An XMPP server in your hand

We often think of cloud services as something that exists "out there" but behind each cloud service is physical hardware and infrastructure. Knowing this empowers us to run our own "cloud" services, either on our own hardware or on a cheap VPS (virtual private server).

In this interactive session, we will demonstrate an XMPP server, like Prav, but running on a Raspberry Pi. You can inspect the server physically and observe how it connects to the local network as well as to the Internet.

Due to the federated nature of XMPP, you will also be able to message users on other XMPP servers (including Prav) from this Raspberry Pi server.

Depending on interest, this will be followed by a hands-on workshop the next day where we will provide a VPS for you to set up an XMPP server for your own community. (We will run the VPS for up to one month following which we will help you migrate to your own infrastructure to continue operations)

The cloud is just someone else's computer

Anyone can set up an XMPP server and join the network of other XMPP servers