🔗Matrix Live S13E15 - Website & Content Working Group updates
This episode, we're talking about the work of the Website & Content Working Group, and having a look behind the scenes in the production of This Week in Matrix itself. You can also read the news entry that is added during this video, down below!
Woah - a Matrix Live about This Week in Matrix, in This Week in Matrix... it feels like some kind of Inception scenario... 😎
Happy Friday, TWIM! It's been roundabout half a year since the last meeting and report from the Governing Board, though you might have been following this cycle's [election process]((@/foundation/governing-board-elections/2026/index.md) in May and June. I'm honored to follow in Greg's footsteps and announce the news this time as the Board's new chair, with a lot of support from our new vice-chair richvdh, and I am very grateful to Rich for taking the time to write up the report for you. 🙏
The Board gathered last week for its second meeting of the year for a comprehensive exchange of highlights in the Matrix world. As usual, you can find the comprehensive account in the blog post.
We'd love to receive your feedback and questions - you can always find us at #governing-board-office:matrix.org.
If you'd like to learn more about how to get involved in the Foundation, the Governing Board, its members, structure, activities, Committees, Working Groups, or anything else, you can read a lot about this in the Foundation section right here on the matrix.org website. We're always excited about new ideas and initiatives - it's all of the ecosystem collaborating that really pushes Matrix forward.
The Matrix Foundation Governing Board recently met for our bi-annual meeting, so it's a good time to give an update on what's been going on, and what we talked about.
This was our first Board meeting since the elections earlier this year. As a reminder, half the Board is re-elected each year, so in June we said goodbye to a number of previous members and welcomed a clutch of new ones.
Greg also stood down as chair after two years; particular thanks are due to him for his work and leadership which were essential in getting the Board set up. The Board elected Kim Brose, our previous vice-chair, as chair in his stead, and myself (Rich vdH) as the new vice-chair.
Since the elections, we have been joined by Reid Anderson as an Individual Member representative. Max, who had won this seat in the election, was unable to take up his seat due to other commitments. Reid received second place in the election and was therefore appointed to the seat by Amandine, as Managing Director, in consultation with the Governance Committee. Welcome Reid.
It's been exciting to see the number of Working Groups continue to grow: we now have a total of eight fully-established Working Groups, with more under discussion.
Working Groups are where much of the work of the Governing Board gets done; the scope of their work varies widely, and they are generally open to everybody. They are a great way to get involved with the direction of Matrix; if you are interested in getting involved, just join the group's Matrix chat and see what's going on!
Hi all, it's been half a year since the Governing Board's last report which means this week it was time for us to gather for the second Board meeting of the year!
We're busy getting a proper report ready to share with all of you, so this is just a teaser, but I hope we will be able to include it properly in the next TWIM!
As a tiny teaser, we thank Max who joined the Board as a representative for the Individual Members of the Foundation only during the last election cycle, but unfortunately had to leave the Board again long before the end of his term due to life happening. 🙏 Instead we're excited to announce that we're joined by Reid Anderson, the runner-up Individual Member candidate from the elections earlier this year! 🎉
Next on our radar: FOSDEM 2027! Planning is well underway, and we're happy to share the Call for Participation in the Decentralised Messaging Devroom. If your talk did not make it onto the schedule for The Matrix Conference, why not consider submitting it for FOSDEM? We'll have more information to share about our broader plans for FOSDEM over the next few weeks.
More than 340 attendees, exciting next-generation features ready to ship, Matrix powering more and more government communications, practical updates from the community, and the occasional shark: dispatches from Malmö 2026!
"Matrix has gone from being an interesting experiment to an existential requirement," said Matthew at the opening to the 2026 edition of The Matrix Conference, a sentiment that could be felt throughout this year's edition.
Civil servants from 15 different nations and intergovernmental organizations shared their decisions and experiences migrating to Matrix in response to an urgent need for digital sovereignty; we also heard from regulated industries like healthcare who cannot compromise on privacy or security and are increasingly looking to Matrix as a solution. Matrix is growing in response to this need: representatives from Matrix's rapidly expanding ecosystem came to present the varied projects built on Matrix specification, and members of both the Spec Core Team and the ecosystem came to demonstrate the expanding features that will make up Matrix 2.0.
A demo of Matrix real-time communication (MatrixRTC), was one of the highlights, as Matthew created a group call with himself using three different applications: Visio, Tammy and Element Call.
This year we introduced the community attendance sponsorship package, which allowed us to fund travel for the maintainers of one of the community-created Matrix homeservers called Continuwuity; their talks and workshop were among the most popular of the event. Thanks to Famedly for supporting this initiative via the community attendance sponsorship option.
Of course, we took advantage of being in the home of IKEA to adopt some Blåhajar:
A lot more happened, so read on for more highlights from The Matrix Conference 2026.
The Matrix.org Foundation, together with our friends from the XMPP Standards Foundation (XSF) and Delta Chat communities, is organising a Decentralised Messaging devroom at FOSDEM 2027, and we are looking for speakers!
Focused on federated and self-hostable chat, this devroom brings our ecosystems together to tackle shared challenges. Although our architectures look pretty different under the hood, we face many of the same hurdles. We want to get together to share operational and implementation experiences, discuss shared technical challenges, and look at practical ways our networks can cooperate.
We hosted over 340 people across two days of talks and workshops, with three rooms of content streamed and available for interaction via our live Matrix rooms during the event.
If you came to the conference, send us your best Blåhaj photos! You'll find us on Matrix and also on Mastodon.
As you can see in Matrix Live this week, we are into the final few days before the Conference!
The event is a team effort, and we're very appreciative of the help of our volunteers (40 of you!). We have a couple of slots (and hoodies!) left if you're willing to help out - just take a look at the volunteer schedule. Maybe there is a free shift during a talk you want to see? How about you help film or record it! If you are willing and able to help out, book a slot!
We are also grateful to our sponsors - their contribution plays a critical role in the Foundation’s ability to run the Conference and progress towards sustainability in general. Thank you!
We're looking forward to seeing many of you in Malmö and Copenhagen!
If you're not able to join us in person, we hope you'll be following along online.
A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable that Governments could have dedicated open source and digital commons strategies championed by ministers. But that has changed profoundly: in June, the European Commission unveiled a European Tech Sovereignty Package, which identified some €264 billion spent annually on proprietary, non-European products and services as a strategic risk. The Matrix Foundation has been a driving force in this change. Last week, I was in Paris representing Matrix at an event hosted by the General Directorate for Enterprises to discuss the vital role open source plays in Europe’s digital policy agenda. The event was opened by the French Minister Delegate for AI and Digital affairs Anne Le Henanff and the German State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Digital Transformation and Government Modernisation (BMDS) Markus Richter. At the same time our Developer Relations lead, Andy Piper, was in Luxembourg speaking on a panel with a new European body that grew out of the Tech Sovereignty Package: the Digital Commons European Digital Infrastructure Consortium (DC-EDIC).
The French and German ministers opened the DGE open source event.
The DC-EDIC was created in December last year with the mission to “develop, maintain, and scale digital commons for Europe”. The finalisation of an open call for expert advisors completed the set-up of a first-of-its-kind governmental body that aims to strengthen European digital sovereignty by building, financing, and deploying open source infrastructure solutions. The DC-EDIC is an exciting opportunity for the whole of Europe to catalyse the use of digital commons and ensure the commons are sustainable.
With 12 years under our belt spent building and maintaining Matrix as an open standard, taking it to the point where it serves as the backbone of communications for millions of European civil servants, we have built a strong understanding of the gaps in the market and ecosystem that hold back the sustainable use of digital commons. Here are our recommendations for how the DC-EDIC can maximise the impact of its five goals.
