What server-side packages need demo servers in Aotearoa?

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The NZOSS website has a list of online services run by the crew of people who host this forum, most of them now under the same iridescent.nz domain. The general purpose of these services are to demo what various Free Code server software can do, helping us identify the rights tools for replacing various proprietary services. With a side bonus of providing gratis services to people working towards different aspects of software freedom in Aotearoa, and on related issues like privacy, right to repair, and so on. Similar services are run by a range of individuals and community-hosting collectives around the country, including mastodon.nz, pixelfed.nz, lemmy.nz, and so on.

So where are the gaps? Are there any worthwhile packages that nobody is hosting in Aotearoa yet? Are there any proprietary services we havenā€™t found a satisfying replacement for yet? Hereā€™s some ideas. Please suggest more, or let me know if there are in fact services running in Aotearoa or under a .nz domain using software on this list, or youā€™ve tried it and donā€™t rate it;

  • BonFire Social (AGPL) - The first ā€˜flavourā€™ of a next generation fediverse server

  • Castopod (AGPLv3) - A podcast hosting platform that enables following podcasts in the fediverse.

  • Continuwuity (ā€œMITā€) - A Matrix server programmed in Rust.

  • CryptPad (AGPLv3) - An E2E encrypted online collaboration suite, with a combo of office features (docs, sheets, presentations) and project management tools (kanban, code).

  • eJabberD (GPLv2 or later) -an XMPP server that also supports Matrix

  • MixPost (MIT) - A social media management dashboard that can support accounts on a range of platforms

  • PenPot (MPLv2) - An interface design tool, often pitched as a replacement for apps like Figma

  • Pol.is (AGPLv3) - A tool for large-scale public consultation

On some Discourse forums a post like this can be made in to a wikipage. Not sure if we can do that here. @lightweight ?

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It would be really nice to have an NZ instance of Pol.is for community based consensus decision making.

I think one instance can allow multiple communities to use it. At least the master instance in the USA allows this, but the very fact that itā€™s in the USA is the problem.

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Iā€™ve been toying with the idea of setting one up under the iridescent.nz bannerā€¦ might accelerate thatā€¦ watch this space.

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FYI There have been uses of it in Aotearoa, I think by the Scoop folks, maybe othere? Would be good to have some specific test uses in mind, and maybe partner with some community groups who want to run large-scale public consultations? ActionStation comes to mind as one example, but maybe it would be a good opportunity to reach out to tangata whenua groups working on digital sovereignty?

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I started implementing an instance last night. Itā€™s quite a complex app. Will let you all know how I get on.

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I did some investigation, and I think I found that Scoop appeared to have been using the default US instance, although I canā€™t find the details again.
DOC used it via Scoop for some public consultation.

It might be worth reaching out and finding out if Scoop were hosting nationally, or just using the US instance, and if they are running a local instance, if itā€™s still going.

https://info.scoop.co.nz/HiveMind

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Pretty certain it wasnā€™t being run locally. Suspect they used the reference implementation.

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Iā€™ve emailed Joe Cederwall using the email address at that link (cc @lightweight ) to ask if Scoop would be interested in using an onshore instance for HiveMind.

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Has anyone tried Floccus (MPLv2) for syncing bookmarks and tabs across browsers? Iā€™m wondering if there is a NextCloud feature or plug-in for this. Seems logical there would be.

EDIT: Now that Iā€™ve actually skimmed the Floccus homepage, I see can be used with a NC server : ) Other (supposedly) libre servers it works with are Linkwarden (AGPL) and KaraKeep (AGPL).

I believe the local-first bibiography system Zotero (AGPLv3OL) can be used for browser syncing too, anyone tried that? For that matter, anyone tried hosting their own FireFox Sync server?

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Iā€™ve set up the Bookmarks app on our NextCloudā€¦ I personally use Readeck (my own self-hosted instance - but itā€™s easy to set up compared to most services) over bookmarks (which are mostly locked to a particular browser on a particular computer) to keep track of online stuff I want to be able to reference. Zotero is fine if you want academic grade referencing, but with a lot more overhead.

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I just added Continuwuity to the list. We already have at Matrix server running Synapse at chat.iridescent.nz. But one of the main selling points of Matrix for me is that itā€™s an open protocol, which can have independent implementations. So testing Matrix servers other than Synapse, whose development is controlled by Element, seems worthwhile.

Iā€™ll also add eJabberD. We donā€™t yet have an XMPP server, which is what it was designed to be. But the developers, Process One, added Matrix support in late 2022.

While looking up these links, I noticed that Process One have also launched Fluux Messenger (AGPLv3), a set of branded XMPP apps optimised to run on an eJabberD server. Fluxus seems to be intended as a Slack/ Discord replacement for team chat. Unlike Snikket, an otherwise similar project by the developer of the Prosody XMPP server, which is aimed more at families, clubs and community groups currently using WhatSapp, TeleGrim, Signal or ElementX.