Creative ideas for community leaders
This page is specifically for men and women who are building village-style communities (off-grid, semi-off-grid).
As Peoplelyzer interacts with multiple communities worldwide we try to identify and consolidate best practices and ideas that could benefit all communities.
Please feel free to reach out if you want to discuss any of the below topics.
Location access
The problem is that we always think inside a box and it is hard to extract our reasoning from our box. It is exactly what i propose you to do here.
When we think inside the box we think about having our own home. We think about one single home (for most People) located at a precise location. If you are wealthy enough, you may have two or more homes.
What if we changed the game?
What if, instead of having one home at a precise location we had access to a pool of homes at various locations with the guarantee that you can access one of them at any time?
Imagine that instead of having one home in Montclair, USA, you can access multiple locations such as Le Puy in France, San Blas in Mexico, and Manizales in Columbia. You are guaranteed access to a home and your integration will be facilitated by folks expert in that domain.
Think about it. How hard is this to implement?
Let’s think about it from a user’s perspective (remember, let’s put on our customer-centricity hat). The user needs to:
Be guaranteed he/she can access a home that suits his/her needs for a certain duration
Access places he/she can call home
Be able to change location from time to time
Be able to move between these places
Be able to integrate smoothly between these places (healthcare needs, kid’s education, …)
What do we need to make this a reality?
Land with homes
The land needs to be owned. The pieces of land don’t need to be owned by the same person.
Existing communities
I would leverage existing communities because they already exist. I understand that some community leaders who already have a community are trying to create “branches” but this is sub-optimal. Community leaders should work together rather than compete for whoever will have the largest community which i feel is happening. The community leaders who will be able to see beyond their own personal interests and will team up with other communities to create solutions such as the one described here will create stronger systems (see benefit hereunder).
Legal aspects
Do we need agreements? Yes, preferably, in case a user or a community leader does not follow what was agreed. We should avoid to fall back into the old world full of legal matters but we should also adopt the minimum required to protect folks from doing wrong or trespassing on other folks.
What’s the fastest way to put this in place?
We could make use of existing communities and start with house swaps over a small number of homes. It is best to start small and to try this model with a few homes. Then, based on the feedback from users, you adjust your plan.
For instance, if you run a community with 10 homes. You could dedicate some of the unused home for house swap. If you have no unused home then you could ask if anyone in the inhabited home would be ready to do a home swap with another community for a given period of time (12 months for instance).
We would need synchronization between places so that swaps are working. For example, every 12 months, in September, you can swap homes across multiple communities.
An agreement between the communities involved. The agreement should remain as simple as possible while protecting the user as well as the leader of the community.
Modular “homes”
We think it is not that smart to move to a community and copy-paste what we used to do “before”. It’s also an intuitive action because what we used to do “before” is what we know and what we are used to.
As we observe multiple communities we see more and more creative ideas around the structure of “homes”. We want to give you access to these creative ideas now because they will help the members of your communities to make the best decisions for themselves.
The idea is to shift People’s perception of a home. We often think of a fixed structure that contains a standard layout. What if we were to think in terms of rooms and no longer in terms of a whole home? Let’s imagine that we don’t need a home. We actually need rooms and those rooms are simply boxes. Instead of thinking that you need a home, which boxes do you need? Well, you may need a box to sleep, a box to shower, a box for the washroom, a box for thinking on your own, a box to cook…
If you change the way you perceive a home, you will realize that what we call a home is a set of functional boxes linked together by doors and corridors.
Then, can we just buy boxes? Can we buy boxes and share some of the boxes? Do we actually need to buy these boxes?
Well, shifting our mindset around a home could drastically reduce the cost of it. Some of the boxes could be private and some of them could be shared. Boxes could be moved. Boxes could be repurposed. Private boxes could become shared ones and shared boxes could become private ones. Boxes provide flexibility. They adapt to People’s evolving needs, desires, and wants. Imagine you are a parent with two kids. The kids both have a bedroom box. If they move away, you can transfer these boxes. You aren’t stuck with unused space.
Benefits:
Cheaper cost to build
The entry price tag should be cheaper. If it isn’t, be careful. A key advantage of this concept is affordability but do factor in that some builders focus on high-end modular homes. You often do need boxes that do the job while maintaining some design standards.
Configurable living spaces
You can change the position of the boxes
No matter the reason (reconfiguring the space, sunlight exposure, heat protection, …) having the ability to move the boxes is very useful.
You can repurpose the boxes. A living room box can be repurposed as a working box. A bedroom box can become a kitchen box.
You can add and remove boxes
An increasing number of construction companies are coming up with “home” boxes because it is clearly a need. The “home” needs to evolve according to People’s needs. People need cheaper homes, modular homes, reconfigurable homes, and shared spaces.
Here is a list of builders we have identified:
https://refugi.co
Browsing hundreds of options we invite you to be creative. Look around you. What is available in terms of resources? How can you leverage these resources? Be careful about the resources that are dangerous. For instance, you may find shipping containers but factor in that the paint on them may create a hazard for your health.
Here are a few ideas to inspire you, from tiny homes to shipping container homes. They aren’t the boxes we are thinking about but they may inspire you.
Also note that we are not in favor of forcing tiny homes on People. People should be able to access space. We do think these spaces should be shared when possible.
Shared flight services
Have you ever thought that flight services could be affordable and doable for your community?
It would provide your community members with the ability to travel freely in a private manner. Imagine having the capability to transport them not just between communities but also across regional areas.
The idea is to share this capability with a few stakeholders. No point in having your own jets.
Hereunder we detail this option. What we are asking is that you do not close the door. Keep this option in the back of your mind because it could be that 12 or 18 months for now it is a reality for your community
Benefits:
Travel freely with privacy.
This is highly valuable in the current context.
Shared service means reduced cost.
As the flight service is used inside a network, the cost of using these planes drops considerably. You do not need to buy or own small jets, you use them on demand. Flights are optimized inside the network so that cost becomes affordable.
A service for members
You have the choice between two relatively similar communities but one can offer you affordable private flights and the other cannot even offer you this service. Which community do you choose?
Offering this service is a non-negligible added value for some People.
Business meetings
Be it for community leaders or members of the community doing business, the service broaden your business opportunities. it also broaden your mind as some plans which were not possible now become doable.
Vacation.
Members of your community can access this service to go on a vacation.
The fast connection between communities:
Vacation in another community (holiday house swap between 2 communities for example)
Community visit (business meeting)
Emergency escape (your community needs to move to another community)
Medical evacuation.
Depending on where your community is located, it could be an option to move men or women in need of medical care.
A service
As you have access to this service, you can enable some medium and high-net-worth individuals around your community to benefit from it. Offering them this service could open your doors towards opportunities (if they are mid to high net worth they usually have businesses and a network of folks).
Requirements:
You are either near a regional airport or your land has enough space to build a runway. A runway for a Cirrus Vision Jet for instance (photo above) is 1800 meters. Maybe you do not have the space on your land but you could buy or use another piece of land which could serve this purpose.
Security for the plane
You need to be able to protect the plane to prevent damage or vandalism.
If you are interested in talking about this service please use the contact tab at the top of Peoplelyzer.
If you are interested in talking about this service please use the contact tab at the top of Peoplelyzer.