Visitors Open Source Event test new international social network

Initiator Joel Hernández, of the new international social network Okuna, is one of the speakers during the free Open Source Event on Saturday November 2 in the Library LocHal. Visitors to his presentation can sign up for the beta version that day and already test this privacy friendly alternative to Facebook. In January 2020, Okuna will be launched worldwide.

Unique opportunity


In recent years, the Netherlands has worked hard to set up this new social network. At the moment people can already register for the beta version via the website, but there is now a waiting list. Visitors of the Open Source Event get the unique opportunity to bypass that waiting list and get straight to work with Okuna.

In 2018, Okuna, then still called OpenBook, was able to raise a starting capital for the development of the new network through crowdfunding. Meanwhile, more than 3500 people worldwide have been able to test the first version. The waiting list for the beta version now includes more than 23,000 interested parties.

Okuna worldwide


Okuna will be the first social network to encrypt messages in the timeline itself. As a result, it claims to be privacy friendly, secure, transparent and honest.
Initiator Joel Hernández comes from Mexico and came to the Netherlands four years ago to study at the Free University in Amsterdam. Among other things, he worked as a software architect for KPN. There he met PGP inventor (PrettyGoodPrivacy) Philip Zimmerman, who now works for Okuna as a cryptographic wizard and advises on the encryption of the messages. Meanwhile, Hernández has gathered around him an extensive team of engineers, designers, hackers, activists and information-security experts, with whom he will roll out the network worldwide in January.

Open Source Event


On 2 November, Joel Hernández will speak from 15.00 to 16.00 on the steps of the Discovery in the LocHal Library.

Click here for the full program of the free Open Source Event on 2 November from 12.00 to 16.00 in the LocHal Library.

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