In my parent's living room a set of worn, hardcover home improvement manuals took up an entire bottom shelf—the sacred texts of do-it-yourself culture. These heavy tomes were passed from down from my grandfather, and I remember leafing through the plumbing volume as a child, thinking "wow I have a lot to learn." I hoped those books would someday be mine.
But today, those manuals gather dust. Because YouTube happened. Instagram DIY channels happened.
Remember when building expertise was confined to professionals, the studiously self-taught, or handed down through family lines (usually father to son)? That world has completely changed. Want to rewire a lamp? Here's a personal video guide to help you do it. Refinishing a kitchen table on a budget? That nice mom from the Midwest will give you the shopping list and warn you about proper ventilation when using paint remover.
For a long time, the tools and know-how in physical construction were confined to professionals or handed down through generations. There was a strong gender bias in who was able to build. But tech democratized access, and what we're seeing now is this same revolution sweeping through the digital world.
Breaking Down the Digital Workshop Door
For decades, coding and web development were walled gardens with steep entry fees: computer science degrees, thousands of hours of self-teaching, or the privilege of mentorship. The digital construction site was reserved for the professionals and the exceptionally determined.
Not anymore.
No-code platforms like Adalo, Bubble, FlutterFlow, and Glide have turned the complex toolbox into something anyone can open. But the real revolution is happening with AI-enabled tools like Claude, Cursor, and Lovable that function as co-builders—almost like having a master craftsperson guiding your hand as you work.
I've lived this transformation firsthand. In grad school in 2018, I took an app dev class and learned Ruby on Rails and CSS. It was hard and fascinating and deeply empowering, but my big takeaway was "wow, now I know enough to know that I should hire an engineer and how to better work with them."
Five years later, I've built 3 apps in the past 2 months and I have a drawer full of drafts I want to put out into the world this spring.
Sonder: an interactive story-collecting map that documents shared stories existing in public spaces
A super secret app launching at SXSW this week that directs people to perform random acts of social connection and love in their neighborhoods (stay tuned for more.... 🤞)
A calendar app that tells time by the natural phenomena of a region and is informed by local indigenous wisdom
My best flow state is a weekend spent scribbling ideas into functional prototypes that I'm sending to friends -- something that would have taken months in development time just a few years ago.
Why This Matters: Building Beyond Big Tech's Suburbs
Our digital landscape increasingly resembles America's built environment: homogeneous corporate developments with little room for local character or community needs. The internet wasn't supposed to be a collection of identical strip malls owned by five companies.
I deleted Facebook a while ago, but recently wanted to buy a used exercise bike. Suddenly I was forced back into Meta's ecosystem, because Facebook Marketplace has become THE outlet for local exchange. I don't want to meet, trade, and organize with my neighbors on a Meta platform, but there was no other viable option. Network effects have created digital monopolies that feel increasingly inescapable -- and we don't have a chance of fighting this if we don't have opportunity to build alternatives.
This isn't just an American problem. From Brazil's dependency on WhatsApp for essential communications to WeChat's dominance in Chinese daily life, communities worldwide find themselves reliant on platforms designed primarily to extract data and attention, not serve local needs.
Making the Digital Commons Weird and Local Again
There's a deep need for digital infrastructure that's heftier than an email newsletter and more diverse than a Facebook group. We need spaces that reflect the uniqueness of our communities across the globe—from rural villages to urban neighborhoods.
Imagine:
Local trading platforms designed specifically for your community's needs
Digital town squares where neighbors discuss local issues without algorithmic manipulation
Cultural heritage archives maintained by the communities themselves, not tech giants
Tools built by and for communities traditionally excluded from the digital building process
Better mutual aid apps that can compete with ease of use against apps like Amazon/Facebook
This isn't just nostalgia for the weird web of the early 2000s. It's about resilience, autonomy, and making technology serve people rather than shareholders. It's about bringing the barn-raising spirit of community building into our digital lives.
Diversity in Builders Creates Diversity in Solutions
The DIY construction wave hitting the digital world means we'll see more people from different backgrounds creating their own solutions. This is perhaps the most exciting aspect of the whole movement.
When construction knowledge was largely passed from father to son, our built environment reflected a narrow set of perspectives. Similarly, when most coders and developers came from similar backgrounds, our digital world became homogeneous.
But I see alternative worlds with my students and colleagues at Equitech Futures every day. This summer I taught (and learned with) a group of 15 young people from 8 different countries how to create our own AI agents using low-code tools like Flowwise. In just under 8 weeks these students built workable prototypes to solve problems they experienced first hand: how to get better career guidance, search legal documents on the African continent, and how to systematically and strategically expand one's personal network. Only a handful of these students identified as a technical developer.
The barriers are lower than ever, which means more people can build more things—and that diversity of builders will lead to a much-needed diversity of solutions.
The Building Blocks Are Here—Let's Use Them
AI-enabled no-code/low code tools have dramatically changed what's possible for non-technical builders. What once required an engineering team and venture funding can now be created by passionate individuals or small community groups.
Of course, there are challenges. These tools still have learning curves. Not everyone has equal access to technology. And we need to be thoughtful about data privacy and security when building digital infrastructure.
But the trajectory is clear—the means of digital production are being democratized at unprecedented speed. The question isn't whether this revolution is happening, but who will participate and what they'll build.
Start Building Your Corner of the Internet
It's time for DIY digital building culture to take root globally. Make the digital commons weird and local again. Build the tools your community actually needs, not what Silicon Valley thinks you should want.
Whether you're designing a platform for local artists in Lagos, creating a tool for neighborhood disaster preparedness in Tokyo, or building a community skill-share network in Buenos Aires—your perspective matters. The internet doesn't have to be a sterile corporate mall. With AI-powered tools in our hands, we can make it a vibrant, diverse marketplace of ideas and connections again.
The revolution won't just be about what large companies build with massive AI models. It's about what you—yes, you—can build for your community with these new accessible tools.
Let's get building, together!
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