Access Ecologies
Maintenance infrastructure for community knowledge.
Communities know things — who needs help, what's available, how to reach each other. That knowledge disappears when it depends on someone else's server. We build tools that keep it local, maintained, and available without asking permission.
What exists
Community Intake Kit Shipping
Encrypted intake for coordinators serving vulnerable populations. Data lives on the coordinator's device, protected by their passphrase. No server. No vendor. Works offline. No one being served becomes visible to systems they didn't choose.
Resilience Toolkit Live
A shared framework for building and maintaining community resilience, born from two consecutive '100-year' floods. Now the foundation communities are building on. Read more →
Access Café 2023–2025
A cooperative café and apothecary in Montpelier, Vermont. Started as a pop-up in 2023, then moved into a flooded building in the center of the city, where two branches of the Winooski River converge. The opening gallery was called Love Letter to the River. The café closed in Spring of 2025; rebirth pending.
How we work
Everything we build stays in the hands of the people using it. Data lives on your device. Tools work without connectivity. Formats stay open. Nothing depends on us continuing to exist.
We're building toward a shared infrastructure layer where community organizations maintain and exchange knowledge without depending on platforms that weren't built for them.
Get in touch
Rhizome / William Cottiss