This posting describes the list of software that is open-source and in active use to facilitate initiatives that let humans lend things to other humans.

Background and previous work

There are different concepts for organized networks of collective sharing, Library of things are literally called in Germany Bibliothek der Dinge, or similiar Leihladen or older Ludothek or in Sweden they are called Fritidsbanken.

At least for Germany I know there is a active community of people, that care about these networks and create or curate information about them. Though the different actors come in different forms, some with non-profit background, some of them with active funding or some even with commercial appliances.

My attempt

Because I also care deeply about this, I am sharing here my attempt at a comprehensive list of so called “Leihladen” software, with the focus on open-source solutions.

• This is a collection of right now around 20 solid booking or inventory management solutions: Link to airtable

• The table has numerous columns: Since my main motivation is to track open-source software, their maturity and their usability, I include the founding year, most recent activity and a score for setup-process.

• My goal with the maturity and usability comparison was to help initiatives and organisations to decide which software to choose.

The table is not really finished at the moment and I appreciate any contributions. I will update this post with a little history about the progress.¹

Disclaimer: I was and still am taking part in the development of CommonsBooking WordPress plugin.

Open questions

Right now the table might be more opinionated than it needs to be.

My thoughts on its loose ends in no special order:

• What are the essential features for non-technical users (especially from the perspective of non-technical users, since I am more of a technical user)

• How to incorporate the effort or time spent on installation or setup and the maintenance? Right now I try to use the App or Wordpress label to indicate the category. But I think thats not sufficient.

• Should maturity also be defined from the end-user perspective (incorporate the maintenance/installation aspect) or not?