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Guifi.net: The World's Largest Community Network
·587 words·3 mins
Community Networks Case-Study Community Networks Mesh Commons Catalonia
What began with a few neighbors connecting their homes grew into the world’s largest community-owned network—over 37,000 nodes proving that communities can build telecommunications infrastructure that belongs to everyone who helps create it.
Mutual Aid Networks: Neighbors Helping Neighbors with Open Source
·603 words·3 mins
Movement Infrastructure Case-Study Mutual Aid Community Care Open Source Solidarity
When communities needed to take care of each other during crisis, they built infrastructure that lasted. Open source tools helped neighbors coordinate millions of acts of mutual support—and the networks they built are still growing.
Loomio: Making Decisions Together, Wherever You Are
·565 words·3 mins
Participatory Democracy Case-Study Decision-Making Cooperative Governance Open Source
Born from the Occupy movement, Loomio has helped thousands of groups make decisions together without endless meetings. It’s proof that technology built by cooperatives can serve communities beautifully.
Open Food Network: Farmers and Eaters Building Their Own Marketplace
·606 words·3 mins
Worker-Owned Platforms Case-Study Food Systems Local Economy Open Source Cooperative
Local food communities in 20+ countries now run their own digital marketplaces, connecting farmers directly with the people who eat their food. The software is free, the relationships are direct, and more money stays in local economies.
Riseup: Two Decades of Movement Infrastructure
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Movement Infrastructure Case-Study Activism Security Email Movement Infrastructure
For over two decades, Riseup has quietly kept movements connected and secure. A small collective serving millions of users proves that community-funded infrastructure can outlast any startup.
Indigenous Networks: Technology on Community Terms
·640 words·4 mins
Community Networks Case-Study Indigenous Community Networks Sovereignty Cultural Protocols
Indigenous communities around the world are building their own networks—not just for connectivity, but for sovereignty. These networks embody cultural values and protect traditional knowledge on community terms.
Resonate: A Music Platform Where Listening Leads to Owning
·553 words·3 mins
Creative Communities Case-Study Cooperative Music Streaming Artist-Owned
What if streaming could be fair for artists? Resonate’s cooperative model lets musicians earn real money while listeners gradually own the music they love. Stream a song nine times, and it’s yours forever.
Detroit Digital Stewards: Neighbors Teaching Neighbors
·550 words·3 mins
Community Networks Case-Study Community Networks Digital Literacy Detroit Mesh Networks
Detroit showed the world what’s possible when communities don’t wait to be connected—they connect themselves. Over 500 Digital Stewards have been trained to build, maintain, and govern their own neighborhood networks.
Stocksy: Artists Who Own Their Stock Photo Platform
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Creative Communities Case-Study Cooperative Artist-Owned Stock Photography Creative Commons
When photographers asked why platforms keep most of what they earn, they built their own. Stocksy has paid over $50 million to artist-members who earn 50-75% of every sale—not the industry-standard pennies.
The Drivers Cooperative: Drivers Who Own Their App
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Worker-Owned Platforms Case-Study Cooperative Worker-Owned Ride-Hail Platform Cooperative
When gig economy drivers asked “what if we just built our own app?”, they proved that worker-owned platforms aren’t just possible—they can thrive. Thousands of driver-owners now share in the success they create together.
Social.coop: A Social Network Owned by Its Members
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Creative Communities Case-Study Cooperative Mastodon Fediverse Social Media
What if social media actually belonged to the people who use it? Social.coop has been proving since 2017 that member-owned, democratically governed social networks aren’t just possible—they feel better to use.
Decidim: Barcelona's Gift to Participatory Democracy
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Participatory Democracy Case-Study Participatory Democracy Open Source Civic Tech Barcelona
Barcelona didn’t just build a platform for participatory democracy—they gave it to the world. Now over 400 organizations in 30+ countries use Decidim to help citizens shape their own futures together.
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Participatory Democracy Tools
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Digital platforms that help communities make decisions together, from simple polls to sophisticated deliberation systems. When people have real voice in decisions that affect them, democracy comes alive.
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Open Source Tools for Communities
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A curated directory of open source software that helps communities organize, communicate, collaborate, and govern themselves. These tools put communities in control of their own digital infrastructure.
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Resource Sharing and Scheduling
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Tools for coordinating shared resources—tool libraries, equipment pools, community spaces, and volunteer activities. When communities share effectively, everyone has access to more while owning less.
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Open Source Project Management
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Tools for coordinating volunteers, tracking initiatives, and managing community projects. When your project management lives on infrastructure you control, your institutional knowledge stays with your community.
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Open Source Learning Platforms
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Tools for online courses, training programs, and community education. When communities own their learning infrastructure, they control how knowledge is created, shared, and preserved.
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Open Source Forms and Surveys
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Self-hosted tools for collecting feedback, registrations, and community input. When your survey data stays on your servers, your community’s information serves your community—not the surveillance economy.
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Open Source Event Management
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Tools for organizing conferences, meetups, and community gatherings. When your event infrastructure belongs to you, every registration builds community assets rather than paying platform fees.
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No-Code Database Tools
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Spreadsheet-like interfaces for building custom databases without coding. When communities can create their own data tools, they’re not limited by what commercial platforms think they need.
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Membership, CRM, and Newsletters
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Tools for managing contacts, memberships, donations, and communications. When your member relationships live on your infrastructure, your community’s most valuable asset stays under your control.
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Knowledge Management and Wikis
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Tools for documenting, organizing, and sharing community knowledge. When institutional memory lives in systems you control, it survives leadership transitions and serves future generations.
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Financial Transparency Tools
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Tools for budgeting, expense tracking, and transparent collective funding. When communities can see exactly how money flows, trust grows and accountability becomes real.
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Federated Social Networks
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Decentralized social platforms where communities run their own instances, connected to a wider network but governed by their own rules. Social media that belongs to the people who use it.
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Cooperative Platforms
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Digital platforms owned and governed by the people who use them. When workers and users own the platforms they depend on, technology serves communities rather than extracting from them.
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Community Networks
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Community-owned internet infrastructure—mesh networks, cooperatives, and municipal broadband. When communities own their connectivity, they bridge the digital divide on their own terms.
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Community Mapping and Local Data
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Tools for creating maps, documenting local knowledge, and crowdsourcing geographic information. When communities map themselves, they control how their places are represented and understood.
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Community Collaboration Tools
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Self-hosted chat, forums, video conferencing, and document collaboration. When communities own their collaboration infrastructure, they control their conversations and their data.
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Civic Technology Tools
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Tools for government transparency, freedom of information, and citizen engagement. When communities can easily access public information and report local issues, democracy becomes more than just voting.
Why Communities Choose Independence
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When communities build and own their own technology, something wonderful happens. They discover tools that actually serve their needs, data that stays theirs, and neighbors who become collaborators. Here’s what draws communities to independence.
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Digital Self-Determination
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What becomes possible when you control your own digital life? Digital self-determination means having genuine authority over your data, your tools, and the spaces where you connect with others.
Community-Owned Technology
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What happens when communities build and own their own technology? From rural broadband cooperatives to artist-owned platforms, communities around the world are showing us what’s possible.
What We Believe
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These are the principles that guide our work—grounded in what we’ve learned from watching communities build technology that truly serves them. Technology can be a public good, and communities can control their own digital futures.