Collaborative wiki page for building the proposal and managing responsibilities and schedules for atproto-themed devroom at FOSDEM 2027. Original conversation here.
Timeline
| Date | Topic/item | Notes + links |
|---|---|---|
| → October 3 | Build + finalize Devroom proposal | Who’s involved |
| October 4 | Proposal submission deadline | FOSDEM 2027 - Call for devrooms :: pretalx |
| October 20 | Accepted rooms published | |
| October 27 | Issue our CfP | |
| October 27 - November 20 | CfP open + marketing | |
| November 20 - December 3 | Deliberation + approvals | |
| December 4 | Approvals + schedule done | |
| December 7 | Publish room schedule |
People/roles
FOSDEM wants at least 2 named devroom managers. Going by who’s volunteered:
-
@edouard.paris + @viivi.rocks as the two managers
-
@pixeline.be + @vdbdavid.eurosky.social on-the-ground stuff and the evening social event (pre or post fosdem) if bandwidth
-
@alex.bsky.team to confirm the scope of participation
-
@gui.do as liaison with AtmosphereConf Co-Op / Dutch Community
Proposal
The form at: Create proposal :: FOSDEM 2027 - Call for devrooms FOSDEM 2027 - Call for devrooms :: pretalx
Proposal title
AT Protocol
Elaborate description
AT protocol, also nicknamed Atproto is a protocol which allows to create new social experiments by providing a modular system around identity, data and interoperability.
Originally developed by Bluesky PBC for its microblogging app, it is now serves millions of users through a network of applications and services called the Atmosphere.
In 2026, the atproto developer surface expanded in some key ways, including
a) higher-scale network relays with snapshotting and replay support for just-in-time app development and data backfill
b) the ability to create dedicated, private, community spaces on-protocol, using the same SDKs and tooling, and
c) a greater emphasis in general on cross-app integration, as with the standard.site Lexicon for interoperable long-form blogging
An IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) working group has been standardising the core of the protocol since April 2026.
Additional organizer
Edouard Paris - m@edouard.paris
A draft call for papers
Note: Provide a draft call for papers as you would like it for your devroom. You can get inspiration at FOSDEM 2025 - Accepted developer rooms . No need to include deadlines or instructions how to submit, just the expected content for submissions. This content will be shown publicly.
We are looking for talks about the AT Protocol and the ecosystem growing around it.
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
- Applications: what cool application did you build?
- Data that isn’t public by default: private records, group-scoped and shared
data, and what changes for an application when not everything is on the
firehose. - Running the infrastructure: self-hosting a PDS, relays, AppViews, feed
generators, labelers. What are your stories? - Protocol: new features like the permissioned spaces.
- Development: independent implementations of protocol components, SDKs, and
libraries in different programming languages - Moderation: what is your opinion or usage of the stackable moderation and
labeling systems - Account portability and data ownership: what actually works today and what is
still missing - Interoperability and bridges: atproto and ActivityPub and other open social
protocols - Governance: specification processes, and the path toward an ecosystem with
multiple independent stewards - Research, measurement, and analysis of the network
- Critical perspectives: where atproto’s design falls short and what should
change
We welcome talks from protocol implementers, application developers, infrastructure operators, researchers, and community members. Talks from people who are skeptical of the design are as welcome as talks from people building on it. Demos and lessons-learned talks are strongly encouraged over roadmap presentations.
Standard slots are 20 minutes plus 5 minutes for questions. Tell us in your submission if you would rather have a 10-minute lightning slot.
Please note that by accepting a speaker slot, you agree to your talk being recorded.
Note: not sure about time duration ← added lightning slot of 10 minutes based on this year’s schedule for Social Web. For longer talks, I’d leave a 5-minute buffer to accommodate overtime and switching between speakers.
Why does this proposal fit FOSDEM
The open social web is an active area of open source development, and FOSDEM has consistently hosted the communities working on it. Atproto is open source, openly specified, and increasingly developed by parties beyond its original authors.
The topic has already proven it draws speakers and audiences at FOSDEM. These are talks that happened during the 2026 edition:
- DASL Your Protocols!
- AT: The Billion-Edge Open Social Graph
- Decentralized Public Broadcast with Streamplace
- Increasing Long Term Stability of Relations Between Fediverse Identities using SSI on the Fediverse–Atmosphere bridge
- Stop Reinventing in Isolation: Bringing Open Source to Trust & Safety Infrastructure covering Bluesky’s adoption of Roost
A dedicated devroom would let these conversations happen in one room, in front of the audience that wants them, instead of scattered across the schedule.
Interest in the protocol has grown over the past year and many exciting projects have emerged in the meantime. Having a room at fosdem, would let us mark the occasion and celebrate the open source side of the ecosystem.
Prefered slot
Full day
Submitters’ affinity to topic
Note: Creators of AT Protocol (Bluesky) + Developers building apps on the protocol + active community members
Viivi (@viivi.rocks) works at Tangled, a git forge built on atproto, previously organizing communities within the greater tech space as an operator.
Édouard Paris (@edouard.paris) is a meetup organizer and blog writer for the French Atproto community through the website atproto.fr. By day, he is a full time software engineer.
Bluesky PBC, which authored the protocol, supports the proposal and expects to send several engineers.
The room is community-organised, and the named managers choose the talks.
Relevant URLs
https://atproto.com/
https://atmosphere.community/
https://datatracker.ietf.org/wg/atp/about/
Special requirements
Display / Projector + screen, audio setup, option to film and share the sessions (maybe even livestream through Streamplace), so either fast/stable wifi or LAN access
