Peter van Hardenberg - Ink and Switch, Automerge

This week we're joined by Peter van Hardenberg (PVH), director of the Ink and Switch research lab and co-author of the seminal Local First Software paper.Peter shares the origin story of local-first software, from his realization on a San Francisco train to his work at Heroku and beyond.We dive deep into Automerge, Ink and Switch's local-first sync engine built on CRDTs (Conflict-Free Replicated Data Types), exploring how it enables real-time collaboration while keeping data on your computer.We discuss the technical challenges of building distributed systems, the philosophy behind local-first software, and how projects like Key Hive are pushing the boundaries of decentralized data access.Peter also shares his vision for the future of computing, where software ownership and interoperability become fundamental principles rather than afterthoughts.

• https://www.pvh.ca
• https://www.inkandswitch.com
• https://automerge.org
• https://github.com/automerge/automerge
• https://github.com/pvh