Hello everyone! Remember FOSDEM? That big free event which every year gathers thousands of developers of free and open source software from all over the world in Brussels? This year will take place at ULB Campus Solbosch on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st of January 2016.
The XWiki team members will be there as speakers, as representatives at the stand or as attendances, ready to meet and share ideas with you!
On Saturday, 30th of January, you will have the opportunity to meet our community members, Ecaterina Moraru, Interaction Designer @ XWiki and Caleb James DeLisle, Research and Developer Engineer and Team Manager @ XWiki, speakers at the FOSDEM event:
- between 14:20 - 14:40, in the Room K.3.401, Caleb will share about the Peer to Peer Realtime with Blockchains (Zero-Knowledge and Serverless Collaboration) within the Real Time Track;
- between 16:00 - 16:20, in the Room AW1.120, Caty will reveal about the Designer's compromises in Open Source within the Open Source Design Track.
Take a quick glance at the summary of the presentations!
- Peer to Peer Realtime with Blockchains:
Most realtime collaborative editors make use of a class of algorithms known as Operational Transformation. Most of these algorithms require that the server and the client run the same algorithm otherwise risk desynchronisation - the nightmare of realtime collaboration algorithm designers. I will propose a new method of finding consensus using a blockchain of the type originated in bitcoin. This algorithm uses the blockchain to find consensus on the state of the collaborative document or data-structure then applies the Operational Transformation on the client side without requiring any help from the server. Such a setup simplifies the server side, allowing multiple implementations of the server, for example in different programming languages, but it also allows the client-side to use encryption in order to keep the data secret from the server. Finally, I will propose an extension to this algorithm which, borrowing again from bitcoin, makes the system able to function purely as a peer-to-peer system, providing high resilience and greater security. (Caleb DeLisle)
- Designer's compromises in Open Source:
We might need a designer to provide a clear vision and solve everything we couldn't agree upon. Also the designer might expect to be warmly welcomed inside Open Source projects, but the reality can be a bit different. We always have expectations on how the designer - community interaction should be, but in order to have a successful collaboration we need compromises, sometimes from the designer's part, other times from the community members.
If we were to ask someone if Open Source communities need designers, the answer would be 'YES'. But do we know what it means to have a designer among us? What will he do? For how long? How true can he stay to his predefined design process? Are all the design stages relevant in Open Source? How open the artefacts he creates need to be? With what type of tools?
We all have an image in our head about the type of designer we need for our community, but how much of that image corresponds to our real needs and with the designer's reality and expectations?
In order to integrate in an Open Source community, a designer might need to revoke his design 'purity' and make some compromises, like doing a bit of development for example. Does working in a free or open environment mean that the work needs to follow the same rules? What is preferred: creativity or consistency? Does the designer have the final decision?
Working in an utopian environment doesn't mean that we don't do compromises. So, how much do we compromise? (Ecaterina Moraru)
During the two days of the event, the XWiki team members will be present also at the stand called Wikis and CMS, stand number 5, located at K (level 2) happy to discuss about the XWiki Open Source community and team.
The 2016 edition has to not be missed! There is no attendance fee and no registration is needed. Come meet us there!
Blog post written by Diana Véron
