Matrix could be described as what happens when email, instant messaging and encryption meet

Edward Andò

Principal Scientist, EPFL, Center for Imaging

Carine Dengler

Computer Scientist, EPFL, C4DT

Wouldn't it be nice to have a chat system that is:
  • Open: Open protocol, open source server & clients
  • Libre: No vendor lock-in, multiple implementations
  • Extendable: Allowing scripting, bridges (to Slack?)
  • EPFL-integrated: Gaspar login
  • Sovereign: On-premises and self-hosted
    No data on servers of for-profit U.S. megaliths
  • Beautiful: With feature-rich and easy-to-use clients
  • Secure: Allowing "Perfect Forwards Secrecy"
  • Widely used: for communication in&out of EPFL

We did it! a few highlights:

Server: matrix.epfl.ch
Webclient: element.epfl.ch

Outline of our presentation
  • Demo clients
  • History & Use cases
  • Tech Sheet
  • Matrix at scale
  • What our users want

Clients are beautiful

Webclient and desktop/phone client

History

  1. Center for Imaging requirements → K.Malleck
  2. EPFL-wide instance: LEX for domain names
  3. First deployed 2023-09-12
  4. Adoption: 460+ logins & 120+ concurrent users

Our use cases

  • Imaging: Internal Affairs, Summer school, Workshop@ETHZ, Software Projects
  • C4DT: Digital Trust (also running matrix.c4dt.org)


Your use cases?

Testimonials

Prof Van De Ville (STI):
The functionality is identical to Slack, without its limitations, in particular about the history of threads that has frustrated us many times before.
[...]
It has a direct and positive impact on lab management, expenses, data protection, and visibility to the open-source community.
Prof Herbst (STI):
  • I have no hassle to manage "short term members" like project students
  • I have joint chat rooms with people from ETH and some people in Germany and France.
  • And for none of us this was any effort
Prof Payer (IC):
Having an EPFL-internal managed open-source solution allows us to regain and retain control over our private communication.
As a Slack alternative, Matrix/Element has proven extremely useful and is now a mature alternative.

Tech Sheet 💾

  • Login with Gaspar account (LDAP)
  • Server is on premises (EPFL XaaS)
  • Infrastructure-as-Code
    (matrix-docker-ansible-deploy)
  • Admin interface (Synapse Admin)
  • Monitoring (Prometheus/Grafana)
  • Issue tracking (EPFL GitLab)
  • Test instance for new features

Matrix at scale 🌍️

  • matrix.org: 60M users (35M slack)
  • French government: "Tchap"
  • German public administration: "BundesMessenger"

Matrix at scale 🎓️

What our users want 🚀

  • More features (bridges to chat services)
  • Deeper LDAP integration
  • Official EPFL service

Make this happen! 🗣️

  • Lend a hand:
    • for (system) administration tasks
    • for administrative tasks
  • Student projects welcome
  • Join the server, tell your colleagues, use it!

matrix.epfl.ch

  • Sovereign, open, federated, privacy-preserving
  • Robust and reliable
  • 460+ logins, Labs and Centres using it
  • Could scale up to be EPFL-wide
  • Please use it; Help appreciated