Re-Cap of DAY TWO at the 2022 Nextcloud Conference!

Were you at the Nextcloud Conference this October? No worries if you weren’t able to make it – in person or on our livestream – we have a re-cap of day one and two so you can have an inside scoop of the entire event.

We keep you informed of what’s going on in Nextcloud, wherever you are in the world!

To kick-off day two of the Nextcloud Conference, Maik Außendorf, member of the German Bundestag (parliament) gave an insightful and informative keynote speech about the digitalization of politics.

Maik talked about a number of policies and priorities at the German Parliament. For example, to catch up to many other countries, a common goal is to get faster internet in Germany. There is a plan for placing fiber optic cables under the ground to speed up internet connectivity. There are the usual challenges of working with cable providers and dealing with opposing groups in politics.

He also discussed sustainable digitization. The dilemma is that 2-4% of global CO2 emissions are coming from the IT industry and we need to reduce that impact. However, we also need to make use of digital innovations to create new business models. As mentioned in the announcement of Nextcloud Hub 3, its performance improvements will have a beneficial impact on the power requirements of the hundreds of thousands of Nextcloud instances in the world!

Regarding his views on open source software, he is a major advocate as he was co-founder and managing director of two IT consulting and software companies in the open source environment. He believes open source software is more efficient than proprietary software because it can be re-used by everyone and is sustainable. To learn more about Maik Außendorf, please visit his website.

Our second keynote speaker, Renata Ávila, CEO of Open Knowledge Foundation, gave a powerful and insightful speech on the interconnected issues of data privacy, human rights, and building a new digital future together.

In an excellent analogy of comparing an old, decrepit, overcrowded building to the monopolistic, dominant, big tech companies of today, she spreads her word on abandoning the narrative of a broken system we are taught and building a new one.

As a long time activist on digital topics which started from her early days as a human rights lawyer, she has strong opinions about protecting human rights for all in the digital sphere. She states that universality is a must in the digital world and we must push for higher levels of protection for everyone without exceptions.

Regarding her views on the open source community, she believes companies like Nextcloud are not an ‘alternative to’ big tech companies, but building blocks of a new piece of technology that’s more sustainable, private, and accepting. To learn more about Renata Ávila, follow her on Twitter.

After both keynote addresses, Franz Geiger, Tech Lead Software Engineer at Fairphone, discussed how electronic devices, namely smartphones, can be more ethical and sustainable. Fairphone is a smartphone company that cares about people and our planet. Everyone has a drawer somewhere full of old technological devices just sitting around, and him and his team are on a mission to change that where phones last longer, are more sustainable and ethically made, and are compatible use-wise to competitive models.

To gain a comprehensive understanding of the topics discussed prior, our Manager alliances, ecosystem & support, Daphne Muller led a panel discussion with Renata Ávila from Open Knowledge Foundation, Franz Geiger from Fairphone, and Gaël Duval from Murena.

Post lunch were a multitude of inspiring lightning talks, or 5 minute topics. Our speakers took the stage and presented their topics with enthusiasm and appealing slides. For example, Nimisha Vijay, UX Designer, talked about all the ways you can contribute to Nextcloud design. In her case, she started out by tuning into the weekly public design calls every Tuesday at 2pm.

In the afternoon of our conference, it is up to you whether or not you want to join one of the two workshops we hold. Both are to held to help you contribute and participate at a deeper level at the conference. Community Manager and UX Designer at Collabora, Pedro Silva, led a workshop about contributing to Nextcloud Office aka Collabora Online while Manager alliances, ecosystem & support, Daphne Muller and Julius Härtl, Office Team Lead at Nextcloud led a workshop on how to build a Nextcloud app. This was the perfect opportunity to get a hands on lesson by our experts!

We want to thank all our speakers and participants who joined us at this event and made it the success that it was.

Our conference was live Saturday to Monday – You can now skip to any part you’d like to see on video.