Pillar 04
Communication
Federated, self-hosted communication tools: Matrix for real-time chat and video, Stalwart for email, and OpenStreetMap for geographic coordination. All under member control — no corporate server, no surveillance, no ads.
Design philosophy
Communication infrastructure is where most cooperatives are most dependent on corporate platforms: Slack, Google Workspace, Zoom, WhatsApp. These tools work well but extract significant value — through data collection, algorithm-driven engagement, and lock-in. irl.coop replaces each one with a federated open-source equivalent that the cooperative operates itself.
Real-time chat — Matrix (Dendrite)
Matrix is a federated, open protocol for real-time communication. irl.coop runs Dendrite, the Go implementation of the Matrix server, on each shard's hardware. Members communicate using any Matrix client (Element, FluffyChat, Cinny, etc.) connected to their shard's homeserver.
What this means in practice
- Messages are stored on the cooperative's own server, not on a corporate cloud
- End-to-end encryption is available for private rooms
- Members can bridge to other Matrix homeservers across the federation
- Room history is controlled by the cooperative, not by a third party
- No algorithmic feed, no promoted content, no data harvesting
Spaces and rooms
Matrix Spaces allow the cooperative to organize rooms hierarchically: a Space for the whole cooperative, nested Spaces for working groups, and rooms for specific projects or topics. Membership in a Space is tied to the cooperative membership status from the Authorization layer.
Video calls — Jitsi
Video meetings are handled by Jitsi Meet, which can be bridged into Matrix rooms. Jitsi runs on the cooperative's own infrastructure. No account is required for guests — a shared link is sufficient. For members, the Matrix session is used for authentication.
Email — Stalwart
Stalwart is a modern, Rust-based mail server that supports SMTP, IMAP, JMAP, and CalDAV/CardDAV. Each cooperative shard can issue @cooperative.domainemail addresses to its members. Stalwart handles:
- Inbound and outbound SMTP with DKIM/SPF/DMARC
- IMAP for standard email clients
- JMAP for modern programmatic access
- CalDAV for shared calendars
- CardDAV for shared contact directories
- Anti-spam filtering without third-party services
Members own their mailbox data. It is stored on the cooperative's storage layer and can be exported in standard Maildir or mbox format.
Collaborative documents — CryptPad
CryptPad provides end-to-end encrypted collaborative editing for documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and forms. Documents are encrypted in the browser before being sent to the server — the server operator cannot read document content. CryptPad is linked from within Matrix rooms for seamless collaboration.
Geographic coordination — OpenStreetMap
For cooperatives with physical presence — community land trusts, neighborhood associations, tool libraries — the platform provides a self-hosted OpenStreetMap tile server. Members can embed maps, mark resources, plan events, and share location-based information without relying on Google Maps or proprietary mapping APIs.
No-code site publishing — WebStudio
WebStudio allows members to publish cooperative websites and event pages visually, without code. Pages are deployed to the cooperative's hosting infrastructure via Akash Network, giving the cooperative a public web presence that is not dependent on corporate hosting.