Authors - Emily Slanina, Marc Fernandes, Manfred Rossle, Daniel Gartner, Christian Koot Abstract - Video conferencing systems are essential to modern university infrastructure. Beyond functionality, their selection involves critical questions of digital sovereignty, institutional control over personal data, and dependencies on external providers. This paper combines a conceptual analysis of digital sovereignty with a qualitative case study at Aalen University. Based on staff interviews, technical documentation, and literature, it provides a structured comparison of Zoom and BigBlueButton (BBB) across functional, legal, organizational, and infrastructural dimensions. Zoom is perceived as highly reliable and user-friendly, yet its proprietary cloud-based model and non-European legal framework limit transparency and institutional control. While Zoom has introduced sovereignty-related configurations to meet European requirements, its governance remains external. Conversely, the open-source platform BBB offers superior transparency and control over data processing but requires significant institutional resources and technical expertise. Both platforms fulfill comparable functional requirements; however, they differ fundamentally in governance, hosting flexibility, and institutional influence. Selecting a system requires balancing structural autonomy with practical usability. Digital sovereignty is a context-dependent condition shaped by technical and legal frameworks rather than a static platform feature. BBB serves as a sovereignty-promoting alternative, provided that institutions possess the necessary technical resources and the willingness to manage structural organizational change.
