Start with a place
Choose the town, borough, district, municipality or other civic geography that genuinely makes sense locally. Define the place before the platform.
Network field guide
Start a
Civic Commons.
You do not need permission to build one. Start with a place, its public record and the people prepared to care for it.
A network, not a franchise.
Before choosing software, decide what civic geography you are serving, what knowledge is routinely lost there, which sources already exist and who can exercise accountable local judgement.
The Charter of the Commons is the shared constitutional layer. This page is the practical one.
Build a source register
Map local journalism, community publishing, official records, notices, civic groups, campaigns, research and obvious coverage gaps. A source register is a map of the information environment, not a list of endorsements.
Ship the smallest useful Commons
Start with a provenance-rich chronological stream, stable civic item URLs, filters, an archive and clear links back to original publishers. That is already useful infrastructure.
Preserve before you socialise
Give records stable identities and durable memory before adding complex participation. Discover → preserve → connect → invite contribution.
Moderate additions
Invite corrections, evidence and local context, but keep a review membrane between suggestions and reviewed civic knowledge. Private submitter information stays private.
Connect only when it helps
People, organisations, places, issues and documents can become durable civic objects when doing so makes the public record easier to understand. Do not create entities merely because software can.
Use local identity
The Open Gate belongs to the network. Your place should have its own symbols, civic geography and visual identity beneath it. Do not copy Ealing's oak or town landmarks.
Keep a route to the network
Local domains and subdomains should remain locally canonical while retaining a visible route to civiccommons.co.uk. Local doorways should never become navigational dead ends.
Publish the rules
Document source choices, moderation, privacy, canonical URLs, archives, exports, governance and external dependencies so the public can understand how the Commons works.
Design for exit
Prefer exportable data, ordinary web URLs, RSS, accessible documents and replaceable services. Assume volunteers leave and vendors disappear.
Reference implementation
Learn from Ealing. Do not clone Ealing.
Ealing Civic Commons is the first working implementation and therefore the current reference case, not a mandatory template. Its roadmap, source register, technical architecture and development documents are public so other places can see the choices and trade-offs.
Build locally. Connect openly. Remember civically.