I was asked to moderate a discussion about all aspects of DNS privacy at FOSDEM, and I gladly went for that. I’d not been at FOSDEM yet, but I had read about its size, and it really is huge.

Seconds after arriving at FOSDEM’s ‘K’ building on the Sunday morning, Fabian intercepted me and treated me to a much-needed cup of coffee after the four-hour drive. My primary target at the conference was the DNS Devroom to which I got at around 10:30, only to find the dreaded “FULL” sign posted on the door, but I had a “VIP” ticket, and Peter let me in.

Moderating the DNS Privacy panel was huge fun. I got to see Stéphane and Bert (and Peter and Pieter and others) again, and I had the honour of meeting Daniel Stenberg. The (slightly truncated) video of the half-hour panel clearly shows what we talked about, and if you watch it I think you’ll recognize that I really did enjoy moderating it.

I didn’t get to see very many talks at FOSDEM, but I did chat to lots of people: Nicole and Lars, Howard and Michael, Fabian, whom I’ve already mentioned, Toshaan, Pieter, Pieter, and Peter, and several others. I spent lunch and the better part of the afternoon with Christoph and later drove him to the station, and from there I drove the short hop to Ghent.

Config Management Camp was a first for me as well, and I went because I’ve been postponing it for years, and I promised to go this year. Toshaan and Kris do a marvelous job in organizing it.

Cfgmgmtcamp (that’s how it’s spelled – I think vowels are expensive in Belgium) is a tenth of FOSDEM’s size, and much easier for me to handle. The conference is also free of charge, and the organizers serve lovely complimentary pains au chocolat and croissants for breakfast (coffee was very american and took ages to brew). The talks I saw were good, and the speakers well versed.

I spent one day only at FOSDEM, and that’s ok; I don’t imagine I would go again unless I were already in the vicinity; it’s just too large and too full for me. Selecting what talk to see at which time is a full-time job, and the probability of the room being ‘FULL’ is very high. (Somebody told me she came an hour early to the DNS devroom so as to have a chance of getting in.)

I will try to go back to Config Management Camp though: it’s a good size but if it gets any larger it too will be hard to handle. For me.