Beyond the Cloud: The Local-First Software Revolution • Brooklyn Zelenka & Julian Wood • GOTO 2025

This interview was recorded for GOTO Unscripted. #GOTOcon #GOTOunscripted
gotopia.tech/

Read the full transcription of this interview here:
gotopia.tech/articles/374

Brooklyn Zelenka - Author of Numerous Libraries Including Witchcraft & Founded the Vancouver Functional Programming Meetup ‪@bezelenka‬
Julian Wood - Serverless Developer Advocate at AWS ‪@julian_wood‬

RESOURCES
Brooklyn
bsky.app/profile/expede.wtf
octodon.social/@expede@types.pl
github.com/expede
www.linkedin.com/in/brooklynzelenka
notes.brooklynzelenka.com/

Julian
bsky.app/profile/julianwood.com
twitter.com/julian_wood
www.wooditwork.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/julianrwood

Links
automerge.org/
discord.com/invite/zKGe4DCfgR
www.robinsloan.com/notes/home-cooked-app
github.com/ipvm-wg
www.localfirst.fm/
localfirstweb.dev/
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DESCRIPTION
Distributed systems researcher Brooklyn Zelenka unpacks the paradigm shift of local-first computing, where applications primarily run on users' devices and synchronize seamlessly without central servers.

In a conversation with Julian Wood, she explains how this approach reduces latency, enables offline functionality, improves privacy through encryption, and democratizes app development—all while using sophisticated data structures. Perfect for collaborative tools and "cozy web" applications serving smaller communities, local-first software represents a fundamental rethinking of how we've built software for the past 30 years.

TIMECODES
00:00 Intro
00:47 Introduction to local-first computing
03:19 Rethinking traditional software architecture
13:47 Local-first implementation & data synchronization
22:52 Security & use cases for local-first apps
25:31 Getting started & future directions
32:55 Outro

RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Ford, Parsons, Kua & Sadalage • Building Evolutionary Architectures 2nd Edition • amzn.to/3lqr5Q8
Ford, Richards, Sadalage & Dehghani • Software Architecture: The Hard Parts • amzn.to/3QeMgjR
Mark Richards & Neal Ford • Fundamentals of Software Architecture • amzn.to/3wMBhoI
Ford, Parsons & Kua • Building Evolutionary Architectures • amzn.to/3l0IOh2
Neal Ford • Functional Thinking • amzn.to/3l6ND8M
Michael Feathers • Working Effectively with Legacy Code • amzn.to/3ZFQoMU
Christian Clausen • Five Lines of Code • amzn.to/3s2zjyg

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