How the coop empowers members.
Chattanooga.Digital's services make it easy to get and economically use free open source software.
Apps are the open-source software you use, for files, documents, forums, websites, email lists and social media. Services are what the co-op does with those apps for you: we set each one up, back it up, keep it patched and keep it running. Hosting apps is our main service to members.
Chattanooga.Digital handles the grunt work for you. You get buying power, greater control over where your spending goes, and more options, along with other members of the coop. We make it easy to own your tech and control your digital destiny.
Software services are all provided via containers within the Chattanooga.Digital cloud or on hosts managed by Chattanooga.Digital.
Members cooperatively own the containers and the code for community services. Members individually own code for their services and the data for all services.
Cooperatively Owned, Available to All
These services empower people to connect and share without relying on distant tech corporations.
Mastodon
Mastodon is federated, open source social networking — like the early, ad-free internet. Members can participate in the wider "fediverse" from an account hosted by their own co-op, with no algorithmic feed manipulation and no advertising surveillance.
Standard Apps, Owned by You
These are our initial member service offerings. There are many more possibilities! What app would you like to have?
- Cryptpad Real-time collaborative docs, encrypted end-to-end.
- Discourse Community discussion forums.
- Drupal Websites and content management.
- Email lists Group mailing lists and announcements.
- Nextcloud Flexible, next generation online collaboration platform
Others coming soon based on your needs!
CryptPad
CryptPad is a real-time collaboration suite — documents, spreadsheets, presentations, kanban boards, forms, and more — that is encrypted end-to-end. The server (and therefore the co-op) cannot read your content; only the people you share a document with can. It is a privacy-first alternative to Google Docs or Microsoft 365 for members who want to work together without handing their data to a surveillance-advertising company.
Discourse
Discourse is modern forum software for civil, long-form community discussion. It powers member forums, working groups, and Q&A — a durable, searchable home for conversation that does not disappear into a chat scroll or live on a platform that can change the rules overnight.
Drupal
Drupal is a powerful open source content management system for building websites and web applications — the same platform that runs this site. Members get a professional CMS they fully control, with no per-seat licensing and no vendor able to hold their content hostage.
Email lists
Managed mailing lists give groups, projects, and the co-op itself a reliable way to send announcements and hold group conversations over email — owned by the membership rather than rented from a marketing-email vendor.
Nextcloud
Nextcloud is a complete self-hosted cloud platform: file sync and sharing, calendars, contacts, notes, and collaborative editing. It is the open source alternative to Google Drive / Dropbox / iCloud — your files live on infrastructure the membership owns, not a tech giant's servers.
Other Apps for You to Own!
There is free open source software for almost any purpose. What do you need? Who else needs it? Let's deploy it for you!
Productivity & Office
- Accounting
- Calendar
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Document management
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
- Groupware and workflow
- Office applications and productivity tools
- Project management
Communication & Social
- Conferencing
- Messaging
- Social media
- Chat
- Discussion / news
- Events
- Micro-blogging
- Networking
- Telephone / PBX
Commerce & Operations
- Classified advertising
- E-commerce
- Marketplace
- Point-of-sale
- Ridesharing
Infrastructure & Cloud
- Cloud services — compute and storage
- Content management system (CMS), website builder
- Data commons, hubs, stores, etc.
- Digital identity and password manager
- Directory
- Information management
- Networks
- Community Wi-Fi
- LPWAN
- Private 5G
- SDN
- VPN
Media & Content
- Audio streaming
- Image archive / bank
- Music sharing / streaming
- News media — broadcasting / publishing
- Video sharing / streaming
- Webpages
Specialty & Emerging
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Building access and management ("Smart Building")
- Home organization
- Home security, smart home
- Internet of things (IoT) automation and sensing
- Maps
- Robots
Don't see what you need? Pre-join the co-op and let us know — we add services based on member demand and sponsorship.
Support Services
Chattanooga.Digital's support services are limited to ensuring the infrastructure is operating and accessible, basic operations of any devices sold by the co-op, and compliance with legal, licensing, and security obligations associated with members' use, modification, and distribution of open-source software. Members can contract for higher levels of support on a case-by-case basis.
Project Support Services
Chattanooga.Digital provides project support services as members' owner-agent for an additional fee. We will assist project sponsors in finding collaborators and service providers, and we will manage work as a project to ensure it is specified and completed correctly, on time, for a reasonable cost.
Ready to free your tech?
Tell us what you're interested in. Pre-join the co-op and we'll get in touch when membership opens.