History and motivation
The idea
LiberaForms’ development began in 2019 under the name GNGforms. However, the idea came two years earlier when neighbours petitioned support for an urban vegetable garden. A proprietary online form platform was used to collect signatures and then, after a certain number of signatures had been gathered, the company demanded money, or else.
And so the idea to create online forms that respected our neighbours was born.
Context and motivation
Forms are everywhere in today’s online world for inscriptions, surveys, reservations, to name a few.
More often that not, people turn to products owned by multinational companies to publish their forms, either because those services are better known or apparently free.
But depending on the company, their business model infamously includes selling our data, personalized advertisments, and social engineering. We pay for their software with our data and inevitably suffer the consenquences.
However, despite their position of dominance and systematic abuse, digital technologies can also be used to treat people with respect and goodwill.
LiberaForms is built as part of an Internet free from intrusion and surveillance.
Chronology
Since the initial idea the project has grown. Listed here are some of the highlights.
See the blog for a complete list of changes made to the application.
2019-2020
- Version 1.0.0 is released under the name GNGforms
(recursive humor: GNGforms is Not Googleforms).
2020-2021
- The first forms are publish by local entities.
- The organizations Code Rood and Komun deploy the first installations.
- We receive funding from NLnet.
- The project gets renamed LiberaForms; it’s prettier, easier on the tounge, and doesn’t reference Google.
2021-2022
- The first organizations subscribe to our services.
- Andoni joins the team and begins work on the localization of the software.
- We start to use Weblate to manage translations.
- We receive funding from Dapsi.
- We receive a new round of funding from NLnet.
2022-2023
- David joins the team to help refine our business model, write our Terms of Servive and Privacy policy, and oversee the intergration of the GDPR in the software.
- We pay Antonio to redesign LiberaForms’ user interface.
- Donations are made possible via OpenCollective.
2024-2025
- We sign the Open Letter to the European Commission in defence of the NGI programme as part of the 2025 funding programme.
- Framasoft sets up an installation to try out LiberaForms.
2025-2026
- We receive a new round of funding from NLnet.
- The code gets moved from GitLab to Codeberg.
- Framasoft plans to replace YakForms with LiberaForms sometime late 2026.
- Yunohost includes LiberaForms in their software suite.
- Paul joins the team and starts work on containerization.
- Rita redesigns our website.