Monthly Open Source Design call

[Erioldoesdesign (Eriol Fox)]

1. New topics for today’s agenda (5 min.)

• Briefly mentioned the website work that Lisa & Jan have been leading Monthly Open Source Design call - #265 by lisamiller Jan suggested a co-working session soonf or this.

• Penpot fest release keynotes videos Penpot Fest speakers: the highlights!. Penpot Fest 2025

  • Spoke a little bit about the penpot talks and the vibes of the conf re. dev + designer collab and onboarding people as penpot users. Eriol spoke about how she spoke to many people about the history and practicalities of contributing to OSS as a designer.

• Ubuntu Summit Ubuntu Summit day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEEamxJ60aI and day 2: https://www.youtube.com/live/WvNgMEumSoA These haven’t been sliced into individual talks yet but there are three 3 design talks

• How to contribute in open source in designer = i am totally confuse → Ritish on the call asked how to get started in contributing to OSS as a designer. Folks offered insight and advice.

  • A student asked us about how to find projects
  • Uphill battle but try to find projects that ask for design
  • Pick something you care about, use for your job, or care about, find a motivation
  • https://inkscape.org/contribute/
  • Issues · Inkscape / Inkscape UX · GitLab
  • Make smal UI/UX contributions first and not big re-designs which can scare OSS projects
  • Send small pitches and ideas to OSS projects

• FOSDEM 2026 updates

  • We got a devroom for FOSDEM!
  • Please share around on socials
    • Linkedin: See Eriol Fox’s activity on LinkedIn
    • Bluesky:@opensourcedesign.bsky.social on Bluesky
    • Mastodon: Open Source Design: "We're so happy to annouce that we have an open so…" - Mastodon
    • need more volunteers based in Brussels or can travel to Brussels to help please! (email erioldoesdesign@gmail.com for details!)
    • Please post about us gathering funding Open Source Design - Open Collective to help with travel and also captioning/sign interpreter.

• Open Source Design Governance money updates

  • Google open source program office gave us $8k USD to help with governance open-source-design-community-governance/the-state-of-open-source-designs-community-and-governance.md at main · Erioldoesdesign/open-source-design-community-governance · GitHub ← this was the pitch!

• FOSS Backstage design

  • Same format as 2025, 3 talks (please suggest speakers), then suggesting discussion sessions, need more volunteers based in Berlin to help please! (email erioldoesdesign@gmail.com for details!)
  • They may ask OSD for funding for the venue costs again and they are also looking for a few more sponsors of between 1000 Euros and 3000 Euros - if you have funding or sponsorship money please consider sponsoring!

• any other OS conferences (other than FOSDEM) that should be on our radar?

  • FOSSY USA 2026
  • All things open 2026

1. Come in, say hello: Who is here, some background information about ourselves (country/culture, profession, open source involvement - in what role?), wishes for this meeting and for our community (15 min)

• We said hello and met Ritish the new person on the call.

1. How we are doing: (30 min.)

• Things we are working on.

  • Forgjeo good news! more user research is happening

• Positive things: What are some of the great things that have happened recently?

  • Money! website! FOSDEM!

• The not-so-great stuff: What problems are we struggling with? What help do we need? What ideas do you have for solutions? How can we work together to make this happen?

  • Knowing how to get involved in OSS

4. About this meeting: (10 min.)

• What went well for this meeting?

  • Well attended, good topics and chat!

• What could we improve for the next meeting? What goes into the minutes and what doesn’t?

  • Having ‘new to OSS as a designer?’ links and text prepared!

5. Chit-chat - open end

• OSD Jobs board feedback - need just 1 way for people to contact e.g. just email or just issues. It was hard to consolidate all comms methods.