Dat Ecosystem Groups P2P Projects Under a Shared Manifesto and Volunteer Consortium

The Dat Ecosystem describes itself as a post-web peer-to-peer community of projects. Most of those projects are self-funded, according to the group's website. Peer-to-peer, or p2p, means computers share data directly with each other instead of relying on a central server.

Some projects maintain and develop core pieces of the ecosystem. Others build high-level applications on top of p2p protocols. The group is organized around people interested in things like the hypercore protocol, which it describes as a secure, distributed append-only log built for sharing large datasets and streams of real-time data.

The group runs on a written manifesto. Its goals include sharing knowledge about building decentralized systems, publishing work under permissive open-culture licenses, and building systems that benefit the public and empower users. Members also say dat protocols, such as hypercore or similar ones, should be the foundation of their work. They aim to promote shared goals, solve shared technical problems, invite new members and encourage adoption through documentation or standardization.

The group is governed by individuals who form what it calls the Consortium. The Consortium's tasks include enacting a code of conduct, raising and maintaining funds and assets, and using decentralized systems wherever feasible. It also says it documents its process publicly and transparently, offers the public a way to comment, and coordinates members' efforts. It communicates on discord and cabal.

Proposals are submitted as pull requests, meaning suggested changes to files in the group's repository. Each goes into a dated file in the consortium decisions folder. Proposals to change the manifesto are submitted as pull requests to the manifesto itself. The proposer must tag all consortium members and notify them in the active communication channel.

Decisions are made by votes of consortium members, and the voting period lasts two weeks. Regular items are accepted unless at least one member opposes them. Adding a member or changing the manifesto needs unanimous support. Removing a member needs unanimous support from everyone except the member in question.

If a member is tagged in a proposal and does not respond within three months, their membership becomes dormant. They then do not count when deciding proposals. Dormant members can reactivate themselves at any time, and members can leave the list whenever they like.

The listed consortium members, in alphabetical order, are Alexander Cobleigh, Alexander Praetorius, Diego Paez, Franz Heinzmann, Kevin Faaborg and Nina Breznik.

The site also lists a long set of projects, with descriptions as the projects present them. Agregore is a browser for the distributed web that supports protocols like BitTorrent and IPFS. Cabal is an experimental p2p community chat platform that needs no servers. Keet is described as sharing end-to-end encrypted data between call participants without servers. Mapeo is a free digital toolset for documenting, monitoring and mapping data, and Peermaps is presented as an offline-friendly alternative to commercial map providers.

Other listed projects include Āhau, a data platform for whānau-based communities, and Ara, which describes itself as a platform for decentralized content. The list also names datrs, a Rust implementation of the core dat protocol, and DatDot, which enables p2p sharing of storage space. Dcent Beats, DXOS, PeerShare, PeerViewer, Pears, Socket Supply, Sonar and Wizard Amigos appear as well, among others.

The site also mentions an interactive visualization of the community's projects. It uses data from dat-garden-rake and was generated with webscape wanderer.