The Circles Project
Circles is an open-source pro-social networking, matchmaking and project-managing platform headed up by the Social Systems Foundation. The goal is to put all the basic tools a changemaker needs into an easy-to-use package that allows individuals, organisations and networks to get on with their missions without compromises.
These compromises usually take the form of advertising, algorithmic manipulation, data extraction and other artefacts of the profit-driven business motive. Circles is therefore strictly designed to be a non-profit platform, funded by user donations, brokerage fees and, ultimately, the users themselves as they become nodes in a decentralized network. But we have a ways to go before we get there. Perhaps you'd like to help us?
Get involved!
Wouldn't it be neat if we built our social platforms ourselves rather than having for-profit businesses build them for us, steal our attention and agency and pocket the profits for themselves without us having any say in the matter? Yes, it would be pretty neat indeed!
Circles is one such option, built to evolve and become more and more useful while giving the users ever more control of their own data and digital lives, and ultimately their physical environments. This evolution is largely up to our users, i.e. you.
We are looking for developers and UX-designers most immediately but are also interested in people with ideas and vision, people who have projects they'd like to use Circles for, people looking for a place to house their own networks and more. Here's a handy PDF that is a good introduction to the project. Drop us a line if you are keen to join the team. Our Github page is also available for your perusal.