A while ago I got back from this amazing second visit to Kosovo. I first went out to Kosovo to speak at the Software Freedom Kosovo conference in 2019 when I was working for Libre Space Foundation. It’s been lovely to stay in touch with the team there, help out organise this years conference, and then attend and do a few talks, lectures and workshops. Of course it's also very fun to socialise and hang with a global cross section of the open source culture scene.
The SFK conference was held over 2 days, but I don’t like to travel/fly without maximising my usefulness these days so we extended my program with some days giving lectures and visiting local tech companies. I gave a general lecture about my work and opensource at FIEK to a group of ICT undergraduates, I gave more specific lectures on designing for opensource and OSHWA certification to UBT Mechatronics undergraduates as well as a similar lecture to some Masters students in Computer Sciences.
Over the conference I gave a long workshop each day with Saturday being an “Introduction to FreeCAD for CAD beginners” and on the Sunday a run through “Designing a PCB for fabrication with KiCad.” Also on the Sunday I gave a keynote address “Outside the Locked Box, Why opensource IS innovation”.
Between all of this I got to hang with brilliant friends old and new. Lis and the crew at Prishtina hackerspace know not only how to do hospitality, but also how to brew amazing beers and distil amazing raki. Conversation flows, in Kosovo you are never far away from a friendly but passionate talk about politics and history. I made some amazing new friends and contacts whilst here. In particular a couple of young volunteers at the Hackerspace, Jona and Jora who were so great to hang out with.
As I write this my attention is slightly pulled to the next conference, FOSDEM, on which I am doing a little voluntary work as a dev room manager, but I look forward to picking up with the FSK team as and when to support next years conference. Oh and if you are into opensource or open culture… get out to Kosovo for this. It’s a fabulous event.
