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title: Community Collaboration Tools
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date: 2025-12-27
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summary: Self-hosted chat, forums, video conferencing, and document collaboration. When communities own their collaboration infrastructure, they control their conversations and their data.
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draft: True
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---
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Every community needs places to gather, discuss, and work together. In the digital age, these spaces are often rented from corporations—Slack, Discord, Google Workspace, Zoom.
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But renting your community's communication infrastructure comes with costs beyond the subscription fee. Your data feeds someone else's business model. Your conversations happen on someone else's terms. Your community's history can disappear if a company changes direction.
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Self-hosted collaboration tools offer an alternative: infrastructure your community actually owns.
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---
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## Why Self-Hosting Matters
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### Data Ownership
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On commercial platforms, your community's messages, files, and behavioral patterns feed business models built on knowing everything about you. Organizations working with vulnerable populations can't in good conscience put sensitive information on platforms that monetize data.
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When you self-host, your data never leaves your infrastructure. There's no third-party access, no behavioral profiling, no feeding the surveillance economy.
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### No Algorithmic Manipulation
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Commercial platforms are optimized for "engagement"—keeping users scrolling, clicking, reacting. This often means anxiety, comparison, and compulsive checking.
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Community-owned platforms don't need to maximize time on site. They can be designed for actual usefulness and genuine connection. As one community member put it: "There's no algorithm trying to make me angry so I'll keep scrolling."
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### Autonomy and Customization
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Global platforms are designed for the average of everyone, which means they're perfect for no one. Communities have different needs: a rural cooperative needs different things than an urban advocacy organization.
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Self-hosted tools can be customized to fit how your community actually works, not how a product manager in Silicon Valley thinks you should work.
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### No Vendor Lock-in
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Platforms change their terms. Companies get acquired, pivot, or shut down. Communities have watched years of history disappear when platforms closed.
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Your ability to communicate and organize shouldn't depend on anyone else's permission.
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---
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## Real-World Adoption
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### Government and Public Sector
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| Organization | Tools | Why |
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|:-------------|:------|:----|
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| German Federal Government | Nextcloud | Data sovereignty, GDPR compliance |
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| French Government | Nextcloud, Matrix | Digital sovereignty initiative |
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| German Bundeswehr | Matrix | Security requirements |
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| CERN | Mattermost, Rocket.Chat, Nextcloud | Security, scale, customization |
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### Open Source Communities
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| Community | Tools | Why |
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|:----------|:------|:----|
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| Rust Programming Language | Zulip | Threading for technical discussions |
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| Julia Language | Zulip | Organized async communication |
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| Docker | Discourse | Community support |
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| Mozilla | Etherpad, Matrix | Open source values alignment |
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---
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## Choosing the Right Tools
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### For Real-Time Chat
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**Mattermost**: Enterprise-focused Slack alternative with strong DevOps integrations. Used by Samsung, NASA JPL, US Department of Defense.
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**Rocket.Chat**: Team collaboration with omnichannel capabilities (WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS integration). Used by Deutsche Bahn, US Navy, CERN.
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**Zulip**: Unique "streams + topics" threading model prevents conversation chaos. Beloved by technical communities for keeping discussions organized.
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### For Asynchronous Discussion
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**Discourse**: Modern forum software that combines mailing list, discussion forum, and long-form chat. Powers communities for Docker, DigitalOcean, Rust, and thousands of others. Best-in-class for long-form community discussions.
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### For Video Conferencing
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**Jitsi**: Video conferencing that works in your browser with no account required. Zero friction, end-to-end encryption option. Integrated into Matrix/Element.
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**BigBlueButton**: Web conferencing designed specifically for online learning. Whiteboard, breakout rooms, polling, shared notes, recording. Used by universities worldwide.
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### For Document Collaboration
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**CryptPad**: End-to-end encrypted collaborative documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Server operators can't read your documents. Used by journalists, activists, and privacy-focused organizations.
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**Etherpad**: Real-time collaborative text editor, simple and fast. Excellent for quick collaboration sessions.
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### For Everything
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**Nextcloud**: Complete collaboration platform—file sync, calendars, contacts, document editing, chat (Talk), and much more. Replaces Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Used by German Federal Government, French Government, CERN.
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---
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## Open Source Options
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| Project | Description |
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|:--------|:------------|
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| [Discourse](https://www.discourse.org) | Modern forum software for long-form community discussions. <br><small>📊 30,000+ communities, tens of millions of users.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discourse) · GPL-2.0</small> |
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| [Mattermost](https://about.mattermost.com) | Self-hosted Slack alternative with enterprise features. <br><small>📊 800K+ deployments. Used by Samsung, NASA JPL.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/mattermost/mattermost) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
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| [Rocket.Chat](https://rocket.chat) | Team collaboration with omnichannel capabilities. <br><small>📊 800K+ servers, 12M+ users.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/RocketChat/Rocket.Chat) · MIT</small> |
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| [Zulip](https://www.zulip.com) | Chat with threaded conversations for organized discussions. <br><small>📊 Thousands of organizations. Used by Rust, Julia, MariaDB.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/zulip/zulip) · Apache-2.0</small> |
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| [Nextcloud](https://nextcloud.com) | Complete collaboration suite—files, calendars, chat, and more. <br><small>📊 400K+ servers, 50M+ users.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/nextcloud/server) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
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| [Jitsi](https://jitsi.org) | Video conferencing with no account required. <br><small>📊 Thousands of instances, tens of millions of users.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet) · Apache-2.0</small> |
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| [BigBlueButton](https://bigbluebutton.org) | Web conferencing designed for online learning. <br><small>📊 Thousands of deployments, billions of minutes.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/bigbluebutton/bigbluebutton) · LGPL-3.0</small> |
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| [CryptPad](https://www.cryptpad.org) | End-to-end encrypted collaborative documents. <br><small>📊 100+ public instances, 100K+ users.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/cryptpad/cryptpad) · AGPL-3.0</small> |
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| [Etherpad](https://etherpad.org) | Real-time collaborative text editing. <br><small>📊 Thousands of instances, millions of users.</small> <br><small>📦 [GitHub](https://github.com/ether/etherpad-lite) · Apache-2.0</small> |
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---
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## Getting Started
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A recommended starter stack for most communities:
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- **Nextcloud** for files, calendar, and basic chat
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- **Jitsi** for video meetings
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- **Discourse** for community discussions
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As needs grow, add specialized tools for real-time chat (Mattermost, Zulip) or encrypted collaboration (CryptPad).
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The technical barrier is lower than ever. Docker deployments, managed hosting services, and excellent documentation make self-hosting accessible to communities without deep technical expertise.
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And the benefits compound: every dollar spent on self-hosted infrastructure builds something your community owns, rather than paying rent to a distant corporation.
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Communities that build their own collaboration infrastructure report something unexpected: the technology becomes an excuse for connection. The process of choosing, deploying, and maintaining tools together builds relationships that extend far beyond the technology itself.
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