The first part of summer has been busy for our team. Between conferences, community events, and policy discussions, we’ve had the chance to present our work on open-source collaboration, meet with partners and users, and take part in conversations on digital sovereignty and sustainable software development.
It was also the right time to strengthen our collaborations. In June, we officially announced our partnership with OpenProject, bringing together two open-source platforms to offer a full European alternative to Confluence and Jira. This new step allows us to better support organizations looking to move away from proprietary software, with integrated tools for project management and structured knowledge sharing.
Here's a recap of the events we attended.
📖 Open Source Founders Summit
The Open Source Founders Summit brings together CEOs and founders of open‑source companies to tackle business challenges that don’t fit neatly into traditional startup or tech-only events. At La Rotonde Stalingrad in Paris, Ludovic Dubost represented XWiki with a lightning talk titled “Paying open-source extensions: an alternative to open core.” His presentation explained how our Pro Apps model balances full open-source extensions with monetization through services, support, and hosting, without adding proprietary layers.
The event focuses on peer learning and leadership discussions, rather than product pitches. That made it an ideal setting for us to exchange ideas with moderators and speakers from projects like Nextcloud, Element, and Percona. These conversations reinforced our belief that open-source businesses can be sustainable, community-driven, and built without resorting to closed-source models.
🖥 Journées du Logiciel Libre (JdLL)
At the 26th edition of JdLL in Lyon, our R\&D engineer Fabrice Mouhartem gave a talk titled “What does ‘cryptography’ really mean in software?” He explained how cryptography protects user data, why many everyday tools fall short on security, and how digital signatures and end-to-end encryption work in practice. His presentation also showed how CryptPad applies these principles to offer secure, real-time collaboration without compromising user control.
The talk is available in French and can be watched online here. 👇
☁ COOL Days
In early June, we attended COOL Days in Budapest, the annual community event organized by Collabora Online. The event brings together partners, contributors, and developers working on real-time document editing and integration projects.
Lavinia, our Senior Software Developer, gave a presentation on how Collabora Online is integrated into XWiki. She explained how this setup allows users to edit office documents (like spreadsheets and text files) directly within XWiki pages. She also shared technical insights based on our recent work improving the user experience and performance of this feature. Throughout the event, she took part in conversations with other developers about shared challenges and possible improvements around collaborative editing in open-source tools.
🇩🇪 Nextcloud Summit
Our CEO Ludovic Dubost, Sales Director Clément Aubin, and Marketing Director Dan Jayes attended this year’s Nextcloud Summit. It was a chance to meet with open-source partners and users from across Europe, and to talk about digital sovereignty and public-sector collaboration.
Clément gave a talk focused on what we’ve learned from helping organizations migrate away from Confluence. He shared practical advice on preparing for migration, avoiding common mistakes, and using XWiki to create a flexible and long-lasting knowledge base.
During hallway conversations, Ludovic echoed a key message: “Europe needs to stop waiting and start building.” He emphasized that XWiki and CryptPad are living examples of digital sovereignty in action, as tools built to respect autonomy, privacy, and open standards.
🗣 APELL Conference
Organized by the Association Professionnelle Européenne du Logiciel Libre, the APELL Conference brought together leaders from across the open-source ecosystem to discuss sustainability and business models. Our CEO, Ludovic Dubost, gave a presentation titled “Sustainable open source: XWiki’s paying Apps model in practice.” He explained how we’ve built a financially sustainable business while keeping all our extensions fully open source.
Ludovic explained how our Pro Apps framework works in practice. Extensions remain open source, while revenue comes from services such as premium support, hosting, and tailored integrations. His talk led to several conversations about funding methods that support long-term sustainability in open source. Many attendees said it was useful to hear a concrete example of a company that stays fully open while continuing to grow, without switching to open core or restrictive licenses.
🚀 Interstis meet-up
We attended the Interstis meet-up in Ville-la-Grand, a town in Haute-Savoie that recently became the first municipality to officially deploy the Hexagone suite. Developed by Interstis and partners under the France 2030 plan, Hexagone is a sovereign, secure collaboration platform designed for local administrations. The commune, already a user of Interstis tools, has now extended adoption to the full Hexagone suite, which is used daily by around 100 municipal employees.
Cédric, our Account Manager, gave a short presentation on how XWiki contributes to this ecosystem by offering a flexible and reliable knowledge management platform. He highlighted how local governments can adopt XWiki and CryptPad for everyday collaboration without ceding control to big vendors.
The event included workshops on cybersecurity and digital sobriety, and provided a space for local IT teams, municipalities, and partners to exchange ideas on reducing reliance on foreign tools. It was a meaningful opportunity to show how open-source software like XWiki can support the public sector with practical, secure alternatives developed and maintained in Europe.
🎥 How HLS modernized with XWiki
In June, we hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland(HLS), highlighting how they successfully migrated to XWiki from a legacy XML-based system. The session focused on how HLS customized the platform to meet the needs of a multilingual editorial team working on a long-term historical publication.
Neculai Dăscălița from XWiki and Stephanie Summermatter from HLS shared how the project was structured, what technical choices were made, and how the new platform improved daily workflows while supporting the project’s editorial and linguistic complexity. The session included a live Q\&A covering accessibility, content reuse, and long-term maintenance.
You can watch the full webinar recording. 👇
🤖 OW2con’25
We joined this year’s edition of OW2con, the annual conference organized by the OW2 open-source community. The event focused on responsible digital infrastructure, open standards, and the future of open-source business models.
Our CEO, Ludovic Dubost, gave a talk titled “AI, SaaS and open source: Challenges or opportunities for open source companies?” The presentation explored the growing use of AI in collaborative SaaS platforms and the impact this has on pricing, user control, and data protection. Drawing on XWiki’s experience with the WAISE project, Ludovic shared key points from our internal analysis of AI adoption, and reflected on whether open-source vendors should follow current trends or take a more independent approach.
During the event, CryptPad received the OW2 Community Award 2025, as a recognition for the project's privacy-first design and the active role of its contributors and users. Our team also joined several conversations with developers and contributors about interoperability, API design, and privacy-focused alternatives in collaborative software.
🔊 NGI Forum
At the NGI Forum in Brussels, Ludovic took part in the Impact Stories roundtable, joining policymakers, researchers, and open-source practitioners to discuss the role of ethical digital tools in Europe’s future. He presented 2 EU-supported projects developed by our team: CryptPad, our end-to-end encrypted collaboration platform, and WAISE, an AI-powered knowledge search tool built with privacy and transparency in mind.
The discussions focused on digital commons, data protection, and sustainable models for innovation. Between sessions, conversations continued around how open-source solutions like XWiki and CryptPad can contribute to a more resilient and user-controlled digital infrastructure.
You can watch the full recording of the roundtable here.
🤝 DG Connect workshop
At the end of June, our CEO, Ludovic Dubost, joined a high-level meeting in Brussels hosted by the European Commission’s DG Connect, facilitated by the European DIGITAL SME Alliance. The session brought together CEOs from several European cloud and open-source companies (including XWiki, IONOS, Nextcloud, Clever Cloud, Aruba, and Dynamo) to discuss how to advance a sovereign European cloud ecosystem.
Key topics included public procurement, interoperable API standards for data portability, and better coordination between European providers and public administrations. Ludovic contributed to the discussion by highlighting the need for open standards, long-term investment in EU-based development teams, and stronger visibility for SME-led software projects. The meeting reflected a shared commitment to strengthening Europe’s digital autonomy and ensuring open-source solutions are fully included in future EU digital strategies.
👏 June wrap-up
June brought a wide range of opportunities to share our work, meet with partners, and take part in important conversations around open-source collaboration, digital sovereignty, and privacy. Whether through technical talks, community events, or policy roundtables, we showed how XWiki and CryptPad continue to support secure, user-controlled tools across different contexts.
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What’s next
In the coming months, we’ll continue this work through new product updates, webinars, and events. If you’d like to follow our progress, you can follow us on LinkedIn or subscribe to our newsletter.