Future of the global hosting service
A similar text was send via email to all contact person of the foodcoops that uses app.foodcoops.net on 08/15/2023.
More than six years ago a group of volunteers got together to run the Foodsoft hosting in its current form. This group consisted of people who were active in various foodcoops and were willing to commit to maintaining their own infrastructure (i.e. Foodsoft and all its related components).
Over the years, the group has gotten smaller and for more almost 2 years, maintaining the Foodsoft hosting was done by one single person.
For various reasons the hosting group has decided to end the global hosting service in its current form as of 12/31/2023.
Now this does not mean that you will no longer be able to use your Foodsoft from 01/01/2024.
The IT collective rokoli plans to continue the Foodsoft hosting and participate in the further development of the Foodsoft. Rokoli was created in the Sense.Lab environment. Sense.Lab is the non-profit association that already provides the legal framework for the Foodsoft hosting and pays all the bills.
The idea is that in the future each foodcoop will be provided with 5 free Foodsoft member accounts and each additional Foodsoft member account will cost 1 € net / month.
For this, rokoli can offer:
- A mianaged hosting for your Foodsoft instance,
- Security updates of the Foodsoft and participation in its further development,
- Support in case of technical problems,
- Maintaining the foodcoops.net forum.
Whether this will work and whether it will be possible to finance the work depends largely on the number of foodcoops that will continue to use the hosting.
So now it’s your turn:
Please contact the hosting group until 10/15/2023 via email to hosting@foodcoops.net and us if you want to continue the hosting with rokoli.
Of course, you can also operate your Foodsoft yourself in the future. We will provide you with all the necessary data (Foodsoft configuration and database) for download. In this case, please also send an e-mail to hosting@foodcoops.net.
Maybe you use this moment as an opportunity to create a new hosting group out of the foodcoops. Feel free to use the Foodsoft forum to coordinate your efforts. On Github we have created a detailed documentation over the years that makes it easy to get started. Of course, in this case you will also receive all necessary Foodsoft data.
Important: After 12/31/2023, we will delete the Foodsoft instances of all foodcoops that have not reported back. No matter which variant you choose, please contact us.
All the best