Digital Tools that are Cooperatively Managed by West Michiganders

Grand Rapids’ own digital workspace to replace Google Suite, iCloud, and Microsoft Office 365

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For and by West Michiganders

Grand Rapidians have long believed in local business. Our next step? Embrace local, community-owned, software. GR Cloud has the must-have digital essentials you use each day.

Document editing and file storage

File sharing

Calendar and appointment scheduling

Email and address book

Video calling

Direct messaging & group chats

Note keeping

Password management

Forms and polling

The Internet has made information accessible across vast geographies, economies, and cultures. At the same time a handful of companies have cemented their place as global necessities. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and more.

Rather than being temporary guests in an empire beholden to shareholders, we are participants and co-owners in a living, breathing, and evolving digital community garden.

While many concern over big tech’s algorithmic bias, throttling of privacy, and impact on wellbeing, these issues are symptoms of a greater problem. Our digital utilities are fully in the control of a select set of distant commercial entities for which we have little to no control (let alone ownership). This de-localization of power has us depending on impersonal, profit-centered, services for our day-to-day lives, instead of looking to each other.

GR Cloud brings us together as neighbors to provide cooperatively owned and managed digital alternatives to services we’ve traditionally depended on but haven’t had a voice on. Now we’re centering our digital utilities around the people we physically surround ourselves with. Putting the physical before the digital.

It’s quite simple….

Web 2.0 & App Empire 2005 – 2023

This?

Web Community Gardens 2024 – 🙂

Or this?

Free Software Makes This Possible

Bill Gates’s chief innovation wasn’t his code, it was his philosophy of keeping Microsoft code exclusive to Microsoft. Prior to that, software code developed by one person or community was commonly shared with others for consistent improvement and evolution.

The Free Software movement maintains this spirit. Free Software (similarly referred to as open source software), is software that anyone can use, anyone can copy and edit, anyone can contribute, and anyone can distribute. It means Free as in freedom. Not free beer.

GR Cloud depends on Free Software to exist, most significantly Nextcloud, modified specifically for and by the GR Cloud community. Nextcloud, along with tangential extensions, are the result of love and labor of thousands of people, including some in Grand Rapids! As more people contribute to Nextcloud, they’ll be contributing to GR Cloud.

Our goal is to host GR Cloud on a local Grand Rapids server. In the meantime GR Cloud is hosted by a proprietary but trusted service provider.

FAQs

Who has access to the data I store on GR Cloud?

The data you store in GR Cloud data is available to you and only you (and any others whom you voluntarily decide to share a file or folder with). The data is hosted on servers managed by Hetzner but with privacy measures that inhibit Hetzner from accessing data.

As with all servers, GR Cloud has a single “master” admin account. This means that in theory, someone could access this “master” account and use it to somehow view other GR Cloud member information. Here is what GR Cloud does to ensure that personal account information is never accessed:

  • The master account has no functionality to access other member’s personal information
  • Logs of actions taken by the master account are public to all members
  • To reinforce accountability, the master account is governed by the GR Cloud board and no single person

Your existence on GR Cloud can be private so that nobody else knows you have a GR Cloud account. Or you can be part of a searchable list of fellow GR Cloud members.

How do I know that GR Cloud won’t be hacked?

GR Cloud is hosted on Hetzner servers with a Nextcloud A+ security rating. This means that all recommended security steps are fulfilled to ensure that data cannot be accessed or taken offline. Examples of security features:

  • Bruteforce protection
  • CSPv3
  • Same-Site-Cookies
  • Password confirmation
  • Checks passwords against HaveIBeenPwned database
  • __Host-Prefix
  • App passwords can be restricted

Hetzner’s advanced data centers include advanced climate control, colocation, fire protection, and DDOS protection. Data centers receive 24/7 on-site service with advanced multi-layered security systems.

Hetzner has received 1st place in the Service Providers Awards 4 years in a row. They’ve maintained an ISO 27001 certificate: an internationally recognized standard for information security.

Is GR Cloud a trustworthy group?

GR Cloud is a transparent, non-hierarchal, collaboration of West Michigan neighbors. We’d love for you to be involved!

The two foundations of GR Cloud are what make it sustainable: Hetzner data servers, and Nextcloud software. Little to no GR Cloud technology or knowledge is specific or proprietary to GR Cloud.

In the case of a significant issue, GR Cloud data is backed-up on Hetzner servers every 6 hours, allowing for restoration.

Data stored in GR Cloud is easily accessible and portable to other digital services. GR Cloud data is not proprietary to GR Cloud.

Data stored on GR Cloud is in no way monetized. It is not scanned or analyzed by computers for commercial purposes. For comparison, data stored on Google services is similarly “secure” from human review, but is scanned and analyzed by computers to improve ad recommendations.

How do I collaborate with others who are not a part of GR Cloud?

GR Cloud members can share files and folders with other GR Cloud members, but GR Cloud also features advanced sharing features that enable you to collaborate with others who do not have a GR Cloud.

For example, GR Cloud members can share files or folders with unique access permissions:

  • Multiple file and folder links with unique permission levels
  • Password protected files and folders
  • View or edit permissions
  • Specific number of link opens before the link auto-disables
Who is funding this? Who is writing the checks?

GR Cloud showcases the power of free software and community governance. The costs to run GR Cloud is around $10/month. 100% of this goes towards the server host: Hetzner. $0 is paid to Nextcloud. This minimal costs allows GR Cloud to focus on promotion and education.

At this time Mike Bass and his wife are personally paying these costs. We’re exploring other options and may eventually request a minimal one-time membership due payment, or annual due payment. GR Cloud is not interested in receiving funding from non-member.

Live in West Michigan? Join us!

After you complete the form you’ll receive a personal email offering support for your transition from Google Suite, iCloud, or Microsoft 365.

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