Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: On-line community Calendar: please send info re: the one you use.

[Sharon Villines (sharon]

> On Oct 2, 2026, at 10:57 AM, Sean Davey via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
> cohousing.org> wrote:

> I'm a believer in open source software and in people sharing their talents. 
> I've certainly benefited from the generosity of many others. And the 
> communities have been a great source of suggestions and requests for new 
> features so it's kind of a collaboration. — Communities can export their data 
> at any time from Mosaic and I also have an option to setup a site for a 
> community where they use and pay for their own hosting (around $20/month at 
> OpalStack).

To add to Sean’s description, the software used is all open source and the 
source code is available to anyone on GitLab. Anyone doing programing of any 
kind should know or be familiar with PostgreSQL which is the database he uses. 
This means that while Sean is the only identified master of the software, it is 
built by professional standards and a knowlegable programmer would be able to 
understand it. It isn’t written in a Star Trek language of his own invention or 
a program that is now ancient.

AI description using Perplexity:

> Mosaic is written in Java, uses PostgreSQL for its database, and runs in a 
> Java web-application server such as Apache Tomcat, according to his project 
> documentation on gitlab. Mosaic itself provides community websites with 
> member directories, calendars, common-meal scheduling, email lists, 
> documents, surveys, and accounting. Its official website says the software is 
> free, with either free hosting or the option to download the code and host it 
> yourself.

That Perplexity can find it and put together such a clear and correct 
description fills me with wonder. It feels like third-party validation. If Sean 
should be run over by a truck while driving on the wrong side of the road in 
London, a core of people from 60 communities will all be looking for support, 
so it should be easy to find. And the program will run with no help from Sean 
as long as long as there are no software updates that need to be adjusted for. 
He has a day job and a family so it doesn’t require constant attention. And it 
has been running for years on top quality servers.

If you want to take a look there is a sandbox version on the website and Sean 
will set up a version for your community to experiment with.

https://mosaicsoftware.org/

Demo:
https://mosaicsoftware.org/demo

Sharon
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Sharon Villines
Riderwood Village, Silver Spring MD
Founding member and 25 year resident in Takoma Village, Washington DC