A platform for neighborhood-scale social infrastructure
Most digital communication platforms treat physical proximity as irrelevant. They optimize for reach, engagement metrics, and network effects that scale to millions. This creates a gap: there's no good infrastructure for the 5-50 people who actually share a street or small neighborhood to coordinate about practical matters—lost pets, shared resources, local decisions, mutual aid.
The Hub is a platform for hyperlocal communities built on open source infrastructure with SQLite as its scalable and portable data system. A single primary node serves the community with continuous replication to backup locations (cloud storage, peer nodes, or local filesystems). When the primary becomes unavailable, communities can quickly restore from a replica and resume operations. The system uses proven, simple technology designed for the 5-50 person scale. Data stays within the neighborhood network, with no corporate intermediary required.
Open source community software
October 2025
Concept development
A single primary node serves the community, with continuous replication to backup locations using Litestream. When the primary fails, another community member can restore from a replica and become the new primary. The simple architecture prioritizes reliability over complex distributed systems.
Built-in proposal and voting system enables democratic decision-making. Members vote on governance changes, role assignments, and moderation decisions. Vote outcomes are automatically enforced by the system, preventing admin override. Node operators are community members, accountable through democratic processes.
Communities own their data and infrastructure. No corporate intermediaries, no centralized servers with access to your conversations. All data stays within the neighborhood network, controlled by community members.
Built for the 5-50 people who share physical proximity—a street, small neighborhood, or apartment building. The technology choices reflect this scale, favoring simplicity over features designed for millions of users.
Simple, proven approach with continuous replication for reliability
Built-in voting system for community decision-making and accountability
No corporate intermediaries—communities control their own data and infrastructure
Optimized for 5-50 people sharing physical proximity
All data stays within the neighborhood network, under community control
Built on proven, maintainable open source technology with SQLite for a scalable and portable data system
Interested in building neighborhood-scale infrastructure or contributing to the project? Let's collaborate.
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