Modern infrastructure demands consistent, repeatable deployments across development, testing, and production environments. This talk will demonstrate how Ubuntu's cloud-init and Multipass create a unified workflow from laptop to data center.
Attendees will learn how to leverage Ubuntu's native cloud-init project to automate server provisioning across multiple environments: local development...
Large Language Models are increasingly being embedded into production systems, yet many current Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) approaches struggle with trust, traceability, and operational robustness.
This talk explores how Agentic RAG combined with Knowledge Graphs can be used to build verifiable, auditable knowledge systems rather than opaque AI applications. Using Telos, a recently...
This session will demonstrate PostgreSQL Deb, Snap, Rock, Charm, and Juju on RISC-V using Canonical Ubuntu.
We will also showcase the UI/UX similarity across different architectures, including AMD, ARM, and RISC-V, as well as the simplicity of managing applications using the Juju application lifecycle management system.
Managing cloud infrastructure in Africa comes with unique constraints — high AWS/Azure costs, unreliable connectivity, and the need to serve multiple markets efficiently. This talk explores how LXD can be used to build a robust, production-grade private cloud on bare metal servers, dramatically reducing infrastructure costs without sacrificing reliability or flexibility.
Drawing from...
Water scarcity remains one of the most urgent challenges in arid and semi-arid regions across Kenya and Africa. Instead of proposing large centralized infrastructure, this talk presents an open blueprint and technical framework for building decentralized, solar-powered microrobot swarms using Ubuntu and open-source technologies.
The session focuses on the architecture required to build such...
Communication is a fundamental human right, yet millions of deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals across Kenya and Africa face significant barriers in accessing digital content and services. Signvrse is an open-source digital sign language interpreter that converts text and spoken language into expressive sign language animations rendered on avatars in real time — built on open-source...
In Kenya, the "OS divide" is a silent barrier. Many of us start our software engineering journeys on shared family laptops or second-hand corporate machines where we don't have full control over the hardware or BIOS.
A Personal Story
I remember my first serious development machine, an ASUS laptop I received from a relative. It was a former company laptop, and due to administrative...
Overview
This interactive workshop explores the paradigm shift in AI, from traditional predictive models to modern generative systems, using live coding, real datasets, and practical examples. Attendees will experience AI not as a black box, but as a tool they can build, understand, and deploy themselves.
Workshop Structure
Part 1: The Predictive World (Traditional ML)
...
Google Drive has a storage limit of 15 GB. This capacity is almost always filled by photos since they have become easy to take because of the advances of technology. Once the 15GB capacity is exceeded, users are not able to send or receive emails on their Gmail accounts. At this point, they are forced to pay Google to access their email. This is horrendous. The essence of this workshop will be...
What happens when high-performance native systems require secure, distributed access to modern large-scale data processing infrastructure?
This talk covers an open-source C++ client implementation built on the Spark Connect protocol, enabling Native Systems to communicate with remote Spark clusters using gRPC and Protobuf.
The talk explores:
- The...
Open source communities are very good at helping people make their first contribution, but many struggle with what happens after onboarding. New contributors often join with excitement, complete an initial task, and then lose direction because the next steps are unclear.
This talk explores how communities can design clearer contributor pathways—from first contribution to long-term...
Starting a tech community is easy. Sustaining one is difficult.
In 2025, Salamander Tech Hub began as a small grassroots initiative focused on Git, GitHub, and open source fundamentals. With no funding, limited infrastructure, and a volunteer driven team, we set out to create a space where young developers could move from learning tools to contributing to real projects.
Within a year, we...
Overview
In the rapidly evolving Kenyan job market, university students often face a significant "readiness gap"—a misalignment between academic output and the specific technical requirements of the industry. This session introduces SkillSync, an open-source platform designed to empower students at institutions like JKUAT and beyond by transforming their academic journey into a...
This lightning talk is a fast-paced, practical introduction to getting started with Ubuntu and open source contribution—designed especially for students, beginners, and curious technologists.
In 10 minutes, I will cover:
What Ubuntu and open source really mean beyond “free software”
How the Ubuntu community works (locally and globally)
Simple, real ways to start contributing...
As beginners, we often focus on making our apps work, but sometimes forget basic security steps, leaving our projects open to attacks. In this lightning talk, I’ll share some of the common mistakes I’ve seen in beginner Django apps and show simple ways to fix them. We’ll cover things like managing secrets safely, configuring settings correctly, controlling who can do what in your app, and...