Michael Jensen		Building Apps for a Better World
		I built and managed Internet projects for 35+ years, and "retired" to build, with a tiny team, digital things that need building. The current status:

Commons Communities: FerdinandCommons.com currently has 170+ members, and is managed by Renee Ananda and Aim Me Smiley. It's an old-school Web site, and was built prior to the "AI Code Assistant" revolution* that began earlier this year, but it's still a good demonstration of a helpful tool that could be in our pockets, as community members. Its sibling site, in Nova Scotia, TataCommons.com, has 270+ members.

The Commons holds great promise for any small, rural, committed community, but it is, alas, not phone-friendly, and too complicated for quick uptake.

We are fixing those issues, and updating the Commons' foundations, to be released January 15, 2026... and also getting two related projects off the ground, to be integrated into a Commons like Ferdinand's, or run as a small rural community's stand-alone "stepping stone" site, that could lead to more.

1) LocalLendables.com -- a locally-controlled Member-only site to enable a small community (<500 people) to easily Lend their stored stuff to each other. Mobile-first tools make for easy personal inventory, borrowing, lending, QR-label printing and phone-processing, and a whole lot of options. Anything that any community Member (or community group) wants to make trackably "Lendable" to each other -- folding chairs, an hour of help, a wetvac, a great big bowl, a stain-free tablecloth, a long level... -- can be easily added to the community's "virtual lending attic". This could save Members serious money and stress and shipping and carbon emissions!

2) The return of RuralCarpool (65% ready) -- this is what I started first, as my "retirement project," but after analysis and interviews, I found that folks wanted to travel with non-strangers, so the focus had to be the nearby community... which led to developing the Commons. I'm now reviving Rural Carpool's premise -- that rural folks could coordinate their regional Trips to the airport, or to work, or just to town for groceries, if the coordinating could be made easy and even fun. It could save LOTS of money and save LOTS of fossil fuel, while helping each other.

Note that Carpooling is NOT Uber or Lyft -- instead, Driver and Passengers communicate, and split the travel cost, so all parties SAVE money. This is NOT a taxi service, but rather a "travel connection service," locally AND regionally, for folks to use to share the costs and conveniences of travel. Standard auto insurance totally covers Carpooling, since it's just sharing, not a profit-making task or a job. The site is not yet ready for public demonstration, but it's very promising.

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Touchstones used in rural community brainstorming:

Local Needs?

• what needs are going unmet in our community?
• what could or should be strengthened, locally?
• what local institutions need engagement? Libraries? Town committees? Community centres?
• Anonymous requests?
• What used to be important, that we now miss? (local newspapers, strong churches, community suppers, community tasks)
• What is still important, but hard to find (music and dance, and arts and performance, and more intergenerational engagement...)

What If?

• what if we could easily coordinate lending out the stored stuff we're willing to share?
• what if we could easily coordinate regional commuters, to save money and emissions?
• what if we could easily coordinate the Trips to larger nearby towns, that we otherwise take alone?
• what if we could easily coordinate community volunteerism?
• what if we could easily coordinate our community's expertise, knowledge, and experience?
• what if we could easily coordinate our spare time?
• what if we could easily coordinate our common community events and activities calendar?
• what if we could easily coordinate monthly community-only zoom discussions?
• what if we could easily coordinate panel presentations and discussions on local issues?
• what if we could easily coordinate requests for particular kinds of assistance?
• what if we could easily communicate, within a community: text any member, email any member, video chat with any member?
• what if we could easily coordinate with local farmers, so they could predict demand?
• what if we could easily coordinate with our local businesses, from Farmers Market vendors to Superstore?
• what if churches, fraternal and sororal groups, community halls, and PTAs could coordinate resources together?

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* Regarding AI: earlier this year, we got the "help" of brilliantly stupid machines that could help write code. I've spent the last 6+ months learning how to wrangle their particular capabilities, while avoiding their worst idiocies. They make some things possible that were impossible before; these stupid machines potentially mean a dramatic lowering of the cost of "amazing." I now can make useful community tools that match my hopes for a better future faster and more effectively.