Community Software / Democratic Governance / Mutual Aid / Community Ownership

The Hub


The digital hub of your neighborhood

ABOUT THE
PROJECT

Most digital communication platforms treat physical proximity as irrelevant. They optimize for reach, engagement metrics, and network effects that scale to millions. This leaves a gap: there's no good infrastructure for the 5-50 people who share a street, apartment building, or small neighborhood to coordinate about practical matters—lost pets, shared tools, local decisions, mutual aid.

Hub fills that gap. It's a communication platform designed for people who actually know each other and share physical space. Your conversations stay within your community—no corporate intermediaries, no surveillance, no algorithmic manipulation. When the community votes on a decision, the outcome is automatically enforced. The person running the server is a neighbor accountable to the same democratic processes as everyone else.

Type

Open source community software

Date

October 2025

Status

Concept development

Links & Resources

CORE
CONCEPTS

BUILT FOR
NEIGHBORS

Hub is designed for 5-50 people who share physical space—a street, apartment building, or small neighborhood. This shapes everything: features that make sense when members actually know each other, account recovery that works when you can verify identity in person, and governance that reflects real-world relationships.

DEMOCRATIC
BY DESIGN

Any member can create proposals for community decisions. When the community votes to add or remove a moderator, change rules, or make any governance decision, the outcome is automatically enforced. No single person can override what the community decides together.

YOUR DATA,
YOUR COMMUNITY

Your conversations stay within your neighborhood. No corporate platform harvesting your data, no algorithmic feeds designed to maximize engagement, no ads. The community owns its infrastructure and decides how it's used.

ALWAYS
AVAILABLE

Hub works when the internet doesn't. Continuous backups mean your community can recover quickly if something goes wrong, and the system functions in isolated networks—useful for post-disaster scenarios or areas with unreliable connectivity.

KEY
FEATURES

SOCIAL
MESSAGING

Share updates, photos, and links with your neighbors in a feed designed for community, not engagement

ASK &
OFFER

Post requests for help or offer what you have—"Need a ladder this weekend" or "Free tomatoes from my garden"

PROPOSALS
& VOTING

Create proposals, vote on community decisions, and see outcomes automatically enforced

THREADED
DISCUSSIONS

Longer conversations with nested comments for topics that need more depth

INVITE-ONLY
MEMBERSHIP

Controlled growth through invite codes, keeping your community intimate and trusted

WORKS
OFFLINE

Functions in isolated networks or when internet infrastructure is unavailable

GET
INVOLVED

Interested in bringing Hub to your neighborhood or helping shape its development? We're looking for communities to pilot the platform and contributors to help build it.

Start a Conversation →

Ways to Contribute

  • → Pilot communities
  • → Community feedback
  • → Design input
  • → Development