- Advisors - list.chattanooga.digital

Chattanooga.Digital All-call, August 19, 6:30 PM
by Greg Laudeman Aug. 18, 2026

Aug. 18, 2026

Our first monthly all-call will be next Wednesday, 6:30 PM * In-person during Hack Night at Society of Work, 110 Somerville Ave Suite 266, Chattanooga, TN 37405 * Online at https://go.eduity.net/call/r7vypa3x. Let me know if there are any specific issues or topics you want me to cover. -- 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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Chattanooga.Digital events this week and next
by Greg Laudeman Aug. 12, 2026

Aug. 12, 2026

Greetings! You are receiving this because you are on the Chattanooga.Venturing advisors email list or have registered for our events on Luma. The next "Let's Learn Linux" study group meeting is this Wednesday, August 12, 5:00 PM at Francis B. Wyatt Community Center in North Chattanooga. This month I hope to set up all of our demo/learning laptops and maybe install Linux on my old MacBook Air. This is an informal group that anyone who is interested in Linux with any skill level is welcome to attend. RSVP at https://luma.com/mjs2o0u8 or just show up! Calendar file attached. Next week, I'll attend a few local tech meetups to share info about Chattanooga.Digital. Specifically, we'll use the Carbon 5 Hack Night on Wednesday, August 19, for our first monthly "all call" to discuss C.D's status, plans, and next steps. You can attend in person or online. If you are on the advisors list, please reply to let me know that you will attend. If you wish to attend online but are not on the advisors list, let me know and I'll add you. You can also register directly via Meetup <https://www.meetup.com/carbon-five-chattanooga-hack-nights/events/315911326/> (registration required).https://www.meetup.com/carbon-five-chattanooga-hack-nights/events… -- 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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Identity and Access Management Services
by Greg Laudeman Aug. 11, 2026

Aug. 11, 2026

Chattanooga.Digital needs a process for evaluating and selecting software. We also need identity and access management software, which is a key element of our core infrastructure. More fundamentally, we need to decide how/whether to provide digital identity services. Our general, short-term requirements, that I'm aware of, are: 1. Must have single sign-on to all/most apps, with options/practices for dealing with apps that don't support relevant protocols. 2. Must be able to remove or suspend access to some or all apps without deleting a user/account. 3. Should have multi-level or multi-tenant functionality so that a user can control/own their portion of IAM; organization members, in particular, should have full control over the IAM. 4. Should be portable; the more so, the better. Some persons using members' apps — employees or family, for examples — may not be members of the coop. How and whether they might use our IAM services is to be determined. They may have accounts on one or more apps or one or more members but not SSO. Members may need to manage these accounts separately or run their own IAM services (on C.D or otherwise). An underlying issue is how/whether C.D provides digital identity services, particularly decentralized identifiers, self-sovereign identities, and verifiable credentials. I personally think this is critical but a lot of it is (a) evolving and (b) rather complicated so probably isn't practical in the short-term. My thought about the process for evaluating software for core (to run the coop) or standard (for members) purposes is that it should: 1. Require an anchor user/sponsor. 2. Be carried out by an application/purpose-specific task force or a software evaluation working group; regardless, some member(s) need to own the process. 3. Start with analyzing the requirements, including scope of application and use cases. 4. Methodically identify and evaluate options based on consistent criteria & metrics. I'm not sure what these should be, though... functionality, maturity, etc., but more specific. 5. Generate a recommendation and high-level implementation & management plan for staff and board review and approval (depending on specifics of our charter, which is in the works). 6. Include acceptance testing with members, particularly by the sponsor(s). 7. Result in a deployable, replicable, working version (ideally a Docker image) that can be migrated to production upon acceptance. What do y'all think? Let us 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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Hub.Chattanooga.Digital
by Greg Laudeman Aug. 5, 2026

Aug. 5, 2026

Our Hubzilla instance is now live and ready for kicking around! It is frankly a bit... different. It has a LOT of features and functionality, some of which can be a bit challenging to find and grok. "Channels", for example, are basically different areas of interest but function like different user persona. I'm still not totally clear on the practical difference between "Home" and "HQ"! It is intended to be an interim/short-term solution, until (and if) we decide on something else. We'll look at several options in the near future. Any suggestions or thoughts about an online space for members would be greatly appreciated! You should get an invitation to join via email in a few minutes. We'll discuss and do a walk-through during our first "all call" meeting, probably at 6:30 on 8/19. BTW, Hub is ActivityPub-based fediverse app that should integrate seamlessly with Mastodon <https://toot.chattanooga.digital/>, et al. -- 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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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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C.D member meetups
by Greg Laudeman Aug. 3, 2026

Aug. 3, 2026

Who would anyone be interested in informal member meetups? I think we're geographically all over the place so let me know the general area that's practical for as well as good days & times. We'll start doing monthly member calls later this month, probably on a Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday evening or lunch/midday on a weekday. Any preferences? Also, I'm planning an advisory councilfm4a meeting for September and would love to have all pilot members attend. Are there particularly bad or good dates/times for you next month? -- GL

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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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