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Merri-bek Tech, a Melbourne group, is working on renewable-powered servers intended to keep some digital services available across community hubs during power and internet outages. The project is not yet operational and has not secured a host hub; it forms part of a wider push for greater control over digital infrastructure.
Merri-bek Tech, a Melbourne community group, is developing a plan for renewable-powered local servers that could keep some digital services available if power and internet connections fail. The network is not yet operational, and the group has not yet found a community hub to host the equipment, according to an ABC News report published October 12.
The project centres on a Raspberry Pi computer kept by software engineer and community organiser Jade Ambrose. He hopes devices placed in community locations could communicate with one another during an outage, giving residents access to limited digital services even if they cannot reach the wider internet. Ambrose describes the proposed hubs as places where people could find services connected to other facilities during an emergency.
Since the group formed in 2023, 20 people have signed up to host devices in their homes. Merri-bek Tech has yet to persuade libraries, neighbourhood houses or other community hubs to host equipment. The group also has not made its planned software work across multiple locations: the report says it is exploring open-source software designed to run locally and synchronise between sites.
Wireless links can technically carry small amounts of data between devices without an internet connection, the report says. But that capability does not mean the proposed network is ready to support emergency services. The group’s work remains at a development stage, with key technical and organisational pieces still unresolved.
Local Networks During Outages
The project addresses a practical vulnerability: communities depend on digital systems for information and communication, while severe weather can disrupt electricity and internet infrastructure. A locally connected system could, if built and tested, provide a limited fallback for communication between participating sites. The source report does not establish what services the network would ultimately support or how well it would perform in a real emergency.
Merri-bek Tech’s effort also illustrates the difference between digital independence as an aspiration and a dependable service. Local control may reduce reliance on large providers, but community networks need equipment, power, suitable software, maintenance and trusted hosts. Their usefulness would depend on all of those pieces working together when standard connections are unavailable.
The same debate is playing out at a larger scale. Governments and organisations are questioning reliance on foreign-owned technology providers, while individuals consider alternatives to familiar platforms. The Melbourne project is small and unfinished, but it puts that debate in concrete terms: who owns and operates the infrastructure people need when commercial or centralised services are unavailable?
Raspberry Pi for community networks
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From DIY Hosting to Digital Sovereignty
The wider movement is often called digital sovereignty: greater control over the infrastructure, hardware, software and data that underpin digital life. For individuals, this may involve self-hosting data or choosing alternatives to major platforms. For governments, it can mean building local capacity in cloud services, communications or other systems now supplied by overseas companies.
QUT postdoctoral research fellow Ashwin Nagappa told the ABC that interest has grown amid privacy concerns and geopolitical pressures, particularly as artificial intelligence becomes more prominent. He said the European Union is pursuing plans to reduce reliance on non-EU providers, although the report notes those plans have not yet been legislated and could be difficult and expensive to carry out.
The report says Australia also relies heavily on foreign-owned digital infrastructure. It refers to an ABC report from June in which federal officials raised concerns about dependence on foreign satellite internet providers, including Starlink, and questions about enforcing Australian laws. Merri-bek Tech approaches the broader issue from the community level rather than through national policy.
“where you could go to in an emergency to get some form of digital services that were in communication with other community facilities even during an outage of power and internet”
— Jade Ambrose, software engineer and Merri-bek Tech organiser
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Technical and Hosting Gaps
The network is not operational, and the report does not give a launch date, budget or deployment schedule. It is also unclear which digital services the system could provide, how many locations it would connect, or how long renewable power and local equipment could sustain them during an extended outage.
Merri-bek Tech has not secured a community hub to host a device. The group is still working on software that can run locally and synchronise between sites, and the report offers no independent testing results or evidence that the proposed arrangement has been used in an emergency. Its practical resilience therefore remains unproven.
Nagappa also identifies broader trade-offs in decentralised systems: they can be difficult to scale and may be exposed to problems caused by operators. The source does not specify how the group would handle security, maintenance, access or responsibility for the network if it advances.
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Finding Hosts and Testing Links
The group’s immediate steps are to find community facilities willing to host equipment and to make its software work across separate sites. Those developments would be needed before the project could be assessed as a usable local network, rather than a concept supported by household devices.
No timetable for those milestones is stated in the report. Until hosts are secured and the equipment and software are tested together, it remains unclear whether Merri-bek Tech can provide a reliable service during an outage or what residents could use it for.
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Key Questions
What is Merri-bek Tech trying to build?
The Melbourne group is working toward a renewable-powered network of local servers that could connect community facilities and provide some digital services during power or internet outages.
Is the network currently available?
No. The ABC report says the plan is not yet operational. The group is still developing software intended to synchronise services between locations.
How many people have signed up?
Since the group formed in 2023, 20 people have signed up to host devices at home. The report says Merri-bek Tech has not yet secured a community hub as a host.
What does digital sovereignty mean?
It broadly means having greater control over the infrastructure, software, hardware and data that make digital services work. It can refer to personal choices or to governments and organisations reducing reliance on overseas providers.
When will the project launch?
The report gives no launch date. The group still needs to secure host locations and develop and test software that can operate across sites.
Source: fediverse
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