get your compass and map for leading your organization safely through the AI jungle.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Alexios Zavras1117:0000:15Does using AI code assistants involve OSS plagiarism risk? Description of a research recently published by STFhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/does-using-ai-code-assistants-involve-oss-plagiarism-risk-description-of-a-research-recently-published-by-stf/<p>Professor Oscar (Quique) Goñi has investigated source code similarity detection in Large Language Model (LLM) outputs using the osskb.org service knowledge base from the Software Transparency Foundation and open source software developed by SCANOSS.</p>
<p>While recent research has identified concerns regarding LLMs generating code that closely resembles their training data, the full extent of this similarity across the broader open-source ecosystem remains unexplored. Jerónimo, Professor Quique’s colleague at Software Transparency Foundation and SCANOSS, will describe the findings, which indicate that code similarity in LLM outputs may be more prevalent than previously indicated when evaluated against a broader open-source code base.</p>
<p>Jerónimo will also describe how this study contributes to the ongoing discussion of LLM-generated code’s originality and its implications for software licensing compliance, while validating the effectiveness of lightweight similarity detection algorithms as preliminary indicators for more comprehensive analysis.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Jeronimo Ortiz1117:2000:15Privacy by design: Shaping ethical AI using Fully Homomorphic Encryptionhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/privacy-by-design-shaping-ethical-ai-using-fully-homomorphic-encryption/<p>As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into sensitive domains like healthcare and finance, the tension between data utility and privacy protection has never been more critical. This talk explores how Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) is reshaping the landscape of privacy-preserving computation, enabling AI services that can analyze and learn from data without ever seeing it in plaintext.</p>
<p>We’ll dive into the practical realities of implementing FHE systems, examining both the technical challenges—massive computational overhead, complex parameter selection, and memory constraints—and the transformative potential for ethical AI deployment. Through concrete examples, we’ll explore how encrypted machine learning can enable medical research on patient data without compromising individual privacy, and how financial institutions can detect fraud patterns while keeping transaction details encrypted.</p>
<p>The talk addresses critical questions about AI ethics in the age of data abundance: How can we build AI systems that respect individual privacy by design? What does it mean for algorithmic fairness when training data remains encrypted? How can open-source development ensure that privacy-preserving AI benefits everyone, not just those with the resources to develop proprietary solutions?</p>
<p>Drawing from hands-on research experience, this presentation offers a student’s perspective on the current state of FHE technology—what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to happen to make privacy-preserving AI practical for everyday use. We’ll discuss the gap between theoretical possibilities and real-world deployment, and explore how the next generation of developers can contribute to building more ethical AI systems.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Oscar Licciardi1117:4000:15Ethics, Between AI and Free Softwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethics-between-ai-and-free-software/Data, Dignity, and Digital SovereigntyData, Dignity, and Digital Sovereignty<p>As AI systems increasingly influence society, ethical concerns around transparency, privacy, and control over information are becoming urgent. This talk explores how Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) provides the technical and philosophical foundation for building AI systems that uphold user dignity and digital sovereignty. Drawing on the work of Luciano Floridi, we will examine how infraethics, the infosphere, and information as a moral good intersect with FOSS principles. With real-world case studies like DECODE (Barcelona/Amsterdam) and data on open-source AI adoption, the talk outlines five concrete principles for building fair, accountable, and sovereign digital systems.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Sergio Srdjan Vemic1118:0000:15Responsible by Designhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/responsible-by-design/Building Ethical AI with Free Software PrinciplesBuilding Ethical AI with Free Software Principles<p>Artificial Intelligence is not neutral. Every algorithm carries a worldview, and too often, it’s one that’s opaque, centralized, and unaccountable. This talk explores why AI ethics cannot be an afterthought or a moral sticker slapped on at the end, but must be embedded from the very beginning of design and development.</p>
<p>Free and open-source software has a unique role to play, not just in making code transparent, but in enabling communities to audit, govern, and reshape the systems that affect us all. We’ll discuss how open models can foster accountability and digital rights, but also how the term “open” is increasingly co-opted by corporate interests to legitimize closed, extractive practices.</p>
<p>Through real-world examples and speculative provocations, we’ll ask: What does responsible AI really look like in practice? How do we move beyond just opening code to embedding ethics into architectures, datasets, licenses, and development cultures?</p>
<p>Free software can be the backbone of a more just AI, but only if we design it to be.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Giuseppe Aceto1111:0000:35Why you cannot “apt install” an LLM (yet)https://www.sfscon.it/talks/why-you-cannot-apt-install-an-llm-yet/How Debian is rethinking its guidelines for AIHow Debian is rethinking its guidelines for AI<p>As AI starts to become relevant in the free software space, how should we apply our existing ways of thinking about software freedom to this new class of programs?</p>
<p>Deep neural networks present a big shift to the traditional software model; not only we have to consider program code, but we also now have training data as a new component to fit into the picture.</p>
<p>With the help of an insider from the Debian Developer community, we’ll look at how existing distributions are approaching this problem, how more attention about training data can impact existing practice (sometimes in surprising ways), and the way the moral principle of freedom can be both helpful and puzzling for technical goals like redistribution, reproducibility, and security.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Andrea Pappacoda1111:4000:15Making Sense of Sensors: Semantic Access to Time Series Datahttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/making-sense-of-sensors-semantic-access-to-time-series-data/<p>The rapid growth of IoT and smart city applications is generating an ever-increasing volume of sensor data, creating a demand for efficient storage, management, and retrieval. Much of this data is structured as time series — continuous streams of timestamped measurements. Traditional relational databases are not optimized for handling high-throughput, sequential time series data, leading to the rise of specialized systems such as TDengine, a high-performance time series database.</p>
<p>In parallel, ontologies such as SOSA (Sensor, Observation, Sample, and Actuator) and SSN (Semantic Sensor Network) provide a rich semantic framework for describing sensor data, facilitating interoperability and advanced reasoning. In this presentation, we will explore how time series data can be semantically enriched by combining TDengine with Ontop — a powerful open-source tool that enables meaningful, ontology-based access to data.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Manuela Corte Pause1112:0000:15Break Seminar 3EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/0012:2000:15From MongoDB to Postgres: Building an Open Source Standard for Document Databaseshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/from-mongodb-to-postgres-building-an-open-source-standard-for-document-databases/<p>MongoDB, a widely used database, has garnered both love and hate from its users across different industries due to its ease of use. However, it is no longer open source, faces licensing issues, and requires additional resources and knowledge to run. Is there a viable alternative? Can we move existing MongoDB workloads to Postgres without any application-level changes? How can we ensure MongoDB users can continue to use their tools and frameworks?<br />
In this talk, we will discuss the current state of document databases and why there is a need for a new open source standard. We propose that Postgres should serve as the database backend for this standard. We will also demonstrate how to equip your Postgres database with FerretDB, enabling it to handle MongoDB workloads. Finally, we will showcase some MongoDB tools that can be used to manage the database just like if it were MongoDB.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Peter Farkas1112:4000:15App4Cam – Running on innovative camera traps in the fieldhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/app4cam-running-on-innovative-camera-traps-in-the-field/<p>Some widely used biodiversity monitoring practices are undesirable because they are lethal. For example, newts are often trapped for hours before they are identified, and insects are killed in many cases for species identification. What if we applied the newest technologies including affordable high-resolution cameras and AI classification models to these species? At our institute, we developed devices for both examples mentioned.<br />
This talk will focus on the open-source software App4Cam that is running on these devices. It enables researchers to configure their camera traps efficiently and easily in the field as well as to access the data collected while maintaining a low energy consumption. We will look at which projects made the creation of App4Cam possible, what technology stack is being used, what challenges the project faces and what the future might look like.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Daniel Waxweiler1113:0000:15You can’t write “AI” without an “I”https://www.sfscon.it/talks/you-cant-write-ai-without-an-i/Control, clarity, and responsibility in the age of copilotsControl, clarity, and responsibility in the age of copilots<p>In modern software development, AI tools are branded as copilots but, too often, we treat them like autopilots. That’s a mistake.</p>
<p>As someone who writes code with LLMs daily, I’ve learned that effective use of AI starts with understanding roles, responsibilities, and constraints, just like real pilots.</p>
<p>In aviation, the pilot and the copilot follow a preflight checklist where each performs distinct, auditable tasks. One reads, the other looks and confirms. Each is 100% responsible for their own actions: not for supervising the other. That’s the mindset we need with AI: not “let it write and I’ll review,” but “I define, it executes within bounds, I confirm.” The goal is not redundancy but complementarity.</p>
<p>I’ve spent the last few months designing workflows to make this model real. I’ll show concrete examples from my own practice in real use cases: starting with unit tests that define verifiable expectations, breaking down prompts into atomic operations, and using LLMs only for tasks that are context-bounded and algorithmically checkable.</p>
<p>Alongside the pragmatic, I’ll touch on the ethical: delegation without responsibility leads to plausible deniability. And that’s unacceptable. If a function generated by an LLM causes harm, it’s not “the AI’s fault.” It’s yours.</p>
<p>AI doesn’t write software. Developers do.</p>
<p>That’s why the “I” in AI matters more than ever.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Luca Rainone1113:2000:15The AI Shift: Rethinking the Developer’s Role in a Machine-Driven Worldhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/the-ai-shift-rethinking-the-developers-role-in-a-machine-driven-world/What AI means for junior and senior developers – risks, opportunities, roles, and the road aheadWhat AI means for junior and senior developers – risks, opportunities, roles, and the road ahead<p>AI is rapidly changing how we write, test, and think about code. But what does this transformation really mean for developers? Are junior engineers at risk of being replaced by AI tools? And will senior developers still be needed – or will their role evolve beyond what we recognize today?</p>
<p>In this talk, we’ll explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping software development from the ground up. We’ll look at the emerging impact on both junior and senior roles, real-world examples of AI-assisted coding, and future scenarios that may redefine what it means to be a “developer”. Whether you’re just starting out or have years of experience, this session will help you understand how to stay relevant, adapt, and thrive alongside the machines.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Davide Montesin1113:4000:15The “End Of 10”: How Successful Have We Been So Far?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/the-end-of-10-how-successful-we-have-been-so-far/Reflecting on the Global Cross-Community Initiative to Bring Linux to Windows UsersReflecting on the Global Cross-Community Initiative to Bring Linux to Windows Users<p>The end of free support for Windows 10 was 14 October 2025. Well, sort of. Microsoft has kicked the can down the road by one year until 2026. This means one more year that the FOSS community can can introduce users to sustainable software. 14 October also happens to be KDE’s 29th birthday as well as International E-Waste Day. What is more, International Repair Day follows shortly after on 18 October. The irony is deep, but what is not ironic is that hundreds of millions of functioning computers could end up becoming security risks or discarded as e-waste. This means manufacturing and transporting new devices, and that is perhaps the biggest waste of all: hardware production alone can account for over 75% of a device’s CO2 emissions over its lifespan.</p>
<p>The FOSS community had an opportunity here — and we took it! In November 2024, KDE Eco made a call to action at SFSCon to coordinate a global, unified campaign across FOSS communities to upgrade those Windows 10 computers to Linux. We thought big and acted boldly, and many people around the world heard the call and came ready to act! In this talk, End Of 10 campaign contributors will present what we are doing in the campaign and discuss what worked, what didn’t work, and what is still to come.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Joseph P. De Veaugh-GeissBettina LouisCarolina Silva Rodé1114:0000:15Empowering the End User to be More Sustainable in Web Applicationshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/empowering-the-end-user-to-be-more-sustainable-in-web-applications/<p>The carbon footprint of the digital sector accounts for more than 3% of the entire equivalent CO2 emissions and is rapidly growing. Currently, web applications waste resources by providing functionalities and operating with higher-quality attributes that certain users do not need. On the other hand, the users do not have any decision-making power over the resources that are used by the application. Facing this context, this talk presents a project from Unibz that proposes a solution to empower web application users to make eco-friendly and sustainable choices. By proposing that users can reduce energy consumption by turning off functionalities and making trade-offs related to quality attribute parameters, we explore a new dimension not yet considered in the current solutions for the development of sustainable web applications. The presentation focuses on two challenges: how to make it easily pluggable into existing applications and how to provide a user interface accessible to non-technical users.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Eduardo Guerra1114:2000:15Timestamping with opentimestampshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/timestamping-with-opentimestamps/This talk is about timestamping, blockchain, opentimestamps and proofmodeThis talk is about timestamping, blockchain, opentimestamps and proofmode<p>This talk will explore timestamping and its role in proving the existence of digital documents at a specific point in time. We’ll cover how traditional timestamping relies on third-party digital signatures, and how OpenTimestamps leverages the Bitcoin blockchain to provide decentralized, tamper-proof proofs using Merkle trees. Additionally, we’ll discuss ProofMode, a tool designed to help individuals capture verifiable metadata from mobile devices, enabling human rights documentation and digital evidence gathering. By combining blockchain technology and open-source tools, we’ll see how timestamping strengthens digital trust and authenticity.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Timothy M. Redaelli1114:4000:15The Comfort Trap: Getting Too Used to AIhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/the-comfort-trap-getting-too-used-to-ai/<p>You quickly get used to the good things. We’ve already grown accustomed to delegating important tasks to an invisible outsource — artificial intelligence. This raises a question: how ethical is it? The answer isn’t straightforward.</p>
<p>In testing, AI can automate many routine processes, create test scenarios, and find bugs. But if we stop double-checking the results ourselves, we risk missing important details that AI simply cannot understand. Is it ethical to shift responsibility onto algorithms, forgetting about the human who is supposed to analyze and make decisions? Not to mention fair compensation for labor.</p>
<p>The same applies to accessibility — designing interfaces that are accessible to all users. AI can generate image descriptions or help adapt UI design, but it can’t truly feel what people with disabilities need. If we allow AI to handle this without additional review, we risk creating a product that is inaccessible to many. This, too, is a question of ethics.</p>
<p>Think of artificial intelligence like Woland from The Master and Margarita. Don’t ask him for anything directly — especially from those more powerful than you. He will offer and give everything himself. But then it’s up to you to figure out whether it was all done in good conscience, whether we used these capabilities ethically, and whether we remembered the people we are creating for.</p>
<p>In our talk, we’ll explore how to preserve human responsibility in the age of AI, why ethics is not just a set of rules but a conscious choice, and how testing and accessibility have become apostles of digital conscience — helping us make technology truly fair and accessible.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Sofia EtingofJuri Solovjov1115:0000:15Make it proper, build it open!https://www.sfscon.it/talks/make-it-proper-build-it-open/How we build Uyuni with the Open Build ServiceHow we build Uyuni with the Open Build Service<p>Uyuni (https://www.uyuni-project.org/) is the open-source configuration and infrastructure management solution for software-defined infrastructure. The software is made by a lot of open source sources that needs to be packed together for building the final product Uyuni. Given that Uyuni allows to manage several GNU/Linux operating systems, everything needs to also be made available for several different operating systems. All this is possible thanks to the powerful Open Build Service (https://openbuildservice.org/)</p>
<p>The presentation will show how is it possible to build a product like Uyuni leveraging the power of Open Build Service and use this example as a guide for other open source projects too.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Marina Latini1115:2000:15AI Coding & Cybersecurityhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ai-coding-cybersecurity/Why AI coding tools aren’t ready for production yetWhy AI coding tools aren’t ready for production yet<p>As 62% of developers now rely on AI coding assistance, we face an unprecedented challenge: most trust AI output without verification, creating new attack vectors in our software supply chain. This talk examines the critical security vulnerabilities emerging from AI-generated code. We’ll explore how AI tools inherit flaws from their training data and operate without transparency, while discussing practical strategies for responsible AI integration in development workflows.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Michele Magri1115:4000:15How I learnt Golang with Ebitenginehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/how-i-learnt-golang-with-ebitengine/Java OOP practitioner vs. structured 2D game programmingJava OOP practitioner vs. structured 2D game programming<p>During the early 2000s, I was learning Java, and the best way to do it was to create a simple 2D game. At that time, there were few books on the subject, but by following explanations and hard work, I was able to understand the language and manage 2D game development.</p>
<p>Nowadays, it’s a little different, but since I’ve wanted to learn Golang for some time, I decided to relive the same experience I had a long time ago. I discovered Ebitengine, an open-source game engine for Golang, and it was immediate love, mostly.</p>
<p>Golang is quite a different language from Java, and as an OOP practitioner, I had my headaches that I want to share!</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Luca Guadagnini1116:0000:35How AI and automation are changing software engineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/how-ai-and-automation-are-changing-software-engineering/panelpanel<p>AI and automation are reshaping how we write and think about code.<br data-start="329" data-end="332" />Experts from the Open Source community will discuss their impact on developers’ roles, project continuity and the ethics of trusting machines.</p>
<p>With:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Marina Latini</strong>, <em>SUSE</em></li>
<li><strong>Davide Montesin</strong>, <em>Catch Solve</em></li>
<li><strong>Charles H. Schulz</strong>, <em>Vates – Xen Project</em></li>
</ul>
<p data-start="738" data-end="963">Moderated by the journalist <strong><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vitman/">Vittorio Manti</a> (<a href="https://www.hwupgrade.it/">Hardware Upgrade</a>)</strong></p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Marina LatiniDavide MontesinCharles-H. Schulz1116:4000:15Towards Understanding Visualization Impedance Mismatchhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/towards-understanding-visualization-impedance-mismatch/<p>User interfaces serve as the primary interaction point between users and software systems, yet designing intuitive and effective interfaces remains a challenge, particularly when visualizing complex technical data. In this study, we introduce the concept of visualization impedance mismatch, which describes the misalignment between the way data and mechanisms are visualized and the mental models users employ when interacting with a system. Through a case study involving ten developers, we identify key difficulties in UI design and extract 15 user interface patterns aimed at reducing this mismatch. These patterns provide structured solutions to common UI design challenges, addressing issues such as feedback mechanisms, action tracking, contextual messaging, and error prevention. We further discuss internal and external threats to validity when identifying such patterns. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of visualization challenges in software design and offer practical guidelines for developers seeking to improve user experience in data-heavy applications.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Andrea JanesLuca Vannuccini1117:0000:15Dicio voice assistanthttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/dicio-voice-assistant/Libre, multilanguage and offline assistant for AndroidLibre, multilanguage and offline assistant for Android<p>Dicio is a FOSS app, published on F-Droid, that can listen to voice commands and perform actions on the phone as instructed. It supports many different skills and input/output methods, and it provides both speech and graphical feedback. Dicio can interpret requests in 11 languages thanks to contributions from the community. All speech processing, including wake-word recognition, speech-to-text conversion, and natural language interpretation, occurs entirely on-device.<br />
The talk will focus on: 1) the available features and their rationale, 2) the implementation challenges faced, 3) the design choices made to enable community contributions of new languages and skills, 4) a roadmap for future development, 5) the app’s technology stack, and 6) existing alternatives for other platforms.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Fabio Giovanazzi1117:2000:15OPC UA in Industrial Automationhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/opc-ua-in-industrial-automation/<p>OPC UA has become a cornerstone of interoperability in modern industrial automation. This talk delves into the transformative role of OPC UA in enabling seamless communication and data exchange across diverse systems and devices. We will explore the core principles of OPC UA, its advantages over traditional communication protocols, and its impact on achieving true vendor-agnostic connectivity.</p>
<p>We will be discussing the emerging OPC UA Field eXchange (FX) extension, designed to enhance real-time communication and deterministic behavior at the field level. We will discuss how OPC UA FX addresses the challenges of time-sensitive applications and enables advanced control strategies.</p>
<p>To illustrate the practical application of OPC UA, we will showcase Danfoss FlexMotion drives as a compelling example. Danfoss FlexMotion drives are a cutting-edge solution for precise and synchronized motion control, offering advanced features such as integrated safety functions, decentralized intelligence, and high-performance servo control. These drives are particularly well-suited for applications requiring coordinated multi-axis movements, such as robotics, packaging, and material handling.</p>
<p>Best in combination with the workshop “Motion Control with OPC UA”.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Max Kofler1117:4000:15Computational Thinking: What’s Inside the Mind of a Programmer?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/computational-thinking-whats-inside-the-mind-of-a-programmer/The Cognitive Sciences of ProgrammingThe Cognitive Sciences of Programming<p>Computer Science is often too focused only on one of the two machines involved in programming—the computer itself—while overlooking the human mind that drives the process. Have you ever wondered what your mind actually does when you’re coding or tackling complex problems? Which cognitive processes come into play, and how do they function? One of the key elements in this is Computational Thinking, and the idea is that, basically, once you learn them, they concretely shape the way you approach problems.<br />
In this talk, we’ll get a glimpse of these processes and, why not, reason about how to take advantage of them.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Giulia Paludo1111:0000:35Can automated responses to cyber incidents be supported by Artificial Intelligence?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/can-automated-responses-to-cyber-incidents-be-supported-by-artificial-intelligence/<p>Security Operations Center (SOC) are composed of Security Specialists, who analyze and evaluate logs to respond to cyber incidents. The Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) system produces alerts, which are useful to investigate incidents.<br />
These alerts can also be forwarded to a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform, which can provide automated responses. In this talk, we will explore how those automated responses can be powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and used in community playbooks written in Python.</p>
CybersecurityCybersecurityhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/cybersecurity-track-2025/Barbara RussoManuel Zambelli1111:4000:15Cyber Risk Assessment, IT Asset Management and… AI obviouslyhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/cyber-risk-assessment-it-asset-management-and-ai-obviously/<p>To perform an effective cyber risk assessment, you have to know what your business is run by the IT, what is critical and why. Artificial Intelligence is in that perimeter? How? Let’s explore some aspects and discuss about it.</p>
<p>I will start analyzing and talking about technology aspects, best practices and experiences, keeping in mind that AI could be “commodity” for some aspects, but very complex for non-technology consequences of its adoption, also in the cybersecurity field.</p>
CybersecurityCybersecurityhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/cybersecurity-track-2025/Graziano Specchierla1112:0000:15European Cybersecurity Regulations Who’s whohttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/european-cybersecurity-regulations-whos-who/Can Open Source Software contribute to direct and indirect compliance?Can Open Source Software contribute to direct and indirect compliance?<p>DORA, NIS2, CRA, AI Act: An analysis of recent EU regulations that impacts almost all of us.<br />
Can Open Source Software contribute to direct and indirect compliance? (Spoiler: Yes, a lot!)</p>
<p>Many large, mid sized and even small organization in Europe need to focus into one or more of the new regulation that the EC recently produced.Let’s navigate and introduce them and analyze the impacts on the organizations both for the technical and organizational point of view a and explore how and why opensource is essential for compliance efforts.</p>
CybersecurityCybersecurityhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/cybersecurity-track-2025/Carlo Falciola1112:2000:15Cyber Security: Policies and Threat Modeling in OT securityhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/cyber-security-policies-and-threat-modeling-in-ot-security/<p>Securing Operational Technology (OT) environments is critical in today’s interconnected world. OT systems, which control essential infrastructure and industrial processes, are increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. This talk will explore the vital role of robust cybersecurity policies and effective threat modeling in mitigating risks within OT environments, with consideration for emerging regulatory landscapes such as the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA).<br />
We will discuss the unique challenges of securing OT, including legacy systems, diverse protocols, and the need for high availability. The session will delve into the essential components of a comprehensive OT security policy, covering access control, incident response, and change management. Furthermore, we will examine practical approaches to threat modeling, enabling organizations to identify potential vulnerabilities and prioritize security measures.<br />
Attendees will gain insights into how to develop and implement effective cybersecurity policies tailored to their specific OT environments. The talk will also cover various threat modeling methodologies, including STRIDE, and demonstrate how to apply them to real-world OT scenarios. Examples used throughout the presentation will be based on FlexMotion devices, Danfoss’s advanced motion control solutions used in a variety of industrial automation applications. By understanding the interplay between policies and threat modeling, organizations can significantly enhance their OT security posture and protect against evolving cyber threats. The discussion will also touch upon compliance standards such as IEC 62443, and how the upcoming CRA will impact OT security requirements, providing a holistic view of OT security best practices.</p>
CybersecurityCybersecurityhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/cybersecurity-track-2025/Daniel Kopp1112:4000:15Killing with Keyboardshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/killing-with-keyboards/How Your Digital Footprint Can Be WeaponizedHow Your Digital Footprint Can Be Weaponized<p>In an era where information is power, the wrong keystroke can mean the difference between security and catastrophe. Killing with Keyboards explores real-world scenarios where digital traces—social media posts, blockchain transactions, leaked metadata—become vulnerabilities exploited by hackers, corporations, and state actors.</p>
<p>Whether you’re securing billions in crypto assets or protecting an activist network from surveillance, this talk will equip you with the mindset and tools to recognize and mitigate digital threats before they strike. Learn how adversaries think, how data leaks occur, and how to fortify your online presence against those who weaponize information.</p>
CybersecurityCybersecurityhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/cybersecurity-track-2025/Noah Jelich1113:0000:15Router Freedom in Italy: latest developmenthttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/router-freedom-in-italy-latest-development/<p>In this talk, I will present the latest development regarding router freedom in Italy. In particular, I will highlight FSFE’s latest contribution to the consultation opened by Italy’s telecommunications regulator, AGCOM, regarding freedom of terminal equipment in fiber networks.</p>
<p>Italy is one of the European Countries granting router freedom to users. However, exceptions to this freedom in fiber networks proposed by telecom operators and confirmed by AGCOM in 2019 undermine users’ freedom to choose their terminal equipment.<br />
In February 2025, AGCOM initiated a regulatory process to determine whether consumers can choose and use their own routers/modems in fiber networks (FTTx). The talk will indeed present FSFE’s argument presented in the contribution to AGCOM, highlighting why there is no technological necessity to limit the freedom of terminal equipment in fiber networks.</p>
<p>This talk will also shed light on the Next Generation Internet project as a funding initiative for shaping the future of the internet with Free Software. The audience will learn about the funding opportunities and how Router Freedom has been dealt with by regulators in other countries as well.</p>
Open HardwareOpen Hardwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/open-hardware-track-2025/Dario Presutti1113:2000:15Open Hardware PowerPC Powerboard Tyche Desktophttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/open-hardware-powerpc-powerboard-tyche-desktop/The PowerPC Open Hardware Desktop, first step before the laptop versionThe PowerPC Open Hardware Desktop, first step before the laptop version<p>The Open Hardware PowerPC Notebook prototypes designed around GNU/Linux was showed at NOI Techpark under debug stage.</p>
<p>We are now under the design and prototype production of the dekstop version derived in part from the previous laptop design.</p>
<p>We have in part redesigned to solve the boot problem we had on the laptop prototype and produce it before the end of 2025 as will be possible to fit in any desktop chassis and with a more cheaper cost of production.</p>
<p>We will share all the designs and in case even a prototype.</p>
<p>We have started to share the technicalities in Universities inviting students to prepare thesis related to our open hardware designs.</p>
Open HardwareOpen Hardwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/open-hardware-track-2025/Roberto Innocenti1113:4000:15From IoT to Mobile: Oniro’s Technical Journey Toward Digital Independencehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/from-iot-to-mobile-oniros-technical-journey-toward-digital-independence/<p>Digital sovereignty requires more than political declarations—it demands technical infrastructure that spans the entire device ecosystem. This presentation explores Oniro, an Eclipse Foundation project building on OpenHarmony’s foundation to create a unified, privacy-respecting platform spanning IoT devices to smartphones. We’ll examine the technical challenges of achieving true cross-device interoperability, including hardware abstraction layers that enable portability across diverse chipsets, compatibility solutions for proprietary mobile drivers, and distributed capabilities that enable seamless device collaboration. Through practical examples from our mobile porting efforts and embedded device implementations, we demonstrate how open-source alternatives can challenge existing mobile duopolies while maintaining European privacy standards and fostering genuine digital independence through unified cross-device architectures.</p>
Open HardwareOpen Hardwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/open-hardware-track-2025/Francesco Pham1114:0000:15OpenPLC: how industrial are you?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/openplc-how-industrial-are-you/<p>The majority of industrial controllers used for plant automation of any size follow the IEC 61131-3 programming standard. Drawing on open hardware platforms like Arduino and Raspberry Pi, OpenPLC has recently gained a following in small-scale, compact automation. But how flexible and performant is this open-source solution compared to the most prominent players in this scene? In this talk, I will briefly explore the performance and possibilities of OpenPLC as a solution for middle and large-scale control systems, including virtualization and network stacks, such as fieldbuses.</p>
Open HardwareOpen Hardwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/open-hardware-track-2025/Florian Hofer1114:2000:15What is the Fediverse? Defining values and key challengeshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/what-is-the-fediverse-defining-values-and-key-challenges/<p>It is impossible to address digital rights without considering the Fediverse in 2025. Albeit its popularity is growing and its potential looks bright and appealing, it’s terribly easy for its builders, contributors and lovers to fall down a rabbit hole of incredibly niche and specific discussions, overlooking that 99.99% of people out there who still have no clue about it. This talk is intended to be a lightning and dense introduction to the Fediverse, so that everyone can be up to speed concerning its defining values and key challenges.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Tommi Marmo1114:4000:15Bonfire: Public interest Social Networkshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/bonfire-public-interest-social-networks/<p>Technology is not neutral. Social platforms embed decisions about how we connect and which behaviours or content are emphasised. Bonfire shifts that power from corporations and BDFLs to communities, empowering them to create tools and spaces shaped by their own diverse needs and values.</p>
<p>Bonfire is a modular framework for building federated social apps, enabling communities to determine their own governance and moderation practices, and control every aspect of the functionality and user experience. Instead of one-size-fits-all platforms, Bonfire is built from extensions that can be assembled into different apps. From mutual aid groups to research networks, from schools to activist movements, both the features and the underlying social fabric are made to be tailored to each community’s specific mission.</p>
<p>This talk introduces Bonfire’s approach, highlights real-world use cases, and asks what it takes to build digital spaces that are community-led, resilient, and federated not just at a technical level, but socially, politically, and economically.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Mayel de BorniolIvan Minutillo1115:0000:15Fediverse: Beyond text in the streamhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/fediverse-beyond-text-in-the-stream/An expedition into the Fediverse to discover uncharted servicesAn expedition into the Fediverse to discover uncharted services<p>The Fediverse is a large, decentralised social network that continues to grow. Since its beginnings in 2008, text-based platforms such as StatusNet, Friendica and Mastodon have dominated. In this session, we’re going to take a look at what’s out there in the network that’s beyond just text. Starting with well-known video and image-sharing services such as Peertube and Pixelfed, we will explore other projects and the opportunities they offer creative podcasters, streamers and 3d artists.</p>
<p>If you are not familiar with the Fediverse, please watch my presentation from last year, “<a href="https://www.sfscon.it/talks/aboutfediverse/">about:Fediverse</a>“, which will introduce you to this social network alternative.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Tobias Diekershoff1115:2000:15Hiraeth and Hashtags: Building a Bilingual Community on the Fediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/hiraeth-and-hashtags-building-a-bilingual-community-on-the-fediverse/<p>Explore the journey of building and sustaining a bilingual Welsh-English community on the Fediverse. Reflect on the cultural and linguistic motivations behind the service, the challenges of promoting Welsh language use in digital spaces, and the practicalities of moderation, onboarding, and community cohesion in a decentralised environment.Delve into the ways hashtags and local news help foster engagement, while also addressing the tension between global platforms and local relevance. By highlighting the unique role of toot.wales in supporting a vibrant, inclusive Welsh-speaking online space, the talk hopes to offer insights for others nurturing regional or linguistic communities on the Fediverse.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Jaz-Michael King1115:4000:15Decentralised Social Media Initiatives within European Public Service Mediahttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/decentralised-social-media-initiatives-within-european-public-service-media/<p>In 2023, several Public Service Media (PSM) organisations in Europe began trials on the Fediverse (also known as the social web) by launching accounts on Mastodon. Drawing on findings from my PhD research, this talk briefly addresses the following questions: What were their motivations and operational challenges? More fundamentally, does the free, open, and decentralised social web align better with the values, legal remits, and nature of PSM organisations than corporate-owned platforms? Spoiler alert: it does.</p>
<p>Note: If you are not familiar with the Fediverse, check out <a href="https://www.sfscon.it/speakers/tobias-diekershoff/">Tobias Diekershoff</a>‘s presentation from last year’s conference: <a href="https://www.sfscon.it/talks/aboutfediverse/">aboutfediverse</a></p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Joan Pla1116:0000:15Growing the open social web: case studies from Newsmasthttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/growing-the-open-social-web-case-studies-from-newsmast/<p>Sharing lessons learned from our work with a UK local news co-op, The Bristol Cable, and a regional French-Canadian community, Qlub.social.</p>
<p>Two pilots for our open social web growth programme, powered by a tech stack of white-label mobile apps, curated content and channels, and enhanced servers. We’ll talk about what worked and what didn’t, and how rolling out these models could enable the social web to reach new audiences in the future.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Michael FosterSaskia Welch1116:2000:15From Open Source to Open Spaceshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/from-open-source-to-open-spaces/The Fediverse and the Future of Public Digital InfrastructureThe Fediverse and the Future of Public Digital Infrastructure<p>As digital platforms become ever more central to our lives, the need for public interest digital infrastructure has never been greater. While open source software is a crucial foundation, it alone is not enough to ensure that our digital spaces serve the common good. To realize the vision of a truly digital commons in the European Union – one built on openness, participation, and resilience – we need the active support of public institutions, civil society, and developers for the Fediverse. In this talk, I will explore why federated networks like the Fediverse are essential building blocks for a truly digital commons, especially in the European context. Join me to discover how we can move from open source to open spaces, and help build the digital commons our society needs.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Sandra Barthel1116:4000:15Interoperability of Events in the Fediverse: status quo and visionhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/interoperability-of-events-in-the-fediverse-status-quo-and-vision/<p>Events lie at the heart of social life and should be given appropriate treatment in the Fediverse. Events are already supported by multiple ActivityPub applications. However, the ActivityPub specification is quite vague with regard to events; the event object can be complex; and applications are designed for different purposes. This results in limited interoperability between applications. This talk will provide an overview of the current situation and how to overcome the current fragmentation. Can Fediverse enhancement proposals be designed so that they can be used by applications serving different purposes with regard to events? Over the last two years, I have been working on events in the Fediverse and have discovered many different use cases. The vision is to make events a natural part of the Fediverse so that they can be shared and represented consistently across platforms, without each application making its own assumptions.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Menrath André1117:0000:15Build your own timeline algorithmhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/build-your-own-timeline-algorithm/<p>Timeline algorithms should be useful for people, not for companies. Their quality should not be evaluated in terms of how much more time people spend on a platform, but rather in terms of how well they serve their users’ purposes. Objectives might differ, from delving deeper into a topic to connecting with like-minded communities, solving a problem or just passing time until the bus arrives. How these objectives are reached might differ too, e.g. while respecting instances’ bandwidth, one’s own as well as others’ privacy, algorithm trustworthiness and software licenses. This talk introduces an approach to personal, local timeline algorithms that people can either run out-of-the-box or customize. The approach relies on a stack which makes use of Mastodon.py to get recent timeline data, llamafile to calculate post embeddings locally, and marimo to provide a UI that runs in one’s own browser. Using this stack, we will show how to perform search, clustering, and recommendation of posts from the fediverse without any of them leaving your computer.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Davide Eynard1117:2000:15Seppo Onboarding and Installhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/seppo-onboarding-and-install/<p>#Seppo! is a Social Web server designed to be operated by individuals themselves. At first they e.g. rent shared webspace on a fair and sustainable business relation. So they ‘own’ their name and space in the web where they can do whatever law allows and not depend on the mercy of an oligarch.<br />
To run #Seppo! no technical knowledge is required, downloading + copying one file and visiting the according URL with a browser is the complete installation process. Watch that in a live-demo and see how it’s done under the hood.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Marcus Rohrmoser1117:4000:15Seizing the means of communicationhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/seizing-the-means-of-communication/a plan for community-owned social mediaa plan for community-owned social media<p>The unique decentralized nature of the fediverse makes community-ownership possible: from self-hosting your own accounts, to cooperatively managed infrastructure and large instances under democratic governance. This talk uncovers the surprising overlap between the fediverse and the cooperative movement, pondering how we might use cooperative structures for community governance and new funding models. Brought to you by Village One, a worker-owned studio for ethical design and tech.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Harry Keller1118:0000:15From the Fediverse to the Open Social Webhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/from-the-fediverse-to-the-open-social-web/towards the digital freedom to subscribe, communicate and interact across the entire webtowards the digital freedom to subscribe, communicate and interact across the entire web<p>Today’s fediverse is mostly formed from open-source clones of commercial social media sites, but decentralized and communicating with each other. This talk will make the case that perhaps we are not thinking big enough. What if instead we thought of the federation protocols (e.g. ActivityPub and friends) as something that could be added to most websites and make them interoperable with other sites? It turns out that if we did that, the web would get a very powerful upgrade that would be good for users and (most) websites.</p>
<p>In this talk, we’ll take a look a possible future for the fediverse by applying its protocols more broadly, and outline how you can help.</p>
FediverseFediversehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fediverse-track-2025/Johannes Ernst1114:0000:15FUSS: 20 years of Free Software in educationhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/fuss-20-years-of-free-software-in-education/Sustainability, digital sovereignty, and creation of public value for schoolsSustainability, digital sovereignty, and creation of public value for schools<p>Twenty years ago, on September 1, 2005, all Italian-language schools in the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano switched to using free software on their educational computers. In this talk, we will briefly review the history of the FUSS project (Free Upgrade in South Tyrol’s Schools), the reasons behind this choice, highlighting the strengths and challenges faced, and conclude with an overview of the current state of the project which is now officially recognized as a Digital Public Good.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Andrea BonaniPaolo Dongilli1114:2000:15How to make migrations to FOSS successful on the long termhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/how-to-make-migrations-to-foss-successful-on-the-long-term/Supporting the decision makers, who are under attack from the Big TechSupporting the decision makers, who are under attack from the Big Tech<p>Most migrations to FOSS are successful on the short term, some on the medium term, and only a few on the long term. The FOSS industry should improve the support of decision makers, who are attacked by Big Tech and their servants, both directly with daily attempts to discredit them in front of their bosses and indirectly by activities of lobbyists who work for the proprietary software alliance.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Italo Vignoli1114:4000:15Open Education: an opportunity to work together on knowledge sharing and cultural change for the public goodhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/open-education-an-opportunity-to-work-together-on-knowledge-sharing-and-cultural-change-for-the-public-good/<p>The “opens” (Open Education, Open Science, Open Data, Open Software, Open Pedagogies…) are connected in their purposes and in their values, but are too often still divided in sylos when it comes to joint action, joint strategies and joint participation to key cultural change opportunities. The Open Education Italia network (https://www.openeducationitalia.it/) is a community of experts, teachers and other stakeholders aimed at promoting Open Education in Italy, in a broad sense, in full connection with the other open areas, to enhance civic participation, and with particular attention the social impact of open education practices. Born in 2017 to respond to the fragmentation of the sector in Italy, the community has more than 50 members, active from school education to higher education to Lifelong Learning. The bottom-up efforts of the community can do so much while through properly connecting with adjacent communities in the opens it could definitely gain better results in advocating for a more intentional implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation on OER, especially considering the Italian government signed it, together with all other members, but low level policy change happened so far. We want to connect with other open communities that share the same values and purposes to make our efforts more effective and coordinated, so that the change we make can become, even slowly but steadily, the default for the public good.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Paola CortiEleonora Panto'Jonathan Poritz1115:0000:15Progress creating an opensource IT stack for schools in The Netherlandshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/progress-creating-an-opensource-it-stack-for-schools-in-the-netherlands/<p>The current digital educational system is dominated by tech giants. Fundamental rights, like the privacy, freedom, and sovereignty of children, parents, and educators are insufficiently secured. Ed-tech is mainly closed source and full of vendor lock-ins. Products are either overpriced, harvesting data, or both. The time to replace surveillance capitalist based Ed-tech by ethical open source alternatives is now.</p>
<p>All the open source building blocks to create a fantastic sovereign public-values-by-design school IT environment are already out there. All that needs to be done is integrate it, tell schools that it’s not as scary as one might think, and say goodbye to BigTech.</p>
<p>In this presentation we’ll present the situation in the Netherlands, and our the plan and progress how to switch to free and opensource software.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Geert-Jan Meewisse1115:2000:15Schools Free from GAFAM!https://www.sfscon.it/talks/schools-free-from-gafam/Open is better, not just an alternative — that's what teachers have taught usOpen is better, not just an alternative — that's what teachers have taught us<p>I believe this workshop is considered very interesting by school leaders and teachers because it offers the possibility to have high-quality materials tested and produced with the support of teachers themselves, all available for free.</p>
<p>ComeInClasse is creating a valuable material-sharing community among educators by integrating digital tools such as Nextcloud, online editing, BigBlueButton, Moodle, Matrix, and Mastodon with a single centralized authentication system. This integration allows educators to easily share resources, collaborate, and communicate securely while respecting privacy, fostering a sustainable and accessible digital learning environment.</p>
<p>The platform is designed based on principles of sharing and reuse, promoting a circular economy that generates value economically—saving resources—and educationally—supporting skill development and autonomy that reflect deeply on society, of which students are an integral part. The community of users and developers continuously improves the software with passion and a community spirit, ensuring security and privacy essential for modern education.</p>
<p>With centralized authentication, users can access all resources with one set of credentials, simplifying management and reducing administrative time. Dedicated training for educators, including workshops and technical support, facilitates effective use of the platform. This creates a dynamic collaborative network where educators actively participate and support each other’s professional growth and integrated digital teaching.</p>
<p>We will show how the use of free tools has allowed teachers to become protagonists of technology once again. We will tell you how, during our training sessions in South Tyrol/Alto Adige and other parts of Italy, we helped teachers make conscious and highly effective use of technology. We will show you the content they created in just a few hours (and that is available to everyone).<br />
We have also paid special attention to accessibility, specific learning disabilities, and special educational needs. We will tell you how teachers can now consciously and critically use Artificial Intelligence as well, and how they can deposit the results of their work of processing and selection into specific courses on Moodle that are shareable and reusable.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Mauro BiasuttiGiorgio Favaro1115:4000:15Make them think, make it funhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/make-them-think-make-it-fun/<p>Gennari and colleagues at the Physical Computing Lab (pc.projects.unibz.it) of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano work on novel forms of natural interaction with embeddable and wearable computing devices, with and for different people, and especially young generations.<br />
Their work, situated in the context of Human-Computer Interaction, emphasises empowering diverse individuals to not only create with physical-computing technology but also to critically understand its implications. It leverages research methodologies that crucially consider the context and people’s requirements, such as Research through Design and Action Research. Along the years, they have designed and developed tangible toolkits and playful methodologies, such as card-based systems like IoTgo, to facilitate co-design and co-development with different people of novel smart things (e.g., smart bins, smart hats), from pre-school children and teachers to people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers.<br />
Responsibility is deeply embedded in their work. Gennari’s team explores how to design responsibly, encouraging a reflective attitude towards technology and its societal impact. This includes considering ethical implications, privacy, and the broader social well-being when creating physical computing solutions. They aim to move beyond mere technical skill acquisition to cultivate a deeper understanding of technology’s role in daily life.<br />
Furthermore, the team has contributed to the development of tools and frameworks to assess the understanding of physical computing basics, ensuring that design and educational initiatives with physical-computing devices are effective and inclusive.<br />
The playful element is also crucial for making computing and design accessible and engaging. The team’s research often involves gamified tangible interactions, and creative workshops where participants explore the possibilities of design with computing in an enjoyable and exploratory manner. This playful lens helps demystify physical-computing technology, making it less intimidating and more inviting for diverse participants, including in-service teachers and children.<br />
This talk will focus on recent initiatives of the Physical Computing Lab, that demonstrate their approach to responsible design with fun and play.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Rosella Gennari1116:0000:15South Tyrol Cloud for Citizenshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/south-tyrol-cloud-for-citizens/A model proposal for South Tyrol and other European regions, a pathway to digital sovereignty and social inclusionA model proposal for South Tyrol and other European regions, a pathway to digital sovereignty and social inclusion<p>The “South Tyrol Cloud for Citizens” is a nonprofit initiative, created by citizens for citizens. It aims to empower local communities through a trusted, community-rooted cloud platform that enables everyone to manage files, contacts, calendars, emails, and chat in a privacy-respecting environment.<br />
The platform leverages a federated Nextcloud service provider network to guarantee high quality and reliability. Its open, modular structure integrates key components such as an ID management system, Nextcloud, LibreOffice Online, secure mail services, chat, and video conferencing. These tools enable seamless collaboration, document editing, communication, and online meetings, all under community control. Focusing on local involvement, data privacy, and transparent governance, the South Tyrol Cloud strengthens digital autonomy, promotes social cohesion, and bridges generational gaps. The initiative stands as a replicable model for European regions seeking digital sovereignty through solidarity and open technology.<br />
Join us to explore how a nonprofit, citizen-driven digital infrastructure can foster inclusion, trust, and empowerment in the digital age.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Peter AichnerPaolo DongilliHamza jamil1116:2000:15Break Auditorium (A2)Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/0016:4000:15Knowledge Scout: From Talks and Slides to Smart Summarieshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/knowledge-scout-from-talks-and-slides-to-smart-summaries/What if we could turn SFSCON talks into a story anyone can understand?What if we could turn SFSCON talks into a story anyone can understand?<p>Peter Aichner will introduce Knowledge Scout – an open-source project designed to make massive amounts of content from conferences like FOSDEM or SFSCON accessible, searchable, and even conversational. Using a mix of web scraping, Speech-to-Text transformers, and text generation models, Knowledge Scout can extract and process everything from video recordings to PDFs and presentations, transforming them into summaries that make sense even for non-technical users.</p>
<p>Peter will show how this tool can generate clear overviews for individual sessions and entire event tracks – in different languages and via a simple web interface. There’s even a chatbot to help users find what they’re looking for.</p>
<p>If you’re curious about AI-assisted knowledge management, Open Data storytelling, or just want to see how tech can bring bubbles together – don’t miss this one!</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Peter Aichner1117:0000:15Educational games meet free software: “Pronto? Sig. Muschio!”https://www.sfscon.it/talks/educational-games-meet-free-software-pronto-sig-muschio/<p>In recent years, videogames have started entering schools in the shape of educational games – i.e. games designed to teach something. Considering that the tools used in schools should be democratic and transparent, having them as free software is an essential prerequisite. These are the values behind “Pronto? Sig. Muschio!”, the first educational game made in Italy that is also free software. Developed with Luanti and set in a colourful narrative universe, Pronto? Sig. Muschio’s goal is to make young learners aware of how disinformation works through a cooperative learning approach. Pilot projects run during the early summer have shown a great appreciation, both from students and teachers, allowing the game to be showcased to the general public. Lose yourself in the streets of the three cities where the story takes place and get ready to untangle the mystery behind it.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Marco Amato1117:2000:40Unplugged RoboticsWhen Robotics Is EducativeWhen Robotics Is Educative<p>Everyone, kids or not, can learn robotics in a simple, effective and — why not — fun way.<br />
This workshop offers a variety of activities based on six cornerstones: putting the student at the centre; availability of resources; respecting the environment; time limit; short and simple; wow effect.<br />
This is because understanding a complex project with words alone is the key to mastering it.<br />
The activities in this workshop are inspired by Ada & Zangemann tale.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Giacomo AlessandroniMilena Rossi1114:0000:40XR with Godot 4.5: Prototyping on Meta Quest 3<p>This workshop starts with overview of the latest XR technologies, like Android XR, Open XR and upcoming glasses devices. The hands-on session will focus on Meta Quest 3 using passthrough and Godot Engine 4.5 with OpenXR to build a simple AR prototype. Participants will learn how to set up the development environment, create a basic XR scene, and deploy it directly on the headset. The workshop is beginner-friendly and does not require prior experience in XR development.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Adriano VenturiniDario Cavada1115:0000:40The SBOM era: leaving no open source project behind with osskb.org. Creating and auditing SBOMs is now easier than ever<p>Creating complete, machine-readable SBOMs in standardized formats can be a significant burden for many open source projects, especially for resource-constrained, large integration efforts, projects dealing with complex dependencies, etc. Detection of undeclared dependencies and unwanted snippets is one of their main challenges.</p>
<p>The workshop introduces osskb.org, a free of charge service by the Software Transparency Foundation (STF) designed to make accurate open source scanning accessible to all. Integrated as a back-end already by popular open source tools like FOSSology, ORT, FOSSLight, scanoos.py, TheiaIDE… osskb.org detects open source files and code snippets against one of the largest open source knowledge bases, providing license information and without compromising user privacy.</p>
<p>The workshop will show how to create and audit SBOMs using osskb.org and several of these popular open source SCA clients, used in compliance. It will also show how you can configure the openAPI that provides access to osskb.org into your tool of choice so you boost its detection and license information enrichment capabilities.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Jeronimo Ortiz1116:0000:40Motion Control with OPC UA<p>This hands-on workshop offers a practical exploration of motion control using open-source tools, specifically focusing on controlling Danfoss FlexMotion devices, advanced motion control solutions from Danfoss, designed for precise and synchronized movement in a variety of industrial applications.<br />
In the session the participants will receive a FlexMotion device to directly engage with the material and gain real-world experience in controlling industrial automation equipment using open-source software using OPC UA.<br />
The workshop will introduce OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture), a platform-independent standard for industrial communication. Participants will learn how the FlexMotion devices are controlled via a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) that exposes its functionality through an OPC UA server. The core of the workshop involves hands-on exercises where participants will learn to use open-source OPC UA client libraries (e.g., Python-OPCUA) to command the FlexMotion devices, through the PLC, to perform various movements.<br />
Attendees will learn how to establish communication between their computers and the PLC hosting the OPC UA server, write code to browse the OPC UA server’s address space, read and write data to control the FlexMotion devices’ axes, and configure basic motion profiles. The workshop will cover fundamental motion control concepts such as position control, velocity control, and acceleration/deceleration settings, all accessed through the OPC UA interface. Participants will also gain experience in troubleshooting common communication and control issues. By the end of the workshop, participants will have a foundational understanding of how to control industrial motion control devices using open-source tools and the OPC UA standard, with the FlexMotion devices controlled via a PLC. This will empower them to explore more advanced applications and integrations. The workshop will also touch upon the benefits of using open-source solutions in industrial automation, including increased flexibility, customization, and community support, and the interoperability advantages offered by OPC UA.</p>
AutomationAutomationhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/automation-track-2025/Max KoflerFelix TschimbenDaniel Kopp1117:0000:40Introduction to mobile app development for Oniro/OpenHarmony OS<p>This workshop offers a hands-on, vendor-neutral introduction to anyone who wants to start building mobile apps on the Eclipse Oniro operating system.</p>
<p>Step by step, you will learn how to use DevEco Studio, spin up a fresh Oniro project, and grasp the architecture that underpins Oniro/OpenHarmony. You will practice ArkTS and ArkUI’s declarative model by building an application interface and wiring stateful components with decorators, events, and a lightweight MVVM skeleton for basic interactivity. Finally, you will explore component lifecycles and leave with curated resources to continue your open-source mobile-app journey.</p>
<p>No previous experience is assumed—if you’re curious about open-source mobile development and eager to take your first steps on Oniro, this session is for you.</p>
Open HardwareOpen Hardwarehttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/open-hardware-track-2025/Pawel Mandes1114:0000:40FAIR EnoughAssess the FAIRness of your datasetAssess the FAIRness of your dataset<p>FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles are the pillars of the open science movement. When building any contribution, for example datasets or code, FAIR compliance (FAIRness) should be considered as one of the main goals in order to increase the potential legacy of your work.</p>
<p>There are many generic online tools to automatically assess the FAIRness of your dataset.<br />
However, such a procedure should be fine-tuned to your specific purposes, in order to understand more about your data and raise domain-specific questions.</p>
<p>Bring your own dataset and together we will try to transform a basic operation where you mechanically check a list of items into an in-depth examination of your contribution under the FAIR lens.<br />
At the end of the assessment we will end up with both a FAIRness score and a list of questions / comments related to your dataset.</p>
<p>The workshop will be structured as follows:</p>
<p>Introduction (ca. 5′) – FAIRness in practice: DOI, Protocols, Standard Schemas, Licenses<br />
Example (ca. 2′) – Assessing the FAIRness of an online dataset<br />
FAIRness practice (ca. 20′) – Bring your own dataset and let’s assess FAIRness<br />
Wrap up (ca. 8′) – Review of the assessments. Notable examples from the attendance.</p>
<p>Additional Materials needed:</p>
<p>A dataset, eg.:<br />
– an online one and publicly shared dataset<br />
– an offline one, on your device, still not shared</p>
Data SpacesData Spaceshttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/data-spaces-track-2025/Vittorio Iacovella1116:0000:40From Brussels with love: Open Source Policy in the EU<p>Over the past few years, the European Union has made many laws that impact Open Source. The Community has responded by engaging with the lawmaking process, with organisations like the Open Source Initiative and Eclipse Foundation hiring full-time staff in Brussels.</p>
<p>In this interactive workshop, the OSI’s EU Policy Analyst, Jordan Maris will present OSI’s work in Brussels, answer questions about it, and brainstorm with participants about what the Open Source community should advocate for in Brussels in the coming years.</p>
Digital SovereigntyDigital Sovereigntyhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/digital-sovereignty-track-2025/Jordan MarisSimon Phipps1117:0000:40Open Source Private Generative AIUse cases and practical applicationUse cases and practical application<p>This hands-on workshop offers a practical deep dive into Sakura, a modular, on-premise platform for deploying and orchestrating Generative AI models in full privacy.</p>
<p><strong>What You’ll Learn</strong><br />
The workshop is structured to give participants both conceptual understanding and real-world skills in running private GenAI solutions. Attendees will:</p>
<ul>
<li>Understand the Architecture of Sakura: Learn how Sakura integrates LLMs, a model hub, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), multimodal capabilities, and agents in a cohesive framework.</li>
<li>Integrate and Orchestrate Language Models: Learn how to discover, pull, and run various LLMs (e.g., LLaMA, Phi-3, Mistral) within Sakura using the model hub.</li>
<li>Create and Interact with Personas: Use Sakura’s framework to build digital personas with persistent memory, embeddings, and prompt chains. Practice injecting memory traces and customizing behavioral parameters for simulation or UX testing.</li>
<li>Explore Use Cases: Engage with practical examples of Sakura’s power in:
<ul>
<li>Code generation and documentation assistance</li>
<li>Natural language data queries</li>
<li>Visual question answering and image captioning</li>
<li>Voice-to-text conversations with AI agents</li>
<li>Lightweight deployment on edge devices</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>What You’ll Do</strong><br />
Through guided labs, participants will:</p>
<ul>
<li>Explore how to run local LLMs securely without cloud dependencies</li>
<li>Connect via Web to models via Sakura’s orchestration layer</li>
<li>Implement a simple chatbot</li>
<li>Simulate a customer persona and analyze interaction data</li>
</ul>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Carlo Consoli1114:0000:40OpenSCAD – 3D modeling for the creatively challenged<p>Best described as AutoCAD by code, the open-source OpenSCAD provides programmers and engineers with a completely new approach to creating technical 3D objects. This workshop starts out by explaining how OpenSCAD works, and then introduces the most important structural elements of the programming language. When done, attendants are ready and fully qualified to explore OpenSCAD on their own and have, furthermore, implemented a few practically useful objects such as a replacement button for an oscilloscope.</p>
<p>If you want to run the examples shown during the workshop, please <strong>bring a laptop with OpenSCAD preinstalled</strong>. You can visit <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://openscad.org/downloads.html">https://openscad.org/downloads.html</a> to find downloads for Windows, Mac OS and various versions of Linux.</p>
SFSCONSFSCONTam Hanna1114:0000:40Minority and Regional Languages in Free Software & Open TechnologiesSteps towards integrating Minority and Regional Languages in Free Software & Open TechnologiesSteps towards integrating Minority and Regional Languages in Free Software & Open Technologies<p>Minority and Regional Languages like Ladin often lag behind in developing Language Technology, as well as in acquiring visibility in the digital sphere.<br />
This BOF meeting aims at bringing together those working for Minority and Regional and those who would like to better integrate minority and lesser used languages in their Free Software & Open Technologies projects.<br />
Ladin, Romansh and Friulian, are three related regional languages which are co-official at regional level in South Tyrol, the Grisons and Friul, respectively.<br />
Together we are embarking a journey for a joint strategy towards the digital transformation of our languages, in order to make them thrive in our digital world.</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Mathias Stuflesser1115:0000:40Funding your project with NGI Zero Commons FundAll you may wish to know about NGI, its funding opportunities and community.All you may wish to know about NGI, its funding opportunities and community.<p>OW2 is involved in NGI Zero Commons Fund, a European cascade funding (aka “FSTP”) dedicated to open source and digital commons.<br />
The target is European small organizations (companies, associations, academics, etc.) or even individuals.<br />
The fund itself is managed by NLnet, a Dutch non-profit foundation, and the funding – a total of 21.6 MEUR – is part of EU Horizon.<br />
The application process has been made as simple as possible: a form to fill-in, so one can apply for a grant within hours.<br />
Discover how you may obtain NGI grants (up to 50 kEUR, multiple applications possible), what NGI is about and has funded until now, the community involved, etc.<br />
Come and join the community!<br />
More information + online application at https://nlnet.nl/commonsfund .</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Pierre-Yves Gibello1116:0000:40Users and (wannabe) contributors of the software catalogue for the public administration by Developers ItaliaInformal status and updates to gather feedback from the communityInformal status and updates to gather feedback from the community<p>The software available in the open source catalogue (https://developers.italia.it/en/software) and designed for Public Administrations is steadily growing.</p>
<p>The standard used in the Italian catalogue for describing the software metatada (https://yml.publiccode.tools) has been also adopted by the EU for the EU Open Source Solutions Catalogue (https://interoperable-europe.ec.europa.eu/eu-oss-catalogue).</p>
<p>The EU catalogue, launched this spring is expanding rapidly. In the landscape, there are also other national catalogues that are starting to implement new features.</p>
<p>We would like to present our activities and discuss with the community the future opportunities and eventually challenges for increasing the free software adoption in the public administrations with the aim of gathering ideas.</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Daniele PizzolliSara Matassoni1117:0000:40NIS2 is here to stayDeepdive in the norm with an opensouce perspectiveDeepdive in the norm with an opensouce perspective<p>NIS2 is here to stay, so let’s deep dive togheter into the status of the regulation in Italy and in the rest of Europe, in terms of adoption, impact into organizations and, more in the wide, to the society. We’ll discuss what NIS2 is asking , while keeping a special eye on Opensource tools that can be available to the different impacted organizations. NIS2 is in full adoption rush all around EU and is/will impact ten of thousands of organization of different size.</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Carlo FalciolaGraziano Specchierla1108:3000:50Welcome BreakfastSFSCONSFSCON0009:2000:35Presence and continuity – on AI driven automation and decision makinghttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/presence-and-continuity-on-ai-driven-automation-and-decision-making/<p>AI considerations today are driven mostly by fears and greed: fears that AI might not just cancel jobs, but take over the world, altering the civilization in a definitve way; at the same time, AI considerations may also be base on greed.<br />
The notion that AI could effectively replace not just jobs in general but most of all developers and code itself and around itself in a way that would create more wealth for its owners and less cost and frictions with a human workforce.<br />
While AI is certainly poised to alter the way companies work and change the way we interact with information, the truth is that we tend to only consider through the lens of GenAI and use it through prompts.<br />
AI can rely on predictive algorithms to manage digital infrastructures across a variety of deployments in an unified way. In doing so it can gain visibility and insight but also improve its ability to predict undesirable events and scenarios. This talk will discuss the challenges of developing these technologies and ensuring they are accessible to the broader ecosystem.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Charles-H. Schulz1110:0000:15Zap the Flakes!https://www.sfscon.it/talks/zap-the-flakes/Leveraging AI to Combat Flaky Tests with CANNIERLeveraging AI to Combat Flaky Tests with CANNIER<p>Flakes aka tests that don’t behave deterministically, i.e. they fail sometimes and pass sometimes, are an ever recurring problem in software development. This is especially the sad reality when running end-to-end tests where a lot of components are involved. There are various reasons why a test can be flaky, however the impact can be as fatal as CI being loaded beyond capacity causing overly long feedback cycles or even users losing trust in CI itself.</p>
<p>Ideally CI maintainers want potential flakes to be flagged at the earliest stage of the development lifecycle, so that they do not even enter the end-to-end test suite. They want a gate that acts as a safeguard for developers, pointing out to them what kind of stability issues a test has. This reduces CI user frustration and improves trust in CI. At the same time it cuts down on unnecessary waste of CI system resources.</p>
<p>This talk will explore the CANNIER approach, which aims to reduce the time cost of rerunning tests. The speaker and the audience will take a closer look at the feature set used to create training data from existing test code of the [KubeVirt](https://kubevirt.io/) project, enabling CI systems to predict probable flakiness of a certain test with an AI model.</p>
<p>The speaker will cover how a subset of the CANNIER feature set is implemented, how it is used to generate training data for an AI model, and how the model is used to analyze flakiness probability, generating actionable feedback for test authors.</p>
<p>Attendees will gain insight on how the CANNIER approach can help them improve test reliability, ultimately enhancing overall software quality and team productivity.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Daniel Hiller1110:2000:15A carrier approach to efficient CPE managementhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/a-carrier-approach-to-efficient-cpe-management/How an ACS can simplify appliances delivery and monitoringHow an ACS can simplify appliances delivery and monitoring<p>Efficient Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) management is critical for reducing operational costs, improving service quality, and enhancing customer satisfaction. This talk introduces, after a brief overview of the TLC setup in Italy, how Qnets implemented data-driven strategies to optimize deployment, monitoring and maintenance of CPEs, demonstrating how carriers can minimize downtime and improve the customer experience.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Marco Marinello1110:4000:15Performance and Energy Efficiency in Dockerhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/performance-and-energy-efficiency-in-docker/An Open-Source Pipeline to Measure and Improve Software ConsumptionAn Open-Source Pipeline to Measure and Improve Software Consumption<p>Performance and energy consumption are deeply connected, yet often overlooked in software optimization.<br />
I will present a pipeline that measures both, helping developers and companies analyze the trade-offs between speed and efficiency in Dockerized applications.<br />
Through real-world use cases executed on a open source project, I’ll showcase how this tool can drive better decision-making and invite businesses to test it in their workflows.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Alessandro Aneggi1111:0000:15Sovereign Cloud and Open Source: The Future of Cloud Computinghttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/sovereign-cloud-and-open-source-the-future-of-cloud-computing/<p>In a world dominated by major cloud providers, digital sovereignty has become a critical concern for governments, enterprises, and strategic industries. Adopting open source technologies not only provides greater flexibility and control but also drives innovation and technological independence.</p>
<p>In this talk, we’ll explore initiatives backed and promoted by the European Union that are laying the groundwork for a sovereign cloud (one that extends beyond Europe). We’ll dive into a real-world project aiming to revolutionize the edge with 5G connectivity, powered by OpenNebula, leveraging open source to ensure interoperability and efficiency.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about hyperscalers controlling the market and unsure about (or unaware of) open alternatives, this talk will provide key insights into how open-source technology is shaping the future of digital sovereignty, especially in the cloud.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Francisco Picolini1109:2000:35Does EU regulation care about ethics?https://www.sfscon.it/talks/does-eu-regulation-care-about-ethics/European Regulation with Open Source in focus: is it all bad? And how did it come about?European Regulation with Open Source in focus: is it all bad? And how did it come about?<p>Depending who you ask, it seems that recently, the European Union has started picking fights with Open Source. Regulations for software producers like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), but also the Artificial Intelligence Act and Product Liability Directive have direct effects on Open Source developers, businesses and foundations. Where is all this coming from, and is regulation all that bad?</p>
<p>By looking at the political discussions and societal debates that have led up to landmark legislation like the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA), Product Liability Directive (PLD), Digital Services Act (DSA), Digital Markets Act (DMA), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the talk wants to shed some light on the ethical dimensions of European regulation.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Sebastian Raible1110:0000:15Beyond Code: Expanding the Open Source Ethos to Build a Fairer Economy and Stronger Democracyhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/beyond-code-expanding-the-open-source-ethos-to-build-a-fairer-economy-and-stronger-democracy/A cultural call to action — with real-world examples — to bring open values beyond software and into the foundations of business and society.A cultural call to action — with real-world examples — to bring open values beyond software and into the foundations of business and society.<p>Open source is more than a development model — it’s a cultural force for shaping a fairer economy and protecting democracy. This talk is a call for a cultural shift: let’s extend the open ethos beyond code, into business and society, to ignite a cooperative revolution for a more balanced form of capitalism.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Stefano Pampaloni1110:2000:15From Code to Market: Strategic Business Models and OSPO Implementation in the Open Source Ecosystemhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/from-code-to-market-strategic-business-models-and-ospo-implementation-in-the-open-source-ecosystem/<p>In a global context characterized by growing geopolitical polarization, digital sovereignty and technological independence have become strategic priorities for governments and organizations, while open source emerges as a fundamental response to technological monopolies and critical dependencies. In this presentation, we will evaluate together why 90% of IT companies going to market should consider launching with an open source model, and how Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs) are essential for making these systemic choices at the enterprise level.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Valentina Del Prete1110:4000:15Procurement Updatehttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/procurement-update/How to use public tenders strategically to prevent openwashing while fostering Free SoftwareHow to use public tenders strategically to prevent openwashing while fostering Free Software<p>Public procurement is more than an administrative process: it can serve as a powerful lever for reducing vendor lock-in and strengthening technological sovereignty across Europe. For this, a Free Software First approach is needed. But how can Free Software be procured without rewarding freeloaders and openwashers? Introducing and applying award criteria beyond price is essential for this.</p>
<p>Simply prioritising Free Software in tenders can incentivise some vendors to openwash proprietary products or undercut providers who actually develop and maintain Free Software by selling code they did not create or support themselves, without contributing back to the original developers. Such destructive market behaviour will not lead to technological sovereignty and also harms the Free Software ecosystem, undermining the intended benefits of fair procurement.</p>
<p>In this talk, we will discuss how public administrations can detect and mitigate these practices by introducing effective and fair procurement criteria — a topic the Free Software Foundation Europe has been working on intensively in recent years. We will also explore how the upcoming EU procurement directive reform could support this shift and how it should be designed to advance Europe’s technological sovereignty through Free Software and the “Public Money? Public Code!” principle.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Johannes Näder1111:0000:15Ethical AI for Emotional Micro-Momentshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethical-ai-for-emotional-micro-moments/Why We Need Open Source Approaches for Transparent and Fair MarketingWhy We Need Open Source Approaches for Transparent and Fair Marketing<p>One of the central fields of application for Artificial Intelligence (AI) is marketing. Amongst others, companies are using AI to target consumers during so-called emotional micro-moments, i.e. brief situations when people are emotionally charged and highly receptive to influence. While these micro-moments offer significant opportunities to influence consumers, ethical concerns are usually ignored.</p>
<p>Most of the AI systems are proprietary, black-box solutions controlled by corporations. This leads to a lack of transparency that makes it hard or almost impossible to understand how the system makes decisions. Ethical aspects can therefore not really be checked, neither by regulators nor by consumers. Not even ethically aware companies that employ the AI tool can check whether their own ethical standards are fulfilled when targeting consumers.</p>
<p>This talk is a call for action: As more and more companies are using AI for micro-moments marketing, we urgently need open-source AI frameworks that enable transparency. I will outline the specific technical, ethical, and psychological challenges involved, and argue why an open-source ecosystem — with open models, transparent data pipelines, and auditable algorithms — is essential to build trustworthy AI in this domain.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Thomas Aichner1111:2000:15Ethical AI in Marketing: Open Source Automation That Respects Human Behaviorhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethical-ai-in-marketing-open-source-automation-that-respects-human-behavior/Building Customer Trust Through Transparent Algorithms and Behavioral ScienceBuilding Customer Trust Through Transparent Algorithms and Behavioral Science<p>How can marketing automation respect human psychology while leveraging AI capabilities? This presentation explores ethical implementation of AI-driven marketing using Mautic as a practical open-source example. Drawing from behavioral science research, copyright law expertise, and real-world digital agency experience, we’ll examine transparent algorithms, explainable automated decisions, and psychological principles for respectful personalization. Topics include cognitive bias awareness in automated campaigns, neurological responses to privacy-respecting marketing, and frameworks for building customer trust through FOSS tools. We’ll cover practical implementation strategies that honor user behavioral patterns while maintaining business effectiveness, demonstrate how open-source platforms enable ethical AI marketing that builds relationships rather than exploiting cognitive vulnerabilities, and explore the intersection of GDPR compliance, emerging EU AI Act requirements, and behavioral profiling. Attendees will gain actionable frameworks for transitioning from manipulative “black box” marketing AI to transparent, community-driven solutions that respect human psychology and digital rights.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Gaber Marolt1111:4000:15Free Open Source Software Maintainers and LLMs: It’s complicatedhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/free-open-source-software-maintainers-and-llms-its-complicated/<p>While large language models (LLMs) offer an undeniable boost and lower the barrier to entry for new contributors to open-source projects, they also introduce challenges for maintainers.<br />
LLMs are flooding repositories with AI-generated content ranging from helpful to severely broken. Furthermore, there is often no clear way to trace how a contribution was generated or whether it might introduce subtle copyright or licensing concerns.<br />
On the other hand, these tools offer an undeniable productivity boost and help with less glamorous but equally critical aspects of open-source maintenance, such as drafting release announcements and performing translations.<br />
This talk aims to initiate a discussion about the social and technical tensions at play.<br />
What constitutes a ‘contribution’ when machines do most of the work?<br />
How can we preserve trust, maintainability and community health in an era of AI-accelerated contributions?</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Daniele Gobbetti1112:0000:15What Java User Groups Can Teach Us About Growing Open Source Communitieshttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/what-java-user-groups-can-teach-us-about-growing-open-source-communities/<p>Open source communities don’t grow by magic – they grow through people, consistency, and connection.</p>
<p>In this talk, we’ll look at what Java User Groups (JUGs) have taught us about the real challenges of building and sustaining a technical community: from geographical and cultural differences to collaboration gaps, and keeping momentum over time. Using lessons from experienced JUG organizers, we’ll highlight how strong local leadership, regular engagement, and a focus on people – not just code – can drive long-term growth in any open source community.</p>
<p>Whether you’re running a meetup, managing an open source project, or trying to revive community interest, these insights will help you keep the JUG-gle going.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Dominika Tasarz-Sochacka1112:2000:15Why open source communities do(n’t) work (anymore)https://www.sfscon.it/talks/why-open-source-communities-dont-work-anymore/Lessons learned over the past 21 yearsLessons learned over the past 21 years<p>Open source and free software is not only a choice of license – it is much more. In an ideal world, it is the equivalent of humanitarian projects, translated into software and technology. Where doctors without borders use their knowledge selflessly around the world to help those in need, where food banks support those from our society who need it the most, and where student exchange programs transport knowledge and learning into the world, open source projects have similar values and ideals in mind.</p>
<p>It is about working around the globe with likeminded people, who bring in their skills and talent for a common goal and for the benefit of society. Diverse, inclusive, welcoming, with higher goals in mind, independent of age, language, culture, profession or religion.</p>
<p>With the ongoing professionalisation and commercial value of projects, upholding such ideals can become a growing challenge.</p>
<p>Open source has arrived in people’s heads and minds and has become “business as usual”. Where there is money, politics grow, so FLOSS values and ideals can quickly clash with economic necessities and demands.</p>
<p>Have values changed? Have we changed? How can we, and do we want to, go back to the “good old values”, if they ever existed?</p>
<p>Based on over 21 years of experience with free and open source projects, this talk aims to shed some light into how the landscape has changed over the past two decades, and what challenges a FLOSS project can face.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Florian Effenberger1112:4000:15Making a sport management game in Godothttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/making-a-sport-management-game-in-godot/99 Managers Futsal Edition99 Managers Futsal Edition<p>The goal of this project is to create a series of FOSS team sport manager games, with Futsal as the first sport covered. In sport management games, you play as the manager of a team and need to guide your team to success. Futsal is a 5 vs 5 indoor football game that is faster and more intense.</p>
<p>Many parts of the code, such as calendar planning, economics, and player transfers, would remain the same for other sports, making it easier to cover additional sports once reusable code components are identified.</p>
<p>Currently, it is a Godot game, but ideally, a C/C++ library or module would be the final stage of the project. This could give FOSS game developers a significant advantage over proprietary sports management games.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Simon Dalvai1113:0000:15Arc-Team and the OpArc Projecthttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/arc-team-and-the-oparc-project/Over two decades of experience in Open Source and ArchaeologyOver two decades of experience in Open Source and Archaeology<p>Through the OpArc Project, Arc-Team has contributed over the last 20 years to research in the pioneering field of Open Source as applied to archaeology. Among the main achievements of the project are the development of ArcheOS, the first GNU/Linux system for archaeologists, and the establishment of ArcheoFOSS, a conference specifically focused on archaeology and Open Source. Arc-Team has also innovated in the field of archaeorobotics with open hardware prototypes such as ArcheoDrone and ArcheoRov. Additionally, the company has promoted the concept of Open Knowledge and the use of Open Data by organizing Wikipedia edit-a-thons and designing web GIS (RAPTOR) for recording and sharing archaeological data online, thereby advancing open access in cultural heritage.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Luca Bezzi1113:2000:15Lessons learned: Guidance on how to make open source development a successhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/lessons-learned-guidance-on-how-to-make-open-source-development-a-success/<p>‘Public money, public code!’ – a demand that is becoming more important than ever. But what happens when this demand is actually implemented?</p>
<p>In this talk, we will show how digital sovereignty and modern cloud infrastructures can be reconciled – an approach that is particularly relevant for public authorities, local governments and educational institutions.</p>
<p>Using concrete use-case scenarios, we discuss how public administrations can work more efficiently, securely and independently – and why it is becoming increasingly necessary to move away from proprietary dependencies. We provide a practical insight into our everyday development of open source software and show how we design our software development life cycle for open, transparent and reusable software and where we have encountered unexpected challenges along the way. We share our experiences, lessons learned and solutions to technical hurdles, organisational structures and legal pitfalls. The aim is to encourage other public actors to take responsibility for public code themselves and thus help shape the path to true digital sovereignty.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Tobias Baader1113:4000:15I Love Free Software Dayhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/i-love-free-software-day/Embracing the power of a thank youEmbracing the power of a thank you<p>In the realm of Free Software, expressing gratitude towards Free Software contributors often goes unnoticed. The [“I Love Free Software Day”] (https://ilovefs.org) provides a platform for individuals and organisations to do exactly this, showing appreciation. But it is crucial to recognize that our appreciation for Free Software should extend far beyond this single day. This talk highlights the significance of the “I Love Free Software Day” as a platform for expressing support, love, and gratitude towards the developers and contributors who make Free Software possible.</p>
<p>Throughout the presentation, we will showcase memorable moments and successful initiatives from past celebrations, demonstrating the collective efforts to acknowledge and honor the impact of Free Software. We will discuss ideas and strategies for making the upcoming “I Love Free Software Day” even more remarkable.</p>
<p>However, it is essential to emphasize that our expressions of love and support for Free Software should not be limited to just one day. While the “I Love Free Software Day” serves as a catalyst for celebration, it should inspire us to continue demonstrating our gratitude throughout the year. We will explore ways to incorporate ongoing appreciation into our daily lives, such as contributing to Free Software projects, advocating for their importance, and recognizing the efforts of developers and contributors regularly also in a financial way.</p>
<p>By extending our appreciation beyond a single day, we can cultivate a culture of continuous support for Free Software. We invite everyone interested in Free Software to join us in this endeavor, as we strive to create an environment where gratitude and acknowledgment become integral parts of our interactions within the Free Software community.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Ana Galan1114:0000:15How to get the LPI DevOps Tools Engineer Certificationhttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/how-to-get-the-lpi-devops-tools-engineer-certification/<p>The lecture describes how to prepare for the Linux Professional Institute – LPI Exam 701: DevOps Tools Engineer exam. Topics include – Which LPI certifications are available? – What are the learning objectives of the LPI 701: DevOps Tools Engineer exam? – How does the exam work? – What do the exam questions look like (fictitious example questions)? – How can you prepare for the exam?</p>
<p>No previous knowledge is required for the lecture. For the LPI Exam 701: DevOps Tools Engineer, an LPIC-1 Linux certification is recommended, but is not a mandatory requirement. Practical experience with Linux in the DevOps area is also recommended.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Werner Heuser1114:2000:15Ethics and the Cost of Moral Tech Debthttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/ethics-and-the-cost-of-moral-tech-debt/<p>Software has eaten the world — and with it, the decisions we make as engineers send ripples across industries, societies, and lives. But are we truly aware of the impact our work has — and the ethical responsibility that comes with it? And now, as AI accelerates that impact and amplifies consequences at scale, the ethical stakes are even higher.</p>
<p>Let’s think a bit more deeply and look beyond headline scandals – like those of Cambridge Analytica, Boeing, and Volkswagen. And recognize that what we should care about goes beyond just delivering on time software that meets the requirements. Let’s confront some often-ignored ethical topics that quietly shape our codebases, products, projects and careers.</p>
<p>Moral implications, hard choices, and ethical dilemmas — we often face these with their blurred lines between right and wrong. I’ll share real-world industry cases and personal stories from my three-decade-long journey in tech. The talk is an invitation to reflect on what it means to lead an ethical professional life and what practical steps we can take for creating a positive impact on society. Expect a provocative and personal perspective that challenges assumptions, sparks critical questions, and offers practical ideas for acting with integrity – individually, within your team, and across your organization.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Iancho Dimitrov1114:4000:15Unlocking the Power of Community: Rethinking Open Hardware Adoption from the Ground Uphttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/unlocking-the-power-of-community-rethinking-open-hardware-adoption-from-the-ground-up/<p>This presentation challenges dominant narratives around technology adoption by amplifying the voices of open hardware (OH) communities. Drawing from 28 podcasts filled with grassroots experiences, it offers a academic qualitative investigation into the motivations, struggles, and victories of OH adopters as in both makers and users. Using the UTAUT2 framework, the study uncovers not only familiar drivers like performance and effort expectancies but also two critical, overlooked motivators: educational value and recognition benefits. These findings push beyond traditional models, spotlighting how OH empowers individuals, democratizes innovation, and disrupts centralized control over technology. The session will invite the audience to reflect on how storytelling, community building, and shared learning fuel the adoption of open technologies. The presentation will highlight real-world narratives that clarify the adoption “black box,” offering community-driven strategies to overcome barriers and promote sustainable engagement in open technology ecosystems.</p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Seckin CelikAlessandro RossiErica Santini1109:2002:40FSFE Italian Community Meetinghttps://www.sfscon.it/talks/fsfe-italian-community-meeting/Annual Meeting of the FSFE Italian CommunityAnnual Meeting of the FSFE Italian Community<p>Join us for the annual gathering, our moment to celebrate the people who make our community alive — all of us who give our free time to carry forward the culture of Free Software. We’ll gather to share our stories, cheer for our achievements, and enjoy the joy of being together.</p>
<p>There will be surprises, laughter, and plenty of inspiration. More than just a meeting, it’s a party for our community — a chance to connect, strengthen friendships, and talk about what we can build next. Let’s celebrate us!</p>
<p>This is an <strong>hybrid event</strong>. You can join us either online or in person.</p>
<p><b>REGISTRATION NEEDED by 31st October: </b><a href="https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4706126/">https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4706126/</a></p>
<p>Please note, the official language of the FSFE Italian Community is Italian, hence the event will be held in <strong>Italian</strong>.</p>
Side Event | FSFE Italian community meetingSide Event | FSFE Italian community meetinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/fsfe-italian-community-meeting-2025/Marta Andreoli1110:0002:00Endof10 @ SFSCONNever too late to reduce e-waste, close Windows, and open the door to Free SoftwareNever too late to reduce e-waste, close Windows, and open the door to Free Software<p>Join us for the EndOf10 event, a unique opportunity to breathe new life into old computers and reduce electronic waste. As Windows 10 reaches its end-of-life, many PCs will be discarded, contributing to the growing problem of e-waste. But what if we could give these machines a second chance?</p>
<p>At our workshop, we’ll be collecting up to<strong> 20 decommissioned PCs</strong> from local businesses, organizations, and schools that are no longer eligible for Windows 11 upgrades. Our team of volunteers will then demonstrate how to install GNU/Linux, a free and open-source operating system, on these devices. Specifically, we’ll be using the FUSS distribution, which is already widely used in schools across South Tyrol.</p>
<p>The installation will take place in two cycles of 10 computers at a time, so everyone gets a chance to participate hands-on. The process will also be projected onto a large screen, allowing attendees to follow along and learn from our experts. But that’s not all – we’ll also be inviting participants to get hands-on and help us install the new operating system on all the PCs. <strong>By the end of the workshop, we’ll have transformed these old machines into fully functional, Linux-powered computers, ready for a new lease on life.</strong></p>
<p>The best part? <strong>All the refurbished PCs will be donated to the attendees</strong>, providing them with a free, functional computer and a chance to experience the benefits of free software. Our goal is not only to reduce waste but also to promote digital inclusion and provide access to technology for those who may not have been able to afford it otherwise.</p>
<p>By attending the EndOf10 event, you’ll be contributing to a more sustainable and equitable approach to technology, while also gaining valuable skills and knowledge about free and open-source software. So mark your calendars, join us for two hours of learning and community building, and take home your very own refurbished PC!</p>
<p><strong>Open to everyone (no technical background required)</strong></p>
<p><b>REGISTRATION NEEDED: </b><a href="https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4706124/">https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4706124/</a><br />
Participants can choose between two time slots: 10:00–11:00 or 11:00–12:00</p>
<p>Supported by: <a href="https://fuss.bz.it/"><strong>FUSS </strong></a>& <a href="https://www.lugbz.org/"><strong>LUGBZ</strong></a></p>
<p> </p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Anton AuerAndrea BonaniPaolo DongilliBernhard Kiem1112:0000:40Font management for document interoperability in LibreOfficeHow to configure and manage the LibreOffice font replacement featureHow to configure and manage the LibreOffice font replacement feature<p>The main issue for document interoperability is a trivial one, and are fonts which are proprietary on Windows/macOS and free on Linux. LibreOffice is capable of handling on the fly font replacement to solve the issue, but the feature has to be configured and managed to work properly.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Italo Vignoli1113:0000:40Next-Gen IoT Teaching and Learning Platform with AIoT Development Kit and IoT CloudEmpowering Educators with DIY AIoT Tools for Smart, Open, and Scalable Learning EnvironmentsEmpowering Educators with DIY AIoT Tools for Smart, Open, and Scalable Learning Environments<p>This workshop introduces an innovative AIoT-based educational framework designed to revolutionize STEM learning through hands-on engagement. Participants will explore a modular IoT-enabled Teaching and Learning Platform equipped with sensor-based hardware, machine learning integration, and real-time data processing via IoT Cloud. The session will provide hands-on activities including assembling the AIoT Development Kit, configuring cloud dashboards, and deploying classroom-ready IoT projects. Emphasis will be on scalable content creation and real-world problem-solving using AI and IoT. Attendees will leave with the skills and tools to implement DIY smart learning solutions in schools, colleges, or research labs. The workshop fosters collaboration, experimentation, and digital empowerment in education.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Krishan Mohan Patel1114:0002:00Mapping NOI Techpark in OpenStreetMapLet's map NOI Techpark with the OSM CommunityLet's map NOI Techpark with the OSM Community<p data-start="140" data-end="907">This two-hour workshop, organized by volunteers from Wikimedia Italia, will focus on improving the OpenStreetMap coverage of NOI Techpark in Bolzano. Participants will receive a short introduction about OpenStreetMap, mobile collaborative mapping tools, and methodologies. Then there will be practical mapping activities carried out both on PC and in the field with the apps. The session is open to everyone interested in contributing to open geographic data. Multiple topics will be covered, like how to contribute to humanitarian mapping but also how to improve mapping in your city about topics like cycling networks, accessibility, and more. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop, mouse, and smartphone.</p>
<p data-start="909" data-end="994">Registration is <strong>optional but recommended</strong> to help estimate the number of participants.</p>
<p><b>REGISTRATION: </b><a href="https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4707520/">https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4707520/</a></p>
<p>Supported by: <a href="https://www.wikimedia.it/"><strong>Wikimedia Italia</strong></a></p>
SFSCONSFSCONLorenzo Stucchi1110:0000:40The future is (also) femaleReflecting on the barries for an inclusive futureReflecting on the barries for an inclusive future<p>The IT of tomorrow needs to have the active participation of diverse teams, that take into consideration the point of view and perspectives of the whole society. Currently the perspective of women and other underrepresented communities have not being included so at this workshop we want to explore our role in shaping an inclusive, open and digital sovereign future together!</p>
<p>Together, we’ll reflect on the barriers we face (from access and visibility to inclusion and recognition) and share strategies, stories, and practical examples that have helped us thrive in Free Software. Our goal is not only to build solidarity and support, but to surface good practices that can make Free Software truly inclusive.</p>
<p><strong>This workshop is an open space by and for women, and other underrepresented communities. Registration is intended for women*<br />
</strong><em>(*women, inter, trans and non-binary people)</em></p>
<p><b>REGISTRATION NEEDED by 31st October: </b><a href="https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4706122/">https://pretix.eu/noi-digital/sfscon25/4706122/ </a></p>
<p>Supported by: <strong><a href="https://fsfe.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FSFE – Free Software Foundation Europe</a></strong></p>
Community BuildingCommunity Buildinghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/community-building-track-2025/Ana Galan1113:0000:40How to test the performance of microservicesTLDR: use locust and Jaeger to understand why your software is slow.TLDR: use locust and Jaeger to understand why your software is slow.<p>In a microservices architecture, performance bottlenecks can hide deep within service boundaries, communication patterns, or scaling strategies. This tutorial provides a practical introduction to performance testing microservices, focusing on how to design realistic test scenarios and interpret results for actionable insights.</p>
<p>We will explore key challenges unique to microservices—such as distributed tracing. Attendees will learn how to use tools like Locust for load generation and Jaeger for distributed tracing. The session will also cover test environment setup, including containerized deployment strategies and test data management.</p>
<p>By the end of the tutorial, participants will understand how to create effective performance test plans tailored for microservices, identify common performance pitfalls, and confidently assess the scalability and responsiveness of their systems.</p>
EngineeringEngineeringhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/engineering-track-2025/Andrea Janes1114:0000:40Ada & Zangemann for Everyone using MoodleThe great success in schools: Free, highly appreciated by children and teachers, easy and ready to use.The great success in schools: Free, highly appreciated by children and teachers, easy and ready to use.<p>In brief: Sharing the experience made with 900 teachers and 600 students. Together we will explore the Moodle course created by Continuity (within the ComeInClasse project dedicated to training and professional use of free software in schools) and available to everyone, which includes watching the cartoon (or reading the book) and playing interactive games or exercises (memory games, crosswords, drag and drop, etc.).</p>
<p>I believe this workshop is considered very interesting by school leaders and teachers because it offers the possibility to have high-quality materials tested and produced with the support of teachers themselves, all available for free.</p>
<p>Last year at the SFSCON, we gathered some insights:<br />
The book reading can be somewhat challenging for kindergarten children.<br />
There is an unofficial version with a cartoon.<br />
There is a dubbing project in Italian (led by Gabriele Ponzo, a very skilled and professional voice actor).</p>
<p>How could we help? We could have invested considerable time in this project and created conditions to leverage PNRR funds to promote free tools. To do this, we needed to create “something” that lasted at least 10 hours.<br />
How could we keep primary and kindergarten children engaged for 10 hours (5 + 5 consecutive hours)?<br />
So, we asked Gabriele for the video and dubbing, and he provided us with a wonderful, well-made product along with ongoing small improvements.<br />
We created a Moodle course (available for anyone to have and use) divided into 4 modules.<br />
Each module includes 7 minutes of video (the total video duration is 30 minutes).<br />
After the video, we included various activities such as drawing (provided directly by FSFE), games or interactive exercises, and activities involving manual skills and movement: treasure hunts, dance, building a small robot with recycled materials.</p>
<p>We will show you the course and how to use it and offer some suggestions we found useful during our training sessions in South Tyrol/Alto Adige and throughout Italy, also sharing our notes or agenda if it can be of further help.</p>
<p>In the schools we visited, whenever possible, we involved local communities to support teachers in case they wanted to run the activities independently (without us) using Moodle and the course we provided. They are not obligated to complete a minimum of 10 hours and can use the course as they wish.</p>
<p>We managed to cover ten hours of early childhood education training with just the course (without the small robot). Despite the challenge and the high risk of failure, the appreciation was enormous, both for the valuable content conveyed by the book and because the children genuinely enjoyed themselves.<br />
When we managed to make the little robots, the children literally went crazy!<br />
We will prove it to you with concrete evidence 😀</p>
<p>We received many compliments and had confirmation that it was one of the most valid proposals adaptable to many of the key terms (concepts/objectives) present in various funding or financing grants (bandi e finanziamenti). To give a few examples: from inclusion to coding, from tinkering to civic or ethical education.</p>
Skills & TrainingSkills & Traininghttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/skills-training-track-2025/Mauro BiasuttiGiorgio Favaro1111:0000:40⁂ Fediverse Fighters MeetupA gathering of the Fediverse community to plan what’s nextA gathering of the Fediverse community to plan what’s next<p>What moves the Open Social Web forward? The heart of any protocol or software are, first and foremost, the people who make them and adopt them.</p>
<p>Both to celebrate this community of builders and to welcome those who are curious to learn more about the Fediverse, we will gather and have an unconference-style session, with spontaneous focus groups and lightning talks.</p>
<p>Everyone is welcome!</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Tommi MarmoJohannes Ernst1112:0000:40Ethics on AI regarding means used to implement its operationAlways asking why AI should be used,for what and for whoAlways asking why AI should be used,for what and for who<p>How Free Software can get out of the way of software that extracts personal data to be sold to create huge rents for a few multinationals.</p>
<p>No more technology designed as a substitute for teachers, pure madness.<br />
It must be designed to take teachers away from management activities, so that they devote themselves entirely to education and dealing with their students.</p>
<p>Focus on the communities most affected by this industry, starting with the lived experiences of those who are disempowered, discriminated against, and harmed by AI systems<br />
The ethics of AI should be to assess the working conditions of miners, contractors, and crowdworkers<br />
For optimization we should ask whether we are talking about tools for the inhuman treatment of immigrants.<br />
For large-scale automation we should check the ecological footprint of such a road.<br />
New critique of technology and the experience of technical life.<br />
Overturning the dogmas of inevitability, committing ourselves to a more just and sustainable world<br />
Pursuing a politics of denial that counters the narratives of technological inevitability.<br />
Always asking why AI should be used.<br />
Moving out of the era of ‘domain computing’<br />
Shaking off the spells of technological solutionism<br />
Making ‘a different politics of inhabiting the Earth, of repairing and sharing the Planet’</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Roberto Innocenti1113:0000:40“End Of 10” after the End Of Windows 10Supporting Repair Cafes Offering Linux SupportSupporting Repair Cafes Offering Linux Support<p>Windows 10 end of support is 14 October 2025. The “End Of 10” campaign — which started at a BoF at SFSCon 2024! — created an international directory of repair collectives at the endof10.org website to help users upgrade their computers to Linux. But what happens after the end of End Of 10?</p>
<p>The “Opt Green” project from KDE Eco is planning a series of workshops for Repair Cafes. Repair Cafes traditionally work on material objects, and offering software repair is new to most. We want to enable an exchange between those with experience in installing and using Free Software, and those with little to no experience but interest in the topic. In this way, allied communities have an opportunity to share skills and identify ways to support each other over the long-term.</p>
<p>This BoF will be our first opportunity to plan and organize as a community. Open questions to discuss include, but are not limited to: What obstacles do repair cafe volunteers face with software support (as this will differ in important ways from other types of repair)? What tools do Free Software communities commonly use (forums, chat rooms) that can benefit repair cafe volunteers in exchanging tips and helping each other with problems? Are there opportunities for repair volunteers to contribute back to Free Software (e.g., submitting bug reports)?</p>
<p>This is a chance to discuss as a community how to support the global repair cafe network in order to continue the success of the End Of 10 campaign into 2026 and beyond.</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Joseph P. De Veaugh-GeissBettina LouisCarolina Silva Rodé1114:0000:40Nextcloud community meetupOpportunity to talk about Nextcloud and meet the developersOpportunity to talk about Nextcloud and meet the developers<p>Some employees and contributors of Nextcloud will come to SFSCON to help users, empower contributors, and answer questions you have about our platform, how to contribute, or how to set up your own home instance.</p>
<p>Nextcloud is an Open Source collaboration platform great for self-hosting at home and for large organizations. It has previously been awarded at past editions of SFSCON.</p>
<p>We love interacting with the community and accepting contributions.</p>
Side Event | Crane Hall BOFSide Event | Crane Hall BOFhttps://www.sfscon.it/tracks/crane-hall-bof-meeting-2025/Grigory VodyanovAnna LarchMahjoubi Hamza11