DWeb Local-First Weekend roundup

Roundup of Local-First Weekend on January 11th & 12th. Speakers, hacking, and more all weekend long.

DWeb Local-First Weekend roundup
The LoFiWknd event coasters

On January 11th and 12th 2025, more than two dozen technologists gathered in Vancouver, coming from as far away as Seattle, Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island to hear talks from some of the people on the forefront of the local-first movement, and then learn together in a collaborative hackathon.

Saturday started with a hearty brunch featuring locally made breads, meats, cheeses, and baked goods. Participants pulled themselves various coffees from the Z-Space espresso machine, and then settled at tables and couches in the main room to hear some talks.

On stage Peter van Hardenberg, broke down the concept of local-first software design, demonstrating the syncing capabilities of Automerge to the crowd through some incident-free live-coding.

Brooklyn Zelenka spoke about access control for local-first and her work on capabilities and delegation for the Beehive project at Ink & Switch. The presentation was not only enlightening, but elicited laughs from the crowd due to Brooklyn's signature presentation style.

Finally, David Lücke gave a walkthrough of his local-first chat project, a simple chat system that does not require a server and works offline. This chat was used at the back-channel for the weekend-long event.


Late into the evening participants gathered in small groups to discuss software development, user agency, end-user programming, and other techno-social concepts while sharing food and drink.

Evening discussions

On Sunday morning the crew gathered once again for brunch, and continued to collaborate on the lo-fi tech from the day before.

Here are a few comments from participants:

It provided a refreshing counter-narrative to the prevailing narratives in the tech industry, and I was impressed by the maturity of the various projects. — Guy
It was fun to pick up new tech… and build out rapid features. — Yas
People were extremely friendly… the snacks were excellent... hacking happened! — Gord

Demos

Participants presented some of the successes (and failures!) of their hacking and projects on late Sunday.

A screenshot of the local first chat with several improvements

At the end, each person took home a laser cut wooden coaster made by Bosswood Creations to commemorate the event.

This DWeb #LoFiWKND community event was supported by Feathers Cloud, Hypha Cooperative, Ink & Switch, and a number of DWeb YVR and Z-Space volunteers who ensured a constant supply of fresh coffee, healthy snacks, and good vibes.

logos for Feathers Cloud, Hypha, and Ink & Switch
#LoFiWKND community sponsors