The speaker at the FOSDEM conference in 2023 presented the PurpleMesh project, an open source Wi-Fi mesh solution. The project is sponsored by the Purple Foundation, a conglomerate of telecom industry companies, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, and Verizon. PurpleMesh is based on the IEEE 1905 stack and offers easy Wi-Fi management, including automatic onboarding of new devices and centralized configuration. It also provides network optimization using metrics and the ability to steer devices to different access points. The project is portable to various router operating systems and relies on good Wi-Fi drivers for optimal functionality. The speaker emphasized the importance of open source to achieve vendor independence and invited contributions from the wider community. The session included discussion on the comparison with the HomeNet project and the potential for supporting multiple standards and discovery of devices on the network. The speaker also mentioned the Purple Foundation's work in setting standards for Wi-Fi drivers and low-level APIs. Q&A touched on topics such as vulnerability management, connection stability during updates, and availability of off-the-shelf equipment.