Background

As we come to rely more the Cloud, or digital services hosted on someone else's computer, we must consider how this affects our personal privacy and security. Open-source software solutions can help put us back in control of our digital experiences. By joining these open collaborative communities, we can include our diverse voices throughout their growth process. We have a right to privacy and should be in control of our digital ecosystem.

Overview

We will be creating a personal home server that can be used to host our own cloud applications. These can be services you host for yourself, your family, your community or ~~even for~~ a small business.

Through this guide, you can explore open-source alternatives to many of the cloud services you're already familiar with. There are so many self-hosted cloud services to choose from, including your own:

Personal cloud and office suite for managing your files, contacts and calendars.
Multimedia streaming server with automated downloads and always up-to-date metadata from open repositories.
Professional platform for building a community and gathering feedback
Personal blog for connecting with your friends and family.

Many self-hosted services focus on modern and responsive web application interfaces that run in your browser. This means you can securely access your self-hosted services from any computing device. Many also support desktop and mobile apps built for your operating system.

By self-hosting Organizr, or other tools like it, we can create a homepage that keeps all of our services accessible in one place.

Requirements

In order to host your own server from home, there are some hardware and services you may need.

Computer

Router

Internet Access

VPN

Domain Name

Creator

I am a designer, developer and information scientist who grew up with open source technologies.

This library was created to advocate for technological freedom, equal access and transformative social justice.