Circles is an open-source social network platform designed to support the needs of communities and individual Changemakers.

Though Circles is still quite early in its development, you can do most of what you’d expect to be able to do on a social network. You can create a profile, connect with other users, send private messages, create groups and events et cetera. In addition to the basics, Circles also has integrated video for online meetings and advanced matchmaking features that allow users to find each other and each other’s projects to collaborate. In addition to this, Circles uses AI to assist users in searches as well as answer questions and make suggestions or create documents or events and more. Circles is built on a global map that allows you to both locate and create content of a geobased nature. This means you can find local activities or zoom out to see global events that might be of interest and value to you. We have many additional features planned for the coming months and years, but this is what we can currently provide.

As Circles’ business model is not based on advertising or monetizing user data, you can’t make money on the platform through ad revenue. This means that it is not a very suitable platform for influences and others who are seeking to make use of social networks for monetary gain. Further, Circles is not built around a central feed that can be scrolled like most other platforms, so even if you have a lot of followers, posting content will not automatically be displayed to them. On the other hand, if you are looking to connect and have an impact through contributing to local or global projects, Circles is probably a good fit.

Circles is not a push-based platform but a pull-based one. That means that Circles does not try to curate an experience for you, rather it attempts to assist you to find what you are looking for, and perhaps even figure out what that ultimately is. This means that our interface is not designed to provide you with a steady stream of content. We don’t have a newsfeed with an infinite scroll function like most other platforms, we don’t have space allocated for advertising and we don’t sell your user data or try to influence you in any way through secret algorithms. Circles is also entirely open-source, to ensure the above. Finally, Circles is a co-creative and constantly evolving project. We are continuously designing and building it together with our users.

Circles is currently funded entirely by donations and voluntary membership fees. As the number of users grows we’ll explore and experiment with more revenue streams. However, since Circles and the Social Systems Foundation is not a for-profit organisation, the sole purpose of raising funds once costs have been covered, is to finance the projects that are being created on the platform by the members.

If you are a maker of change looking to not only meet and congregate with other changemakers but to actively engage with local and global projects, Circles might be the platform for you.

MakeCircles, the version of Circles that you are currently using, is hosted by the Social Systems Foundation, a not-for-profit entity registered in Stockholm, Sweden. Social Systems Lab, a subsidiary of the foundation, is the main entity designing and promoting Circles, but as it is an open-source project, neither the lab nor the foundation can claim ownership of the project.

The Circles project is coordinated by Social Systems Lab which is also responsible for this MakeCircles version of the platform. The Social Systems Foundation is ultimately responsible for this version of Circles, but the goal is to develop the platform with the users and to use any surplus revenue to fund the projects that the users choose to support. Supporting users also get to vote on changes and improvements to the platform.

Yes, Circles is free to use. We don’t believe that the “freemium” business model is aligned with the ecosystem of the commons we are hoping to nurture. However, we can only handle a limited number of users at present as we have limited resources. In order to grow the platform in a slow and steady way, there might be a waiting list to join. We also obviously need continued funding to maintain and develop the platform, so the number of users is limited also by this factor. To allow for this, we are maintaining a balance between contributing members and other users. At the moment, we are working on a one-to-one ratio, but as the platform grows or other funding options present themselves, we’ll be able to improve this ratio significantly.

Not as far as access to functionality goes. However, individual users can create settings that limit personal access to them (such as requests to connect or direct messages) based on whatever criteria they choose to set up. Should a user choose to only accept messages from supporting members, then it will not be possible to message them if one does not meet that criteria. But this is entirely up to the individual user and not a default setting of Circles. As more functions allow and thus require more data storage, such as storing recorded sessions on the platform, there might be a separate fee for this also. But at present, there are no extra charges for data processing and storage. The same holds true for third-party solutions that we make use of and thus have to pay for, such as AI and Mapbox. But as long as we have enough supporting members, all tools and services will remain free for all users of the platform.

Though Circles can provide a number of features that you would ordinarily pay for, such as unlimited video meetings, the main reason to become a contributing member is that you will be helping to build an entire ecosystem of open-source tools. In fact, if we are successful in what we are seeking to achieve, we will be able to transform social networking from the centralized for-profit systems that dominate today into a distributed system where the individual user is a node in a greater system but also owns and controls their own data and connections. Furthermore, by supporting the Circles project you are ultimately helping to build an infrastructure that will funnel increasing funds into the commons through the projects created and managed through Circles. In addition, as a supporting member, you get to vote on where we take the platform, and what we build next.

We haven't set this function up yet, but the plan is to set membership at 5 USD/Euro per month. However, for this fee, you also get to invite one more person to the platform. As Circles evolves, the fee will change with more of it being returned to the member. We'll also differentiate the membership fee depending on where members live so It better aligns with their financial situations.

Absolutely. You can become a supporting member by helping us build and manage the platform. We need developers and designers as well as community support. If you’d like to be part of the team, reach out via this form and we’ll get in touch! As the platform and network grow, it will become possible to support the project by contributing directly as a volunteer on pretty much all projects that are housed on the platform. The goal of the platform is to support local communities and their projects across the globe, after all.

At the moment, all resources we get go to pay for the development and hosting of the platform. We’d probably need at least 10,000 paying members to support the running costs of the platform in a sustainable and reliable way, and we are quite far from that at this point. But we’ll get there, and at that point, we will most likely have several other revenue streams, so a significant portion of the funds we raise will be able to be returned to our members for allocation throughout the network and ecosystem.

Back into the ecosystem, through the choices of the members. We will achieve this through another project we are working on at Social Systems Lab called The Altruistic Wallet. Basically, it is a wallet like any other digital wallet, but one that can only be spent on someone else, not on yourself. In the case of MakeCircles, once we have a surplus it will be divided up as a dividend among the contributing members, who will then be able to allocate their share to a project or projects they support. Individual wallet holders will also be able to delegate the contents of their wallets to other participants in the ecosystem that they feel are better equipped to allocate the funds in the most effective and impactful way. You can read more about The Altruistic Wallet among our other projects here.

There are a few reasons that Circles might make more sense, at least in the long run, to many of the other networking platforms out there. Unlike most of them, Circles is not for profit, and does not rely on advertising income or mining and trading user data. As we don't have shareholders demanding dividends, we can explore other business models and build a platform that is based on the actual needs of our users. Though other platforms have more users and more sophisticated interfaces, at least for now, they also have a number of limitations that cannot allow them to become truly useful social networks. As Circles does not have these constraints, and is a co-creative process that invites its users to improve its design, it is more likely to provide even more utility over time than it currently does. In addition, its ultimate goal is not merely to support community and community projects but also to fund these projects, which it can do far more efficiently as it does not have to divert any profits into the private wallets of shareholders and other investors. It is therefore best to look at Circles from this longer-term perspective when weighing it against other options. What can it deliver today and what might it deliver in the future, as we grow it and develop it together to meet our needs and align with our purposes? Also, we are very open to partnering with other platforms allowing users to access their preferred tools via Circles, whenever possible. The goal is not competition or to keep users in a silo that we guard, but rather the transformation of our current system for the benefit of all.

Great! This is what it is all about, coming together and doing stuff to make life a little bit better for our contemporaries and descendants. We have plenty of tasks lined up for talented and dedicated developers, UX designers product managers and marketers. We are also on the lookout for test pilots, troubleshooters, community liaisons and support volunteers who can give new users a helping hand. Do you have a feature or another idea of how to improve Circles and make it more useful for you and everyone else? Let us know through the contact page.

As Circles is designed to strengthen relationships and support community, it can serve two major purposes for organisations. The first is to serve as a social networking platform for the members of said organisation. A way for members to find each other and work together on the various projects that the organisation is involved with, as well as a way for the organisation to communicate with the various member segments, based on interest, age, membership type, location etc.