OpenTalk as an alternative video conferencing solution from and for Europe

All over the country, data protection officers emphasize that sensitive communication data is not legally or technically secure with US cloud-based providers. And yet many companies and public authorities continue to rely on US providers such as Zoom, MS Teams and Webex. Data protection concerns are shrugged aside. Supposedly because no alternatives are available. But is that a valid justification? The data protection officers see things differently and are cracking down: For example, German federal state of Rheinland-Pfalz’ and its data protection officer Dieter Kugelmann banned the use of MS Teams in schools in 2022, as Heise reported.

Of course, there were alternatives: With free tools such as Jitsi or Big Blue Button (BBB), schools, public authorities and companies kept their heads above water during the Corona era. But the free tools have their limits - in terms of functionality, usability, IT architecture and scaling. For pure video conferencing with image and sound, without great demands and in manageable group sizes, they are a feasible way. But when it comes to larger online meetings, complex moderation tasks or demanding IT settings, these solutions reach their limits. Their underlying IT architecture is simply not designed for a modern, scaling and secure architecture with containerization, high availability and high security requirements.

 

The video conferencing solution for digital sovereignty

But now there are no more excuses: OpenTalk is the alternative from Germany and Europe! It finally closes the gap between the free tools and the quality of the big commercial vendors.

We have designed and developed OpenTalk from scratch to meet the demands of today's IT architecture and confidential and protected communication. It was clear from the beginning that OpenTalk should become open source. We made the source code open at the beginning of 2023 on OpenCoDE.de, the federal government's open source platform. OpenTalk thus offers its customers an essential building block for achieving digital sovereignty.

With its modern container-based IT architecture and strict data separation, OpenTalk is particularly suitable for use in politics and administration, universities and schools, and companies. Thanks to high scalability and performance, conferences with several hundred participants are also possible. We place a special focus on meeting the highest security and data protection requirements, even for classified information.

Thanks to the complete use in the browser and the extensive and modern group and planning functions, OpenTalk is suitable for collaboration in teams as well as with guests. The wide range of functions and moderation tools, such as lobby and access control functions, special breakout rooms, chats, a whiteboard, requests to speak, audit-proof voting, a protocol or even a coffee break function for longer meetings, ensure productive and enjoyable conferences.

 

Online meetings with OpenTalk - on-premise or SaaS

For those who like to get started straight away and cannot or do not want to deal with complex IT infrastructure, OpenTalk is available as a cloud service with three different tariffs. If it is legally or regulatory required for schools, universities, authorities or in the medical environment, OpenTalk can also be operated locally itself. Please contact us if you are interested.