Information Technology is one of the core elements that enables the European Ecovillage Network to remain active, vibrant and thriving between the unfortunately very few and very much treasured in-person interactions.
Since the foundation of GEN Europe, we have acknowledged the need of being in touch with each other across the distance, and still be able to share our findings, experiences, opportunities, joys and sorrows.
In order to be able to achieve and keep that desired level of connection, GEN Europe works continuously on enabling different online services that can cater to our network member’s needs and help us fulfil our mission.
We also strongly believe that self hosted, Free Open Source Software is the best way to cover those needs:
- Self hosted: Having our services and data in our own servers prevents big companies from accessing our information and doing big data analysis with it. We also can select the location of our servers and how they are powered (strive for clean energy.).
- Free Open Source Software (FOSS): Using FOSS gives everyone more freedom in in using, studying, sharing and modifying that software. That leads to a potentially more secure, stable and cheaper software. It also moves from a competitive scenario towards a more solidary and collaborative approach.
You can see a complete list of our online services below:
Website setup service
We offer a personalized Ecovillage Website setup service for our network members, so that you can continue focusing on your mission and share it effectively with the world at the same time.
Rocket Chat
We host a Rocket Chat instance for our Working Groups, so that you can conversation can flow better and data remains secure at our servers. Consult our recommended donation list here.
Project management tool
We host an Open Project tool in our servers that can be used by our network members so that you can manage your projects more effectively. Consult our recommended donation list here.
Forum
We host a Discourse forum instance for our network members, so that you can find and exchange information about all kinds of ecovillage topics. Consult our recommended donation list here.
Icons credit to Muhammad Haq, Nine One and Mithun Raj