The Matrix.org Foundation Zola 2020-02-03T18:25:07+00:00 https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/category/events/atom.xml 2020-02-03T18:25:07+00:00 2020-02-03T13:22:46+00:00 Matthew Hodgson https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2020/02/03/matrix-at-fosdem-2020/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>We're just back from an incredible time at <a href="https://fosdem.org/2020">FOSDEM 2020</a> - Europe's biggest Free &amp; Open Source Software conference. Huge huge thanks to everyone who came to our talks (sorry if you couldn't get in :/), came to talk to us at the stand, or flagged us down to give feedback, chase PRs, file bugs, or just say thanks. Thanks also to FOSDEM to accepting all of our talks this year, and to the FOSDEM organisers for pulling together yet another amazing event :)</p> <p>We ended up with three talks:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/matrix/">Making and Breaking Matrix's E2E Encryption</a></li> <li><a href="https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/dip_p2p_matrix/">The Path to Peer-to-Peer Matrix</a></li> <li><a href="https://fosdem.org/2020/schedule/event/matrix_bridge/">Crossing the Bifröst - Bridging All The Things with Matrix</a></li> </ul> <p>We'll do a proper blog write-up on enabling E2E encryption by default, cross-signing, and all the other E2E encryption work that's been going on once we ship the stable release - but as of Saturday(!) it has landed on <a href="https://riot.im/develop">Riot/Web Develop</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=im.vector.riotx">RiotX/Android</a> (0.14.2) and Riot/iOS develop TestFlight, but we're still debugging and we need a bit longer before cutting the final releases.</p> <p>So, until then, please take a look at the videos if you missed the livestream or weren't at the event!</p> <noscript>Today's Matrix Live: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=PUg574WphuQ">https://youtube.com/watch?v=PUg574WphuQ</a></noscript> <youtube-player video-id="PUg574WphuQ"></youtube-player> <br/> <noscript>Today's Matrix Live: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=nZBKzQzH2NA">https://youtube.com/watch?v=nZBKzQzH2NA</a></noscript> <youtube-player video-id="nZBKzQzH2NA"></youtube-player> <br/> <noscript>Today's Matrix Live: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=B2vCFAeSUpw">https://youtube.com/watch?v=B2vCFAeSUpw</a></noscript> <youtube-player video-id="B2vCFAeSUpw"></youtube-player> <p>The FOSDEM video recording lost the slides for the bridging talk - but luckily the presentation itself is a <a href="https://github.com/Half-Shot/matrix-presents">Matrix client</a> and so you can <a href="https://presents.half-shot.uk/slides/!mfikNYyXndTTDgQjAu:half-shot.uk/">view the slides yourself right here!</a>.</p> <p>Here's to FOSDEM 2021!</p> 2017-10-11T00:00:00+00:00 2017-10-11T00:00:00+00:00 Luke Barnard https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2017/10/11/tadhack-global-2017-and-the-port-2017/ <h2 id="tadhack-global-2017">TADHack Global 2017</h2> <p>At the end of September, TADHack Global was held where almost 150 teams spent their weekends hacking towards the $45k total prize money up for grabs. <a href="https://matrix.to/#/@lb:ldbco.de">Luke</a> spent the final day of the hack talking to teams hacking at IDEALondon in Shoreditch, meeting a few Matrix enthusiasts and long-time collaborators.</p> <p>Out of 10 hacks, 2 of 4 local winners won prizes locally and went on to be <a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/2017/10/02/tadhack-global-2017-winners/">global winners </a>alongside 6 other teams using Matrix as part of their hacks. Checkout the <a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/2017/10/03/tadhack-london-2017/">TADHack London Wrap-up</a> for details on all of the awesome hacks, especially <a href="https://github.com/aviraldg">Aviral Dasgupta</a>'s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOmhgSNS_6E&feature=youtu.be">Pushtime</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/qOYdDyRlDNE" target="_blank">Polite.ai</a>.</p> <p>https://twitter.com/TADHack/status/915284069046419456</p> <p>Well done to everyone who took part, and a special thanks to those flying Matrix :)</p> <h2 id="the-port-2017">THE Port 2017</h2> <p>The following weekend was THE Port 2017, a humanitarian-themed hackathon held at CERN, Geneva in Switzerland. Among the 7 teams participating, the Matrix team consisted of a few software developers from <a href="https://bity.com">Bity</a> including Matrix enthusiast <a href="https://github.com/OmeGak">Alejandro Avilés</a> (who very kindly helped us get a team into the hackathon). <a href="https://matrix.to/#/@lb:ldbco.de">Luke</a> and <a href="https://matrix.to/#/@dbkr:matrix.org">Dave</a> from the Matrix London office also flew out to help the cause and by the end had a very stable, working prototype by the end of the competition.</p> <p>The hack we made was a communications system backed by Matrix for use in refugee camps, an idea that hatched at the start of the hackathon (whereas the other projects were well established ideas up to 6 weeks before the event). Check out <a href="https://github.com/theport2017-matrix">the code on GitHub</a> if you're interested in the client-side apps we made over the weekend.</p> <p>https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/916672581473890304</p> <p>It was another fun weekend for the Matrix team and we look forward to the next one. Stay tuned for updates on upcoming Matrix events!</p> 2016-05-24T00:00:00+00:00 2016-05-24T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2016/05/24/next-up-the-first-decentralized-web-summit/ <p>The original promise of the Internet was to be an interoperable platform for distributing data. However, we have since increasingly seen our data fragmented and trapped in a number of proprietary silos. Matrix hopes to fix this by being a federated, open standard for data exchange that any service can use.</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.decentralizedweb.net/">Decentralized Web Summit</a> is a meetup for anyone interested in building the Decentralized Web, which aims to make the Web open, secure and free of censorship by distributing data, processing, and hosting across millions of computers around the world, with no centralized control. It takes place at the Internet Archive, San Francisco, CA on Wednesday June 8 and Thursday June 9, 2016.</p> <p>Matrix will be represented at the event, and we hope to also host a workshop or a talk about Matrix.</p> <p>The meetup has a Slack room set up for pre-meetup conversations - you can also access this room via Matrix: <a href="https://vector.im/develop/#/room/#decentralizedweb-general:matrix.org">#decentralizedweb-general:matrix.org</a></p> <p>We are looking forward to interesting people and interesting conversations at the first Decentralized Web Summit!</p> 2016-04-13T00:00:00+00:00 2016-04-13T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2016/04/13/tadhack-mini-london-winner/ <p>TADHack-mini took place in east London over the weekend with 88 people in attendance. There were $8k in prizes, and five different services to hack on. This time, we didn't have too many people using Matrix in their hack, but we did have an excellent idea and implementation called Babelonio, who won our prize: a Phantom X Hexapod Mk3!</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/babelonio.jpg" alt="babelonio" width="599" height="337" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1600" /> <p>Babelonio adds speech-to-text and translation via Google translate to Matrix, via the <a href="https://vector.im">Vector</a> client and a Chrome extension. This is quite nice, because it means you don't have to run a custom client. And by using Google translate, you immediately get access to a lot of languages (although sometimes the translation doesn't quite work, as you can see in the presentation video). The project was done by Steven Bakker, Timo Uelen and Bart Uelen. You can see the presentation and demo of the hack <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LP5aJPRMSw">here</a>.</p> <p>A good write-up of all the hacks and winners can be found on the <a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/2016/04/10/quick-summary-of-tadhack-mini-london-2016-and-the-winners/">TADHack blog</a>.</p> <p>Thanks to the TADHack organisers for another fine event, and also to everyone who came over to chat about Matrix - and again congratulations to the Babelonio team: <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/tadhack-matrix-winners-1024x768.jpg" alt="tadhack-matrix-winners" width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1601" /></p> 2016-02-03T00:00:00+00:00 2016-02-03T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2016/02/03/fosdem-16-retrospective/ <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/stand.jpg" alt="stand" width="1024" height="576" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1493" /> <p>The Matrix team had a very successful trip to FOSDEM '16 last weekend. Many, many words were exchanged, and at times there was a queue of people just waiting to have a chat! We spoke to a whole lot of interested and interesting people, some of which had heard of Matrix already, and some who hadn't. The nice thing with the crowd at FOSDEM is that they very quickly &quot;get&quot; what we're trying to do with Matrix - and then start thinking aloud about how they might want to use it or extend it - which means we have many great conversations!</p> <p>At the beginning of FOSDEM, I think we had around 2000 people &quot;currently&quot; in the <a href="https://vector.im/beta/#/room/#matrix:matrix.org">Matrix HQ room</a> - the next day, that number had increased by a hundred (and now it's even bigger due to a hackernews post where we mentioned Matrix)!</p> <p>Our <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/deviot15/">talk in the IoT dev room</a> was very popular; unfortunately a lot of people that were queueing to get in never made it due to the limited space. However, the talk was recorded, and it's already been made available:</p> <video width="853" height="480" controls> <source src="http://matrix.org/video/build-an-iot-platform-on-matrix.mp4" type="video/mp4" /> Your browser does not support the video tag. </video> <em>(Click <a href="http://matrix.org/video/build-an-iot-platform-on-matrix.mp4" title="here">here</a> to download the video)</em> <p>You can also look at <a href="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016-01-29-Matrix-IOT-FOSDEM.pdf">the slides</a> from the talk. Note that due to technical problems, the first half of the talk was not recorded.</p> <p>We also did a <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/matrix/">talk in the Real Time dev room</a>, which was equally popular. Hopefully the video from this talk will also be available shortly (you can keep an eye on <a href="http://video.fosdem.org/2016/k3401/">the video repository for this dev room</a>) - once it is, I will add it to this post.</p> <p>For now, you can look at <a href="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/2016-01-29-Matrix-FOSDEM.pdf">the slides</a> from the talk.</p> <p>Another interesting talk where Matrix ended up being represented, was Daniel Pocock's <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/improving_telepathy/">Improving Telepathy</a> talk. I'll add the video from that too, once it's available.</p> <p>Finally, thanks to everyone who came to say hello and have a chat - and to everyone who has since set up their own homeserver. Please do join the <a href="https://vector.im/beta/#/room/#matrix:matrix.org">Matrix HQ room</a> (using <a href="/blog/try-matrix-now">any of these clients</a>) and let us know how your Matrix experience is going!</p> 2016-01-18T00:00:00+00:00 2016-01-18T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2016/01/18/fosdem-16/ <img src="http://matrix.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/wide.png" alt="wide" width="468" height="60" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1466" /> <p>Matrix will again be represented at FOSDEM (Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting) in Brussels, Belgium, January 30th and 31st. This year, we have two talks scheduled: <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/deviot15/">one in the IoT devroom on Saturday at noon</a>, and <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/schedule/event/matrix/">one in the Real Time devroom at 3.10pm the same day</a>.</p> <p>We also have a <a href="https://fosdem.org/2016/stands/">stand on the 2nd floor of the K building</a> - next to the Real Time lounge (potentially same spot as last year). If you're going to FOSDEM, please come and say hi to us at the stand or at the talks!</p> <p>Our trip to <a href="http://matrix.org/blog/2015/02/04/back-from-fosdem/">FOSDEM '15</a> was very enjoyable; we met a lot of smart people and learnt about a lot of interesting technologies and projects. Hopefully we made a few people enthusiastic about Matrix as well!</p> <p>As always, for any questions or comments, please come talk to us in the official <a href="https://vector.im/beta/#/room/#matrix:matrix.org" title="Matrix HQ room">Matrix HQ room</a> - you can join <a href="http://matrix.org/blog/try-matrix-now/">via any of these clients </a> (or <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/howtos/client-server.html">write your own</a>!).</p> 2015-12-25T00:00:00+00:00 2015-12-25T00:00:00+00:00 Matthew Hodgson https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/12/25/the-matrix-holiday-special/ <p>Hi all,</p> <p>We've been pretty bad at updating the blog over the last few months with all the progress that's been happening with Matrix.  Whilst Matrix rooms like #matrix:matrix.org and #matrix-dev:matrix.org have been very active (and our <a href="https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg">twitter account</a> too), in general we've ended up spending way too much time actually writing software and not enough time talking about it, at least here. When a blog goes quiet it normally means that either the authors have got bored, or they're too busy building cool stuff to keep it updated. I'm happy to say that option 2 is the case here!</p> <p>As a result, there's a huge backlog of really cool stuff we should have talked about. Hopes of writing an Advent Calendar series of blog posts also went out the window as we set Christmas as an arbitrary deadline for loads of work on Synapse, the Matrix Spec and matrix-react-sdk.</p> <p>So, to try to break the impasse, here's a slightly unorthodox whistle-stop tour of all the amazing blogposts we <em>would</em> have written if we'd had time. And perhaps some of them will actually expand into full write-ups when we have more time to spare in the future :)</p> <h2 id="end-to-end-encryption-update">End to End Encryption Update</h2> <p>One of the great promises of Matrix is to provide End-to-end encryption as part of the baseline standard (configurable per-room). In practice, our progress has been a little non-linear - we started writing an <a href="https://github.com/trevp/axolotl/wiki">Axolotl</a> ratchet implementation in C++14 (with a pure C API) named <a href="/git/olm">Olm</a> back in February, and then finished it off and wired a basic 1:1 proof-of-concept implementation into matrix-react-sdk in June. We then announced Olm back at the wonderful <a href="https://jardin-entropique.eu.org/">Jardin Entropique</a> conference in Rennes:</p> <img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1426" src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/je-1024x768.jpg" alt="Jardin Entropique" width="1024" height="768" /> <p>You can read the full presentation that we gave at <a href="/~matthew/2015-06-26 Matrix Jardin Entropique.pdf">https://matrix.org/~matthew/2015-06-26 Matrix Jardin Entropique.pdf</a> - and you can even play with a very basic test jig at <a href="/~markjh/olm/javascript/demo.html">https://matrix.org/~markjh/olm/javascript/demo.html</a> which uses an emscripten compiled version of Olm in the browser to put the ratchet through its paces.</p> <p>Things then stalled for a bit, but as of this month they're moving again, and if you're interested in the progress you can read all about it at:</p> <ul> <li><a href="/jira/browse/SPEC-162">https://matrix.org/jira/browse/SPEC-162</a></li> <li>and a full draft spec at <a href="http://matrix.org/speculator/spec/drafts%2Fe2e/client_server.html#end-to-end-encryption">http://matrix.org/speculator/spec/drafts%2Fe2e/client_server.html#end-to-end-encryption</a></li> <li>the Olm git repo at <a href="http://matrix.org/git/olm/about/">http://matrix.org/git/olm/about/</a></li> <li>and the formal Olm spec at <a href="/docs/spec/olm.html">https://matrix.org/docs/spec/olm.html</a></li> </ul> <p>The main stuff remaining is basically key management (in Synapse and the matrix spec), group conversation ratchets, and UX for wiring it properly into various Matrix clients. We expect to make progress on this over the next few months :)</p> <p>Meanwhile, huge kudos to Tor who was crazy enough to <a href="https://github.com/torhve/weechat-matrix-protocol-script#encryption">add the basic 1:1 Olm ratchet</a> to Weechat before we'd even finished writing our test jig!</p> <h2 id="lean-dus">Lean DUS</h2> <p>A few days after Jardin Entropique we made it to <a href="https://www.leandus.de/">Lean DUS</a> - a great tech meetup in Düsseldorf organised by <a href="http://sipgate.de">Sipgate</a>, who were kind enough to invite us to speak. This was a chance to give a full update on Matrix (as of July!) and talk some more about Olm and plans for end-to-end encryption. This one got recorded - and you can see it below. There's also an official page with full videos, slide deck and photos up at <a href="https://www.leandus.de/2015/08/weil-und-hodgson/">https://www.leandus.de/2015/08/weil-und-hodgson/</a>.</p> <iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/134821506" frameBorder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://vimeo.com/134821506">Lean Dus #9 - End to end encryption for decentralised communication mit Matthew Hodgson</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/sipgate">sipgate</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p> <h2 id="new-matrix-bridges">New Matrix Bridges</h2> <p>Somehow we've failed to blog about the amazing <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-bridge">matrix-appservice-bridge</a> Node framework which we've built as general purpose infrastructure for building Matrix Application Services which act as bridges between existing networks and comms solutions and Matrix. The architecture here looks something like this:</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/bridge.jpg" alt="matrix-appservice-bridge" width="720" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1429" /> <p>...and the goal is to end up with something like this:</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/bridge2.jpg" alt="bridge2" width="720" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1430" /> <p>matrix-appservice-bridge is still in development, but there are a bunch of really cool bridges already using it - and a great howto that shows how you can use it to <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-bridge/blob/master/HOWTO.md">write a Matrix{'&lt;-&gt;'}Slack bridge in under 100 lines of code</a>.</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-verto">the Matrix/Verto Bridge</a> uses it to hook FreeSWITCH up to Matrix - currently used to provide multiway video and voice conferencing for <a href="https://vector.im">Vector</a>. It could be easily extended to do generic Matrix{'<->'}SIP or Matrix{'<->'}anything-that-FreeSWITCH-can-speak though.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-slack">a basic Matrix/Slack Bridge</a>, which works well enough for hardcoding bridges between specific Matrix and Slack rooms.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-respoke">matrix-appservice-respoke</a> - a crazy experiment that bridges Asterisk to Matrix by implementing the Respoke API such that Asterisk can connect to Matrix using chan_respoke.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/node-purple/tree/master/appservice">matrix-appservice-purple</a> - another crazy experiment that hooks libpurple up to matrix-appservice-bridge such that *any* network that libpurple can talk to can be bridged into Matrix. So far we've experimented with Lync, Skype and Facebook (and AIM(!)) and it works - but it needs a lot more love to be usable other than as a toy.</li> </ul> <p>Meanwhile, there's also:</p> <ul> <li><a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-irc">the Matrix/IRC Bridge</a>, which doesn't actually use it yet, but will do soon.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/illicitonion/slackbridge">an experimental Golang Matrix/Slack Bridge</a>, which looks at whether we should be doing this all in Golang rather than Node.</li> </ul> <p>As of right now our work on bridging has been on hiatus for a month or so, and we would <em>love</em> support from the community in advancing and extending the stuff we've built so far. Otherwise we'll get back to it ourselves in the new year.</p> <h2 id="astricon-2015">Astricon 2015</h2> <p>We had a lot of fun in Orlando in October at <a href="http://www.asterisk.org/community/astricon-user-conference/sessions/bridging-asterisk-matrix-ecosystem">Astricon 2015</a> - we put together <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-appservice-respoke">matrix-appservice-respoke</a> (see above) for our talk and Dangerous Demo in a desperate 24 hour hack and it even worked! The judges were kind enough to give us the &quot;Swan Award&quot; prize in the dangerous demo shoot-out for the glossiest demo :)</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2015-10-15-Matrix-Astricon.jpg" alt="2015-10-15 Matrix Astricon" width="720" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1433" /> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/swan-1024x768.jpg" alt="swan award" width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1432" /> <p>The slides for our 'Bridging Asterisk to the Matrix Ecosystem' talk are <a href="/~matthew/2015-10-15 Matrix Astricon.pdf">downloadable here</a>.</p> <h2 id="pidgin">Pidgin!</h2> <p>We also implemented a basic libpurple plugin for Matrix - adding Matrix support to any app like Pidgin or Bitlbee that uses libpurple. (You could in theory even use it with matrix-appservice-purple to bridge from Matrix to Matrix, but that'd be silly :). It supports basic functionality and uses the new 'v2' APIs for syncing to Matrix. Adventurous libpurplers can go check it out and experiment with it from <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/purple-matrix">https://github.com/matrix-org/purple-matrix</a> - feedback welcome.</p> <h2 id="openwebrtc-support-on-ios">OpenWebRTC Support on iOS</h2> <p>We went and hooked <a href="http://openwebrtc.org">OpenWebRTC</a> up to <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-sdk">matrix-ios-sdk</a> so that iOS Matrix apps can use the OpenWebRTC stack from Ericsson Research for VoIP and Video. Apparently we haven't written it up fully yet, but you can find the code at <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-openwebrtc-wrapper">https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-ios-openwebrtc-wrapper</a> for those interested in using OWR with Matrix!</p> <h2 id="debian-repository-for-synapse">Debian Repository for Synapse</h2> <p>We built a 3rd party Debian package repository for Synapse... and then forgot to tell anyone about it, other than buried in the Synapse readme! Well, it exists, and intrepid debianers should go check it out at <a href="http://matrix.org/packages/debian/">http://matrix.org/packages/debian/</a>.</p> <h2 id="tadsummit">TADSummit</h2> <p>In November we attended <a href="http://tadsummit.com/2015/">TADSummit</a> in Lisbon - a great event for folks hacking on telco applications and the telcos themselves. Apparently we failed to do a writeup, but we had a wonderful time: highlights included sitting down with Maarten Ectors from Canonical to wrap up Synapse as an <a href="https://uappexplorer.com/app/matrix.mectors">Ubuntu Snappy app</a> such that anyone in the Ubuntu Core ecosystem can trivially run a Matrix homeserver, and demoing it as part of the Dangerous Demos track there. We also gave a 'Matrix: One Year In' talk to summarise what we got up to in 2015.</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ubuntu-768x1024.jpg" alt="Matthew & Maarten" width="768" height="1024" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1435" /> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/2015-11-17-Matrix-TADSummit.jpg" alt="2015-11-17 Matrix TADSummit" width="720" height="540" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-1434" /> <h2 id="webrtc-paris">WebRTC Paris</h2> <p>Whilst on the subject of conferences that we forgot to write up - we just got back from WebRTC Paris, where we demoed the latest &amp; greatest Matrix clients and bridges, hung out with the OpenWebRTC guys and gave another ecosystem update. You can see the slides at <a href="/~daniel/Matrix- One-year Status Report.pdf">https://matrix.org/~daniel/Matrix- One-year Status Report.pdf</a>.</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/paris-1024x768.jpg" alt="WebRTC Paris" width="1024" height="768" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1436" /> <h2 id="new-clients-and-app-services">New Clients and App Services</h2> <p>There have been a flurry of really interesting new clients and other projects which certainly deserve whole blog posts of their own!</p> <p>There's <a href="https://github.com/davidar/tensor">Tensor</a> from David A Roberts - a multiplatform <b>native</b> client written in QML that heavily leverages the matrix-js-sdk:</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/tensor-1024x789.png" alt="tensor" width="1024" height="789" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1438" /> <p>There's <a href="http://fort.kickass.systems:10082/cgit/personal/rrix/pub/matrix.el.git/">matrix.el</a> from Ryan Rix - a native Matrix client for Emacs! You can read all about the whys and wherefores <a href="http://whatthefuck.computer/blog/2015/10/26/mclient/">here</a>.</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/mclient1-1024x346.png" alt="mclient" width="1024" height="346" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1355" /> <p>There's also loads of cool stuff that Ryan's been doing with Matrix on <a href="http://whatthefuck.computer/blog/">his blog</a> - including <a href="http://whatthefuck.computer/blog/2015/12/06/polynomial-a-decentralized-webring/">Polynomial - a decentralised webring</a> built on Matrix (yes, webrings were and are cool, ok!?!), and his Matrix-powered <a href="http://whatthefuck.computer/blog/2015/11/22/body-computing-system-continuations/">Body Computing System</a>. Also, some <a href="http://whatthefuck.computer/blog/2015/11/01/on-the-balkinization-of-my-chat-communities/">philosophical</a> <a href="http://whatthefuck.computer/blog/2015/12/19/matrix-and-indieweb/">posts</a> on the benefits of Matrix which give us some hope that we're on the right track!</p> <p>Then there's <a href="https://github.com/tdfischer/pto">Power Take-Off</a> from Torrie Fischer - an early lets-IRC-clients-connect-to-Matrix project in Rust...</p> <p>...and there's <a href="https://github.com/Xe/morpheus">Morpheus</a> from Christine Dodrill (Xena) - a Matrix client and bot framework for Haskell; part of a more over-arching IRC{'&lt;-&gt;'}Matrix unification project. Xena also wrote <a href="https://christine.website/blog/matrix-has-u-2015-11-27">a great call to arms for Matrix</a> :)</p> <p>Very recently there's the <a href="https://github.com/ruma/ruma">Ruma</a> project from Jimmy Cuadra - an ambitious mission to build Matrix components (up to and including a homeserver) in Rust!</p> <p>Other stuff includes a <a href="https://github.com/davidar/hubot-matrix/">Hubot adaptor</a> from davidar, <a href="https://github.com/DylanGriffith/bender">Bender</a>: an Elixir client and bot library from Dylan Griffith, Jon Frederickson's <a href="https://github.com/jfrederickson/matrix-xmpp-bridge">matrix-xmpp-bridge</a>, rzr's <a href="http://www.element14.com/community/people/rzr/blog/2015/11/24/how-to-setup-a-webrtc-gateway-using-matrix-on-minnowmax">guide to installing synapse on a minnowmax</a>, and I'm sure many others we don't know about or have missed!</p> <p>Finally, Tor has done an amazing job on <a href="https://github.com/torhve/weechat-matrix-protocol-script">weechat-matrix-protocol-script</a> in implementing features like V2 Sync and E2E crypto faster than we've managed to add them in the official client SDKs!</p> <h2 id="release-zero-of-the-matrix-specification">Release Zero of the Matrix Specification</h2> <p>We have made some major improvements to <a href="/spec">the spec</a> over the last few months: adding in feature profiles and spec modules to better structure the document, and most recently splitting it up explicitly into separate Client-Server, Server-Server and Application-Server APIs, each with a well-defined single global 'release' number for versioning. We started this with a 'r0.0.0' release of the Client-Server API, which consolidates the horrible mess of 'v1' and 'v2' APIs we had previously flying around into a single well-defined version of the spec. Meanwhile the spec is now entirely consolidated into a set of JSON schema and Swagger 2 API descriptors, with a bunch of ReStructured Text for the verbiage - you can find it all at <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc">https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc</a>.</p> <p>The r0.0.0 changelog is exciting stuff - you can see it in its entirety at <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#changelog">http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#changelog</a>. Synapse itself will support the full r0 API set in 0.12, which will be released any day now.</p> <p>We've also switched the Swagger-based API viewer over to Swagger 2.0: <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/api">http://matrix.org/docs/api</a>. We also rejigged the Matrix documentation website entirely, generating it via Jekyll and adding in a new <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/guides/">guides section</a>.</p> <p>Also, we should have mentioned the existence of <a href="/speculator">Speculator</a> - a golang helper app (<a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-doc/tree/master/scripts/speculator">source here</a>) which, as the name suggests, renders out copies of the spec as HTML from different branches and pull requests for ease of previewing.</p> <h2 id="dendron">Dendron</h2> <p>Over the last few months we've also started an entirely new project, codenamed Dendron. Dendron is the project to evolve Synapse from the current single-threaded Python/Twisted monolithic homeserver into something with a lot more type-safety, horizontal scalability and high availability. We've mainly been experimenting with different ways of doing this, but the current plan is to split Synapse itself up into multiple services which can each scale independently, and then rewrite some/all of them in languages with better type safety and/or performance or profiling tools.</p> <p>Some folks may remember a survey that we posted a few months ago asking for the community's thoughts on what languages they'd like their ideal homeserver to be written in, from the perspectives of someone running it as well as hacking on it. Whilst we haven't (at all) based our decisions for Dendron purely on the survey, it was still quite an interesting exercise. And here are the results (maximum 'score' is 5, not 10):</p> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-01.58.55-1024x964.png" alt="language survey 1" width="1024" height="964" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1439" /> <img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Screen-Shot-2015-12-25-at-01.59.17-1024x968.png" alt="language survey 2" width="1024" height="968" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1440" /> <p>The basic feedback was that from the existing community: folks dislike running Java or Node servers; are okayish with Python, but would prefer native or near-native code (be that C, Rust or Go). Meanwhile, for contributing code, there's slightly more interest in the (relatively) new shinies of Go and Rust. And of course, everyone wanted to plug their own special snowflake language in the 'Others' section, which was mainly a mix of Erlang, Elixir, Haskell, Lisp and Perl :)</p> <p>This reinforced the choices we were looking at anyway - either Rust (for its safety), or Go (for its simplicity, python-likeness, and concurrency). (We'd also consider Java, but have to concede that the FOSS community doesn't like running it.)</p> <p>So we looked at the dependencies that Synapse currently has, and the Rust equivalents, and concluded that the Rust ecosystem unfortunately isn't quite mature enough yet to reliably handle the rather large set of complicated deps that we need in a homeserver. Also, nobody on the core team is really a Rust guru yet. Meanwhile, we have at least one ex-Google Go expert in the core team, and in practice it has the edge in terms of maturity. So, right now, we're looking at switching chunks of Dendron to Go where it makes sense. (This is subject to change though depending on how we get on). You should expect to hear a lot more about Dendron in 2016 :)</p> <h2 id="matrix-react-sdk-vector-and-latest-matrix-features">matrix-react-sdk, Vector, and latest Matrix features</h2> <p>Last but not least: huge amounts of our time over the last year has gone into building <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-react-sdk">matrix-react-sdk</a> - a full set of glossy Web UI components for building super-high quality glossy apps based on Matrix, built on the <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-js-sdk">matrix-js-sdk</a>. This is basically a reaction against the original <a href="https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-angular-sdk">matrix-angular-sdk</a> and Matrix Console app that we launched Matrix with back in 2014 - which had minimal attention to UI/UX and suffered from major performance problems; it was built purely as the fastest possible way we knew to prototype and demo Matrix in the first place. matrix-react-sdk however has been built for both performance and quality of UI/UX, as well as obviously using all the latest and greatest Matrix APIs. (In fact, the transition from matrix-angular-sdk to matrix-react-sdk is pretty similar to the Synapse to Dendron transition on the horizon - although the latter should be more incremental and less 'rewrite the world').</p> <p>Meanwhile, as part of our commercial work at our day job (i.e. <b>not</b> as Matrix.org) we've been helping on a glossy FOSS app called <a href="https://github.com/vector-im/vector-web">Vector</a> which is layered on top of matrix-react-sdk as a thin 'skin' layer of CSS and a few custom components. The intention for Vector is to ensure that Matrix has a flagship glossy client: which it clearly needs, in order to gain credibility and drive uptake of the Matrix standard, and also ensure that the Matrix standard actually does indeed fit the needs for a state-of-the-art collaboration tool.</p> <p>matrix-react-sdk (and thus Vector) is still in incredibly heavy development - we're going to start a formal beta fairly soon, but as of right now it's still sprouting features and refinements on a daily basis. Meanwhile matrix-react-sdk's APIs are not remotely frozen (we entirely refactored it as recently as a few weeks ago), so not yet ready for use as a general purpose building block.</p> <p>Some of the stuff going into react-sdk is <em>incredibly</em> cool - recent Matrix stuff that it shows off includes:</p> <ul> <li>Animated read receipts. If you haven't seen these, you haven't lived. They are a <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#id15">relatively new addition to the Matrix spec.</a> </li><li>Full server-side search. We now have <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#id42">full-text search</a> in the Matrix spec, and implemented on synapse both on sqlite and postgres - and now in Vector too. Having good search over all of your chat history makes Matrix *so* much more usable. </li><li>Video conferencing. We have full multi-way conferencing in Vector via matrix-appservice-verto and FreeSWITCH. The intention is to add this to the core Matrix spec (having first made it a bit more generic) - see the <a href="https://github.com/vector-im/vector-web/blob/master/docs/conferencing.md">draft spec</a> for details. </li><li><a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#third-party-invites">3rd party invites</a>. You can now invite users into Matrix by email address as well as matrix ID, and it works. Vector implements this. </li><li><a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#room-tagging">Room tagging</a>. You can now tag rooms as favourites, low priority, or with arbitrary namespaced metadata. Vector implements this through a swanky drag & drop UI. </li><li>"V2" Sync API. Now part of the 'r0.0.0' spec, this lets Matrix support much smarter incremental and partial <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#get-matrix-client-r0-sync">synchronisation patterns</a>. Vector now implements this, meaning that browser windows sync much faster after being offline for a bit, and no longer hammer the user with stale desktop notifications. </li><li>Accessing 'historical' rooms. Matrix now lets you keep track of rooms you've left, so you can view and search the conversation logs even after you've left the conversation. Vector now implements this (as of Monday!) </li><li>Tab-complete that doesn't suck. This is a purely client-side feature which landed on Thursday! </li><li>Roll-overable animated GIFs. 'nuff said. </li><li>Markdown support. yay! </li><li>Synchronised read and notification history. This hasn't landed yet (in vector or synapse or even the spec), but finally provides a way to keep read and notification state in sync in realtime across all your clients and a meaningful favicon 'badge' telling you how many notifications you missed! </li><li>Guest access. This hasn't landed in Vector yet, but it's in <a href="http://matrix.org/docs/spec/r0.0.0/client_server.html#guest-access">the spec</a> and Synapse. It will let folks use Matrix without having to create an account (at least for rooms which support 'guest access' from the public).</li> </ul> <p>If you haven't given Vector a spin, it's well worth heading over to <a href="https://vector.im">https://vector.im</a> and taking a look.</p> <p>There's also an Electron desktop version of Vector in progress, contributed by Steven Hammerton at <a href="https://github.com/stevenhammerton/vector-desktop">https://github.com/stevenhammerton/vector-desktop</a> (although it's currently stuck on an old release).</p> <h2 id="epilogue">Epilogue</h2> <p>Okay, this has got a lot longer than it was meant to be - but hopefully makes up a bit for the lack of comms over the last few months whilst we've been drowning in work on Synapse, Vector, the Spec, Dendron, and everything else mentioned above.</p> <p>2015 has been an epic year as we've taken Matrix from a very early beta to the advanced stage that it's at now. Obviously there's still a lot of stuff to do though. Right now we expect the focus in 2016 to be:</p> <ul> <li>Vector - making sure the Matrix protocol has a flagship glossy FOSS client that normal (non-geek) users can use.</li> <li> Dendron - making Synapse more reliable, scalable and maintainable.</li> <li>Bridging - wiring as much of the rest of the world into Matrix as accurately and efficiently as possible.</li> <li>Federation Spec - finishing and releasing the Server-Server API.</li> <li>End-to-end crypto - finishing it off.</li> </ul> <p>...and obviously continuing to refine and extend the core of Matrix itself with features like threading, editable messages, and possibly even distributed accounts.</p> <p>There are very fun and exciting times ahead. We'd just like to say a profound thank you to everyone who's supported Matrix this far and helped make this mission possible - whether it's by running clients/servers/services, or writing your own, or filing bugs and feedback on our code or the spec, or telling folks about the project, or paying us to work on it(!), or just by reading this blog post. Hopefully 2016 will be the year where online communication starts to open up and interoperate once again, rather than becoming ever more fragmented and closed.</p> <p>Thanks for reading - and Merry Christmas, for those who celebrate :)</p> <ul> <li>Matthew, Amandine &amp; the Matrix Team.</li> </ul> 2015-12-14T00:00:00+00:00 2015-12-14T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/12/14/webrtc-conference-expo-in-paris/ <p><a href="http://www.uppersideconferences.com/webrtc/"><img src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/a4webrtc_2015_v2.jpg" alt="a4webrtc_2015_v2" width="300" height="424" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1419" /></a>Matrix will again be represented at the <a href="http://www.uppersideconferences.com/webrtc/">WebRTC Conference &amp; Expo</a> in Paris. Daniel and myself are catching the Eurostar tomorrow afternoon, and the conference will start early Wednesday morning with a panel about WebRTC for Mobile, where Daniel is one of the participants.</p> <p>I'm sure we will have three days full of interesting talks and discussions (see the <a href="http://www.uppersideconferences.com/webrtc/webrtc_2015_program_day_1.html">full schedule here</a>). There will be demos as well, and Matrix is (of course!) also joining the demo competition. We hope to see many familiar faces - and hopefully meet some new ones as well!</p> <p>If you are going to the conference, please come and say hello – we will have a stand at the expo (we're table #6 - see <a href="http://www.uppersideconferences.com/webrtc/webrtc_2015_expo_sponsoring.html">map here</a>). And don't miss Daniel's Matrix One-year Status Report at 11.10am on Friday!</p> <p>See you there!</p> 2015-09-23T00:00:00+00:00 2015-09-23T00:00:00+00:00 Daniel Wagner-Hall https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/09/23/tadhack-chicago-october-3-4/ <p><a href="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/TADHack-Mini-2015-IITRTC-Chicago-v2.png"><img class="alignright wp-image-1284" src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/TADHack-Mini-2015-IITRTC-Chicago-v2.png" alt="TADHack Chicago" width="220" height="114" /></a>Matrix is sponsoring another TADHack, this time <a href="http://tadhack.com/2015/tadhack-mini-chicago/">TADHack mini</a> in Chicago on October 3-4. Come hack something cool together using Matrix, either in Chicago or remotely! At <a href="http://matrix.org/blog/2015/04/13/tadhack-mini-london-completed/">past TADHacks</a> we've seen a robot controlled with Matrix, collaborative web page viewing with Matrix as the underlying protocol, and more.</p> <p><a href="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Img0041.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-1285" src="/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Img0041-300x300.jpg" alt="HR-OS1 Humanoid Endoskeleton" width="252" height="252" /></a>As well as being lots of fun, we've teamed up with <a href="http://www.trossenrobotics.com/">Trossen Robotics</a> to offer a <a href="http://www.trossenrobotics.com/HR-OS1">HR-OS1 Humanoid Endoskeleton</a> for the best hack using the Matrix standard. The HR-OS1 is a hackable, modular, humanoid robot development platform designed from the ground up with customization and modification in mind. With a Raspberry Pi 2, webcam, wifi, bluetooth, and all of the limbs you expect for a human, there's a lot of scope for exciting projects to be had with it!</p> <p>I for one would love to ask an open source robot to bring me snacks over chat. (Wow that's a sentence I never thought I would be able to say) I'll be on site, (and also hanging out in on Matrix in <a href="/beta/#/room/#matrix:matrix.org">#matrix:matrix.org</a>) to help out with whatever creative things y'all come up with - I hope to see you there!</p> <p>Also in Chicago the following week I'll be giving a tutorial on <a href="http://www.rtc-conference.com/tutorials/">Federated Identity</a> as well as attending and speaking about the problem of fragmented communication at the <a href="http://www.rtc-conference.com/">IIT Real-Time Communications</a> Conference &amp; Expo.</p> <p>If you're going to be around, please do say hi - I only recently joined the Matrix team, and there's a lot of people I've yet to meet - I look forward to seeing you at one (or all) of these events!</p> 2015-09-18T00:00:00+00:00 2015-09-18T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/09/18/upcoming-conferences/ <p>The Matrix bandwagon goes on, and we have several conferences and events lined up in the next few weeks.</p> <p>First up is <a href="http://tadhack.com/2015/tadhack-mini-chicago/">TADHack mini</a> in Chicago, October 3-4, where Matrix is sponsoring and handing out prizes to the best two hacks using Matrix in some way or another. The <a href="http://matrix.org/blog/2015/04/13/tadhack-mini-london-completed/">previous TADHack mini</a> and the <a href="http://matrix.org/blog/2015/06/16/global-tadhack-matrix-hacks/">Global TADHack</a> were both excellent events where we saw some really cool hacks - we are looking forward to see what people will put together this time!</p> <p>Also in Chicago, a couple of days later, is the <a href="http://www.rtc-conference.com/">IIT Real-Time Communications</a> Conference &amp; Expo - October 6-8 - where we will be exhibiting and speaking about the problem of fragmented communication. </p> <p>At the same time, we will also be represented at <a href="http://www.elastixworld.com/2015/en/">Elastix World</a>, in Bogotá, Columbia, October 7-8, where Matthew is one of the keynote speakers! Matrix is also sponsoring this event.</p> <p>Finally, we will be in Orlando, Florida for <a href="http://www.asterisk.org/community/astricon-user-conference">AstriCon</a>, October 13-15. Matrix is sponsoring this conference as well, and we also have a speaking slot.</p> <p>If you are going to any of these events, please do say hi - we are looking forward to talking to both old and new acquaintances! See you there!</p> 2015-08-06T00:00:00+00:00 2015-08-06T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/08/06/upcoming-events/ <p>After a successful visit to <a href="http://www.oscon.com/open-source-2015">OSCON</a> in Oregon last month, Matrix is this week represented at <a href="https://www.cluecon.com/">Clue Con</a> in Chicago. We have a speaking slot later today - see <a href="https://www.cluecon.com/schedule/">the full schedule here</a>. However, this time, we will be calling in remotely from London, but what better way to demonstrate video calling than by using it?</p> <p>More upcoming events include <a href="http://fosscon.us/">Fosscon</a> in Pennsylvania (August 22nd), where we have <a href="http://fosscon.us/Speakers">two talks scheduled</a>, and <a href="http://www.elastixworld.com/2015/en/">ElastixWorld</a> in Columbia (Oct 7 &amp; 8), where we are participating as a <a href="http://www.elastixworld.com/2015/en/speakers/">keynote speaker</a>. We hope to see you there! </p> <p>As always, for questions or comments - or just to say hi - please join <a href="http://matrix.org/beta/#/room/#matrix:matrix.org">#matrix:matrix.org</a> using <a href="/blog/try-matrix-now/">your favourite Matrix-client</a>! </p> 2015-06-16T00:00:00+00:00 2015-06-16T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/06/16/global-tadhack-matrix-hacks/ <p>Over 800 hackers all over the world spent this weekend working on hacks and prototypes in the <a href="http://tadhack.com/2015/">Global TADHack hackathon</a>. Some were working from home, and others gathered at one of the 14 official locations. Matrix were physically present at the London and Lisbon locations, and we also handed out two prizes (a massive amount of tessel modules) to the best hacks using Matrix in some way or another.</p> <p>After a hectic weekend, over 90 different hacks were submitted and presented. There was a live stream available (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMwLgPrscVTbcIzl4r1WvRg">archive here</a>) so that everyone could watch all the submissions. We were of course particularly interested in Matrix-related hacks, and there were several:</p> <ul> <li><a href="http://twitter.com/maffydub">Matt Williams</a> continued his Project Clearwater/Matrix integration from <a href="http://matrix.org/blog/2015/04/13/tadhack-mini-london-completed/">TADHack-mini London</a> earlier this year; this time he added support for IM{'<->'}SIP MESSAGEs. </li> <li><a href="http://twitter.com/RobinJPickering">Rob Pickering</a> bridged his company's <a href="https://www.ipcortex.co.uk/article.rhtm/keevio-382953.html">keevio</a> system to Matrix via the AS API.</li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/SachaNacar">Sacha Nacar</a> and Mike Dauphinais wrote a sign-language interpreter that uses Matrix for conversations.</li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/pavlovigor">Igor Pavlov</a> made it possible for users of <a href="https://www.lytespark.com">Lytespark</a> to be contacted via Matrix and OpenMarket's SMS AS when they are offline.</li> <li><a href="https://twitter.com/PhaniPasupula">Phani Pasupula</a> showed a PoC for using Matrix as a platform for starting a Dialogic XMS conference.</li> </ul> <p>In the end, we had to pick only two of these awesome hacks, which wasn't easy. We are really encouraged by seeing the Matrix ecosystem grow bigger - and more bridges to various existing systems being built; this is exactly what Matrix needs!</p> <p>We awarded our two prizes to Igor for his use of OpenMarket's SMS AS, which adds a new and very wanted feature to <a href="https://www.lytespark.com">Lytespark</a> - and Sacha/Mike for their inventive sign-language -&gt; Matrix translator. Congrats to all of you! We were also happy to see Phani win one of Dialogic's prizes with his hack!</p> <p>Below you can watch our two winners' presentations:</p> <noscript>Today's Matrix Live: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=chp8K8Wn6v8">https://youtube.com/watch?v=chp8K8Wn6v8</a></noscript> <youtube-player video-id="chp8K8Wn6v8"></youtube-player> <noscript>Today's Matrix Live: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ybaaMPUVx0">https://youtube.com/watch?v=6ybaaMPUVx0</a></noscript> <youtube-player video-id="6ybaaMPUVx0"></youtube-player> <p>The <a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/">TADHack blog</a> has a list of all the winners: <a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/2015/06/16/tadhack-location-winner/">local winners</a> and <a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/2015/06/15/tadhack-global-winners/">global winners</a>. In total $36k worth of prizes were won!</p> <p>Thanks to everyone who participated!</p> 2015-05-26T00:00:00+00:00 2015-05-26T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/05/26/next-up-kamailio-world/ <p><a href="http://conference.kamailio.com/k03/"><img src="http://matrix.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/kamailio-world-banner-2014-200x90.png" alt="kamailio-world-banner-2014-200x90" width="200" height="90" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1031" /></a>In our continuous journey around the world to promote Matrix, this week we have come to <a href="http://conference.kamailio.com/k03/" alt="Kamailio World">Kamailio World</a> in Berlin, Germany. During the conference, there will be 5 technical workshops and 28 presentations about SIP, VoIP, WebRTC and other real time communication technologies - and Matthew will talk about Matrix at 11am on Friday.</p> <p>I'm looking forward to lots of interesting talks (full schedule <a href="http://conference.kamailio.com/k03/schedule/">here</a>), including an open discussion panel with Randy Resnick about real-time communications at 17:10 Thursday evening. Of course there will also be dangerous demos - and hopefully lots of people interested in Matrix! If you are going to the conference, please come and say hello - we will be exhibiting as well as presenting, and we will be there all day Thursday and Friday. </p> <p>Bis dann!</p> 2015-04-13T00:00:00+00:00 2015-04-13T00:00:00+00:00 Oddvar Lovaas https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/04/13/tadhack-mini-london-completed/ <p>This weekend was spent at <a href="http://www.idea-london.co.uk/" title="IDEA-London">IDEA-London</a> where the <a href="tadhack.com/2015/tadhack-mini-london" title="TADHack-mini London">TADHack-mini London</a> hackathon was going on. In total, there were around 18 different projects being hacked on all day Saturday and Sunday morning, before a 5-minute presentation on Sunday afternoon. </p> <p><a href="https://twitter.com/telestax/status/586835787892842496" title="picture credit: twitter.com/telestax"><img src="http://matrix.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/tadhack.jpg" alt="tadhack" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-720" /></a></p> <p>Four different projects used Matrix in one way or another: Matrixbot - a robot controlled through standard messages in a Matrix room - done by Scott Barstow and Anders Brownworth (project <a href="https://github.com/scottbarstow/tadhackLondon2015" title="code">code</a> and presentation <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvDIkqyxnac" title="video">video</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/587253016463564801" title="picture">picture</a>). Neil Stratford's hack included lighting up his roll of LEDs whenever a push-notification hit his Matrix webclient (<a href="https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/587262829390123009" title="picture">picture</a> from the presentation). </p> <p>The Co-Browsify hack by Žilvinas Račyla and Augustinas Bacvinka allows two people to browse the same webpage, with scrolling events being collected and duplicated to the other browser via Matrix (<a href="https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/587272083106848768" title="picture">picture</a> from the presentation). Finally, Matt Williams of Metaswitch created a Project Clearwater/Matrix Gateway which enables Project Clearwater/IMS to set up WebRTC calls with any matrix user (project <a href="https://github.com/matt-williams/sprout/tree/matrix" title="code">code</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/587269326899654656" title="pictures">pictures</a> from the presentation) - this is the first time we have had a SIP-to-Matrix call (let alone IMS-to-Matrix) set up!</p> <p>As TADHack sponsors, Matrix had two Parrot Drones to hand out as prizes, and the winners for best Matrix-related hacks are Matt Williams for the Clearwater/Matrix Gateway - and Scott Barstow and Anders Brownworth for Matrixbot! We are also happy that the other two Matrix-related projects were rewarded with prizes from the other sponsors (<a href="http://blog.tadhack.com/2015/04/12/tadhack-mini-london-winners/" title="full list of winners">full list of winners</a>).</p> <table style="border:solid 0px #ffffff;" border="0" width="100%"><tr style="border:0"><td style="border:0"><a href="https://twitter.com/matrixdotorg/status/587269326899654656" title="picture credit: twitter.com/matrixdotorg"><img src="http://matrix.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/projectclearwatermatrixgateway1.jpg" alt="projectclearwatermatrixgateway" width="533" height="400" class="aligncenter" /></a> </td> <td style="border:0"><a href="https://github.com/scottbarstow/tadhackLondon2015" title="picture credit: github.com/scottbarstow/tadhackLondon2015"><img src="http://matrix.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/matrixbot2.jpg" alt="matrixbot" width="600" height="400" class="aligncenter" /></a> </td></tr></table> <p>All in all it was a very productive weekend, both in terms of tech and also meeting people. Thanks to everyone who participated and especially those who worked on Matrix-related hacks!</p> <p>Next up is the <a href="http://webrtc-conference.com/" title="WebRTC conference">WebRTC conference</a> and its related <a href="http://webrtc-conference.com/kranky-geek/" title="Kranky Geek">Kranky Geek</a> event - which will be happen tomorrow and the day after. See you there!</p> 2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00 2015-04-10T00:00:00+00:00 Matthew Hodgson https://f297f985.matrix-website.pages.dev/blog/2015/04/10/looking-forward-to-tadhack-london/ <p>As of 9am tomorrow, somewhere in the depths of East London (and remotely from around the world), a diaspora of elite VoIP/WebRTC/Telco developers will compete to build the most innovative and impressive communications demos at <a href="http://tadhack.com/2015/tadhack-mini-london/">Tadhack Mini London</a>! Dave, Oddvar and myself are going to be there from the core Matrix.org team, both on-site and online (at <a href="/beta/#/room/#matrix:matrix.org">#matrix:matrix.org</a>, of course) to provide support - especially to everyone who's using Matrix APIs in their solution. And as we mentioned before, we'll even be giving away <a href="/blog/2015/03/19/tadhack-mini-london">two Parrot Bebop Drones</a> to the best hacks built using Matrix!</p> <p>It's not too late to get involved - the more the merrier. We reckon it's going to be a really fun weekend, so look forward to chatting to some of you soon!</p>