localfirst.fm #14 – Matthew Weidner: Architectures for Central Server Collaboration
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Sep 3, 2024 
Matthew Weidner, a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon, dives into the world of distributed systems and local-first software. He shares insights from his comprehensive blog post on architectures for central server collaboration. The conversation covers fascinating technologies like CRDTs and auto-merge, contrasting various state management strategies in collaborative apps. Matthew highlights the evolution of local-first principles and its challenges, offering practical examples from gaming and collaborative text editing that illuminate the future of secure, flexible software.
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Encrypted Google Docs Project
- Matthew Weidner's work on collaborative software started with a master's thesis on end-to-end encrypted Google Docs.
- This led to his PhD work on the collaboration aspects, focusing on making collaborative app development easier.
CRDTs Explained
- CRDTs are data structures copied on multiple devices, enabling local-first updates.
- Later, background syncing converges these copies into a consistent state.
Real-Time Collaboration Defined
- Real-time collaborative apps update local copies immediately upon change.
- This differs from traditional web apps, where changes require server roundtrips and page reloads.