Here is an overview of our class infrastructure!

We want to practice open-source, self-hosted, minimalist options as much as possible while making sure the stack is sufficiently serving basic learning needs and objectives. All of this is a journey of gradual learning + testing. Through this experimentation, we hope to model the process for participants’ own community infrastructure projects and be a pilot for more intentional class infrastructures at SFPC in the future.

Applications

• WEBSITE: Made using ProcessWire, an open source CMS similar to (but leaner and more flexible than) Wordpress. We host it ourselves on DigitalOcean. Participants log in to access class material and can add blog pages.
• VIDEO CONFERENCING: We start off on Zoom → and then experiment with moving to Big Blue Button. The instance we use is hosted by Domaine Public, an independent collective in Belgium that aims to promote IT autonomy.
• FILE SHARING: NextCloud is a file hosting software similar to Dropbox or Google Drive. We host an instance on our Intel NUC (see 'Hardware' below). You can find readings and and upload assignments in your section's folder.
• NOTES: Etherpad is an open-source co-writing tool. Occasionally for in-class notes and activities, we use a self-hosted instance of it here.
• CHAT: The SFPC Discord is our primary space for sharing announcements and communicating outside of class. We are working on setting up a Matrix chat for alumni and other practitioners in our extended network!

Servers

• REMOTE SERVER: We maintain a "droplet" on Digital Ocean, a cloud infrastructure company. This option is more reliable and secure, so we use it for our website and backups.
• LOCAL SERVER: Intel NUC 2017 is a physical server we found off Craiglist for $50. It currently lives in Alice’s house in Northeast LA. We host Etherpad and Nextcloud on it, and are open to other experiments. Be patient as you may experience some latency because of slow upload/download speeds.