This has been growing in me for a long time—quietly, in the background. Like a light flickering in the corner of my mind. I didn’t have the words for it, but the feeling was there: a shift from building for profit to building for proximity, for purpose, for people.
It all came into focus one night in a mansion in Detroit’s Boston-Edison neighborhood. The house itself was humming with life—creatives moving through its rooms, technologists swapping visions and tools, the past echoing in the architecture while the future danced in our conversations. That night, something clicked.
A friend—another technologist—listened as I shared the threads I’d been pulling: community tools, artist platforms, open-source infrastructure, new ways of connecting people to each other and to the resources they need. And in that space of resonance, he told me about the Barefoot Doctors—how they walked among the people, bringing healing with what they had, right where they were. That metaphor lit something in me. The flickering light steadied. The signal came through.
I realized: this is the way forward.
The Barefoot Dev isn’t just a project. It’s a practice. A way of showing up with the tools I’ve spent years sharpening—not to gatekeep or profit, but to uplift, document, and co-create. It’s about building systems that serve, stories that spread, and technologies that empower the communities we call home.
We’re at a moment where the noise of the digital world is deafening. But amidst that noise, there is clarity. There is signal. We are surrounded by artists, technologists, organizers—people already building beauty, already holding it down. My role now is to make their work visible, to make their lives a little easier, to make the connections a little stronger.
Through open-source tools, AI, and collective memory, we can weave something new. A community intelligence. A shared ecosystem. A different way of walking with technology—barefoot, intentional, grounded in care.
This is where the journey begins. Light steady, path clear, and the work ahead deeply rooted in love.
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Last year’s goals weren’t about completion—they were about accountability. Through reflection, failure, and realignment, I was reminded that the most enduring systems aren’t defined by speed or scale, but by the values encoded into what we build.
Community tech is reaching a turning point — with mini-apps, embedded wallets powered by account abstraction, and x402 payments making seamless onboarding and real-world value exchange truly practical. Building Mystic Island at the inaugural Ethereum World’s Fair in Buenos Aires, and experiencing the city’s blend of architectural grandeur and economic complexity, highlighted how this infrastructure can unlock new creative, community-driven economies. This post reflects on that moment and why it matters for Detroit and beyond.
Our first build session brought together new and returning contributors to share updates and project ideas.