PubHubs: Secure online communities for public values
PubHubs is a Dutch community network for autonomous and robust digital communication, built on public values such as safety, privacy, transparency, sovereignty and accountability.
PubHubs aims to realise the original ideals of the internet about connecting people, without all the negativity that is now so often associated with online contact. It aims to mimic real-life local communities online, where people who are (coming close to) violating the norms of the community are told about this, and where actual, persistent violations may have consequences. In abstract terms, PubHubs aims to combine online privacy and accountability.
Unlike global, ad-driven platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, PubHubs offers a community-focused alternative. Each participating organization manages its own Hub: a local online space with customizable rooms where participants can safely communicate, share information, or collaborate, publicly or privately, with or without identity verification. Examples of such organizations are schools, patient associations, libraries, health care institutions, local and regional governments, sports clubs, but also companies that want secure channels for internal contacts or for external contacts with their customers. Organizations benefit from being part of a trusted, recognizable network.
PubHubs offers controlled access. The conversation spaces (rooms) can be secured, so that only certain individuals can participate, in so-called “secure” rooms. This access control can be light, for instance in neighbourhood rooms where you need to prove via disclosure of your postal code that you actually live in the neighbourhood. Also, it can be required that you prove that you work for a particular organization, by disclosing your email address at this organization, before you can enter a particular room. Even more specifically, entering a secure room may only be possible when your email address occurs on a specific list, for instance of members of an association, department, board or council.
For disclosing such personal information about yourself, PubHubs uses a separate app, called Yivi. Yivi is privacy-friendly and based on attributes: properties about you, such as name, address, phone number, date of birth, etc. Each Hub determines the attributes that are required for access to its rooms, in line with its own norms, traditions and responsibilities.
The PubHubs software is open source, but access to the network is managed: organizations need to register and pay a subscription fee to operate under the PubHubs login umbrella.
The current geopolitical landscape has made digital autonomy a matter of urgency. Dutch society depends heavily on American digital platforms and infrastructure, from social media and collaboration tools to cloud services and undersea data cables. These dependencies are becoming less reliable: transatlantic cables are vulnerable to sabotage, and access to American-run services can be withheld for political reasons. PubHubs’ central login runs entirely on Dutch infrastructure, and organizations host their own hubs locally. When international connections are disrupted, this architecture keeps communication within and between hubs working within the Netherlands.
PubHubs serves three purposes:
- A social network that brings out the better in people, where organizations can offer their community a trusted hub environment.
- A robust communication network where the central login runs on Dutch soil and hubs are hosted locally, so that communication keeps working when international connections are disrupted.
- An alternative to American commercial collaboration platforms like Slack, with data under European control.
PubHubs started at Radboud University in Nijmegen, within the research group of Prof. Jacobs. It is now preparing for an independent existence outside the university, via a steward-ownership structure that protects against hostile takeovers. Interested organizations can already start setting up their own Hub.
Interested to learn more or join? Contact us at contact@pubhubs.net.