Badri Sunderarajan

Fediverse Profile link: https://fosstodon.org/@badrihippo

github profile: https://git.disroot.org/badrihippo

gitlab profile: https://git.disroot.org/badrihippo

Writer, illustrator, and freelance software developer. Been managing DNS records since age 12, and now runs the family YunoHost instance.

Founding editor of Snipette magazine and currently Bursary Team Lead at Prav. Member of the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) and creator of Convo, an XMPP messaging app for KaiOS.

Carries a flip phone.

Accepted Talks:

Interoperability: How standardisation helps you be different

Did you think you needed a smartphone to read email, send messages, check your calendar, and stream podcasts? My Nokia flip phone can do all those things too—because they are based on standards.

In this beginner-friendly talk, I will introduce the concept of open, interoperable standards in software and hardware. As an example, I will talk about the XMPP standard that lets people run their own WhatsApp alternative on any device be it an old cellphone, the latest laptop, a supercomputer, or a Raspberry Pi.

Good standards allow us to build a strong, resilient ecosystem of products that are not dependent on one company’s success or failure. If something standards-compliant is not working out—be it a privacy-invasive app, a faulty component, or a burnt-out charger—we can easily swap it for something better with minimal disruption. Because hyped-up companies and products come and go, but widely adopted standards tend to stay!