Who is locali for?¶
locali is a self-hosted platform for local communities — designed for data-sovereign operation, without advertising and without a commercial engagement algorithm. It brings together information from existing sources and delivers it at the right time to the right people.
This page explains what that means in practice — for each group that wants to use, introduce, or operate locali.
Not a commercial product
locali is currently not a commercial SaaS product. The software is intended for self-hosted use; in the alpha phase, support is provided directly and individually. Open source is planned, but not yet published.
→ Why not just Facebook or nebenan.de?
→ When everything flows together
→ Municipalities and local governments
→ Clubs and local organisations
→ Residents and citizens
→ IT teams and operators
→ Demo and contact
Why not just Facebook or nebenan.de?¶
That question is fair — so here is a direct answer.
Facebook¶
Facebook works. Many people are there, and clubs, fire brigades, and municipalities genuinely reach people through it. The problem is not that Facebook is bad — the problem is structural.
- Anyone without an account receives nothing. And those with an account don't see everything: the algorithm decides based on engagement logic, not local relevance.
- Organic reach is systematically limited. Reaching more people means paying. That is the business model — not a bug.
- The data sits with Meta. What is discussed in a community group, which events perform well, who is active — these signals are used for commercial purposes. For data-sensitive municipal communication, that is a serious concern.
- A municipality that communicates via Facebook is dependent. On terms of service it cannot negotiate. On a company that owes no accountability to its residents.
nebenan.de¶
nebenan.de is a commercial service with ad-funded components, grant income, and offerings for local businesses and organisations. That is legitimate — but it is a different structure from a self-hosted local information infrastructure. locali is not designed to monetise attention, but to make local information manageable, source-based, and independently operable.
That said, some structural differences matter:
- Content and usage data sit with the provider, not the municipality.
- There is no structured integration with official sources: official bulletins, council decisions, association feeds, event calendars.
- Neighbourhood topics and official municipal information exist side by side, but are not connected.
What neither Facebook nor nebenan.de provides¶
The structural link between official municipal information, association life, citizen engagement, and feedback.
Both have strengths individually. But neither connects the layers on which a community actually functions: the municipality, the clubs, the initiatives, and the people — in a shared information space that belongs to the community itself.
And locali? It is not a silver bullet. It needs someone to run a hub, and organisations willing to connect their feeds. But when that happens, something emerges that the others do not offer: an information space that belongs to the community — not a corporation.
When everything flows together¶
Picture a municipality of 6,000 residents. There is the local government with a website and a monthly official bulletin. The volunteer fire brigade with a Facebook page. Three sports clubs with their own websites. The church community with an iCal calendar. The school parents' committee with a WordPress blog.
In reality, no resident knows all these channels completely. Even those who do rarely check them every day. Events are missed. Announcements go unnoticed. Engagement falls away — not because nobody is interested, but because the path to information is too long.
What locali makes of this picture¶
All organisations connect their existing feeds — set up once, no further maintenance required. Residents see all relevant content in one feed: filtered to their municipality and the places where they are members.
That alone would be useful. The real value emerges through the interplay:
Official bulletins come alive. What was previously a PDF becomes searchable. Anyone wanting to know what was decided at the last council meeting asks locali — and gets an answer with a source reference from the official document.
Events from different organisations appear side by side. The fire brigade's annual celebration and the church community's trip land in the same calendar — without anyone entering them twice.
Residents feed back in. Whoever offers help, lends tools, or looks for volunteers — that is visible to everyone in the hub. Not limited to a WhatsApp group, not lost in a commercial feed.
Operators can see more clearly where orientation is needed. Not through personal profiles, but optionally through aggregated, non-personal usage signals: which topics are searched for often, which content is requested repeatedly. That is structural feedback — not advertising analytics.
That is the real value¶
Not the sum of individual channels, but the connections between them.
A municipality running locali no longer communicates across ten scattered platforms — it bundles what already exists. Clubs do not need to build new channels — their existing website or calendar is enough. And residents finally have one place where official information, association life, and neighbourhood engagement come together — without advertising, without a commercial engagement algorithm, and without anyone selling their data in exchange.
For municipalities and local governments¶
What locali offers¶
locali connects existing municipal channels — official bulletins, event calendars, press releases, association websites — and makes them accessible to residents in a single, organised feed. The underlying idea is deliberately simple: the municipality keeps doing what it already does. Official bulletins are published as before. Events are maintained in the administrative calendar. What changes is the impact: information reaches more people, at the right moment, without editorial effort across multiple channels.
Residents can actively participate: offering help, reaching neighbours, announcing local events. The platform complements official communication — it doesn't replace it.
Less effort, more impact¶
That sounds like a marketing promise — here is what it means concretely:
| Task | Without locali | With locali |
|---|---|---|
| Publishing the official bulletin | PDF on website, few read it actively | Automatically ingested, AI-analysed, and searchable |
| Announcing events | Website, Facebook, notice board — separately | Maintained once in the calendar → appears automatically in the feed |
| Answering resident questions about decisions | Email, phone, FAQ page | locali answers common questions directly from official sources |
| Connecting clubs and initiatives | Coordination overhead, separate channels | RSS/iCal feed registered once, runs automatically |
| Recruiting volunteers | Notice board, newsletter, chance | Directly visible to all hub members, targeted by interest |
These are not promises about a perfect rollout — they are core functions that work once the infrastructure is set up.
What the municipality gets in return¶
Communication is no longer one-way. When residents actively use locali, signals emerge:
- Which topics are frequently asked about or searched for in locali?
- Which bulletin sections actually attract interest?
- Where does civic engagement arise on its own?
This is not tracking in a commercial sense — it is structural feedback. It emerges because people engage actively with local information, rather than passively scrolling through an algorithm feed. A municipality that reads this feedback can make its communication more targeted — not through more effort, but through a better understanding of what lands.
Data protection, GDPR, and operator responsibility¶
In a pure self-hosted setup, there is no upstream SaaS provider. If you run locali only on your own infrastructure and without external cloud services, no central platform vendor processes your users' data. As soon as you enable external AI providers or other third-party services, that processing must be reviewed separately from a legal and compliance perspective.
As the operator, you are the data controller under GDPR. Data subject rights (access, deletion, data portability) remain fully in your hands — and stay there.
No third-party services in the default setup. US cloud services are not involved in data processing by default. For AI features, a locally operated language model (Ollama) can be used. If operators enable external AI, the relevant content or questions intentionally leave the server.
Accessibility¶
locali targets WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the technical basis for EN 301 549, the European accessibility standard for public sector digital services. Accessibility is automatically tested and continuously improved.
Costs¶
The software is being developed as an independent project; an open-source release is planned, but not yet published. Costs arise from infrastructure: server hosting and optionally technical support for setup and maintenance. For concrete server requirements: → For IT teams and operators
Alpha phase and pilot projects¶
locali is in active development. Municipalities and local governments that want to join as pilot operators receive direct support. Getting in early means you can shape the product directly — that’s a rare opportunity.
Request a demo / get in touch →
For clubs and local organisations¶
Getting involved and sharing content¶
locali gives clubs and organisations their own digital space — with a feed, event calendar, and member area. If you already run a website with an RSS feed or an iCal calendar, content can be imported automatically. New events, announcements, and reports appear directly for members — without anyone manually distributing them across multiple channels.
Members can contribute themselves: help requests, offers, volunteer needs — all in the same feed, clearly categorised and separated from editorial content.
Most clubs are already ready — without knowing it¶
WordPress provides RSS feeds by default. Joomla, Typo3, Squarespace — likewise. Anyone maintaining a club calendar in Google Calendar or a similar tool often already has an iCal export.
That means: the sports club's RSS feed is already there. The fire brigade's announcements, the church community's events, the cultural association's news — usually available too. No new software is needed, no new editorial system, no new password for yet another platform.
How this works in practice:
- The sports club maintains its website as before — reports, fixtures, results
- locali reads the RSS feed and displays new posts in the hub feed
- Interested residents see the teaser in the hub — and are taken to the club's own website with a single click
- The club website gains visitors from the community, including people who had not yet heard of the club
No extra effort. No new accounts. The club's existing presence gains reach in a context built for local engagement.
Part of a bigger picture¶
A club represented in a shared hub reaches not only its own members — it is visible to everyone who belongs to the hub. The club's annual celebration lands in the same calendar as the council meeting and the fire brigade's open day. New residents find the club without having searched for it specifically. Anyone wanting to get involved locally can see straight away where help is needed.
This creates no dependency on the hub operator — a club stays independent through its own feeds. What it gains is visibility in a context made for local engagement.
Ways to use locali¶
As a place within a shared hub. If a municipality, city, or other organisation runs a hub, a club can be represented within it as its own "place". No separate server required — the hub operator sets up the place.
As your own hub. A club or association can also run its own hub for its members. This requires technical knowledge or external technical support.
Getting started¶
Is there already a hub in your community? Talk to the operator. Want to start your own? We'll help you get going.
For residents and citizens¶
Is locali available where I live?¶
locali is not a central platform with a general registration page. It is software that every municipality, club, and organisation runs itself. Whether locali is available in your community depends on whether someone has set up a hub there.
locali is currently in an early alpha phase — hubs are being built step by step.
What you can do¶
- Ask around — at your local government, your club, or a local initiative, whether locali should be introduced.
- Share this page — with the mayor, the village council, your club's committee, or anyone responsible for digital infrastructure.
- Get in touch — we can help connect you with the right people.
What to expect as a member¶
If locali is available in your community, you will see in one organised feed:
- News and announcements from your municipality and local organisations
- Events from the fire brigade, schools, church communities, sports clubs
- Help requests, offers, and volunteer needs from the neighbourhood
- Answers to plain-language questions: "When does the town council meet?"
No commercial engagement algorithm decides what is visible. No advertising. No third-party sharing by default.
For IT teams and operators¶
What locali is technically¶
locali runs as a Docker Compose stack on a Linux server. All components are included in the stack — no external subscription, no managed service required:
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| API server | ASP.NET Core 10 |
| Web interface (PWA) | Angular 19 |
| Database | PostgreSQL 16 |
| Cache / realtime backplane | Redis (with Sentinel) |
| Authentication | Keycloak (OIDC / OAuth 2) |
| Reverse proxy / TLS | Traefik |
| Monitoring | Prometheus, Grafana, Loki |
| Local AI (optional) | Ollama |
Technical prerequisites¶
- Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose
- Domain with DNS access (for TLS via Traefik)
- SMTP access for outgoing emails (registration, notifications)
- Basic knowledge of Linux administration and Docker
A complete setup guide will be provided with the planned open-source release. Alpha operators receive it directly.
Hardware requirements¶
Requirements depend on the number of members and whether local AI features (Ollama) are used:
| Scenario | CPU | RAM | Storage | Estimated cost/month* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small (up to ~500 members, no AI) | 2–4 vCPUs | 8 GB | 40 GB SSD | ~€15–20 |
| Medium (up to ~5,000 members) | 4 vCPUs | 8–16 GB | 80 GB SSD | ~€20–40 |
| With local AI (Ollama, small model) | 4+ vCPUs | 16+ GB | 100+ GB SSD | ~€40–60 |
| With local AI (larger model) | 8+ vCPUs | 32+ GB | 150+ GB SSD | ~€60–100 |
* Indicative estimates for Linux VPS at German hosting providers (e.g. Hetzner, netcup, IONOS), as of 2026. Actual costs vary depending on provider, plan, number of users, data volume, and configuration, and may differ significantly. Own hardware or on-premises hosting without monthly hosting costs is equally possible. All figures are provided without warranty.
Without Ollama
If you do not want to run local AI, you can configure a cloud provider instead (e.g. Mistral AI, Azure OpenAI). This significantly reduces server requirements — but means that AI-processed content or questions leave the server. Legal review and operator responsibility then remain with the operator.
Current status¶
locali is in the alpha phase. Setup currently requires direct support. A self-contained setup guide is in progress and will be available with the planned open-source release.
Demo and contact¶
A public demo instance is in preparation.
In the meantime: anyone who wants a concrete look — for a municipality, a club, or a technical evaluation — is welcome to get in touch. We’ll take a look together.