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Community Site Ideas

  • S

    Anyone have any experience running a community site on Cloudron? I am looking to provide the tools for a community to collaborate and plan projects within the community. It would be great if there was the ability to co-learn and co-teach as well. Something that offers much of the utility of Odoo/Flectra but with the feel and openness of Loomio.

    I would like people to be able to congregate in online in workgroups with access to tools (scheduling, documents, chat (voice and video), create small knowledge bases based on the work they are doing. Share the product of their effort with the broader community. Being able to stream would be great as well. Thoughts?

    4 jdaviescoates 1 Reply
  • S

    So in my search I did come across https://decidim.org/ Thought others might be interested.

    1
  • W

    Check out https://riseup.net
    That has a site that can offer similar services to what Cloudron does. Cloudron could be tooled to do most of the same stuff RiseUp does. What don't you spin something up and I'll kick the tires if you're interested.

    0 S 1 Reply
  • S

    @will Thanks I will take a look.

    0
  • jimcavoli

    There is an open ask on the App wishlist for Decidim specifically, if you want to also upvote that and/or have a stab at packaging

    2 S 1 Reply
  • S

    @jimcavoli Thanks. I am still searching and trying to get a grasp what is out there. It is hard to vote to support the work until I have a better idea what there might be out there. I saw DemocracyOS was mentioned as well, but has not been updated. This reminded me of Commons-In -A Box. Which I remember from nearly a decade ago. https://commonsinabox.org/
    A nice turn key solution to use wordlress, but at first glace it seems somewhat dated.

    I am really looking for something like Oddo/Flectra but with the openness of loomio and video conferencing capabilities

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  • girish

    @seeker There's also Loomio

    1 S 1 Reply
  • S

    @girish said in Community Site Ideas:

    @seeker There's also Loomio

    Is it possible to run loomio currently with cloudron? Last I checked it was not.

    I am looking for is something like Odoo/Flectra (with all of the modules combined with Loomio and more video conferencing options.

    1
  • girish

    Yeah, loomio is not packaged for Cloudron yet. About odoo, we had tried to package it in the past but it's really hard to deploy and maintain. Odoo is more like a "framework" on which things can be installed (i.e modules).

    1 S 1 Reply
  • jdaviescoates

    @seeker I think Cloudron is really great for this 🙂

    Most apps have LDAP support and so users can login to various web apps with the same credentials! 😄

    (although some key apps like Discourse don't have this yet 😐 )

    If you look at:

    https://stackshare.io/index/collaboration

    and

    https://stackshare.io/index/business_tools

    You'll find the most popular and widely used collaboration and business tools are things like:

    Slack
    G Suite
    Trello

    (these are the top 3 of the apps that appear on both lists).

    You could replace these with:

    Rocket.Chat
    Nextcloud
    WeKan

    All running on Cloudron.

    It might be useful to think of the browser as the single toolbox/ app that people use, and adopt something like Guerrilla Media Collective's concept of "Browser-tab based workspaces", see:

    https://wiki.guerrillamediacollective.org/index.php/Browser-tab_based_workspaces

    See also this video intro to how they do it:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngy3nZpw1Nk&list=LLcJfi30yBSrZRWJX2mrFxEQ&index=3&t=0s

    (and my United Diversity comment there 😉 )

    And p146 in their handbook here:
    https://wiki.guerrillamediacollective.org/images/3/33/Guerrilla_Translation_Handbooks_Summer_19.pdf

    2
  • S

    @girish said in Community Site Ideas:

    Yeah, loomio is not packaged for Cloudron yet. About odoo, we had tried to package it in the past but it's really hard to deploy and maintain. Odoo is more like a "framework" on which things can be installed (i.e modules).

    Love the word "yet" describing Loomio state- I am just learning more about what is out there that compares with loomio, but it has a really great feel.

    I think what makes odoo so attractive is that it is a framework with modules. It makes total sense that strength would make it difficult. I do feel that it is likely more than I need.

    @jdaviescoates Thanks for the tip about LDAP support in cloudron. I will look into it more. I will take a look at the links you shared. Thanks for a glimpse into how you are using cloudron. I certainly see the power of using Rocket chat, Nexctcloud and Wekan. I have considered the same- maybe using nextcloud decks or Open Projects Taiga instead of Wekan.

    I have been leaning towards Rocketchat, with some sort of nextcloud integration. I read that nextcloud and rocket chat were partnering and that was excited. As you know from my other thread, video chat/conferencing/ webinar hosting is an important part of the equation. Before I jump in, I have been looking to see if there was an alternative, something like Decidim with a chat similar to rocketchat built in.

    I am familiar with the concept of browser tabbed workspaces. I have experienced it working, however I have run into the issue that there is often a pull to the latest and greatest (new & shiny) workspace to add to the list of tool tabs and often those tools are not opensource, privacy conscious etc. I have a number of different workcase scenarios. Some personal, some have a close knit group working together on a project. Others are a groups of strangers coming together.

    For some history, years ago oxwall's community ( https://developers.oxwall.com/ ) edition could be used to create a pretty dynamic community site. Oxwall does not seem to be as actively developed anymore. But at one point it was pretty amazing. It was a theme-able PHP social network with many plugins and integrations and a number of developers who would provide addons/themes through a marketplace. You could essentially make a site where each person had a profile, personal blog, and a file depository. The community site itself could have a forum, wiki, calendar, messaging, video chat, and file depository as well a feed people could share ideas/blog posts/videos. Groups could be created and used to work on projects, skill shares or on co-learning (often springing from an idea in the feed). Each group's space could have a forum, calendar, and file depository, a wiki and polling. It was similar enough to Facebook that most people knew what to look for to orient themselves and navigate. That being said, it was not a collaborative environment apart from the wiki and when people engaged in shared activities. It also suffered from not having a mobile app, and a less than responsive theme. Additionally, people could get lost and stuff could be lost. A group could not be archived without people going through the work to archive it.

    I am interested in creating a community site with many of those same features, but with less "social" and more real time collaboration, open decision making build in.

    2
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