Jan-Piet Mens - The Story of OwnTracks

Abstract

OwnTracks let you track your own location (hence the name) via your own equipment. It is an Open Source project which produces Android and iOS apps.

In this talk, we tell you a bit about the crazy idea of how OwnTracks came to be, and some of the applications we’ve know people are using it for. We’ll show you some of the eco-system around it. OwnTracks also produces a “protocol” which is implemented in the Recorder and for openHAB and Home Assistant, Traccar, etc.

Biography

Jan-Piet Mens is an independent Unix/Linux consultant and sysadmin who’s worked with Unix-systems since 1985. Jan-Piet does odd bits of coding, and has architected infrastructure at major customers throughout Europe.

One of his specialities is the Domain Name System and as such, he authored the book Alternative DNS Servers as well as a variety of other technical publications, and he launched the MQTT-based Open Source OwnTracks project.

Spreker