Technology you understand is technology you control.

OpenHeidelberg is an open initiative in Heidelberg. We build and run our own digital tools — and open them to everyone who wants to use, learn, and shape them.

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Who is this for?

For organisations

Work digitally — independently

We offer clubs, initiatives, and non-profits access to a complete set of collaboration tools: file sharing, wiki, project boards, encrypted chat, video calls, AI assistant, and photo library. Your data stays on European servers, under your control. Terms are agreed individually, based on mutual benefit — no lock-in, no fine print.

Become a partner

For project partners

Civic AI, done seriously

We build real civic technology — from searchable city-council archives to open RAG pipelines. We have a track record in applied AI, open-data infrastructure, and cross-sector collaboration. If you have a meaningful problem and want to work on it together, get in touch.

Get in touch

Curious about technology?

Come to a meetup

We meet to talk, learn, and build together. Friendly conversation, presentations, honest debate about what technology means for society. No title or degree required — just genuine curiosity about how things actually work. All projects are open to join.

Meet the community

Already a member?

Your tools, one login

Everything is reachable from your Authentik account page. One sign-on opens Nextcloud, Outline, OpenProject, OpenWebUI, Forgejo, and Immich. No URLs to memorise.

Go to your tools

What we actually do

We run our own digital workbench

One login opens a complete, professional set of tools we install, secure, back up and maintain ourselves. File sharing, wikis, project boards, encrypted messaging, video calls, AI assistant, photo library. When you control the infrastructure, you decide what happens to your data.

We work on real projects

Our flagship project — Council Insights — makes city-council documents from Heidelberg and Karlsruhe searchable and understandable using AI. We have won a hackathon in Natural Language Processing (SAS Hackathon 2024) and continue to build civic technology with real-world partners. All projects are open to members.

We meet, argue, and learn together

Presentations, honest discussion, introductions to active projects. We deliberately publish meeting dates rather than make promises — check our Matrix channel or subscribe to our mailing list to stay in the loop.

Stay in the loop

Dates and announcements come through our Matrix channel and mailing list. Join either — or both.

Matrix

Our public channel for announcements, questions, and conversation.

Join Matrix

Mailing list

Subscribe to receive announcements by email.

How to subscribe:

  1. Send an email to openheidelberg+subscribe@groups.io — subject and body don't matter.
  2. You will receive a confirmation email from groups.io.
  3. Reply to the confirmation (or click the link in it) to complete your subscription.

To unsubscribe at any time, email openheidelberg+unsubscribe@groups.io.