Infrastructure can be defined as "the stuff you don't notice until it breaks." The key property of infrastructure is that it can be easily and reliably used by anyone for their own purposes. It makes our lives easier and us more productive. It can be deployed and used by many for many purposes at about the same cost as one. The more people who use it for more purposes, the less it costs for each user.
Community can be defined as "where we meet our needs together." Community works because people have common and complementary needs. One person's needs-fulfillment activities can help fulfill the needs of others. A single resource can be used by many people for about the same cost as providing it for a single person to use—think about roads, shops, utilities, etc., in other words: Infrastructure. Fulfillment can be multiplied by collaborating or even just using the same resource. For example, carpooling saves on gas as well as reduces congestion. A coffee shop may also be a place to do some work and serendipitously meet others to work for or with as well as get coffee.
Software is basically just a set of instructions for a computer to process data. Once it is created software (including data) costs practically nothing to duplicate. Many people can use it for various purpose at the same costs as a few. The best software is transparent to users. We don't even notice good software as we use it to do a task, fulfilling some need. Also, each software user can benefit from others using it, making it easier to share information, get support, or just acquire the software. This means that software can be seen as a community asset. But, it is rarely deployed as such.
Software can be very profitable if you make it difficult for users to copy it, more so if you make users pay for each feature separately, and even more so if you charge a recurring fee to access the software. That's exactly what proprietary software is all about. Open source software, on the other hand, is a community resource that is only accessible by those with reasonably advanced technical capabilities, who may not actually have a personal need for the software. Consequently, needs that could be met with open source software generally are not.
Community software infrastructure is simply software that is easily and reliably usable by anyone for a variety of purposes.
Open source software can be deployed as online services—web, email, calendar, etc.—that multiple people can use. Of course, simply providing free software as a substitute for costly proprietary software can save money. Additional benefits come from multiple people using software. Data and skills can be directly transferred from one use to another. Shared use can save a lot of time and trouble, for example by planning and scheduling. This is true even when multiple parties use the same software independently particularly if they need help with the software. One person can often support multiple software users for not much more than it would cost to support one user.
So, what if software was deployed to meet a set of needs that is common to everyone in a community? It would enable them to fulfill those needs more effectively but also much more efficiently. Everyone would do better more economically because the cost of the software is shared among everyone. Aggregating demand allows for bulk discounts. This is even more true for open source software because it is freely available; the costs are to deploy and maintain it. As the deployment scales up, serving more users and supporting more uses, the component costs, including connectivity and hardware as well as software, drop.
That is the basic logic behind Chattanooga.Digital. We deploy software for everyone. We get everything needed for this for less, multiply the benefits, and split the costs based on utilization, which is why we refer to it as a utility.
Lastly, it is important to note that users require specialists to configure, customize, and make advanced use of software. Chattanooga.Digital facilitates that but we don't do it. We leave that to consultants and developers. We do help our members define their requirements and manage their software infrastructure to ensure consulting and development effectively meets their needs. Indeed, our objectives are to create business opportunities and reduce the costs of doing business for consultants and developers, including cultivating a local talent pool they can tap.
That's what community software infrastructure is all about! Join us to help build it for Chattanooga!