Abstract

We're all now experiencing how remote working and virtual conferencing are important tools to staying connected. Not just in the current circumstances but also looking at the future.

Unfortunately millions of people have adopted the proprietary online tools like GoogleDocs, Office365 and Zoom. All of which have well know privacy and security problems. As well as the loss of data sovereignty by users. That's why it's important to offer an easy-to-use, efficient, and quick free-software based replacement to these proprietary online tools. Nextcloud is just such a replacement.

Nextcloud is a platform for online collaboration and communication and can help people, businesses and communities to quickly adapt and stay connected. Because Nextcloud is free-software, users freedoms are respected and protected, avoiding vendor lock-in.

Nextcloud is built by Nextcloud GmbH that has employees in home-offices across 11 countries and the Nextcloud Community which is spread all over the world. This talk gives an inside look at how Nextcloud GmbH works together with the Nextcloud community to develop and maintain the Nextcloud software platform.

The talk covers different communication channels that work for synchronous and asynchronous communication. How distributed teams are coordinated and how effective and efficient collaboration using shared documents is possible. Additionally, a very important topic to share is the challenges and solutions on how to successfully work across different countries, timezones, languages, and cultures. About the Speaker

Picture of Frank KarlitschekFrank Karlitschek is a long time open source developer and former board member of the KDE e.V. In 2016 he founded Nextcloud to create a fully open source and decentralized alternative to big centralized US cloud companies. In 2012 he initiated the User Data Manifesto to define basic human rights regarding personal data. Frank was an invited expert at the W3C to help to create the ActivityPub internet standard. Frank has spoken at MIT, CERN, Harvard and ETH and keynoted several conferences. Frank is the founder and CEO of Nextcloud GmbH. He is also a fellow of Open Forum Europe and an advisor to the United Nations regarding Intellectual Property and Open Source.