July 2026 - Advisors - list.chattanooga.digital

Email services
by Greg Laudeman Aug. 5, 2026

Aug. 5, 2026

I've learned the hard way about how weird email services are. They're also pretty critical for Chattanooga.Digital. We've tried a couple of options that were less than adequate. What we have now should work short-term but we need something more flexible, functional, and robust. Does anyone know email services really well? Would anyone be willing to do some research on options? I can give you a good starting point and reasonably detailed requirements. Would it make sense to organize a task force/working group on this? As I mentioned in a previous email, IAM is one of the next big apps/services to figure. The two definitely need to work together. Thoughts? Suggestions?

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Geospatial apps/projects
by Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. July 31, 2026

July 31, 2026

Jonathan Pohlner, Rob Aicheson, and I are planning a Hack Session for geospatial technology. Anyone else interested? The general goal is to identify some specific apps/services for which we could get a sponsor. The general idea is a shared geodata/GIS/map server that could be used to overlay various data sets, including real-time movement (of buses, specifically) and gaussian splats <https://rd.nytimes.com/projects/gaussian-splatting-guide/> for various purposes — culture, history, planning, recreation, tourism, etc. We would spin up some demo services for it. My general thinking is to issue a call for problems: Do you have an initiative, issue, or project that relates to local geography and spaces? I’m pretty sure we can get CARTA on-board (pun) from the get-go. Then folks on the C.D — any members who are interested — can pick one or more problems and walk stakeholders through how to solve them. It would also be for folks wanting to learn the basics of the tech, particularly youth programs. The objective would be to generate some (modestly) financially supported work opportunities for members. And to have some fun while learning stuff! 😃 Thoughts? — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D. Executive Officer and Principal Eduity, LLC www.eduity.net greg(a)eduity.net 706-271-5521

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toot.chattanooga.digital
by Greg Laudeman July 31, 2026

July 31, 2026

Please consider signing up with our community Mastodon instance, toot.chattanooga.digital <https://toot.chattanooga.digital/>. For those who aren't familiar, Mastodon is federated, decentralized social media for microblogging, similar to Xitter. Toot is our first community app. I plan to ramp up use of it over the next few months. Please, join in! We will also be using hub.chattanooga.digital <https://hub.chattanooga.digital/> as an online space for Chattanooga.Digital members but we have some more work to do on it before its ready for general use. It is also federated platform, like Mastodon, and can integrate with it. If you're interested in helping with or just learning more about Hub, let me know! -- Greg Laudeman, Ed.D., Instigator Chattanooga.Digital <https://chattanooga.digital/> greg(a)chattanooga.digital <mailto:greg.laudeman@chattanooga.digital> 706-271-5521

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Issues, needs, and opportunities with Chattanooga.Digital
by Greg Laudeman July 29, 2026

July 29, 2026

I'm sloooowly wrapping up work on the next version of the Chattanooga.Digital business plan, which will be reasonably complete but still very much an evolving work-in-progress. I'll share it soon. In the meantime, here's some basic info about how its being structured. We need your input and welcome any help you might provide with any of this! My next to-do is to assemble an informal advisory council and plan a "summit" with them. We'll have regular member meetings — probably evenings during the third or fourth weeks of the month... let me know your preference. Please, let me know of anyone you think would be a good advisor (anyone with connections to and insights about various areas or parts of our community, particularly non-technical folks) and invite any tech geeks you know to join as pilot members. Currently, we offer: * Community services: o Hubzilla (hub.chattanooga.digital, in the works) collaboration/communication space; look for invitations to join soon! o Mastodon (toot.chattanooga.digital) microblogging o Postorious/Mailman (list.chattanooga.digital) email distribution lists * Member services: o Bigcapital accounting o CiviCRM customer relationship management (for non-profits) o Cryptpad (in consideration) o Discourse forums o Drupal CMS websites o Linkstack (in the works) link sharing o Nextcloud file sharing, groupware, etc. What other services we offer are up to YOU! Ideas include audio streaming (Castopod), document management (Paperless-ngx), geospatial/mapping (various options), image management (Immich), search (SearXNG), and social networking (various options). Generally, the plan is to incorporate Chattanooga.Digital as a democratically controlled, member-owned cooperative (specifically, a 501(c)(12) LLC) later this year, with "customer" and "provider" members and four departments or functional areas: Administration, Operation, Outreach, and Support. * Administration handles finance, HR, legal, etc., initially using Bigcapital accounting, CiviCRM, Drupal CMS website, Mailman/Postorius for email lists (like this one), and Nextcloud — all of which we will offer to members as services — as well as Mailfence for email service. Administration "owns" practices, procedures, etc., but the other areas are responsible for defining them. All of these will live on Nextcloud. * Operation handles our core mission of deploying, maintaining, and providing tier 1 support using Hetzner hosting, Portainer container management, Traefik reverse proxy. We have a couple of immediate/short-term issues to resolve: o Identify and access management (IAM; Keycloak is the top prospect.) o Transactional email service * Outreach is responsible for growing membership and promoting FOSS, including developing technical capabilities and increasing general awareness and knowledge in our community. Currently, this consists of the Let's Learn Linux Study Group, which I'm hosting on second Wednesdays of the month. I'm also planning a series of visioning sessions to understand issues and needs in the community (rather than asking folks what tech they need/want... because most people wouldn't be able to answer that) and workshops on general and specific apps. Outreach is also responsible for identifying issues, needs, and opportunities in the community. * Support assists with core internal apps and services and acts as owner agent/project manager/shared open source program office for members. Our rule of thumb for customers' software is "hands off." C.D reps do not work on or with customer members apps or data. Instead, we help them contract with provider members to do that work. Projects require at least one member to act as a sponsor and help recruit other members with similar needs. Generally, any new apps/services we offer to members will be treated as a "project." Support also leads the process of evaluating FOSS options for members. o One general to-do for us is to establish a process for evaluating FOSS options, specifically for IAM. Eventually, these functional areas — particularly Administration and Operation — will be handled by one or more paid employees, supplemented by member volunteers who earn credits toward services for their work. More on all of this soon. Your thoughts, suggestions, or help with any of the above would be greatly appreciated in the meantime! -- Greg Laudeman, Ed.D., Instigator Chattanooga.Digital <https://chattanooga.digital/> greg(a)chattanooga.digital <mailto:greg.laudeman@chattanooga.digital> 706-271-5521

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Welcome to Chattanooga.Digital discussion list!
by Greg Laudeman July 28, 2026

July 28, 2026

As a pilot member of Chattanooga.Digital, you have been subscribed to the Advisors email list. The purpose of this email list is to address issues with and provide input on co-op's operations and services. If you know others who might be interested in establishing a community-based, cooperative platform-as-a-service or promoting free open source software, please encourage them to join via https://chattanooga.digital/membership. You can manage your subscription by creating an account at https://list.chattanooga.digital/accounts/signup/ and get more information by putting any of the following commands in the subject or body of a message to advisors-request(a)chattanooga.digital: * *help: *Receive a copy of the help message. * *info: *Get information about this mailing list. * *unsubscribe*: Leave the list Feel free to call or email me directly with any questions or concerns! Thanks for being a part of Chattanooga.Digital! Sincerely, -- Greg Laudeman, Ed.D., Instigator greg(a)chattanooga.digital 706-271-5521

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Welcome to Chattanooga.Digital discussion list!
by Greg Laudeman July 28, 2026

July 28, 2026

As a pilot member of Chattanooga.Digital, you have been subscribed to the Advisors email list. The purpose of this email list is to address issues and provide input on co-op's operations and services. If you know others who might be interested in establishing a community-based, cooperative platform-as-a-service or promoting free open source software, please encourage them to join via https://chattanooga.digital/membership. You can manage your subscription by creating an account at https://list.chattanooga.digital/accounts/signup/ and get more information by putting any of the following commands in the subject or body of a message to advisors-request(a)chattanooga.digital: * *help: *Receive a copy of the help message. * *info: *Get information about this mailing list. * *unsubscribe*: Leave the list Feel free to call or email me directly with any questions or concerns! Thanks for being a part of Chattanooga.Digital! Sincerely, -- Greg Laudeman, Ed.D., Instigator greg(a)chattanooga.digital 706-271-5521

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Hello, list!
by Greg Laudeman July 28, 2026

July 28, 2026

Hello, list! — Greg Laudeman, Ed.D., Instigator greg(a)chattanooga.digital 706-271-5521

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