Federated Community Events

Project Description

Local community organizers are increasingly looking for alternatives to centralized event platforms like Meetup.com due to rising costs and platform limitations. While some communities have moved to standalone WordPress solutions with events plugins, they miss out on the network effects and discovery features that make centralized platforms valuable.

This project aims to create a comprehensive, ready-to-use solution that combines existing federated event technologies with an improved user experience. Building upon the existing WordPress ActivityPub event bridge, we’ll create a “Community Event Starter Kit” that makes it easy for community organizers to host and share their events in the Fediverse while maintaining full control over their platform.

Key features will focus on discoverability and community engagement, including “events near you” functionality, cross-community discovery, and seamless federation through ActivityPub. By leveraging and enhancing existing open-source solutions, we’ll create a practical alternative to commercial event platforms that prioritizes community needs and interoperability.

Target Audience

• Community organizers and meetup hosts
• Local tech communities and user groups
• Event platforms seeking federation capabilities
• WordPress site operators

Hackathon Goals

The project scope is flexible and will be refined based on team composition and expertise. Potential deliverables may include:

• Streamlined installation and setup process for existing federation tools
• Enhanced event discovery features
• Implementation of geographic-based event recommendations
• User interface improvements for event management
• Documentation and migration guides
• Community engagement features

Teams can focus on improving specific components of existing solutions or develop new features that enhance the platform’s usability.