An alternative to Facebook Groups that can be used by specific local organisations and collectives, and offered to others - to support existing and emergent groups.

These groups exemplify our primary target user organisations. These can shape our evaluation and comparison of alternative platforms.

• Brunswick Tool Library
• Good Karma Network
• Gig Guide
• Radical Socialist Base
• Muslim Women’s association
• Radicle Roots
• Balam Balam
• Library services

We can prioritise these to identify core functionality and non-essential functionality (e.g. MoSCoW prioritisation)

In an emergency

• Community emergency announcements
• Organising / coordinating volunteers (e.g. community gardening, food parcel delivery)
• Alerting neighbours and groups to people in need of assistance
• Coordinating community response to requests for assistance

Business as usual Being used as part of everyday community activities will mean that the platform is familiar and useful in an emergency / blackout scenario.

• Advertising events, workshops and groups' initiatives to the community
• Offering and requesting items and services (per e.g. Freecycle / Good Karma)
• Requesting advice and recommendations regarding local service providers
• Seeking social connections with neighbours
• Discussion of local politics and current affairs

These could be provided by the platform itself or by supporting services and capabilities

• Onboarding plan and functionality
• Discoverability: pathways to find things (and the groups and people users new are interested in)
• Ability to manage multiple overlapping circles of community, e.g. micro-locality, specific interests etc.
• Options for sign-up, sign-in and account management (including provisioning and password resets)
  • using email and / or mobile
  • and when email and phone not available
• Initial user experience and visual appearance must be acceptable to non-technical users
• Needs to be FOSS, standards based, interoperable, robust