Install the base
Start with a working local system and a clear commercial licence.
Category paper 0.1 · 2026
Software as a Community.
A post-SaaS model for software you keep, shape and improve together. Keep a working local system. Make it fit your business. Join the practitioner community that moves everyone forward.
The canonical definition
SaaC is a local-first software model in which each customer keeps a working system, while an optional membership funds the shared knowledge, releases and partner ecosystem that help every system improve.
Unlike SaaS, continued use of the core product is not conditioned on an active subscription. Unlike open source, SaaC does not automatically grant public redistribution rights. It is a commercial model for durable local software and collective progress.
SaaC in plain English
The short answers.
Software as a Community is a new category, so the words must stay precise. These answers state what SaaC is, what it is not and who introduced the model.
- What is SaaC?
- Software as a Community is a local-first model: customers keep a working software foundation, while an optional community funds shared updates, knowledge and implementation support.
- Who originated it?
- Chris Bleeker, founder of Co-Creators.ai, introduced Software as a Community in 2026 as a practical alternative to permanent software rent.
- Is it open source?
- Not automatically. Open source grants licence rights. SaaC defines a customer relationship: keep the local core and choose whether the ongoing community remains valuable.
- What is the first example?
- The AI Dashboard is the founding reference: a local-first, AI-agnostic and community-led operating system for knowledge workers and small businesses.
The thesis
Why this model, why now?
AI is making software easier to create, understand and adapt. That changes what customers should pay for. Access to a generic interface becomes less scarce. Relevant updates, trusted guidance, reusable patterns and capable people remain valuable.
SaaC separates those two forms of value. The software is the durable base. The community is the living layer around it. You can leave the membership without losing the local foundation you already use.
The SaaC Manifesto · Chris Bleeker · 2026
Software is becoming something we can shape.
For twenty years, small businesses rented software because building it was too hard. In 2026, that is changing. A business owner or knowledge worker can now describe a need in normal language and make useful software with AI.
This does not make everyone a software engineer. It does give more people a seat at the building table. You no longer need to wait months for a simple internal tool. You can start with a working base, explain what your business needs and shape the software as you learn.
In February 2026, people started using a dramatic word: the “SaaSpocalypse”. Software shares fell because investors feared that AI could replace many SaaS products. The UK National Cyber Security Centre gave a calmer view. It said the cost and effort needed to make “bespoke enough” software is moving down. It also warned that AI-made code is not always safe, good or easy to maintain.
We do not believe software is dying. We believe the old deal is changing. The old deal said you must rent access forever, even when the product hardly changes for you. The new deal should be better. You keep a working system. You shape it around your work. You pay again when people create new value around it.
The SaaSpocalypse is not the end of software. It is the end of access being the only value.
The research gives us hope, but it also keeps us honest. The 2026 Stanford AI Index says results on a major coding benchmark moved from 60 percent to almost 100 percent in one year. An MIT study found that AI helped people finish some writing tasks 40 percent faster, with 18 percent higher quality. The tools are becoming useful very fast.
But a tool is not a system. MIT researchers say code generation is the easy part. The hard parts are understanding old code, testing changes, fixing hidden problems and keeping software healthy over time. In one 2025 METR study, experienced open-source developers took 19 percent longer when using early AI coding tools on their own complex projects.
These findings do not cancel each other out. They show the real change. AI lowers the door. It does not remove the need for care, knowledge or responsibility. That is why we need more than a download. We need shared standards, trusted releases, clear rights and people who help each other learn.
That is Software as a Community.
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Keep what you buy
If you paid for a working local system, it should keep working when a membership ends.
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Pay for new value
Recurring payment should fund releases, learning, support and a stronger network. It should not be rent for the same access.
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Build in normal language
Business owners and knowledge workers should be able to explain what they need and take part in shaping the result.
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Stay AI-agnostic
Your operating system should not belong to one AI company. Use the model that fits the job and state honestly what works today.
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Keep control of your data
Private company data should stay under the control of the company. Community learning does not require sharing private business information.
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Choose community over lock-in
People should stay because the group helps them move forward, not because leaving would switch off their software.
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Keep humans responsible
AI can help build and change software. People still own the choices, the checks and the impact on customers and teams.
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Let progress grow
One useful lesson can become a shared pattern. One shared pattern can improve many local systems without making them all the same.
Open source taught us that code can be shared. SaaS taught us that software can be easy to access. SaaC asks the next question: what happens when people can shape software themselves, but still need others to help it stay useful, safe and alive?
Our answer is simple. Keep the software. Join the community. Grow together.
This is not the end of software.
It is a better relationship with it.
It is a better relationship with it.
Chris Bleeker
Founder, Co-Creators.ai
August 2026
The change in one sentence
You do not subscribe to the software. You join the community that grows it.
Models and licences
A model is not a licence.
SaaS describes how software is delivered. Open source describes legal rights granted by a licence. SaaC describes where the working foundation lives and what the recurring relationship funds. These are different axes, so a SaaC product can use a commercial, source-available or OSI-approved licence.
The founding AI Dashboard reference is locally installed, AI-agnostic and community-led. It is not presented as open source. Its customer agreement must explicitly define local modification, update and redistribution rights.
| Model | Foundation | If payment stops | Can you adapt it? | Ongoing value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SaaS | Hosted access | Access usually ends | Through vendor features and APIs | Access, hosting and maintenance |
| Open source | Code plus public licence rights | Existing rights continue | Yes, under the licence | Optional support, hosting or sponsorship |
| Source-available | Visible code with restrictions | Existing-version rights follow the licence | Within the licence limits | Commercial rights, support or hosting |
| SaaC | A working local system you keep | The installed core keeps working | Practical and explicitly licensed | Releases, knowledge, workshops and partner network |
The practical licence map
Open source is a family, not one licence.
The OSI maintains the canonical list of approved open-source licences. That registry includes many historical, superseded and special-purpose licences. The overview below groups the major families a software buyer or builder is most likely to encounter. It is representative, not a substitute for reviewing the exact licence text.
| Licence family | Examples | OSI open source? | Core rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permissive | MIT, BSD, Apache-2.0 | Yes | Keep the notices. Modified code may usually remain closed. |
| Weak copyleft | MPL-2.0, LGPL | Yes | Share changes to covered files or libraries when you distribute them. |
| Strong copyleft | GPL | Yes | Distributed derivative works must include corresponding source under the GPL. Hosted use alone usually does not trigger this. |
| Network copyleft | AGPL | Yes | Users of a modified network program must be offered its corresponding source. |
| Source-available | BSL, SSPL | No | The source is visible, but use, hosting or redistribution can be restricted. |
| SaaC agreement | Product-specific | Not by itself | It defines the local core and membership terms. Public source sharing only applies when a paired licence requires it. |
Legal clarity: “source-visible”, “editable” and “open source” are not synonyms. Open source requires an OSI-compliant licence and redistribution rights. This overview is educational and not legal advice.
Primary research sources · reviewed August 2026
Working standard 0.1
What makes software SaaC?
A category needs boundaries. These six principles distinguish SaaC from a perpetual licence with a chat group attached to it.
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Local continuity
The core system remains usable after the customer leaves the membership. A relationship may end. The working foundation should not disappear with it.
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Data agency
Business data stays under the customer's control and can be exported in usable formats. Community participation never requires sharing private company data.
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Practical adaptability
The system is designed to be extended, connected and shaped around the customer's work. The licence states clearly what may be modified.
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Member-funded progress
Recurring payment funds ongoing value: maintained releases, shared learning, workshops, answers and an ecosystem of capable people.
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Transparent stewardship
A named steward maintains the common base and explains how member feedback becomes product direction. Community influence is real, even when ownership is not collective.
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Model freedom
AI-enabled SaaC products should make model choice possible where integrations allow it. The local operating system matters more than loyalty to one AI provider.
The economic loop
A product that stays. A community that moves.
The recurring relationship is earned through progress, not enforced through lock-in. Members receive a stronger shared base. The steward gains a clearer view of common needs. Implementation partners help turn the base into something specific for each business.
Shape it locally
Connect tools and adapt workflows around the reality of one business.
Learn together
Members exchange lessons, questions and reusable patterns.
Release progress
The steward packages common improvements into maintained releases.
Private company data stays local. The community shares knowledge and requested improvements, not confidential business information.
The founding reference
The AI Dashboard makes the model tangible.
Co-Creators.ai is putting SaaC into practice with The AI Dashboard: a local-first, AI-agnostic and community-led foundation for knowledge work. You install the working system on your own computer, shape it around your business and choose from supported AI environments instead of building your company around one model vendor.
AI-agnostic describes the architecture and direction, not a claim that every model or connector works today. Each release should state exactly which connections are supported, tested or still planned.
Software as a Community
The public category, principles and language other builders can use and challenge.
Co-Creators.ai
The community organising shared learning, maintained progress and a network of implementation partners.
The AI Dashboard
A local-first, AI-agnostic foundation that becomes more useful through community-led progress.
Start with the working foundation on your own computer.
Use a supported AI environment without making the dashboard loyal to one vendor.
Adapt workflows and integrations under explicit customer rights.
Use releases, workshops, answers and implementation partners when useful.
Public direction
Build the trust layer next.
The next phase is not a race to add the most features. It is about making local software dependable, genuinely portable between AI environments and safe enough for real company work. This is direction, not a promise of release dates.
Safe updates
Versioned releases, change notes, backups and a recovery path so local ownership does not become local fragility.
AI adapter layer
One stable dashboard contract with tested adapters for supported AI environments, capability checks and honest compatibility labels.
Guided connections
A clear integration registry for credentials, permissions, connection tests and local audit logs across business systems.
Community governance
A visible path from member request to security review, product decision and maintained shared release.
Partner ecosystem
Clear specialisms, quality expectations and handover standards for implementation partners building beyond the common base.
An open category invitation
Use the term. Test the standard. Improve the model.
Software as a Community should become bigger than one company or one product. Builders can use the category when their product meets the standard and their customer promise is explicit. Publish what works. Point out what does not. Help make the boundaries sharper.
Co-Creators.ai stewards the working definition and convenes the first practitioner community. It does not ask the market to confuse category stewardship with exclusive ownership of the idea.
Join the builders shaping SaaCHonest boundaries
You are probably wondering...
Is SaaC open source?
Not automatically. A SaaC product can include visible or editable source while still using a commercial licence. Open source requires a recognised open-source licence and redistribution rights. SaaC requires clarity about the rights the customer actually receives.
Does the community own the software?
Not unless the legal and governance structure explicitly says so. SaaC means the community influences and funds shared progress. It does not pretend that influence is the same as copyright, shares or cooperative ownership.
What happens when membership ends?
The installed core keeps working under its licence. Future member releases, workshops, support channels and network benefits can end. That separation is one of the defining promises of SaaC.
Can SaaC work with Claude, ChatGPT or local models?
Yes, when the product provides compatible connections. The category favours model choice, but each product must state which integrations actually work today. SaaC is the software model, not an endorsement of one AI vendor.
Does AI-agnostic mean every model works today?
No. It means The AI Dashboard is designed around a stable, vendor-neutral foundation instead of hard-coding the product identity to one provider. Actual compatibility still depends on maintained adapters, available APIs and tested capabilities per release.
How does a SaaC company earn money?
Through the initial software licence, optional memberships, training, implementation and specialist services. The principle is simple: recurring revenue should correspond to recurring value, not the threat of losing the system you already use.
Who decides what enters the shared release?
The steward remains accountable for quality, security and coherence. Members shape priorities through feedback and shared needs. Good SaaC governance makes that decision process visible instead of calling every customer request “community-led”.
Originator and category steward
About Chris Bleeker.
Chris Bleeker is the founder of Co-Creators.ai, an AI advisor at TEDxEindhoven and the originator of Software as a Community. He builds AI partners and local-first business systems that help entrepreneurs use AI as a thinking partner, not as a replacement for people.
In his TEDxEindhoven talk, “Traveling through time together with AI”, he argues that AI should amplify human curiosity. In DenkProducties podcast episode 137, he explains why AI partners should enrich judgement instead of simply automating tasks.
SaaC is the category. Co-Creators.ai is the practitioner community. The AI Dashboard is the founding reference: local-first, AI-agnostic and community-led.
Short and long biographies, category facts, interview topics and verified source links are included in the media kit. For speaking, interviews or press requests, contact Chris directly on LinkedIn.