42 Free and Open Source Projects Receive Funding to Reclaim the Public Nature of the Internet

It is wonderful to see the growing number of people working on digital commons, inventing and improving technologies to the benefit of all humanity. 42 of such projects have been selected for funding in the October call of the NGI Zero Commons Fund. In terms of applications, it was the largest call round in NGI Zero's life time. And we'd like to take this space to thank all applicants for their contributions to an internet for people rather than for profit.

The selected projects all contribute, one way or another, to the mission of the Commons Fund: reclaiming the public nature of the internet. For example, there are people working on MNT Reform Touch (an open hardware tablet device) and the Solar FemtoTX motherboard — a collaborative effort to create an ultra-low power motherboard that can run on solar power. The Open Terms Archive offers public tracking of the evolution of terms and conditions to facilitate democratic oversight. LLM2FPGA aims to enable running open source LLMs locally on FPGAs using a fully open-source toolchain. bcachefs readies itself as the next generation filesystem for Linux, improving performance, scalability and reliability when compared to legacy filesystems and KDE Plasma Gestures will add multi-touch and stroke gestures to the Plasma Desktop. And that's just a small sample of the wide range of important contributions being worked on. Read on to meet all the projects selected in this funding round.

If you applied for a grant
This is the selection for the October call of the NGI Zero Commons Fund fund only. We always inform all applicants about the outcome of the review ahead of the public announcement, whether they are selected or not. If you have not heard anything, you probably applied to a later call or a different fund that is still under review.

How do I find out which call round I applied to?

You can see which call round you applied to by checking the application number assigned to the project when you submitted the proposal. The number starts with the year and month of the call, so 2024-10- in the case of the October 2024 call. You see that same number featured in the emails we send you (It should not happen, but if you did apply to another call and did not hear anything, do contact us)

Meet the new projects!

(you can click or tap on the project name to fold out additional information)

Trustworthy hardware and manufacturing

• FuseSoc-compatible Web Catalog — A catalog of gateware that can be easily used with FuseSoC

  FuseSoC is a package manager for chip designs, allowing for easy reuse and sharing of IP cores as well as combining them into larger systems. Its native core description format (CAPI2) allows describing IP cores in a tool- and vendor-independent way. Together with FuseSoC's backend library Edalize this enables creating and using portable IP cores and SoCs for a large number of EDA tools and flows.

  This project will extend FuseSoC with a collaborative database and a web frontend that allows users to upload their core description files to a central repository to make it easier for others to find and inspect them. In addition, signing, SBOM generation and a web frontend will be added to increase transparency, trust and security.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/FuseSoC-catalog

• MNT Reform Touch — Open Hardware tablet device

  The project summary for this project is not yet available. Please come back soon!

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/MNT-Reform-Touch

• Solar FemtoTX motherboard with 802.3 cg Ethernet cards — Low-power motherboard that can run on solar power

  Solar FemtoTX motherboard with 802.3 cg Ethernet cards is an open, collaborative effort towards designing an ultra-low power motherboard in a mobile device-sized form factor. It aims to achieve several goals: 1) to design a plug and play (PnP) motherboard that can be seamlessly integrated into an open-source hardware laptop for easy repair/replacement/upgrade. 2) to utilize the new, 802.3cg ethernet standard for a low-power LAN port, and 3) to integrate the 802.3 cg ethernet port into a single board computer with a FemtoTX-sized form factor for the lowest power consumption, facilitating minimal solar energy requirements and quick recharging.

  Furthermore, the project aims to make the open-hardware framework extensible by supporting socket-based or embedded processors and peripheral devices that meet a defined size and TDP limit. This interoperability allows newer, ultra low power microprocessors to work within the FemtoTX specification, and is optimized for solar power.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Solar-FemtoTX

• Tin Snipe DAQ — Digital Aquisition module

  The Tin Snipe DAQ is a digital acquisition (DAQ) module targeting diverse professional measurement applications typically found in mid to high end hand-held Multimeters. It focuses on digital mixed signal systems while offering an upgrade over traditional Multimeters in terms of sample rate, giving usable time series data for signal integrity analysis of low speed signals. It's designed as a compact fully integrated module that comes with the necessary AFE, ADC and Signal Processor. It exposes a digital control interface over various buses (UART, I2C, USB and potentially more) to be controlled and read out via an external system processor, thus making it easy to integrate into other systems. It is targeting battery operation like traditional handheld Multimeters and will be heavily optimized for low power consumption but can also be used for bench top applications.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/TinSnipe-DAQ

• USB 3 PHY implementation on GateMate FPGAs — USB 3 PHY implementation with Cologne Chip GateMate FPGA Transceiver

  Since its introduction at the end of the previous century, USB has developed into the most widely used interface to connect all sorts of electronic devices. Recent versions of the USB standard provide serial communication at speeds of 5Gbps and higher, which require a dedicated hardware block (transceiver) inside a chip. Throughout the last decade, FPGA devices are gaining popularity in many applications and this trend will not stop. Even small and low-cost modern FPGA devices, such as GateMate FPGA from Cologne Chip AG, include transceivers capable of communication at 5Gbps. However, no Open Hardware and FOSS implementation of USB 3.x is available. This project will enable a universal and libre USB 3.2 Gen.1 x1 (5Gbps) connectivity on the GateMate FPGA.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/GateMate-USB3-PHY

Operating Systems, firmware and virtualisation

• SSH Stamp — Secure SSH-to-UART bridge for devices with a serial port

  SSH Stamp is a secure wireless-to-UART bridge implemented in Rust (no_std, no_alloc and no_unsafe whenever possible) with simplicity and robustness as its main design tenets. The firmware runs on a microcontroller running Secure SHell Protocol (RFC 4253 and related IETF standards series). This firmware can be used for multiple purposes, conveniently avoiding physical tethering and securely tunneling traffic via SSH by default: easily add telemetry to a (moving) robot, monitor and operate any (domestic) appliance remotely, conduct remote cybersecurity audits on network gear of a company, reverse engineer hardware and software for right to repair purposes, just to name a few examples -a "low level-to-SSH Swiss army knife".

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/SSH-Stamp/

• Ada Bootstrap Compiler — Full source bootstrap for Ada

  Ada is an important computer language with a long history, with the compilers being built for new architectures in an ad-hoc basis based on previously existing Ada compilers from other architectures. This project aims to create a bootstrap path from the C language to an Ada compiler without relying on an existing Ada compiler binary. This will allow us to have a fully auditable trail from C to a working Ada compiler, removing concerns about hidden backdoors or other issues that may arise from using a compiler without a clear bootstrap path.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Ada-bootstrap

• Bcachefs userspace integration — Next generation filesystem

  bcachefs is a next generation filesystem for Linux, with a fully modern featureset and vastly improved performance, scalability and reliability as compared to legacy filesystems. The main focus of this grant is achieving stability, but on the side there will be work on userspace integration with systemd, reworking the cryptographic API to be more robust, as well as adding the potential for users to generate telemetry data - in order to capture edge cases in the real-world.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/bcachefs-crypto-API

• KDE Plasma Gestures — Advanced customisable gesture input on desktop and mobile

  Plasma Desktop, made by the KDE community, is a powerful free and open source platform that competes with proprietary operating systems. This project will introduce new functionality for multi-touch and stroke gestures. Multi-touch gestures allow a user to easily switch between virtual desktops, or to open Plasma's Overview mode. They will become customizable, with a wide selection of available desktop actions. Stroke gestures allow drawing shapes to trigger actions, launch apps, and more. They will be introduced into Plasma's core desktop experience, complete with a configuration page in System Settings. Together, these features will make Plasma Desktop even more productive and intuitive to use.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/KDEPlasma-gestures

• LeanFTL — Flash Translation Layer library for embeddedsystems

  LeanFTL is a "Flash Translation Layer" library targeting embedded systems. An FTL library is needed on all embedded systems to deal with the constraints inherent to flash memories and to be able to resume operations safely after an unexpected loss of power (AKA "tearing events"). LeanFTL aims at being a minimal library easily portable to any MCU and able to manage both internal and external flash memories. LeanFTL goal is to avoid fragmentation by design, this means that fragmentation never occurs no matter the usage pattern. Another important feature is the emulator which allows running LeanFTL on a personal computer, allowing the integrator to provide such an emulator for its firmware. Last but not least, the emulator is able to simulate "tearing events" - this is key to ensure robustness and security of an embedded system. In other words, LeanFTL not only provide the Flash Translation Layer, it also provides a tool for validating it is correctly used, something which is typically lacking even in commercial libraries.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/LeanFTL

• Maemo Leste Daedalus — Improve device coverage and advanced security for mobile Linux distro

  Maemo Leste is a Free and Open Source mobile operating system based on GNU/Linux. The goal of the initiative is to provide a secure and modern mobile operating system that consists only of free software, obeys and respects the users' privacy and digital rights. Maemo Leste is currently focussing on upgrading and modernising it's core to the latest Debian and Devuan versions, improving the stability and security of the system as well as widening the array of supported devices.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/MaemoLeste-AppArmour

• Reproducible Builds in the Scala ecosystem — Deterministic builds for software written in Scala

  While open source components can be audited through their open version history, there is no guarantee that any binaries that are distributed actually correspond to those sources. The technique to validate this is known as "Reproducible Builds": by building the same code on independent infrastructure and verifying the results are identical, you can verify the binary artifacts have not been tampered with. This is useful both for project members who want to verify no malware was inserted via their CI system or developer build machine, and for 'external' auditors who can independently verify the project as a whole is not compromised.

  This project intends to improve Reproducible Builds for software written in the Scala language, which typically use the 'sbt' build tool. It will do so by making improvements to the sbt-reproducible-builds sbt plugin and other toolchain components such as sbt plugins and the Scala compiler, so that projects will be reproducible 'out of the box' as much as possible.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/ReproducibleSBT

Measurement, monitoring, analysis and abuse handling

• Alaveteli GDPR and Search — Better search and redacting capabilities for Alaveteli FOI request portal

  Alaveteli is an open source platform deployed in 20+ countries that helps citizens make Freedom of Information requests and publishes them and the responses online. Access to Information laws are powerful tools by which citizens, journalists, and civil society organisations can obtain information to scrutinise government. Such legislation is an important prerequisite for accountability and bottom up participation, making it one of the cornerstones of a healthy democracy.

  Alaveteli’s architecture was designed long before the introduction of GDPR. This makes it challenging to balance public access to information with protection of citizens' individual data rights. The project aims to redesign and replace Alaveteli’s antiquated search architecture and technology and implement key missing functionality to effectively locate and, when appropriate, remove personally identifiable information to ensure GDPR compliance.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Wiktionary-QA

• Wiktionary QA tools — QA tools to improve the quality, reliability, and consistency of Wiktionary

  Part of the Wikimedia commons, Wiktionary.org offers a global open data set pertaining to many languages. However, this data is contributed and crowdsourced in different formats, leading to conflicting information which creates inconsistencies across languages and makes Wiktionary less reliable than it could be.

  This project will develop QA modules for Wiktionary, leading to easy parsing and processing of cross-linguistic data. This helps to unify data formats across Wiktionary, and improve the overall reliability of this invaluable resource.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Wiktionary-QA/

• Clearance — Curating changes to OpenStreetMap data of interest

  The project summary for this project is not yet available. Please come back soon!

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Clearance

• Open Terms Archive vendor lock-in break — Public tracking of the evolution of terms and conditions

  Open Terms Archive is a digital public good that archives every version of the terms of over 800 digital services to support democratic oversight by regulators, lawmakers, journalists, researchers, and civil society. Open Terms Archive has prioritized adoption in multiple industries and jurisdictions over the past four years, by enabling easy connection from its fully open-source engine to free but proprietary platforms. The "Open Terms Archive vendor lock-in break" project aims at replacing the hardcoded interconnections with proprietary software with standardized APIs and connectors for at least one open-source platform for issue reporting, email notifications, dataset distribution, and RSS feeds publishing, while keeping compatibility with existing integrations that are used by community members.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Modular-OTA

Middleware and identity

• Accessible KDE File Management — Accessible file dialogs throughout KDE applications

  This project aims to make a core part of computing with KDE software, namely file management, fully accessible. Many applications and frameworks by KDE are used in high-profile institutions and the public sector. Even though a main point of focus of this project is the improvement of accessibility in KDE's default file manager Dolphin, most of the work benefits framework code which is used in many of the most popular applications in the FLOSS ecosystem. As such, this project will empower people with disabilities around the world to perform more computer-driven tasks efficiently.

  The accessibility improvements to "Open/Save" dialogs, the keyboard shortcut editor, and various other panels and dialogs will simplify integration of people with handicaps in various social and work contexts including public institutions and private companies, which in turn will allow more of them to base their digital infrastructure on open standards and digital commons in line with EU's value "to be free from discrimination on the basis of […] disability".

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/KDE-Dolphin-a11y

Decentralised solutions, including blockchain/distributed ledger

• Redwax Server Modernisation — Self-hostable X509 certificate based identity management solution

  The Redwax Project is a set of tools and web server modules to make it easy to build and deploy secure services on the web. The Redwax modular certificate authority mod_ca provides a set of Apache http server modules that can be combined to form various types of certificate authorities, issuing certificates from a Certificate Sign Request, or with the SPKAC and SCEP protocols, servicing certificate revocation with CRLs and OCSP, and creating timestamps.

  The Redwax tool provides a mechanism to read certificates and keys from a wide variety of sources, automatically associating leaf, intermediate, and trusted certificates, and optionally their private keys, then showing the metadata of or writing the certificates in a wide variety of target formats. This project will update the key modules, adjust to the current Apache API's and also fully implement the meanwhile published RFC 8894.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Redwax-SCEP-LDAP

• Securing Internet protocols with decentralized identity — DIDs and Verified Credentials as SASL method

  There has been much innovation in the last few years in the area of decentralized digital identity, including the development of standards such as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs). These technologies have led to large-scale initiatives around the world to develop digital identity wallets, including for example the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI). These initiatives aim at making it possible to obtain and use digital versions of identity documents such as drivers' licenses, birth certificates, university diplomas, and more.

  The potential of these technologies however is much greater than just logging in to websites. In this project, we work on integrating decentralized digital identity technologies into widely used Internet protocols themselves, such as XMPP for instant messaging. In this case, a combination of identity and messaging means that you can authenticate to a messaging service using a digital identity wallet, rather than username and password. We accomplish this by specifying and building a DID-based extension for the Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL).

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/DID-SASL

Data and AI

• Data Package implementation in TypeScript — Reference implementation of data definition language and data API

  Data Package is a standard consisting of a set of simple yet extensible specifications to describe datasets, data files and tabular data. It is a data definition language (DDL) and data API that facilitates findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) of data. TypeScript implementation of the Data Package standard provides all the necessary functionality for working with data packages in Node.js or similar environments — including validating and extending metadata, and reading or writing data in various formats such as CSV, TSV, JSON, and OpenDocument Format (ISO/IEC 26300) as used by e.g. Excel and LibreOffice.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/DataPackage-TS

• Livebook — Robust and distributed data and ML workflows with Python, Elixir, and Livebook

  Livebook is an open-source interactive notebook application for the Elixir programming language and the Erlang VM ecosystem. It enables users to write, execute, and document code in real-time within a browser interface, making it ideal for exploratory programming, data analysis, teaching, and documentation. Livebook features built-in markdown support, real-time collaboration, custom visualizations, "smart cells" to automate common workflows, as well as built-in concurrent and distributed execution. The project supports the Elixir and Erlang languages and is integrating additional ones.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Livebook-Python

• LLM2FPGA — Run Open Source LLMs locally on FPGAs

  LLM2FPGA aims to enable local inference of open-source Large Language Models (LLMs) on FPGAs using a fully open-source toolchain. While LLM inference has been demonstrated on proprietary hardware and software, we are not aware of any widely recognized project running open-source LLMs on FPGAs through a fully open-source EDA (Electronics Design Automation) flow. To fill this gap, the project will produce an HDL implementation of a lightweight open-source LLM, verify it via simulation, and then attempt synthesis and place-and-route on freely supported FPGA devices. By providing a fully open alternative to proprietary and cloud-based LLM inference, LLM2FPGA will offer a transparent, flexible, and privacy-friendly way to run your own LLM on local hardware.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/LLM2FPGA

• PodOS — Personal Online Data Operating System aimed at exploring W3C Solid pods

  PodOS is an operating system for data on Solid Pods, designed to bridge the gap between specialized apps and raw data management. It is built from the ground up for mobile-first UX, accessibility and maintainability, on top of re-usable custom elements. In the upcoming phase, PodOS will introduce new ways for users to structure, link, and repurpose their data, allowing them to organize information beyond the constraints of individual applications. Users will be able to extract information from classic documents or notes and transform them into structured resources that could be used with other Solid Apps. New developments will emphasise modularity and interoperability by integrating existing data modules, dynamically loaded dashboards and seamless transitions between PodOS and specialized apps. These advancements will give individuals and organizations greater flexibility and control over their data, making the Solid ecosystem more practical, interactive, and user-friendly.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/PodOS

Services + Applications (e.g. email, instant messaging, video chat, collaboration)

• Mobile Typst editor — Mobile editor/viewer for Typst documents

  Typst is a new markup-based typesetting system that is designed to be as powerful as LaTeX while being much easier to learn and use. The Typst for iOS project focuses on creating a smooth Typst document editing experience akin to Swift Playground's editing experience. Additionally it allows the compilation, presenting and sharing of pdf files all from an iPhone or iPad.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Mobile-Typst-editor/X

• Dino — User-friendly and secure instant messaging based on XMPP

  Dino is an open-source messaging application. It uses XMPP as an underlying protocol, which allows federated, provider-independent communication and offers a world-wide network of interconnected servers. Dino aims to be secure and privacy-friendly while at the same time offering a good user experience and a modern feature set.

  This project is about adding various additional usability and privacy features such as Message moderation in groupchats (XEP-0425), message deletion (XEP-0424) and local message deletion, improved password handling and connection establishment via SASL2 (XEP-0388), Bind2 (XEP-0386), FAST (XEP-484) and storing secrets in the system keyring, improved file transfers including sending multiple images in the same message via Stateless File Sharing (XEP-0447), improving the UX in MUCs by using more efficient protocols like MUC Affiliation Versioning (XEP-0463) and by making further use of occupant IDs (XEP-0421) in the context of message correction and message deletion. It will also extending support of message formatting via Message Markup (XEP-0394).

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Dino-UX

• Podlibre — Dedicated, customizable podcast editor

  Podlibre is an all-in-one, customizable podcast editor designed to empower podcasters with a tool they can rely on daily. In the past decade, the popularity of podcasts has exploded - but so far there was no good podcast-specific workflow for creators to handle the process. Obviously one can use generic sound editors, but these are typically geared toward music production and lack features that make it easy for podcasters and journalists to produce consistent podcast content. With a customizable workflow and plugin architecture, Podlibre allows users to tailor their experience while integrating with third-party services. It provides all essential features in one place, including noise reduction, mouth noise editing, multi-channel audio editing, music insertion, local transcription with manual correction, chapter editing, metadata editing (ID3, RSS), local publishing, and publishing to hosting platforms (Castopod, Funkwale, Faircamp).

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Podlibre

• Signature PDF — PDF editing and server-based digital signing workflow

  Signature PDF allows users to sign PDFs online, individually or with others. The project offers as well the possibilities to reorganize pages (merge, sort, rotate, delete, extract pages, etc.), edit metadata, and compress PDFs. This tool aims to be a free alternative to existing proprietary web services, offering users more control and guarantee of what happens to the PDF processed by the software.

  Signature PDF is easily deployable on a server of any size, a laptop, a container image or a Yunohost instance. Scope of the project is to implement verification of signed PDFs, integration into third-party software, improve smartphone ergonomy and accessibility, and other improvementes to meet the requests/needs identified by users.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/SignaturePDF-UX

• Flock XR — 3D visual creativity and coding tool

  Flock XR is a visual creativity and coding tool that allows young people to create 3D experiences in a web browser. Flock XR allows young people and beginners to create apps relevant to the virtual worlds that they use socially. Through creating with Flock XR, young people develop technical and creative skills such as coding and working in 3D space with 3D models and animations. They will be able to create using extended reality features including VR, Augmented Reality, 3D printing and spatial audio. This puts them on the path to amazing career opportunities across many industries. Flock XR is being developed with an inclusion first approach using co-design techniques with young people in our pilots. After a successful schools pilot we are focussing on improving user experience, stability and access for all.

  Flock XR builds on established open source tools, Blockly and Babylon.js to bring modern 3D creation to young people on the devices they already use. We’re designing Flock XR for users who may have older hardware and limited data access. And we take young people’s rights, safety and data privacy very seriously. We’re extending young people’s reality with Flock XR and giving them the skills to create the virtual worlds that humanity needs.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/FlockXR

• ClassQuiz — Libre quizing tool

  ClassQuiz is a quiz application designed for, but not limited to, classrooms. It allows anyone to create live quizzes to engage the audience in a fun way, where each player also competes against the others by answering questions as fast as possible to score high. By providing a simple setup for self-hosting, it also allows many educators to host quizzes without any privacy concerns. ClassQuiz was born as an alternative to Kahoot! because educational software for students should be built with privacy in mind.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/ClassQuiz

• Federating pedagogical immersive experiences — Framework for playful learning content in enhanced reality

  Emerging technologies like augmented and virtual reality (XR) provide incredible avenues to teach and learn. Unfortunately, nearly all content and ways to create it remain centralized through large captive platforms. Such platforms lock users and their creations to their closed source environment and filtering mechanisms. This process risk reflecting assumptions on how teaching can be done. The project "Federating pedagogical immersive experiences" proposes a self-hostable platform to remix simple pedagogical XR games. Learners themselves can then, together with parents and teachers, freely share back pedagogically, culturally and linguistically adapted content - curated by their own instance and benefiting from immersive technologies without being locked to a platform.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/ImmersiveXP

• Kaidan MUC + legacy OMEMO — Multi-user chat and improved legacy interoperability for Kaidan XMPP client

  Kaidan is a user-friendly and modern chat app for every device. It uses the open communication protocol XMPP (Jabber). Unlike other chat apps, you are not dependent on one specific service provider. Instead, you can choose between various servers and clients. Kaidan is one of those XMPP clients.

  It is easy to get started and switch devices with Kaidan. Additionally, it adapts to your operating system and device's dimensions. It runs on mobile and desktop systems including Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, Plasma Mobile and Ubuntu Touch. The user interface makes use of Kirigami and Qt Quick. The backend of Kaidan is entirely written in C++ using Qt and the Qt-based XMPP library QXmpp.

  This project will make improvements to Kaidan across the board, ranging from multi-user chat, backups, bookmarks, support for legacy OMEMO encryption, SASL improvements, message retraction and more media sharing functionality.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Kaidan-MUC

• LiberaForms — Self-hostable E2EE libre form server

  LiberaForms is an online form tool to easily create and manage forms. It can be used by neighbours, friends, colleagues and anyone else who values privacy. The server can be self-hosted and form answers can be end-to-end OpenPGP encrypted. LiberaForms comes with a comprehensible list of features for both form authors and site administrators alike, such as integrated GDPR policies. This grant will be used to make a number of usability improvements, to make LiberaForms a relevant tool for educational use cases, and add many new features requested by the people who already use it.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/LiberaForms-Edu

• Modernizing Paged.js Web-to-Print — Quality typesetting based on HTML and CSS

  Paged.js is a free and open source JavaScript library that paginates content in the browser to create print/PDF output from HTML and CSS content. This is necessary for instance for delivering browser-native office productivity solutions - users expect these to produce good output but don't want to have the burden of legacy formats. The proposed project will fundamentally revisit/upgrade the architecture of paged.js. to support additional layouts, add advanced layout capabilities and implement PDF/UA tagging.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/PagedJS

• Peertube plugin livechat — Public and private messaging for Peertube content + live streams

  Peertube is a free, decentralized and sovereign alternative to video-on-demand and live-streaming platforms. The Peertube Livechat project is a popular plugin for PeerTube that adds chatting capabilities to Peertube, so the audience can interact with streamers during their live streams. The functionality goes way beyond a mere chat system: it also provides moderation tools, polls, chat integration in the live stream, TODO-list for streamers and moderation team, and more. Its ambition is to become a complete ecosystem for live streaming.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/PeerTube-Livechat-UX

• PeerTube for Institutions — Make PeerTube easier to manage and moderate at scale

  PeerTube is a free-libre and federated video platforms that empowers anyone to self host video content without being isolated in the wide web. Many institutions have started using PeerTube, to reclaim control over their video hosting. By choosing PeerTube, they offer a wider audience the opportunity to familiarize themselves with PeerTube.

  A significant part of this project focuses on enabling these institutional use cases, and is designed from their feedback. We plan to add ownership transfer and shared administration for video channels, quality of life features for moderation and administration, more control on an instance look and experience and a set-up wizard with relevant presets (and more). We also want to adapt the mobile app to tablet and TV devices, and add a watch offline option.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/PeerTube-for-Institutions/

• Repath Studio — SVG editor written in Clojurescript

  Repath Studio is a cross platform vector graphics editor, that combines procedural tooling with traditional design workflows. It includes an interactive shell, which allows evaluating code to generate shapes, or even extend the editor on the fly. Supporting multiple programming languages and enriching the existing API is planned. The tool relies heavily on the SVG specification, and aims to educate users about it. Creating and editing SMIL animations - an SVG extension – is an important aspect of the project, that is yet to be fully implemented. An advanced undo/redo mechanism is used to maintain a full history tree of actions in memory, so users will never lose their redo stack. We are exploring ways to persist this history to disk. Some built-in accessibility testing tools are already included, but we want to add more. Extensibility is also something that we want to enhance, in order to allow creating and sharing custom tools and workflows. Integrations with third party tools will also be investigated.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/RepathStudio

• StreetComplete Multiplatform — OpenStreetMap editing beyond Android

  The goal of this project is to migrate StreetComplete from an Android app to a multiplatform app, making use of Kotlin Multiplatform and Compose Multiplatform for the UI, thus, allowing the app to be released on other platforms, such as iOS and eventually Linux.

  This will allow for a significantly larger audience that is able to casually contribute missing data to OpenStreetMap on the go, as StreetComplete is the go-to app for this purpose, aimed at non-tech-savvy people and presented in a slightly gamified fashion. OpenStreetMap, in turn, is the free wiki worldmap.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/StreetComplete-multiplatform

Vertical use cases, Search, Community

• An OpenScience flavour of Bonfire on NixOS for preprints — Discuss preprints based on W3C ActivityPub federation

  Preprints have revolutionised scholarly publishing, offering a rapid and open way to share research findings, establishing priority, receiving early feedback, and accelerating scientific discovery. Online discussions around preprints regularly take place on social media, but there still exists a gap in encouraging fluid discourse around science and making it a recognised academic activity.

  This project aims to address the gap by facilitating and integrating these conversations into the scholarly framework using FOSS tooling. Outcomes include; establishing a Bonfire network tailored for preprints, with reproducible deployment made possible via NixOS, bringing existing communities into the Fediverse, amplifying contributions using existing scholarly infrastructure, exploring new models of peer evaluation, and supporting recognition of this crucial scholarly activity.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Sciety-ActivityPub

• cables.gl editor features — Create beautiful, interactive, visual web content

  Cables is a tool which allows people to create beautiful, interactive, visual web content without knowing how to type a line of code. Your work is easily exportable at any time, so you can embed it into your website, use it an immersive VR experience, or integrate into other kinds of creative output. Cables patches can be published, shared, copied and remixed by the entire community. This allows people to constantly learn new things from each other. There is both a browser based version and a standalone, offline version offering a user-friendly development environment.

  This new grant adds an improved keyframing- and animation user interface (timeline) that makes cables.gl much more accessible for animators and motion designers. The team will also add a physics engine, Gaussian Splatting (a new method of rendering realistic 3d scenes), dynamic operator instancing/repeating, a stepping debugger and a comprehensive shadergraph system that allows to create complex shaders by combining small modules.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/cables.gl-editorfeatures

• MOTIS — European Public Transport Door to Door Real-Time Routing with MOTIS

  This project aims to enhance MOTIS, an open-source, scalable, intermodal real-time routing system that powers the provider-neutral public transport routing service transitous.org. This grant will add support for the relevant European Transmodel data standards NeTEx, SIRI-ET, SIRI-SX, and OJP. Hereby, we will enable open and privacy friendly borderless routing across Europe from door to door using data published by European National Access Points (NAP) in compliance with EU regulation 2017/1926. Its results will be deployed via transitous.org and integrated into applications such as KDE Itinerary, KTrip, and Gnome Maps, fostering a fully open alternative to proprietary solutions.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/MOTIS

• Open Terms Archive vendor lock-in break — Public tracking of the evolution of terms and conditions

  Open Terms Archive is a digital public good that archives every version of the terms of over 800 digital services to support democratic oversight by regulators, lawmakers, journalists, researchers, and civil society. Open Terms Archive has prioritized adoption in multiple industries and jurisdictions over the past four years, by enabling easy connection from its fully open-source engine to free but proprietary platforms. The "Open Terms Archive vendor lock-in break" project aims at replacing the hardcoded interconnections with proprietary software with standardized APIs and connectors for at least one open-source platform for issue reporting, email notifications, dataset distribution, and RSS feeds publishing, while keeping compatibility with existing integrations that are used by community members.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/Modular-OTA

• PodOS — Personal Online Data Operating System aimed at exploring W3C Solid pods

  PodOS is an operating system for data on Solid Pods, designed to bridge the gap between specialized apps and raw data management. It is built from the ground up for mobile-first UX, accessibility and maintainability, on top of re-usable custom elements. In the upcoming phase, PodOS will introduce new ways for users to structure, link, and repurpose their data, allowing them to organize information beyond the constraints of individual applications. Users will be able to extract information from classic documents or notes and transform them into structured resources that could be used with other Solid Apps. New developments will emphasise modularity and interoperability by integrating existing data modules, dynamically loaded dashboards and seamless transitions between PodOS and specialized apps. These advancements will give individuals and organizations greater flexibility and control over their data, making the Solid ecosystem more practical, interactive, and user-friendly.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/PodOS

• Pushing forward for CSS Print — High end print from HTML and CSS

  The Web is one of the largest common resources, accessible to everyone across the globe, based on standards maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Certain CSS modules have been developed specifically for paginated design and publication: the fragmentation model, which divides content into pages, columns, or regions, and includes features such as controlling flow breakpoints (page breaks, column breaks, etc.). Additionally, three W3C CSS modules focus on formatting for "paginated media", defining how pages are structured and providing essential functionality for printed page layouts, including margin sizes, page numbering, running headers, footnotes, templates, and element positioning on the page. However, these modules remain in the Working Draft phase, and currently no web browser has fully implemented them.

  In response to this limited browser support, several open-source initiatives (such as WeasyPrint and Paged.js) have emerged over the past 15 years, each with a unique approach to addressing these challenges. The user community continues to grow, new layout requirements have arisen, revealing that the current specifications are insufficient to meet the demands of modern paginated layout. As developers, maintainers and users of these open-source solutions, our goal is to address these gaps by collaborating on the development of new specifications in a structured and collective manner, demonstrating the feasibility of these new specifications by implementing them in various tools and engaging in advocacy with the CSS Working Group (CSSWG) to promote the adoption of these new specification proposals.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/CSS-Print

• XR Fragments Teamware — Design, deploy, federate and integrate portable XR experiences

  XR Teamware will develop a publishing platform/forge for XR content, and a Blender plugin with direct import export capabilities to said forge and to Icosa gallery. This would allow 3D creators to easily publish and share their ideas, and preview metadata in Blender before exporting.

  XR Fragments itself is a simple public protocol for networked 3D content to discover, reference, navigate and query 3D online assets (read-only), making it part of the web and thus liberating 3D content creation and content from only existing inside gated products. Within the scope of this project, XR Fragments will streamline the design, deployment, hosting, and integration of portable XR experiences - and thus further simplify embedding, cross-platform support and hosting, as well as add vendor specific support.

  ▸ For more details see: https://nlnet.nl/project/XR-Teamware

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Still hungry for more projects? Check out the overview of all our current and recent projects...

Inspired? If you are working on a project that contributes to the Next Generation Internet you can submit a proposal. The next deadline is June 1^st.

Acknowledgements

The NGI0 Core fund is made possible with financial support from the European Commission's Next Generation Internet programme, under the aegis of DG Communications Networks, Content and Technology.