As Australia starts to ease restrictions and some businesses are opening up again while many continue to operate online we thought it might be a good time to look at what Free and Open Source Software is available for running a small business or personal productivity. Luckily for us there is the all-in-one solution that is Sandstorm.

Sandstorm describes itself as a self-hostable web productivity suite.It is an easy to install and maintain server-side platform that provides seamless access to dozens of productivity and office applications. Sandstorm provides a secure platform and takes care of authentication, authorization, installation and space management so you can start being productive from the moment you get it set up. It does require you to have existing hosting or to run it locally using something like Docker, but it allows for simple authentication and installation of many applications once it's setup.

There is also a rich ecosystem of applications supported which we'll talk about including EtherPad for collaborative editing, Draw.io for graphics, HackerSlides for presentations, Wekan for project tracking, FileDrop for secure file sharing and Collections for tying it all together... and that's just scratching the surface of applications and alternatives available!

We’ll be meeting virtually via Big Blue Button (an open source video conferencing system we'll probably cover in the near future) at 6:30pm on Thursday the 18th of June. We'll update you with the URL as soon as we can.

Details:
Thursday 18th June, 6:30-8:00pm
BBB Room: To Be Announced
Meeting Tips: Mute your mic when joining or not talking and headsets are recommended to reduce feedback.