Open source doesn’t grow through code alone — it also grows through communities. And communities are built when people meet, share ideas, and sometimes argue over coffee in conference hallways.

In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Eirini Athanasopoulou from Nextcloud about the human side of open source: events, community, storytelling, and what it takes to bring distributed people together in real life.

Eirini shares her journey from literature and TEDx in Greece to organising international events at Nextcloud, including Enterprise Days, the Nextcloud Summit, and the Community Conference. We talk about why in-person events still matter, how open-source events differ from generic tech conferences, and why event management is “project management with a little bit of fun and magic.”

And yes — there is also a pizza disaster story.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

00:00 Intro

Germany isn’t just talking about digital sovereignty — it’s building it.

🇩🇪 80,000+ users pilot scheme

Inside ZenDiS and openDesk — and what it really takes to assemble a sovereign digital workplace with open source.

In this episode, Richard Brock is joined by Victor Moster (ZenDiS) and Thorsten Behrens (Collabora Productivity).

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Johan Bernhardsson from Redpill Linpro, one of the Nordic region’s leading open-source consultancies. Johan shares what real-world migrations look like: from replacing aging NAS drives with Nextcloud to building GDPR-sensitive collaboration platforms, and helping organizations move at their own pace.

We discuss:

-Why “cloud-first” often means “no real choice”

If digital sovereignty is more than a slogan, this is what it looks like on the ground.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

In this episode of Open Matters, Richard Brock speaks with Thorsten Behrens, Tor Lillqvist & Jan Holesovsky – the three principal engineers behind the new Collabora Office release, about what it really means to move a complex application from the browser to the desktop.

They explain how Collabora Online has been transformed into a native desktop app that runs entirely locally while preserving the same user interface and architecture, and why this approach is fundamentally different from simply wrapping a web app. The conversation explores the technical and conceptual challenges of cross-platform software, the limitations of browser environments, lessons learned from earlier mobile ports, and the importance of reusing a shared core across web, desktop, and mobile.

Along the way, the engineers reflect on portability, performance, security, and developer experience, revealing why building truly cross-platform software in many cases is difficult – and how they succeeded.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

8.5% of the U.S. population self-hosts at least one internet-facing service — from websites and file storage to smart home tools and password syncing. But what motivates people to do it… and what risks come with it?

In this episode of Open Matters, Dr. Lea Gröber (ICSI Berkeley) joins us to unpack the latest research on self-hosting, digital sovereignty, and the real-world security challenges of running services from home. We also ask the uncomfortable question: are we romanticising “sovereignty” while ignoring security risks — and is self-hosting a bad idea for most people?

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

Denmark tried to legislate open source and Big Tech pushed back hard. Nearly 20 years later, open-source solutions are running citizen services in municipalities across the country and even powering the tax authority in Greenland.

In this episode, Magenta CEO Morten Kjærsgaard explains Denmark’s “first wave” and “second wave” of open-source adoption, and how open-source companies across Europe are now working together to build truly sovereign public-sector technology.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

Open source is “free”—so why do serious teams pay for it? In this episode, Eloy Crespo breaks down the real value behind paid open-source offerings: support, SLAs, performance, security, compliance, integrations, and long-term sustainability.

We cover:

If you’ve ever asked or been asked “why pay for free software?”, this is your answer.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

“True digital sovereignty can only exist when you combine open source and open standards. Full stop.”

The Dutch are known for building dikes and canals — but these days they’re also building digital sovereignty. In this episode, we sit down with Fabrice Mous (Nextcloud) to explore why the Netherlands is becoming one of Europe’s open source hotspots. From national IT policy shifts to real-world adoption in ministries and municipalities, this is a tour of how openness is reshaping government, collaboration, and trust.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

“Why would you spend £5 on a magazine when you can get that online for free?”

What does the decline of print journalism have to do with the future of open source software?

In this episode of Open Matters, we’re joined by Neil Mohr, former editor of Linux Format, to explore surprising parallels between the world of magazines and the challenges facing open source today.

We talk about:

If you care about the future of open source, journalism, or how we sustain the digital commons, this conversation is for you.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.

“Without radical measures to reduce dependency on digital monopolies, the digital future of Germany and Europe is lost.”

In this episode of Open Matters, we speak with Prof. Dr. Harald Wehnes, Chair of Computer Science at the University of Würzburg and spokesperson for the German Informatics Society’s Working Group on Digital Sovereignty.

Prof. Wehnes shares his perspective on:

This is a no-holds-barred conversation on the digital crossroads facing Germany, the EU, and the world as a whole.

Are these warnings alarmist—or overdue? You decide.

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The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Collabora Productivity or its affiliates. The content is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered official guidance or fact-checked technical documentation.