Martin Kleppmann

(University of Cambridge, Digital Technology Group)
hosted by Annette Bieniusa

"Local-first software: Returning data ownership to users"

( MPI-SWS talk in Kooperation mit dem Fachbereich Informatik)

Cloud applications such as Google Docs are popular because they enable real-time collaboration with colleagues, and they make it easy for us to access our work from all of our devices. However, by centralizing data storage on servers, cloud apps also take away ownership and agency from users. If a service shuts down, the software stops functioning, and data created with that software is lost.However, collaboration and data ownership needn’t be at odds with each other. This talk introduces “local-first software”, a set of principles and technologies for software that retain the advantages of the cloud, while also returning data ownership to end users. Local-first ideals include the ability to work offline, cross-device collaboration, as well as improved performance, security, privacy, long-term preservation, and user control of data.This talk explores various technologies that partially satisfy the local-first principles, and discusses some local-first software prototypes we have created. In particular, we have made good experiences with Conflict-free Replicated Data Types (CRDTs), a family of data structures that are designed from the ground up for multi-user collaboration. This set of ideas points towards a new paradigm for application development.Further details are in this article: https://www.inkandswitch.com/local-first.html

Bio: Dr Martin Kleppmann is a researcher in distributed systems at the University of Cambridge, and author of the acclaimed “Designing Data-Intensive Applications” (O’Reilly Media, 2017). He mainly works on collaboration software, CRDTs, and formal verification of distributed algorithms. Previously he was a software engineer and entrepreneur at Internet companies including LinkedIn and Rapportive, where he worked on large-scale data infrastructure.

Time:	Wednesday, 15.05.2019, 14:30
Place:	MPI-SWS Kaiserslautern, first floor
Video: