@j12t@j12t.social what I loved most about this year's FOSDEM was the camaraderie shown by everybody.
I told my wife, who isn't plugged into the open social web (yet!) that I was constantly networking, and while that is technically what you would call it, what it really was was a purely organic gathering of like minded individuals, who have never met in real life, who had instant rapport because of the shared values inherent to the fediverse.
As the fediverse grows, we'll see this kind of phenomenon happen less and less (see "Eternal September"), but we're at the early stage of the social web where these kinds of things can happen, and when it does, it's amazing.
"Networking" at conferences is usually shaking hands and exchanging business cards, and then walking away never to hear from them again.
