Technology
with purpose.
Nód Glas began with a simple question: do we really need all of the complexity we have built around the simplest things we do online?
A changing world needs simpler technology.
The idea behind Nód Glas comes from looking at the world around us and asking how technology can respond to some very real problems.
The cost of living continues to place pressure on households, while energy and fuel costs make the resources required to power our increasingly digital lives more relevant than ever. At the same time, climate change and environmental pressures are forcing us to reconsider how we consume resources.
Technology is enormously useful, but useful does not have to mean complicated. A community discussion, a notice board, a forum or a simple exchange of information does not necessarily require a huge software stack, dozens of plugins, advertising systems, trackers and layers of unnecessary functionality.
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
LESS SOFTWARE.
LESS DATA.
LESS PROCESSING.
LESS ENERGY.
MORE CONTROL.
What if we brought back the bulletin board?
Long before modern social-media platforms, communities were already communicating online. Bulletin Board Systems provided discussion forums, messaging, file sharing and information exchange using remarkably simple technology.
The technology has changed enormously since those early systems, but the underlying idea remains surprisingly relevant: people need places to communicate, not necessarily complicated platforms built around them.
Nód Glas explores what happens when we take that philosophy and combine it with modern programming, networking and web technologies.
MODERN HARDWARE.
OLD-SCHOOL SIMPLICITY.
A community node does not need to become another giant platform. It can remain focused on the task it was designed to perform.
Strip away the unnecessary.
Modern websites and applications can contain enormous amounts of functionality that have little to do with the core purpose of the service.
Multiple third-party services, advertising systems, analytics, trackers, plugins, extensions, background processes and constantly changing dependencies can turn a simple information exchange into a surprisingly complicated technical environment.
Nód Glas takes the opposite approach.
Purpose First
Build the technology around the actual problem rather than adding functionality simply because it is available.
Minimal Footprint
Keep the application lightweight, reducing unnecessary software, storage requirements and processing overhead.
User Control
Explore systems where communities can retain greater control over their infrastructure, information and digital spaces.
Using IT skills to build something useful.
Nód Glas is also an opportunity to put practical IT skills into something with a purpose beyond simply demonstrating that the technology works.
Networking, systems administration, web development, cybersecurity, Linux, Python, databases, hosting and infrastructure all become pieces of the same experiment.
Rather than treating technology as an end in itself, Nód Glas treats technology as a tool for solving problems.
LEARN → BUILD → TEST → IMPROVE
PYTHON
FLASK
SQLITE
NETWORKING
WEB TECHNOLOGY
SELF-HOSTED INFRASTRUCTURE
Small nodes can become part of something bigger.
Nód Glas is not about rejecting modern technology. It is about questioning whether every problem requires the same large, centralised and resource-intensive solution.
A future network could potentially consist of many small, purpose-built nodes operated by individuals, communities, schools, organisations or local groups.
Each node could provide a useful service while remaining relatively simple to understand, maintain and operate. Together, those nodes could form a more distributed and resilient digital environment.
The ambition is not to make technology bigger. The ambition is to make it more useful.
Technology should serve people.
Nód Glas is an exploration of what happens when we combine practical IT skills with sustainability, digital sovereignty, community resilience and a willingness to question the status quo.
Sometimes progress means building something completely new. Sometimes it means remembering that the old way was already pretty damn good.