Speaker Interview: Jos Poortvliet

Bringing your data home and finding solutions to getting our data back: That's what Jos Poortvliet will be talking about in his presentation, "The why, what and how of owning your own data," held SCALE 13x Sunday at 3 p.m. The SCALE Team took some time with Jos to ask him about his talk.

Q: Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background?
A: I've been involved in Free Software since the beginning of this century, first in local (Dutch) communities, later becoming involved in KDE's marketing and promo efforts and becoming openSUSE community manager for SUSE in 2010. I now work as cm for ownCloud.

Q: You're giving a talk on The Why, What and How of Owning Your Own Data. Without tipping your hand on the actual talk, can you give us an idea of what we might expect?

A: there's a clear challenge with privacy and security, and I'll talk about why we should care about the erosion of our freedom in that regard and what's
out there that can help us - including ownCloud, of course. But I don't have all the answers and there are certainly some things which still need solving.

Q: Is this your first visit to SCALE? If so, what are your expectations? If not, can you give us your impressions of the event?

A: Not the first, but it's a while ago - I have a SCALE 2011 t-shirt with me. I think it's a kick-ass event, lots of good and interesting folks, both in
terms of attendees and speakers.

[SCALE Team interview by Larry Cafiero]