This week I’ve been in Berlin for FOSS Backstage 2026. This is perhaps the 6th time I’ve attended, I think?

It’s a completely unique event which explores what goes on behind open source projects. That includes governance, policy, design, community management, working with companies, and so on, that doesn’t often have a focus at major open source events. And it’s a gathering of the people that make this stuff happen.

That means it’s a somewhat smaller event than many I attend, but that the content is very deep. This is one of my top 5 favorite open source events, up there with FOSSAsia,  and Community Over Code.

I gave a talk about disaster planning as a consumer of an open source project (“Plan to fork (so you won’t have to fork)”) which is always a fun talk to give.

Africa

I attended several talks by African open source contributors, talking about the challenges that are unique to Africa, but also the huge opportunity to invest in a growing African open source scene.

60% of Africa’s population is under 25. 1/4 of people, worldwide, will be African by 2050. By 2030, 42% of the world’s youth will be African.

These metrics together should be a hint to any organization or company that investing today in Africa is going to pay off in big ways in the next 10 years. Gaining developer affinity for tools and services in the African audience is going to be hugely important in remaining relevant as the world continues to change. If you’re not paying attention to Africa, you’re going to miss out on a major source of talent.

I think a lot of companies view engagement in Africa as altruism, and helping the less fortunate. That’s absolutely the wrong mindset. As Seyi Kuforiji said, inclusion is not charity, it’s sustainability. And if we don’t include Africa today, maybe they won’t include us tomorrow.

Airport Strike

Unfortunately, on Wednesday, when I was to fly home, there was an airport strike, and my flight was canceled. So I got to spend an extra 2 days in Berlin. Which isn’t all bad. I do love Berlin. But I’ve been away from home for a very long time.

Design

I took that opportunity to attend Foss Backstage Design, the sister conference to Foss Backstage. It’s been going for several years, but I’ve never attended, because, well, I’m not a designer.

It was worth attending. Listening to designers talk about their experience in open source was strangely familiar. Non-code contributors have a lot in common with one another, since code is what *real* open source is about, and so if you’re not writing code, you tend to not get the same recognition that the real programmers do.

But open source cannot happen without the non-code stuff. Documentation and design and so many other things have to be there or nobody will use what you write.

Also, the stuff that these people were doing with UI design was just mind blowing. From the flashy stuff that Blender is producing, to the science of user experience research, this was eye opening, and another “aha” moment around how we can reduce the barrier to entry for new contributors.

Conclusion

FOSS Backstage isn’t for everyone. It’s not a technical conference – it’s about everything else that keeps the lights on in open source. If you’re involved in any of that “back stage” stuff, this is an amazing event. And it’s an important place to meet the folks that are doing all of this often-hidden work.

A+, will attend again, and will continue to strongly advocate for my employer to sponsor, since this is important stuff.