<h2>About</h2> <p>We rely on a lot of online services, paid or not, provided by megacorps. Take back control by building the services you rely on yourself, known as self-hosting. We covered what is self-hosting, what it looks like, and what you can do in self-hosting.</p> <p><em>Oliver Geer: This talk requires a certain level of technical knowledge. If you're not willing to learn it, I'd recommend a service self-hosted by a local community (paying the developers of the free and open source software too if possible), then a free and open source cloud hosted service (since it can be a good way to fund the development). I do <strong>not</strong> recommend the specific subset of cloud services that are proprietary and refuse to cooperate with standards and privacy, and if you can't self-host you don't have to resort to them.</em></p> <p><em>Oliver Geer: <strong>Fact Check of 4:40</strong>: Google has tried mixing personalised advertising</a> into its large language model features in <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9bbdf59e-ce46-4176-aab9-b45a3f49fc4e">opt-in</a> and <a href="https://www.vogue.com/article/google-launches-personalized-shopping-ads-within-its-ai-mode-tool">not clearly opt-in</a> cases. This is assumedly via fine-tuning, prompt modification, and "agentic" features, which could be loosely called "training". This is a fast-moving space.</em></p> <p>This talk was held live in Oxford on 30 January 2026, as part of <a href="https://ox.ogeer.org">this initiative</a>. We have Oxford-based events about free, libre and open-source software, in-person and online for everyone!</p> <h2>Sections</h2> <dl> <dt>Introduction</dt><dd>00:00</dd> <dt>What is Self Hosting?</dt><dd>00:35</dd> <dt>Why Host Services Yourself?</dt><dd>02:43</dd> <dt>What to Expect in Self Hosting? A Typical Setup</dt><dd>08:01</dd> <dt>Docker</dt><dd>22:01</dd> <dt>Introducing the Demo: <a href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">code-server</a></dt><dd>23:39</dd> <dt>Live Demo</dt><dd>26:20</dd> <dt>Recommended Programs</dt><dd>28:23</dd> <dt>Q&amp;A: What's your favourite Fediverse software?</dt><dd>31:41</dd> <dt>Q&amp;A: Why do you prefer Matrix to XMPP?</dt><dd>32:05</dd> <dt>Q&amp;A: What do <em>you</em> self-host? (Listed at <a href="https://skew.ch">skew.ch</a>; <abbr title="Content Warning">CW</abbr>: the domain name on the list is lewd)</dt><dd>33:15</dd> <dt>Q&amp;A: How do you deal with network effect-based services? (Do you bridge them via Matrix?)</dt><dd>34:21</dd> </dl> <h2 id="licensing">Copy and Share</h2> <p>All original parts of this video are <strong>© 2026 <a href="https://skew.ch">Yong-Ho Shin</a>, freely licensed <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International</a>.</strong> Click below for licenses of works used within it (which includes fair dealing of things with unspecified licenses).</p> <h3>Third-party free content</h3>

<ul> <li><a href="https://openclipart.org/detail/340894/circuit-with-leaves">Background image</a> by <a href="https://openclipart.org/artist/regisburin">regisburin</a> is dedicated to the public domain under CCO-1.0.</li> <li><a href="https://github.com/theleagueof/orbitron">Title font</a> © 2018 <a href="https://github.com/theleagueof/orbitron">The Orbitron Project Authors</a> is licensed OFL-1.1-RFN with RFN "Orbitron”.</li> <li><a href="https://ektype.in/mukta-mahee.html">Body font</a> © 2007 <a href="https://ektype.in/">Ek Type</a> is licensed OFL-1.1-no-RFN.</li> <li>Slide 3: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CERN_Server_03.jpg">Server</a> © 2009 <a href="http://www.fh-ap.com/">Florian Hirzinger</a> is licensed CC-BY-SA-3.0. Slide 6: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mexican_beef_and_rice_stew_onboard_a_Swedish_train.jpg">Stew</a> © 2015 <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JIP">JIP</a> is licensed CC-BY-SA-3.0; <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frozen_pizzas_02.jpg">Frozen Pizza</a> © 2023 <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pannet">Pannet</a> is licensed CC-BY-SA-4.0; <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Instant_ramen_packages_in_H_Mart.jpg">Ramen</a> by <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Reconrabbit">Reconrabbit</a> is dedicated to the public domain under CCO-1.0.</li> <li>Slide 14: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Falcon_Northwest_Talon.png">Talon</a> © 2011 <a href="https://www.falcon-nw.com/">Falcon Northwest</a> is licensed CC-BY-SA-4.0; <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paris_servers_DSC00190.jpg">Servers</a> © 2004 <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:David.Monniaux">David Monniaux</a> is licensed CC-BY-SA-3.0.</li> <li>Slide 20, 29-32: <a href="https://openclipart.org/detail/85237/the-incredible-javascript-android-phone-browser">Phone</a> by <a href="https://openclipart.org/artist/filtre">filtre</a> is dedicated to the public domain under CCO-1.0, <a href="https://openclipart.org/detail/5159/server-cabinet-cpu">Server</a> by <a href="https://openclipart.org/artist/sagar_ns">sagar_ns</a> is dedicated to the public domain under CCO-1.0.</li> <li>Slide 24, 28; (Interface of) <a href="https://searchfox.org/firefox-main/source">Mozilla Firefox</a> © 1994-2026 <a href="https://www.mozilla.org/credits/">various</a> is licensed under MPL-2.0.</li> <li>Slide 36, 39-40, 42-43: (Interface of) <href="https://github.com/coder/code-server">Code Server</li> © 2019-2026 <a href="https://coder.com/">Coder Technologies Inc.</a> is licensed MIT.</li> <li>Slide 46: <a href="https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted">Awesome-Selfhosted</a> © 2015-2026 <a href="https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted-data/blob/master/AUTHORS">various authors</a> is licensed CC-BY-SA-3.0.</li> </ul>

<h3>Third-Party fair dealing</h3> <ul> <li>Slide 7: In relation to the brands, Oliver Geer (not a lawyer) considers this fair dealing for parody. In relation to the meme creator, O.G. considers this fair dealing since memes are designed to be shared widely.</li> <li>Slides 8-15, 23, 25, 27, 46: Screenshots of proprietary software and websites are mostly used for criticism and review, and are never acting as substitutes for the software, so Oliver Geer considers them fair dealing.</li> <li>Slide 16: Since the post is attributed, available publicly on a Fediverse instance, and appears unharmful for moral rights, Oliver Geer considers this fair dealing.</li> </ul>

<h3>Third-party trademarks: no endorsement</h3> <ul> <li>Slide 4, 8, 10, 12, 17-20, 45 (Trademarks, not copyright): Trademarks are used fairly as comparative advertising and critical review, or as nominative fair use. These projects do not necessarily endorse us.</li> </ul>

<p>License abbreviations are follawing <a href="https://spdx.org/licenses/">the SPDX standard</a></p>