Golem.de interview: Peer Heinlein on the vision and development of OpenTalk

In fall 2023, Golem.de published a lengthy interview with our CEO Peer Heinlein. In the article "Endlich mal offen reden! Vision und Entwicklung von Open Talk", he gave insights into the creation and goals of OpenTalk and shared his thoughts and visions for the project.

He explained that the idea behind OpenTalk came about three years ago when he and the team realized that existing video conferencing solutions from both large US technology companies and the well-known open source solutions did not meet the requirements for data protection and digital sovereignty, as well as scaling and professional operation. At the same time, the team had many ideas on how they would implement it themselves. In the end, they simply saw the need for a new solution that combined open source, security, data protection, user-friendliness and high user numbers. So the fixed idea became serious and OpenTalk was launched as an independent company.

Peer Heinlein describes the main objectives of OpenTalk in the interview:

• Security and privacy: OpenTalk provides secure, encrypted communications to ensure the privacy and protection of user, business and government data.
• Inclusion and accessibility: OpenTalk is designed for accessibility to be accessible to a wide range of users.
• Scalability: OpenTalk can be used by large platform providers and ambitious admins alike, serving the needs of different organizations. The architecture is designed for large numbers of users from the outset.
• Ease of use: OpenTalk has been developed to enable pleasant communication in teams and with customers and to promote productive work.
• Regulatory requirements: OpenTalk is currently seeking VS-NfD and BSI certification to meet the requirements of government and public authority communications.

During the three-year development of OpenTalk, there were a number of challenges to overcome, Heinlein explains in the interview. However, the chosen programming language Rust proved to be advantageous and also helped to attract new contributors to the project.

Today, OpenTalk can be used as a SaaS offering from Germany as well as operated on its own hardware in the desired data center.

The complete and very detailed article on Golem.de offers more insights into the vision and development of Open Talk as well as the challenges that have been overcome so far.

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Endlich mal offen reden! Vision und Entwicklung von Open Talk