Birds of a Feather (BoF) Sessions — Community over Code Glasgow 2026
Community over Code 2026** — Glasgow, UK, October 11–14**
What is a BoF?
A Birds of a Feather (BoF) session is an informal, participant-driven gathering where people who share a common interest get together to discuss it. Unlike a talk or a panel, there is no formal presentation — the attendees are the content. Someone proposes a topic, shows up with a room, and the conversation goes wherever the group takes it.
BoFs are one of the oldest traditions in open source conferences. They’re where hallway-track conversations get a room and a time slot — a chance to go deep on a topic with the people who care about it most.
You don’t need to be an expert to host a BoF. You just need to care about a topic enough to start the conversation. Bring a few discussion questions, and let the room take it from there.
Schedule
BoF sessions run on Days 2 and 3 of the conference — Monday and Tuesday evenings, after the main program:
- Monday, 12 October — 5:50 PM – 6:30 PM (7 rooms)
- Tuesday, 13 October — 5:50 PM – 6:30 PM (7 rooms)
This gives us 14 total slots across the two evenings.
Sign Up
To claim a BoF slot, open a Pull Request against the comdev-events-site repository editing this file to add your topic to an open slot in the table below.
New to Pull Requests? See GitHub’s Creating a pull request guide. You can edit the file directly in the GitHub web UI — no local clone needed.
When you claim a slot, please also add a short description of your BoF in the Descriptions section below, following the existing examples. Link your topic in the table to the description so people can see what it’s about.
Monday, 12 October — 5:50–6:30 PM
| Room | Topic |
|---|---|
| Tay | Apache Cassandra |
| Clyde | Responsible AI (RaI) |
| Dee | available — open a PR! |
| Don | available — open a PR! |
| Spey | available — open a PR! |
| Tweed | available — open a PR! |
| Wee Dram | available — open a PR! |
Tuesday, 13 October — 5:50–6:30 PM
| Room | Topic |
|---|---|
| Tay | available — open a PR! |
| Clyde | available — open a PR! |
| Dee | available — open a PR! |
| Don | available — open a PR! |
| Spey | available — open a PR! |
| Tweed | available — open a PR! |
| Wee Dram | available — open a PR! |
Descriptions
Apache Cassandra
Monday, 12 October · 5:50–6:30 PM · Tay Room
Come talk about the present and future of Apache Cassandra — the distributed NoSQL database built for massive scale and high availability. Whether you’re a long-time operator, a contributor, or just getting started with Cassandra, this is your chance to connect with others in the community, share war stories, discuss upcoming features, and talk about where the project is headed. All levels of experience welcome.
Responsible AI (RaI)
Monday, 12 October · 5:50–6:30 PM · Clyde Room
An open discussion about responsible and ethical use of AI in open source projects and the broader ecosystem. Topics may include bias in training data, transparency in model development, governance of AI-related projects within the ASF, and how open source communities can lead the way in building AI that is fair, accountable, and beneficial. No expertise required — bring your questions and perspectives.
Tips for a Great BoF
- Come with 3–5 discussion questions to get the conversation started
- Don’t prepare slides — this isn’t a talk, it’s a conversation
- Appoint a note-taker so that good ideas don’t get lost
- Be inclusive — make sure everyone who wants to speak gets heard
- Share your notes afterward on the relevant mailing list or Slack channel
Questions?
- Join #community-over-code on the-asf.slack.com
- Join apachecon.slack.com for day-to-day event coordination
- Email planners@apachecon.com