It shares many similarities with FOSDEM (Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting) in the way in which the event is structured, but where the latter attracts speakers and visitors primarily interested in Free software, FSCONS aims to attract a more diverse crowd.
The event was first organised by members of the Free Software Foundation Europe, in particular its Swedish team[2] and the then current intern in their Gothenburg office.
In 2008, the FSFE was joined by Wikimedia Sverige[6] and Creative Commons Sweden[7] as co-organisers of the event.
Notable speakers over the years include Richard Stallman,[8] Smári McCarthy,[9] Oscar Swartz,[10] Dr. Ansgar Bernardi, Christina Haralanova,[11] Amelia Andersdotter, Marcin Jakubowski, Erik Zachte, Edmund Harriss, Karin Kosina, Henri Bergius, Glyn Moody,[12] Erik de Bruijn, and, Alessandro Rubini, to mention a few.
In 2012 the member-run association Föreningen FSCONS was formed to take over the organisation of the conference from FFKP.