Aug182024

FrOSCon 2024

Free software and open source

were the topics of the 19th FrOSCon, which takes place every late summer at Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. The program offered visitors around 100 lectures and workshops on the topic of open source.

19th Free & Open Source Conference

This year’s FrOSCon program was again very extensive, so we will focus on a few personal highlights here.

Exhibition booths

German-speaking user association TeX 

German LaTeX Association: DANTE e.V.

The purpose of this non-profit association is to support TEX users throughout the German-speaking world.

“We support you in the selection and installation of TEX / LATEX, help you solve user and developer problems, provide you with information about TEX and LATEX and distribute TEX software. In addition, DANTE e.V. promotes developments in the field of TEX, LATEX, ConTEX t, LuaTEX, Metafont, BibTEX / BibLATEX, fonts both personally and financially at national and international level.”

LibreOffice

Free Software Foundation Europe

The Free Software Foundation Europe (fsfe) is a non-profit organization that supports people in the self-determined use of technology.

“Software is deeply embedded in all aspects of our lives. Free software gives everyone the right to use, understand, distribute and improve programs for any purpose. These rights strengthen other fundamental rights such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the right to privacy.”

WordPress Devroom

Advantages of e-learning and learning management systems (LMS): Analysis of learning types and practical applications with WordPress: Analysis of learning types and practical applications with WordPress by Bettina Krams

Impressions

Stephan Luckow

Can FLOSS free/libre open source still be saved? CMS-Garden

Objectives of the presentation

  • Highlighting the current challenges and threats to FLOSS projects
  • Discuss the need for financial support for FLOSS projects
  • Promote collaboration and strategic alliances within the FLOSS community
  • Call for political action and the creation of better framework conditions for FLOSS

Michael Christen

How exactly does ChatGPT work? A journey through the theory and functioning of language models.

“The lecture shows the development of neural networks up to transformers and the architecture of ChatGPT and LLMs (Large Language Models) in the form of a journey through time. We do not remain on a superficial level but go into complete detail while remaining generally understandable.”

Nowadays, large language models (LLM) are very widespread and are increasingly used in everyday practice. But without an understanding of how they work and the accuracy of the results, they cannot be used in a meaningful way. This is especially true for the validation of the output of these large language models.

The presentation elegantly covered the underlying neural networks both mathematically and in a graphically appealing and easy to understand form. The development from the first AI models to the current technology (GenAI, LLM, etc.) was explained step by step in an easily digestible way. All the important milestones that have led to the fact that we now have AI in the form of open source language models were explained very clearly.

To summarize, the presentation gave an excellent insight into how LLMs and AI chatbots work. For all interested participants, especially the open source developers, the language models became clear and understandable and they can integrate them into their own software projects.

www.instagram.com/p/C-04Pv_oG_A

 

Slides & GitHub

GitHub repository: github.com/orbiter

https://twitter.com/TFConsult/status/1825276515270946979

Further information

Conclusion

A particular highlight was Michael Christen‘s presentation on large language models and their development over the past decades up to the present day in the form of open source language models.

In addition, Stephan Luckow’s keynote was very inspiring to get actively involved in the open source scene and to keep asking oneself where one can actively support and help shape the FLOSS community.

In any case, the importance of the associations and local clubs that regularly take part in FrOSCon should be mentioned, for example DANTE, FSFE, LibreOffice, WordPress, et al. (and the others too, of course).

The networking at the evening buffet offered plenty of space and opportunity to meet old buddies as well as open source colleagues, especially the Pythonista from the German Python Software Association (PySV) and the regional user groups (e.g. PyCologne).

“Once again, a big thank you to all the volunteer organizers and the many helpers, without whom a FrOSCon could not succeed so perfectly. I look forward to seeing you all again next year at #FrOSCon20, the 20th anniversary event.”

Retrospective

FrOSCon 2018

Free and Open Source Conference

 

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Author: Dr. Thomas Fabula

Thomas Fabula applies his profound experience in various functions for multinational corporations and medium-sized enterprises in different branches. As a former athlete his passion for sportive leadership enables him to motivate intercultural & cross-disciplinary teams in business environments to high-performance level.