Several people asked if our artwork, such as the print we offer as a crowdfunding reward, is AI-generated. It’s not. It’s an original work by Rocco Lombardi, the artist behind the Bonfire icon and much of our other illustrations, hand screen-printed by BeeInk, a social print studio in Belluno, Italy. Grab one and support the development of federated groups in Bonfire https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bonfire/community?refcode=z7GlRjmsVk-Sd6u_HpbKvw And it looks great on your wall too. Here’s @samvie print ❤️

Good news everyone! We hit our first milestone: maintenance is 100% funded. Thank you all ❤️ Next up: unlock the stretch goal to co‑design federated groups: community‑owned spaces to organise across the fediverse, with no server or platform lock‑in. Read about why this matters and how it can empower communities:

Why Community Matters: Groups as the Next Step for the Fediverse

Federated groups in Bonfire will be spaces where communities gather to organise, care, and coordinate across the fediverse. They'll live next to yo...

Support the campaign:

Bonfire: building blocks for communities on the open social web by Bonfire - Indiegogo

From platforms to communities: a federated social web with shared foundations and co‑created spaces for gathering, care, connection, and ste...

#Fediverse #FederatedGroups #CommunitySpaces #ActivityPub

Do you want to help people escape Big Tech and join the open social web? We need help to boost the Bonfire campaign. With #GivingTuesday momentum is on our side, but most people stuck on enshitified platforms only see content from people still active there. If that's you, pick a template below (or write your own) and post it anywhere you have reach: Facebook (incl groups), LinkedIn, Twitter, email lists, Slack/Discord. Every share brings us closer to an open community‑governed internet. Thanks!

Back the campaign to unlock Federated Groups! Self-governed groups with their own rules, roles & shared moderation across servers. Interoperable with PieFed, Mbin, Mobilizon, Friendica, etc. Co-designed with @Princeton HCI, @Knowledge Commons and communities such as activist collectives and research organisations to reimagine groups when communities own their tools, can set rules, moderate spaces, and connect beyond single servers. Support the effort: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bonfire/community?refcode=eOu_17hIxEy0HwX77wIfSA #crowdfunding #fedigroups

Meet @adrigen and Lee: Buy Nothing group admins co-designing our Mutual Aid Networks stretch goal. Their video and article reveal why gifting communities need more than "Facebook groups but federated", they need infrastructure built for proximity, self-governance, and generosity. Blog post: https://bonfirenetworks.org/posts/federated-digital-spaces-for-mutual-aid-networks/ Back the campaign to unlock it:

Bonfire: building blocks for communities on the open social web by Bonfire - Indiegogo

From platforms to communities: a federated social web with shared foundations and co‑created spaces for gathering, care, connection, and ste...

#crowdfunding #mutualaid #buynothing

We’re crowdfunding for maintenance first: the unsexy work funders usually don’t want to support. Our new post explains why care and maintenance are the foundation before we can unlock all the other stretch goals:

Matters of care - why maintenance comes first

It was not an easy choice to focus our crowdfunding campaign on care and maintenance as the condition sine qua non to consider it successful.

We’re at 74%. Help us cross the finish line:

Bonfire: building blocks for communities on the open social web by Bonfire - Indiegogo

From platforms to communities: a federated social web with shared foundations and co‑created spaces for gathering, care, connection, and ste...

#crowdfunding #care

🎉 100 backers! We're ~€8,000 away from our first goal of €30,000 for maintenance. Campaign perks include a limited-run, hand screen-printed piece by Rocco Lombardi, the artist behind Bonfire's visual world. There's also a regular print for a lower price, available in more locations. Rocco's work embodies what we care about: living worlds, connection, plurality. Our aesthetic embraces "contamination" and renewal: away from sterile platform design. Claim yours: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bonfire/community?refcode=FVxjqI1kLUOhHXxqyrS6-g

"Wielded well, the master’s tools can maybe be used to smash a few deserving walls [...] But like patient little demons, those tools carry inside them the spirit of their making. They twist in our hands in our moment of need and leave us blistered and bleeding. By serving the needs of the people who made them, they resist the greater work. We need better tech. We need it to be made in better ways and for better uses, and above all, in and for communities."

wreckage/salvage

Sparks fly up

Once you’ve seized the tools of political life to build communal power, it’s hard to forget what a hammer feels like in your hand.

By @Erin Kissane

🔥 Day 1 was incredible! Thank you to everyone who backed the campaign. We’re just €10K from our maintenance goal: the foundation that keeps everything running. Once we achieve it, we’ll shift into stretch goals co-designed with communities and teams: moderation tools, encryption, mutual aid networks, cooperative hosting, native apps, and more… Help us get there:

Bonfire: building blocks for communities on the open social web by Bonfire - Indiegogo

From platforms to communities: a federated social web with shared foundations and co‑created spaces for gathering, care, connection, and ste...