RuralMakers.net is a proposal to build a collaborative application that connects people, facenderas and rural projects to weave the Rural Makers network.
Through a simple interface, the app allows:
Creating, mapping, and coordinating local facenderas.
Sharing resources, tools, and knowledge.
Publishing needs and open projects.
Activating interconnected rural routes where each action leaves a trace.
Learning through gamified modules and a rural maker AI assistant that facilitates the creation of helper agents for facenderas.
The goal is to build a living network of territorial cooperation that combines tradition and technology, strengthening local innovation, solidarity economy, and rural regeneration through shared action.
Rural Makers is a collaborative and transformative initiative that drives the rural world by bringing together cooperation, innovation, and shared learning.
It promotes the creation and strengthening of active communities in towns and regions, capable of facing territorial challenges through collective creativity, technology, and joint action in facenderas.
Currently an AI‑based rural assistant is being developed, trainable with local aspects, oriented toward resolving doubts, providing advice, and facilitating management and communication tasks.
Gamified experiences are also being created that highlight the territory, connecting people and projects to boost cooperation and local identity.
Rural Makers is a network of local groups that drives innovation and collaboration in the province of León.
Its objective is to create and consolidate active communities that use or reactivate public and private spaces—such as coworkings, cultural centers, or territorial innovation centers (CIT)—to energize rural life through cooperation, creativity, and technology.
There is a prototype of the application at ruralmakers.net.
The project values contemporary facenderas*: dynamic gatherings where people of all ages come together to share knowledge, learn, and carry out actions that tangibly improve their environment.
Rural Makers integrates digital tools and artificial intelligence to strengthen the social and economic fabric, facilitating the sustainable and inclusive transformation of the rural environment.
It seeks to become hubs of advice and incubators of projects, groups, associations, and new spaces.
To achieve this, the project promotes a crowdfunding campaign to support and scale Rural Makers, to organize training programs in facenderas and routes, as well as to develop a digital platform that articulates and enhances cooperation among all participating initiatives.
Rural Makers weaves together the cultural, economic, and technological spheres, generating open‑access educational resources and methodologies based on the results of its gatherings.
Its aim is to consolidate a stable network of knowledge and collaboration among people and entities committed to rural regeneration, turning León into a reference point for bioeconomy, wellbeing, and sustainable development, while promoting open source.
The project aims to foster the creation of sectoral and territorial associations, grouped in a confederal association, and to attract talent to León and become a reference in the organization of learning groups.
ASASA (Association of Associations Associating) envisions evolving into a confederation of associations of entities across different categories and territories.
ASASA will be the confederative entity that articulates, supports, and promotes sectoral and territorial associations.
This confederation will facilitate inter‑territorial cooperation, collective representation, and democratic decision‑making on shared resources, as well as the development, improvement, and maintenance of the app, in addition to the facilitation of facenderas and of Rural Makers.
The promoter group starts with Asociación Indira, the entity acting as the initial beneficiary of the crowdfunding and responsible for launching the first phase of the project.
Its work will focus on developing a more distributed model of organization and governance, fostering the creation of new territorial and sectoral associations.
Indira will then become part of a broader set of collaborative entities, working in a network to strengthen the rural ecosystem in a participative and sustainable way.
Rural Makers grows as a collective tree: those who plant (roots), those who drive it (sap), and those who protect and make the forest possible (tree of the commons).
Every facendera is a branch that expands with its leaves and bears fruits and germinating seeds for new facenderas.
We work so that Rural Makers is sustainable in the long term, combining free contributions at facenderas, responsible sponsorships, digital patronage programs, training, and collaborations with organizations.
All our income is reinvested into improving the platform and generating collaborative impact in the rural environment.
Basic features focused on the app
RuralMakers.app is a collaborative platform that connects people, associations and rural projects to coordinate actions, share resources and strengthen local cooperation.
- It allows you to create, map and manage facenderas —community gatherings where shared tasks are carried out— integrating geolocation and results tracking.
- It incorporates a rural maker AI assistant, trainable with local data, which facilitates communication, training, and technical advice in real time.
- It has a gamified learning system, where each user can complete rural missions, earn achievements, and unlock practical knowledge linked to the territory.
- The app functions as a digital cooperation hub, linking rural routes, open projects and local communities to encourage shared action and solidarity-based exchange.
- It is open source and ethical, designed to promote transparency, technological sovereignty and the circular economy.
- It includes an online training space, where guides, workshops and educational materials accompanying the face-to-face facenderas are shared.
- The app is evolving towards a rural DAO (digital self-governance) model, integrating voting, participatory budgeting and traceability through blockchain.
Objectives
- Develop an open and collaborative rural application that connects people, resources and territories.
- Facilitate the creation, coordination and documentation of facenderas, rural routes and community projects.
- Promote collective learning and knowledge transfer through gamified modules and immersive experiences.
- Provide accessible digital tools for managing local initiatives and inter-territorial communication.
- Promote cooperation and positive impact through open data, ethical artificial intelligence and decentralised governance.
- Consolidate a living network of rural innovation, where every action recorded in the app contributes to the regeneration of the territory.
The main motivation behind Rural Makers is to reconnect people with their territory and with each other, creating opportunities for sustainable living, learning and working through cooperation and rural innovation.
Faced with depopulation, lack of resources and a disconnect between initiatives, Rural Makers proposes a new model of collective action:
cooperate instead of competing, share instead of accumulating, learn instead of isolating.
It stems from the desire to demonstrate that technology, artificial intelligence and creativity can be put at the service of the common good, strengthening the social and economic fabric of villages without losing the essence of local traditions and identity.
The project is aimed at:
- People in rural areas who want to get involved in improving their environment and participate in community projects.
- Entrepreneurs, associations and cooperatives seeking digital tools and open methodologies to promote sustainable initiatives.
- Young people, digital nomads and professionals who want to work or train in the region, connecting innovation, nature and community.
- Educators, technologists and cultural agents who wish to combine ancestral knowledge and new technologies in the service of rural regeneration.
In short, Rural Makers is aimed at all those who believe that the future is woven from the local, from creative cooperation and shared action, building a smart, lively and supportive rural network.
The project also focuses on those who want to learn how to use technology and artificial intelligence in an ethical, open and collaborative way, applying it to the self-sustainable development of their communities.
My profile combines extensive experience in building communities and alternative economy networks with technological expertise (WordPress, AI, Blockchain) essential for innovation and efficiency in the 21st century.
My goal is to promote projects that place citizen participation at the centre of cooperation and sustainable development in rural areas.
🤝 Leadership, Networks and Ethical Tools
More than 25 years searching for and discovering alternatives that build a new world, with a solid track record in creating structures and networks:
Founder of Tools for the Alternative Economy: Promoter of Ecoalternative, a key directory for eco-alternative companies, and Certyetic, an innovative ethical certification system.
These initiatives demonstrate my commitment to transparency and the standardisation of values in the sector, facilitating cooperation and responsible choice in rural areas.
Network Coordinator: previous participation in the coordination of REAS CyL and the State Network for Social and Solidarity Economy.
Territorial and Community Facilitator: Experience in organising meetings, festivals and retreats, and in regeneration initiatives such as the Fundación Cerezales' "Hacendera Abierta" (Open Farm), mobilising the community in the Omaña and Luna Valleys Biosphere Reserve.
💡 Technological Innovation Applied to the Territory
My technical expertise provides the tools to modernise, raise the profile and ensure the transparency of rural cooperation projects, complementing the creation of directories and certifications:
Expert Programmer:
WordPress: Creation of robust and accessible platforms (ideal basis for directories such as Ecoalternative).
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Blockchain: Design of transparent and decentralised systems (key to the implementation of ethical certifications such as Certyetic), ensuring traceability and trust in rural cooperation.
See my LinkedIn profile
🎯 My Value Proposition for Rural Cooperation
I bring the unique ability to connect grassroots activism and traditional cooperation with digital and ethical innovation. I am prepared to:
Design Citizen Participation Models based on transparency and decentralisation (using my knowledge of Blockchain and AI).
Lead rural cooperation projects based on defined ethical standards (such as Certyetic.es) and responsible consumption networks (Ecoalternative.NET).
Generate strategic alliances between social, economic and technological networks for comprehensive and sustainable territorial development.