Hi! We're pub.solar

We are a non-registered association seated in Cologne, Germany. Our goal is to enable more people to use free software, have secure digital communications, and to take control over their private data.

We host free software for you and all the people you love. We do this transparently and democratically.

We currently offer these services:

• Matrix: a decentralized, end-to-end encrypted chat, similar to Slack or Discord,
• Mastodon: a decentralized microblogging platform, similar to Twitter,
• Nextcloud: a cloud with office capabilities, similar to the Google Suite and Microsoft Office 365,
• Forgejo: a git server, comparable to GitHub or Gitlab,

Additionally, the following services which might change or dissappear any time.

• Searx: a metasearch engine, similar to Google or Bing,
• Mailman: a software for mailing lists,
• OBS Portal: a server for saving OpenBikeSensor data which is currently limited to the Cologne/Bonn region,

For some of these Services, you'll need to register an account, which we call a pub.solar ID. All services are publicly open for registration. Nextcloud accounts are severely limited in their storage amount. If you want more storage, please contact the crew.

Contact and getting help

You can reach us via #General in Matrix and @crew on Mastodon, or send a mail to crew@pub.solar.

You can find our PGP key here. It has the following fingerprint:

8A89 87AD E373 6C8C A2EB  315A 9B80 9EBB DD62 BAE3

Check out our wiki or contact us via one of the methods above. In the Matrix #General room there's always someone around for answering your questions.

Being a member or helping hand

Are you interested in becoming a member of the pub.solar organisation? Do you want to support the organisation with labour, money, or just your name?

We are currently a non-registered association (n.e.V.), which means that from a legal perspective we are a group of individuals, not members of a registered association. Our goal is to become a registered association (e.V.) and expand our work where we can.

We are always looking for help and support. Being a member is currently not tied to any costs or privileges, but is rather an indicator of support. We encourage you to become a member even if (or, especially if) you are not very technically versed. Our goal is for pub.solar to be an organisation that helps everyone, especially people that would by themselves not be able to administrate IT infrastructure. We want you to have a voice in the decisions surrounding your services. We want the community to decide together what an IT infrastructure built with solidarity, freedom, privacy, and mutual support in mind would look like.

Feel like joining in? Know what to do? Don't know what to do? Just send the crew a message. We're looking forward to hearing from you!

Financing

We currently pay for the infrastructure out of our own pockets (like the server and domain name).

This situation is not long-term sustainable, and we're currently working on founding an e.V. and having solid financing. We'd of course welcome anyone wanting to help and participate!

Donate via IBAN

Jhonas Wernery
DE70430609674093197701
GLS Bank

Imprint

pub.solar n.e.V.

c/o MiOM Kreativraum e.V.,
Wilhelm-Mauser-Straße 47 Halle 5,
D-50827 Köln,
crew@pub.solar

Our Statutes

Are over here. They are only available in German for now.

Our Privacy Policy

Is over here.

Our hosting

We use a dedicated server from Hetzner GmbH hosted in Germany.

The code for the infrastructure can be found in this git repository.