LEIPZIG
Who is behind this.
somsorium grew out of a simple question: what would digital infrastructure have to look like if control, openness and traceability were part of it from the start?
What we build
Open infrastructure for a digital world you can help shape.
We build software and hardware that connects people, organisations and research – without giving away more control over data, systems and decisions than necessary.
That includes local AI, open communication, reproducible research and infrastructure that can be run by the people using it.
Our values
What we measure decisions against.
Sovereignty & self-determination
Technology should widen what people can do. People and organisations should be able to decide where their data sits, which systems they use and who gets access.
Openness & traceability
Trust should not rest on a promise alone. Wherever it is possible, we want code, interfaces, decisions and technical processes to be checkable.
Collaboration & participation
Knowledge gains when other people can build on it. We want to make working together possible without everyone involved having to give up control over their data or their infrastructure.
Efficiency & responsibility
Software does not run in a vacuum. Computing needs hardware, energy and resources. So efficiency, repairability, reuse and a considered approach to infrastructure are part of the technical architecture.
The team
Two perspectives. One shared system.
Johanna Gaßmann
Founder & managing director
Strategy, finances, sales and everything that keeps the company running. If you write to us, she answers.
Sam Schimmelpfennig
Engineering
Architecture, code, hardware, systems. Sam is responsible for the development of all four product lines.
The team grows through the community and the test network. If you want to help build it, get in touch.
The story
From an idea to somsorium.
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The idea takes shape.
The question of what digital infrastructure would have to look like if control and traceability were part of it from the start.
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First steps and a learning phase.
Trying things out, dropping them, starting again — and learning along the way which parts really belong together.
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Setbacks and a new direction.
Not everything held up. The scope got smaller and the direction got clearer.
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Concept and structure.
Separate ideas turn into a structure: which building blocks there are and how they fit together.
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Technical foundations.
Domain, hosting, website structure and the first technical groundwork turn the idea into a project that is meant to last.
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The idea becomes a plan.
The technical groundwork gradually turns into a company. Johanna and Sam work hard on the business plan, the strategy, product ideas and the long-term picture. Many of today’s building blocks start here — on paper, in prototypes and in long discussions.
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Time to sort things out.
Not every phase of a project moves at the same speed. Some things are deliberately given a bit of distance, new perspectives come up and the technical foundations keep developing. The idea stays — it just gets time to settle.
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New momentum.
With fresh energy comes an intense phase of reordering. For a few months there is extra support in communication and marketing. At the same time, strategy, products and the technical architecture are all looked at again.
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EcoSphereNetwork becomes somsorium.
EcoSphereNetwork had long since stopped describing what the project had turned into. With somsorium, the growing ecosystem gets a name that can carry the shared infrastructure behind the individual products.
smolitmesoriumlaboriumsmolit node
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Ideas become products.
smolit, mesorium, laborium and the local infrastructure get clearer roles. Existing work is reordered, brought together or separated out. A collection of projects becomes the architecture of somsorium.
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New perspectives. More focus.
For a few months, extra perspectives help develop the way we communicate and present ourselves. After that the core team sorts out responsibilities and priorities again and carries on as a smaller group. The focus gets clearer: what do we want to build ourselves — and what should somsorium be at its core?
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The stack becomes visible.
A lot of work that had been separate starts to interlock. AI, communication, research and local infrastructure become recognisable as one system.
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The plan is in place. Now testing begins.
The architecture is in place, the first parts work and the next phase begins: somsorium is opening step by step for people and organisations.
The next stage
What counts next.
In this order, without dates — we name a date only once we can keep it.
The waitlist opens
For the first time, people and organisations can say explicitly that they are interested in the early test phase.
The stack becomes reproducible
Repositories, installation paths, reproducible builds and open hardware documentation will be structured so that other people can follow the stack and run it themselves.
The first complete loop
A real experiment runs from laborium through analysis with smolit to publication, discussion and later replication through mesorium.
First 5 & 500
Up to 5 organisations and 500 individuals are to test different parts of somsorium under real conditions.
The smolit node becomes buildable
Hardware, case, build instructions and software image will make up one documented, reproducible node build.
Research gets hands
smolit, laborium and physical tools work together through clearly governed interfaces and human approvals.
How we work
Showing what works.
We show what already works – and mark what is still concept or still in development.
That is why this website does not only show where we want to get to, but also screenshots, technical details and the current status.
somsorium started in Leipzig, out of a simple observation: clubs, small businesses and workshops have been working digitally for a long time — just with tools that do not belong to them and that can change at any time. If you build for these people, you should be within reach and able to listen. Hosted services run on German hosting providers.
Where this is heading in the long run is in the Vision — marked as a vision, not as a product.