Our digital lives depend heavily on a few proprietary platforms. This centralisation limits user autonomy, locks communities into closed ecosystems, and places crucial infrastructure in the hands of commercial actors whose interests do not always align with the common good. Open-source tools and federated networks offer a different path: transparent, democratic, community-owned and built for long-term resilience. I wrote about it extensively in my book “Digital Permaculture”.
Digital Independence Day (Di-Day) invites us to take one small step each month towards such alternatives.
What it is
Digital Independence Day takes place every first Sunday of the month. The idea is simple: we switch from a proprietary service to a free/libre/open-source solution — together. With shared learning, gentle guidance, and space for questions, we help each other transition away from Big Tech services at a pace that feels realistic.
When
Our first session will be on 01.02.2026 at 14:00 CET.
Who runs it
The initiative was introduced at the 39C3 by Marc-Uwe Kling and is coordinated by Save Social – Networks For Democracy. EuPN and the Digital Circle will host monthly switch-parties to explore, learn, and support each other in making change.
Where to join
We meet online on Jitsi and stream to PeerTube, where recordings will remain available for those who cannot attend live.
February topic: From WhatsApp to Signal
Many of us use WhatsApp because everyone else does. Switching to Signal is often easier than expected once group migration, backups and onboarding are clear. In our first session we will look at why Signal matters for privacy, how to set it up, and how to bring friends or project teams along without pressure. After a short introduction we open the space for questions, troubleshooting and experience sharing.
2026 schedule
All Switch Parties are held at the first Sunday of the month - 14 o'clock CET.
- 01.02.2026 - 14:00 CET – WhatsApp → Signal -> https://youtube.com/live/ZujVYwFOXEw
- 01.03.2026 - 14:00 CET – X → Mastodon -> https://youtube.com/live/nd0WipaPnwI
- 05.04.2026 - 14:00 CET – Gmail → independent email services -> https://youtube.com/live/08ngUuTtksM
- 03.05.2026 - 14:00 CET – MS Office → LibreOffice -> https://youtube.com/live/gLUMCuvd0u0
- 07.06.2026 - 14:00 CET – YouTube → PeerTube ->
- 05.07.2026 - 14:00 CET – Discord → Matrix
- 02.08.2026 - 14:00 CET – Windows → Linux
- 06.09.2026 - 14:00 CET – Google Analytics → Matomo
- 04.10.2026 - 14:00 CET – Google Drive → Nextcloud
- 01.11.2026 - 14:00 CET – Slack → Discourse
How to get access
The Jitsi link will be shared via our monthly mailing and posted both in the EuPN community forum and in the Colab forum.
Participation is free of charge.
Supporters
The switch parties are brought to you by: