Laurens Debackere
Lead Solution Architect - Solid & Linked DataLaurens is a Computer Scientist who has been working with Solid and Linked Data since his research at Ghent University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a thesis on enforcing data protection in Solid.
Since 2021 he has led Thundr's consulting work with the Flemish government. He is currently building the future VDIP (Vlaams Data Integratieplatform) as lead architect with a team of developers at Digitaal Vlaanderen. He chairs the W3C Linked Web Storage (LWS) Working Group.
Professional Experience
Lead Solution Architect, Dataplatform
Leading solution architecture for the Dataplatform department at Digitaal Vlaanderen.
Chair, W3C LWS Working Group
Chairing the W3C Linked Web Storage Working Group, developing standards for decentralized data storage on the web.
Solid Technology Expert
Advising on the Solid specification and representing the Flemish government in the W3C Solid Community Group and the W3C Linked Web Storage Working Group.
Lead Architect, VDIP Cloud Platform
Coordinated the cloud migration of 150 services to a hybrid cloud setup based on Kubernetes.
ICT Solution Architect
Overseeing development and operations of technical backends for the Solid MVPs of the Flemish Data Utility Company.
ICT Expert Solid & Linked Data
Advised on integrating Solid Pods in the MAGDA Platform and launched a new internal Solid development team.
Education
MSc Computer Science
Thesis: "Enforcing Data Protection in Solid: A Policy-Oriented Framework" — supervised by Ruben Verborgh, Ruben Taelman, and Pieter Colpaert.