Tech for regular folks.
what is folk tech?
we build tech for living beings.
Folk Tech is a movement among a community of developers and people who want to develop apps for their community without depending on big tech companies.
In Silicon Valley, people are “consumers” and “users.” We resist a narrative that turns people into subjects of a technocracy. With Folk Tech, we’re all just folks.
common needs need commons.
Instead of tech that depends on a few big platforms and “cloud providers,” we make Lo-Fi (local first), peer-to-peer, decentralized, open-source tech for us, ordinary people collaborating with one another.
We don’t need exponential growth. In the modern world, extraction happens without the structure to prevent it. We work at the speed of trust, and cultivate proliferation among networks, not celebrities and scale.
Taking inspiration from the DIY and underground movements of the past, we use community-driven design, practical ingenuity, and on-the-ground needs to inspire and guide our work.
Our Pact
Principles of Folk Tech
Technology for the world we want to live in and the future we dare to imagine
We make tech for regular folks, for the activities and practices of life beyond work.
We use collaborative, participatory design to stay attuned to real needs and motives (e.g. interviews, advisory groups, play sessions, and usability testing).
We consider accessibility and include people who have been marginalized or historically deprioritized by technology builders.
We make simple, elegant, intuitive interfaces for real people. We don’t just copy the patterns established by extractive tech.
We build peer-to-peer, decentralized, open-source technology where people and their data and behaviour aren’t monitored or monetized.
We use business models that are aligned with people who use our technology, our developers, and our communities.
We embrace interoperability, standards and protocols of collaboration, and a DIY ethos.
We believe in proliferation, not scale. People belong to places and groups with their own cultural contexts, not a platform to rule them all.
We value creativity, respect, and mutual care.
