Ppl here might want to cast an eye on Democratic:Tech:Fund #dtf
https://matrix.to/#/#democratictechfund:matrix.org
In that matrix space this room (jointly with Co-op Cloud Federation) seems to be the chattiest
https://matrix.to/#/#dtf2026:matrix.org

d:t:f is a pre-launch initiative aimed at cultivating capability in the grassroots, to resist Big Tech thro digital contra-infrastructure(ing) at community level. The Special Sauce will be a novel gift-funding recipe embracing foundations, municipalities and crowdfunding. This is not a pitch for EU 'digital sovereignty' budgets, per se.

Its not so much about new code, more about solid rollout of existing FLOSS. But the focus on the phone, and escaping the duopoly of phone OS, is very underdeveloped.

If this is interesting reply here, so we know to foster the connection? And join us in matrix. There will be a focus, too, at Dweb Camp👀

@alloalli @Gina @Fairphone @LineageOS @sailfishosnews @ubports @GrapheneOS @postmarketOS @e_mydata @fdroidorg @IzzyOnDroid @jolla @murena

It is time for a democratic tech fund. The acronym seems to be really fun: #DTF, or: Down To Fund 😍

PD thanks to @3wordchant and @arod for the cute acronym 😉

@arod we know about #dtf and younger generations, some fall in that segment indeed ;-)

it may be confusing, or fun?! In fact this acronym has various meanings...

Hi @arod, thanks for the compliment! And I very much agree with you. We need to unite forces between grassroots commoners and cooperativists with institutional support, such as public and private funders.

That is precisely what we're working towards with the setting up of the Democratic Tech Fund. We think this logic - and our shared values - should be anchored in its foundations, before we can accept such funds to multiply our seed funding. We cannot "just" bootstrap it - there lies the challenge. Any help to connect the dots, also with the institutions willing to multiply our collective effort, is much appreciated. Let us say that we need to go beyond the neoliberal public-private partnerships: we need civic-public-private partnerships, on our terms.
#DTF #DemocraticTechFund

This is relevant if you consider making a contribution to the Democratic Tech Fund.

We recently opened up donation options for members at @opencollective :
https://opencollective.com/democratictechfund
#dtf DemocraticTech.Fund

To make it concrete: to move away from Microsoft (teams, sharepoint) and Google (drive), Nextcloud is a decent option, but you may also want decentralised group chat like matrix, maybe a better collaborative document server, à La Suite Docs, video conferencing like BBB or La Suite Visio. And of course a Single Sign On - one account to log on.

Altogether this is not something every individual person or collective may want to run for themselves, so you need a service provider, ideally a cooperative one, where you can be a member of and collectively maintain a production team and a process to evolve together - as technologies (and social needs) evolve.
In this sense the @coopcloud federation provides a backbone to work together on the development and maintenance of the tech stack as a "configuration commons". With the #dtf we became members, and it is exciting to see what is cooking there and how people/cooperatives collaborate along shared goals.

#CooperativeCommons #CooperativeCloud