The Communitarium Project is an effort to create shared spaces—both online and offline—where people can collaborate, deliberate, and take action to challenge the status quo. It is an evolving experiment in building a digital commons for meaningful engagement, exploring alternative models of collective ownership and governance.
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What is the Communitarium Project?
The Communitarium Project is an attempt to create online and real-world spaces where people can come together not just to talk, but to
think, plan, and act in ways that challenge the status quo and explore alternative futures. It is not another social media network, nor is it simply a forum for discussion. Rather, it is an experiment in constructing
a shared infrastructure for collective learning, deliberation, and action—a digital commons that could serve as a base for both
ad hoc and ongoing efforts to engage with the world and work toward meaningful change.
Why Now?
We are living through a period of
deepening fragmentation and enclosure—not just in the realm of politics and economics, but in how we think, communicate, and organize. Social media platforms, designed to extract attention and data rather than foster genuine collaboration, have further atomized discourse and reduced political action to fleeting moments of engagement. At the same time, the forces of technofeudalism have transformed much of the digital sphere into a landscape of walled gardens, where participation is structured around the logic of consumption rather than shared ownership.
The Communitarium Project is an attempt to address this predicament. It seeks to explore alternative models—ones in which
participants are not consumers but co-creators, owners, and maintainers of the spaces in which they operate. It envisions
networked commons rather than isolated platforms, where deliberation is oriented toward meaningful engagement with the world rather than endless self-promotion or reactive outrage.
Core Principles of the Communitarium Project
- Deliberation with Purpose – Unlike social media, which rewards rapid, emotionally charged engagement, the Communitarium fosters structured, thoughtful deliberation. It is a space for long-form discussions, collaborative research, and careful planning for real-world action.
- A Commons, Not a Market – Participation is not about amassing followers or crafting personal brands but about contributing to a shared project. Information, ideas, and tools are meant to be developed collectively and made accessible to those who need them.
- Action-Oriented Collaboration – The goal is not just to talk about the world but to change it. The Communitarium aims to provide tools and structures for coordinating efforts—whether that means organizing local initiatives, developing counter-institutions, or strategizing long-term projects.
- Mutual Accountability – Members of a Communitarium instance are not isolated individuals but part of a collective. Anything published from within this space carries the reputation of the community, and participants are answerable to that community for their contributions.
- Networked but Grounded – The Communitarium does not seek to exist purely as an online phenomenon. Its purpose is to enable real-world connections and material action, using digital infrastructure to facilitate meaningful offline engagement rather than replace it.
Exploring Platforms: Hubzilla and Beyond
Hubzilla is currently being considered as a possible foundation for Communitarium-oriented online spaces because it is one of the few federated platforms that allows for
true autonomy, flexibility, and self-governance. Its unique features—including
nomadic identity, federated access control, integrated knowledge-sharing tools, and group-oriented functionality—make it an intriguing candidate for fostering the kind of community-driven, action-oriented spaces the Communitarium Project seeks to explore.
That said, this choice is not definitive. Part of the project involves discussing and evaluating different technological infrastructures to determine what best serves the needs of those involved. The process of selecting and refining the right platform is an ongoing, collective effort.
What Comes Next?
The first step is
building and testing potential Communitarium instances, ensuring that they are structured to facilitate meaningful collaboration rather than mimic the patterns of traditional social media. From there, the work begins to refine these spaces, create necessary tools, and connect people who are looking for something beyond the isolated, reactive nature of contemporary online engagement.
The Communitarium Project is not a ready-made solution—it is an invitation to
co-create, experiment, and adapt. If you are interested in being part of this effort, the first step is to join the conversation, understand the principles, and begin thinking about how you and those around you can use these spaces to
coordinate, create, and engage with the world in new ways.
