Organize in the room, not the cloud

In brief

A desktop pinboard for organizing groups. It runs on your own laptop and everyone in the room joins over the local network. It works without the internet.

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The wall

Things stay where you put them. Run string between the ones that connect and it stays tied when either end moves.

A board of pinned objects on wood: a file card summarising the board, a wide label reading OPEN DAY, a poll headed WHICH DAY?, a checklist headed BEFORE THE DAY, a torn-off notice giving a Thursday at 19:00, a handwritten note headed BELL LANE HALL, a photo of allotment plots, a video clip of bunting, and a card linking to another board. Red string runs from the label across to the poll and back down to the notice.

A notice torn from a ruled pad, headed MEETING, the numeral 15 large between two rules, Thursday 19:00, and the line PLANNING MEETING, in the hut, Bell Lane Hall if wet. Red string runs from its right pin down to a checklist headed BEFORE THE DAY, where Book Bell Lane Hall and Borrow the urn are ticked and initialled Margaret, and two jobs are still open. — The meeting and its jobs

A note card headed BELL LANE HALL, its handwritten lines saying the hall is theirs from ten if it rains, and that Pauline has the key and leaves the side door on the latch. Red string runs from its right pin to a contact card with a print pinned at the top over the name Pauline Crane and the role Caretaker. Pauline's index card lies tucked under the print at a slant. — The hall and who has the key

What you pin

Everything on the board is something you could pin to cork. You can drag it, resize it or stack it on something else.

A note card headed BELL LANE HALL, with three handwritten lines: the hall from ten if it rains, Pauline with the key and the side door on the latch, the trestles in the store behind the stage. — Note

A checklist headed BEFORE THE DAY. Two tasks are ticked and struck through, each initialled Margaret, and two are still open. The foot reads 2 of 4 done. — List with initialled ticks

A photo of allotment plots at low sun, the path running up between the beds to a shed, pinned at both corners and captioned From the gate, last June. — Photo

A video clip of bunting strung between two huts over the plots, paused, a play button resting over the frame, captioned Open Day, last year. — Video that plays in place

A small card pinned to the board, carrying a print of a shed door numbered 14 that hangs from a brass pin at its top edge, and below it the name Margaret Pritchard and the role Secretary. Margaret's index card lies tucked under the print at a slant with the name in red, a phone number and a line of handwriting showing at its ends. Red string runs from the pin off the edge of the frame. — Contact card

A white form on a brown clipboard, headed OPEN DAY ROTA, with four slots: Tea tent from 10:00 to 12:00 with Susan and Pauline, Plant stall with Derek and Margaret written under the line as a reserve, Car park marshals with Colin and two blank lines, and Judging from 14:00 with Brian. The foot reads 5 of 7 places taken. — Sign-up sheet with a reserve

A manila sleeve pinned at both top corners, a white paper showing above it. Its label reads Hall booking by hand over the file name hall-booking.pdf. A PDF stamp and 68 KB sit at the foot beside an OPEN button. — Document

Ask the room

A poll pins to the board like anything else. Everyone votes from their own screen and sees the count update as the votes come in. You can change your vote later.

A poll headed WHICH DAY? with three options nobody has selected: The Saturday, The Sunday, Both days. The foot reads 4 votes so far, view results. — Open

The same poll counted: The Saturday is ticked with 3 votes at 60 percent, The Sunday and Both days hold 1 each at 20 percent. The foot reads 5 total votes, change vote. — Counted

When it happens

A date is a notice torn off a pad with the day printed large enough to read across the room. Meetings, workshops, gatherings and deadlines each have their own paper. A notice counts down to its day and greys out once it has passed. It can also repeat.

A notice torn from a ruled pad, headed MEETING, October 2026. A large numeral 15 sits between two rules under a stamp reading EVERY WEEK, with Thursday 19:00 beneath it and the line PLANNING MEETING, in the hut, Bell Lane Hall if wet. The foot reads in 6 days. — Weekly meeting

A notice on dotted stock in green, headed GATHERING, October 2026. The numeral 18 is ringed by hand under a stamp reading EVERY MONTH, with Sunday 10:30 beneath it and the line SITE WALK, meet at the gate, where the tents go, and the cars. The foot reads in 9 days. — Monthly site walk

A notice on manila stock with hazard stripes along its foot, headed DEADLINE, November 2026. The numeral 4 sits in a rounded box over Wednesday, with no time given, and the line SHOW ENTRIES CLOSE, cards in the box on the hut door. The foot reads in 26 days. — Deadline with no time set

Everyone edits at once

Everyone on the board shows up with their name, a colour and a cursor. Two people can type in the same card at once and both keep what they wrote.

A card headed TEA TENT carrying one handwritten line of who brings what and a second line half typed. Two coloured slivers divide its top edge, and two cursor labels, Susan and Derek, sit either side of the card.

Where boards live

The app opens on a filing cabinet with one drawer for each case file. A drawer's label sums up its board and a post-it gives the next date. The calendar on the wall marks the days when something is on.

The app's folders page: a wooden filing cabinet against a green wall, five drawers labelled Plant Sale, Bees, Trading Hut, Working Parties and Open Day, four of them wearing a post-it with a date and a strip of embossed tape. A card index and a digital clock stand on the lid, a wall calendar hangs to the left with the ninth ringed, and the operator's field manual hangs pinned below it.

What it is

OrgKit is a shared pinboard for people who organize in person: tenants' unions, mutual aid groups, campaigns, reading groups. You pin notes, photos, video, lists, polls and dates to a board and run string between the things that connect. Boards are kept as case files in a filing cabinet.

One person installs the app and runs it on their laptop. Everyone else opens a browser on the same network and types in the address. Nobody needs an account or an invite. If you are in the room, you are in.

One laptop hosts. Everyone else can join from a phone.

Why it is built this way

Most organizing tools assume everyone has a cloud account and a connection that never drops. Groups that meet in a room often have neither. They also keep sensitive notes about real people on services they have no say over.

OrgKit runs on your own laptop and your own network. Everything it stores is a file on that laptop's disk that you can find and copy. It works the same on a router with no internet connection. There is no hosted version and there will not be one.