Detailbild Univention Summit Agenda

300 experts at the Univention Summit 2017 in Bremen

About 300 participants met last week at the Univention Summit in Bremen. A central theme of the event was the importance of open systems for companies, schools, society and Germany as a business place. In the lecture and workshop program and the accompanying exhibition, software and hardware solutions as well as various aspects concerning the possibilities of open source were presented. Univention provided information about Univention Corporate Server (UCS), UCS@school and the business models of the Univention App Center. After the panel discussion with representatives of Lufthansa Systems, DB Systel and Univention, the best Bachelor and Master theses submitted to the Univention Graduate Prize were awarded.

Bremen, January 30, 2017.

It was a successful and enriching event, the 300 attendees, exhibitors and lecturers who attended the Univention Summit in Bremen agreed. They discussed the various aspects and possibilities of open source solutions animately.

During the extensive lecture and workshop offer the participants were able to receive information about various IT areas. For example, running enterprise apps in combination with secure container solutions (Docker) and the Univention App Center with its now approximately 90 corporate apps as a transaction platform for users and / or manufacturers. The 18 vendor partners at the flanking exhibition offered the participants further possibilities to learn about various software and hardware solutions from the open source area.

Open systems necessary

The question raised about the importance of open systems for society as a whole and for the entire business location Germany provided a lively discussion among the participants. Already in his opening speech, Peter Ganten, Managing Director of Univention GmbH, presented interesting thoughts and examples of why the need for open systems through cloud computing and artificial intelligence has risen sharply. Thus Ganten worked out that the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and self-learning systems is profiting massively from the large amounts of collected user data. This provides great opportunities for industry as well as the education sector, but at the same time it also carries risks when these systems are only controlled by a few players. Ganten formulated four principles, which allow the monopolization and misuse of data to be controlled: responsibility, verifiability, replication and freedom of choice. This is best done by using open source.

At the panel discussion the different aspects of the importance of “openness” for business and enterprises were further elucidated. For example, Holger Koch from DB Systel and Dr. Jörg Liebe from Lufthansa Systems pointed out that their companies are already using open source solutions in many areas. One of the reasons for this is that open systems offer greater independence and stability for companies than proprietary solutions. Be it whether a manufacturer no longer supports a solution, or limits licensing terms. Peter Ganten stressed the importance of the fact that the German middle class would also have to go this way if it wanted to remain competitive because innovation is only possible through openness.

Requirements for school IT

The separate Education Track at the Univention Summit, which addresses the needs of the education sector, has established itself as an important aspect of the summit. Around 80 school operators and IT managers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were invited to the active exchange of information and experiences in Bremen.

For example, the lectures addressed the need for simple, comprehensible and centrally controllable IT for schools or presented the simple connection of mobile terminals (BYOD). The participants in the exhibition area were able to experience live with their own smartphone how quickly such a connection can be established.

A special highlight: Dr. Claudia Bogedan, Bremer Senator for Children and Education, reported on the strategy paper “Education in the digital world”, which has been developed during the last few months under her presidency of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. The paper stresses the usage of professional IT and the provision of the necessary resources. Bogedan underlined that they agreed on general standards. In order to achieve this, the individual federal states can now develop individual implementation strategies.

Award of the Univention alumni

Every year, Univention GmbH invites graduates to submit their thesis with open source focus to promote the professional use of open source solutions. This year, the award ceremony took place at the end of the Univention Summit.

A high – caliber and independent jury consisting of Monika Schnizer (Fujitsu), Holger Koch (DB Systel), Dr. Jörg Liebe (Lufthansa Systems), Dr. Steffen Evers (Bosch Software Innovation), Prof. Dr. Dieter Hutter (German Research Center Artificial Intelligence / DFKI) and Hans-Joachim Baader (ProLinux.de) had evaluated the work. The jury was especially impressed by the work of Matthias Kastner, who has dealt with the synthesis of carbon nanotubes with the help of free electronics and open source. His work was awarded 2,000 euros.

The prize winners:

  • 1. Prize: Matthias Kastner “Synthesis of carbon nanotubes with the help of free electronics and open source”
  • 2. Prize: Benedikt Wolters “Distributed Authorization Management for Secure Sensor Data in the Cloud”
  • 3. Prize: Roman Matzutt “Design and Implementation of Secure Decentralized Bitcoin Mixing”
  • 3. Prize: Timo Pagel “Evaluation and implementation of DevOps strategies to increase the security of Web applications for startups”

Impressions:

Peter Ganten: Keynote Summit 2017

Univention CEO Peter Ganten at his keynote for the Univention Summit 2017

Senatorin Dr. Claudia Bogedan auf dem Univention Summit 2017

Dr. Claudia Bogedan, Senator for Children and Education in Bremen, presented the Strategy Paper of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs “Education in the Digital World”

Univention Summit 2017 - Ausstellungsbereich

Exhibition area of ​​the Univention Summit with 18 exhibitors and their software and hardware solutions

Podiumsdiskussion auf dem Univention Summit 2017

Panel discussion on the need for open systems with Michael Reimann (Radio Bremen), Dr. Jörg Liebe (Lufthansa Systems), Holger Koch (DB Systel) and Peter Ganten (Univention)

Verleihung des Univention Absolventenpreises 2017

Honoring the award winners of the graduate award: (from the left) Benedikt Wolters (2nd), Dr. Dieter Hutter (DFKI), Roman Matzutt (3rd) , Peter Ganten (Univention), Dr. Jörg Liebe (Lufthansa Systems), Matthias Kastner (1st place), Holger Koch (DB Systel) und Timo Pagel (3rd)

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Alice Horstmann

Head of Communications