# IndiaFOSS 2026 - Feedback **URL:** \ **Category:** IndiaFOSS 2026\ **Created:** [29 September 2026 07:13 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368 "2026-09-29T07:13:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/ansh/32/1423_2.png) [@ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/ansh)\ **Post date:** [7 October 2026 07:06 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/43 "2026-10-07T07:06:05Z")
Feedback from one of the IndiaFOSS 2026 sponsors > Talks and Booths seemed to be this time a bit more tilted around public data / policy and stuff, and a bit less on actual OSS stuff. I go to India FOSS to learn and meet people who are building cool foss stuff, not the whole public policy stuff. And I think a lot of students come for the same things > > Sponsor Logos seems to be in a tiny corner. I understand this is a social-good conference and not a commercial one. That said, I think a bit more attention could be given to feature the sponsors a bit better. > > The washrooms were in very poor condition. > > The utensils at the tea stalls were not washed properly. ---
**Author:** ![ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/ansh/32/1423_2.png) [@ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/ansh)\ **Post date:** [7 October 2026 17:33 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/44 "2026-10-07T17:33:04Z")
> And in the span of that interaction, I realised something was different about this event. Put a pin on it. > The reason this event worked was that there was a good mixture of things being discussed, with a good spirit that too. On the one hand there are technical sessions, then there are session on data journalism. A strudel session! People were genuinely excited for the talks. I saw people looking at their phone calendars, jumping from hall to hall. I think that the less corporate feel of the event was probably one of the reasons. There were mostly students there. Which probably contributed to the feel of “college techfest but for adults.” > Companies were present, but they did not take over the event. I recall one of the sponsors telling me that sponsorship did not result in a “reserved” speaking spot. It probably leads to a bias in speaker selection. But it’s still not handed over to a company. The CFPs are open for all. And while they have a likes based system I am not a big fan of, the likes don’t guarantee a speaking slot. People with very few likes also got to speak. The event network, was frankly better than other much bigger hackathons and events I have gone to, was setup by a bunch of kids from NITK. They had to lug the kilos of cable around. God bless them. > > But it was really fun. I will be a repeat customer. > **[blog.skaup.co ~ IndiaFoss 2026](https://blog.skaup.co/indiafoss-2026.html)** > > I attended India FOSS this past weekend. This is a log of what happened basically. Day 0 Had some potential conflicts in the morning so I sadly missed the P5.js workshop I had signed up for. But then I got to attend the OCaml workshop. It was... ---
**Author:** ![ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/ansh/32/1423_2.png) [@ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/ansh)\ **Post date:** [7 October 2026 17:44 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/45 "2026-10-07T17:44:10Z")
> My biggest takeaway from IndiaFOSS Bengaluru 2026 wasn’t about a specific technology or tool. It was a renewed confidence in the value of our profession. > > A career in technical writing has never been just about producing documentation. It’s about making knowledge accessible. It’s about helping people succeed. It’s about turning complexity into understanding. > > Those needs aren’t disappearing. > > If anything, they’re becoming even more important. The way people consume information will continue to evolve, there will always be a need for people who can organize knowledge, advocate for users, and communicate with clarity. > > That’s what technical writers do. > > And after attending IndiaFOSS Bengaluru 2026, I feel more convinced than ever that it’s a career worth continuing to invest in. > **[What IndiaFOSS 2026 Taught Me About the Future of Technical Writing](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-indiafoss-2026-taught-me-future-technical-iswarya-vinothini-aoabf/)** > > I attended IndiaFOSS Bengaluru 2026 expecting to learn about open-source technologies and industry trends. What I didn't expect was to leave thinking so much about technical writing. ---
**Author:** ![rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/rahulporuri/32/565_2.png) [@rahulporuri](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/rahulporuri)\ **Post date:** [8 October 2026 07:19 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/46 "2026-10-08T07:19:33Z")
> The event really gave me a different perspective on FOSS beyond just code, seeing things like FOSS children’s books, databases that simplify legal jargon, or groups even collecting bird and nature sounds in an open repository to better understand the chirps around us. > **[\#indiafoss2026 #indiafoss #unitedbyfoss #opensource #oss #mechanicalkeyboards...](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/advait-dhamorikar_indiafoss2026-indiafoss-unitedbyfoss-ugcPost-7513684226354053120-BzvW/)** > > Don't like the way your keyboard sounds or feels? > Does typing leave your fingers and wrists aching? > > Why not just build your own keyboard, from the PCB to the firmware, with open-source hardware and software? ⌨️ > > At IndiaFOSS 2026, I spoke about some... ---
**Author:** ![Vivekanandan\_KS](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/vivekanandan_ks/32/4297_2.png) [@Vivekanandan\_KS](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Vivekanandan_KS)\ **Post date:** [8 October 2026 12:53 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/47 "2026-10-08T12:53:53Z")
I understand. Then the mail gave the wrong hope through those wordings as if it’s for those who missed it. If communicon’s intention isn’t that, then I have no issues with that. And I hope the venue or the space gets bigger with cheaper as u said University is a good place to start with. ATB team for next year. Hope it’s much more inclusive (as in broader themes like devrooms) than previous years ---
**Author:** ![Corpo-Rate\_Kumar](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/corpo-rate_kumar/32/2359_2.png) [@Corpo-Rate\_Kumar](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Corpo-Rate_Kumar)\ **Post date:** [8 October 2026 15:43 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/48 "2026-10-08T15:43:14Z")
> [@Vivekanandan\_KS](#): > > Hope it’s much more inclusive (as in broader themes like devrooms) than previous years How “inclusive” the event is will depend on the volunteers running it. What can you help improve ? What can you volunteer for ? Also - please think and define what “inclusive” means to you. How can we “measure” if an event is inclusive ? (what can’t be measured cannot be improved - also see below) > [@Vivekanandan\_KS](#): > > And I hope the venue or the space gets bigger with cheaper as u said University is a good place to start with. Ok - quick poll for you. Do answer all of the following questions: 1. What should be the price of Student ticket ? How many students should we have in the conference ? 2. Price of not-for-profit ticket ? (somebody working in not for profit). How many such people should be have ? 3. Price of early career professional ticket ? This is somebody who has been working for 1-2 years. How many such people should we have in the conference ? 4. Price of professional ticket ? How many such people 5. Price of contributor ticket… The proposed tiers here are different from the ticket tiers for IF 26. Stats such as cost of ticket, number of tickets sold, etc are in the [stats page](https://fossunited.org/indiafoss/2026/stats). ---
**Author:** ![ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/ansh/32/1423_2.png) [@ansh](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/ansh)\ **Post date:** [9 October 2026 07:19 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/49 "2026-10-09T07:19:09Z")
> There were so many events. Speakers were talking about hardware, design, security, and God knows what else. People listened intently and laughed at niche references. Some people were wearing LED badges with animated text. There were nerds everywhere, and it was hard to believe that being a nerd was ever considered uncool. > > It’s crazy how many rabbit holes people have gone through, and how deeply they have studied the smallest parts in tech and become experts > **[(#2026-W40) conferences, meetups, marathis and matcha | abhigyan trips.](https://abhi.now/weeknotes/2026/40/)** > > This weeknote covers the week of September 27, 2026 – October 3, 2026. ---
**Author:** ![perry](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/perry/32/4336_2.png) [@perry](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/perry)\ **Post date:** [10 October 2026 10:09 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/50 "2026-10-10T10:09:08Z")
Not feedback about IndiaFOSS 2026 in general but I have some comments about @Corpo-Rate_Kumar’s Communi-Con talk [What must IndiaFOSS be, in 2027?](https://fossunited.org/c/indiafoss/2026communi-con/cfp/bt8sijqsf4), or more specifically about the part about college fees, student tickets and diversity in the talk. The talk was about possible ideas on how IndiaFOSS 2027 can be, so I guess this could be a place to post about that? Just to prevent any misquotes or quotes taken out of context in the future, these were just ideas/suggestions and not “approved” by anyone. The talk was really nice, but ended too soon due to lack of time. One of the ideas was making student tickets way more affordable and increasing diversity but also “curating” it based on (among other things) college fees, scholarship, monthly spending and other data ([see/listen to the talk video for the full context](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boNCSaCb138&t=7950s)), and the gist I got about college fees rationale was that students with lower college fees must be from a marginalised background and therefore should be given priority. This is unfortunately not the case in India, but many people do not realise this, especially those who have been to college and graduated before JEE and NEET and other centralised exams became the norm. Just to clarify, the talk had proposed many other ways of “diversity curation” like monthly spending, FOSS contributions, scholarship, etc (again, see the talk for the full context), and I’m only commenting on the college fees angle, because many people aren’t aware of it. It is true that most parents from marginalised communities send their children to government schools, where the education and other expenses are very low. Most government colleges too offer very low fees, but unlike in government schools, government colleges (not just engineering and medicine) increasingly depend on centralised exam ranks for student intake, where the people with higher ranks happen to be the most privileged and richest students in the country. This ends up in the most privileged students having better access to cheap (not taking coaching classes and other hell into account) college education while the less privileged have to literally pay more fees (or not go to college at all). This is an oversimplified explanation and in reality other factors like caste, gender, class, tribe, disability, location intersect and make it really complex. Anyways what I meant to say is that college fees in the Indian context is probably not a good way to identify people who need affirmative action. I know the talk was only about ideas and not the actual plans for next year, but I thought more people should be aware of inequality in colleges. If anyone wants to read more about it, this is an interesting article: [How the NEP’s killing of the public university brought Gen Z out on the streets | The Caravan](https://caravanmagazine.in/education/nep-2020-higher-education-student-protest-pradhan) ---
**Author:** ![Corpo-Rate\_Kumar](https://forum.fossunited.org/user_avatar/forum.fossunited.org/corpo-rate_kumar/32/2359_2.png) [@Corpo-Rate\_Kumar](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Corpo-Rate_Kumar)\ **Post date:** [11 October 2026 06:51 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/51 "2026-10-11T06:51:35Z")
@perry first of all, thank you for your thoughtful comment and engagement ! Unfortunately, I am unable to look at that Caravan article, as it requires me to register. Feel free to send me the entire article via DM. But that may actually not be required I feel (see below) > [@perry](#): > > gist I got about college fees rationale was that students with lower college fees must be from a marginalised background and therefore should be given priority. Your understanding is significantly off the mark. The talk was short, and not all details can be covered in that. During my talk I referred to “overbooking” etc - and you may have missed the significance of that. I also had a slide which shows how I define “diversity” - the “Trump” one. My personal example might have thrown you off a bit - and I can’t blame you for that 🙂 I presented this idea to another volunteer prior to the conference, and got a similar rebuttal. Then I was able to explain to them what “diversity” means, and they then appreciated my explanation. I will explain it exactly the same way to you too. I’ve found that the word “diversity” is significantly misinterpreted to mean “affirmative action” (picking the most suitable word from your post). But it is not so. So what is diversity ? India has been called the land of unity in diversity, melting pot of races, we have hundreds of languages, etc. In general, large Indian crowds tend to be reasonable “diverse” - as in :more representative" of India. But smaller samples of those ? Not necessarily - a good example of which is the IndiaFOSS crowd. How would you measure how diverse the conference was ? We don’t collect any attendee data right now, so that’s ruled out. And we can’t curate for diversity in the crowd of “merit” - i.e. the working professionals - as that won’t be seen as appropriate. As my talk slides show, the students are a more diverse crowd. Not all of them get into jobs, women are a higher percentage, and reservations for various quotas make it an interesting crowd. Going into an expensive college can’t guarantee anyone a job either - but then not all of those folks need jobs either. Get the idea of what diversity means ? It’s not “merit”. It’s representation, looked at from different aspects. Just so that you understand - an ultra rich student represents diversity, as much as somebody who is in 4rd year of engineering at age 26 (is that possible these days??), and similarly an exchange student from an African country studying in any college. We can do diversity on the basis of interesting attributes - e.g. which language is the mother tongue, location of college, etc. Precisely speaking, Diversity curation is sampling various homogeneous pools for representation. Homogeneous pools are formed using data as the basis. But those buckets are formed for random sampling, not to discriminate based on attributes. Small pools represent outliers in the data - giving them better chances of being picked. Making high quality buckets may or may not need extensive analysis. We will know what’s required only when we get the data. With IndiaFOSS, we’ll most likely have venue capacity constraints even when we go to a larger venue. The RSVP system is put in place - because we don’t have to tell anyone exactly how many tickets we have/can/will make space for. The lower cost ticket comes gives us visibility into what our crowd looks like - right now we are clueless. People don’t even which college had how many students at our conference. We need KYC - Know Your Crowd. We can then pick folks based on the data - as an example we can make sure no more than N students from ABC college get tickets, allocating in round-robin basis, etc. This will break some social dynamics - no group booking, and less chance of somebody and their friend both getting a ticket. But we can mitigate this by offering some discoverability based on opt-in basis. But overall all this is far more “fair” from the POV of the objectives of FOSS United as a Not For Profit. Finally, the lower cost of the ticket/RSVP allows us to understand potentially how many students aspire to be at IndiaFOSS. Assuming that one fine day we will have FREE tickets, I would still not let students in without curation. Simply because this will put us volunteers at risk - the student would want to show up at the last minute on a whim. “Free” is a bad word after all. So why Rs 256 - it’s 2x roughly of the workshop cost. So even a student who attends for 1 day will be happy ! Hope that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Mz1](https://forum.fossunited.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mz1](https://forum.fossunited.org/u/Mz1)\ **Post date:** [12 October 2026 08:54 UTC](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368/52 "2026-10-12T08:54:34Z")
> How was the booth setup and allocation (location, space, power/internet)? Power supply was missing where we were. Never figured out Internet connectivity. The booth setup was nice. After having attended 4 India FOSS events (3 of those hosting a booth), I believe some stuff must be part of the default setup: 1. A board on which posters can be placed. So, while the booth managers are busy with other folks, they have at least the posters to look at. 2. _FOSS United_ moderated online / offline per-booth ratings & feedback (with preset simpler optional questions like, “What would you improve?”, “What do you like?” perhaps) that can be later sent to the managers. 3. Marking booths with category / themes (cybersecurity, privacy, self-hosting, open data etc), so folks visiting will know which ones they might want to wait in the queue for. > How was communication with us before and during the event? Comfortable. > Did you meet the kind of attendees or contributors you were hoping to? Not really, no. It is unclear if the disappointment of the visitors is due to our booth not having any free swag. May be, highlighting booth’s category might help attract the _right_ kind of folks? > What worked well, and what would you change? Can _FOSS United_ offer design services (at cost, perhaps) to booth managers? In printing stickers, if nothing else 😃 [Previous page](https://forum.fossunited.org/t/indiafoss-2026-feedback/9368.md?page=2)