Join us

We help you build the solutions you and your loved ones need. We help local communities thrive by working together. We create services and jobs that strengthen neighborhoods. We build community agency and self-determination. We are building a community of for-profit solutions to economic security challenges. Economic security comes through locally owned businesses, with all of us enjoying the economic benefits of the tools we build and use.

KISOP is a work in progress. Here is what you are funding, and what you can do today.

What are you funding?

KISOP is a social impact startup. This is the impact.

1. AffordabilityA world where each person can afford the food and housing they need.
2. CareA world where neighbors have safe ways to help one another.
3. ConnectionA world where we build community. Where we use AI for beneficial tasks. Not every task belongs to AI.
4. JobsA world where everyone who wants a job has one.
5. SafetyA world where we are safe from the harms of the technology, such as drones and unmanned machines, and from the social disruption that follows it: rising poverty and desperation, job loss, deepfakes, false imprisonment, data taken out of the country, foreign actors, environmental damage.
6. PrivacyA world where human freedom continues to exist, and the right to privacy with it.
7. UnderstandingA world where we have a shared understanding, free from exploitation, from noise that drowns people out, from foreign influence, from AI slop, and with no algorithmic rabbit holes. The work underneath is to solve “information asymmetry,” where each one of us is working with wildly different information on the same question and conflict arises. We work to build shared understanding and collaboration.
8. SuccessA world where funding gets allocated to the things our communities need. Where we can direct our own investment: of time, of money, of buying power, of presence. Open knowledge and helping one another are the tools we use to achieve this vision.

Who defines these eight? How do we define them? We need all the voices at the table, and we present both sides of a question.

Things you can do today

Each item marked open works today and your message reaches Carmen. Each item marked being built takes your name now and opens later.

1. Join a weekly callbeing built

   A weekly call is the next thing to set up. Tell us you want in and we will write to you with the first date.

   I would join the call
2. Take a walk with usbeing built

   A walk, online, with the people here. We will help one another stay healthy. Invited guests can speak on topics of interest to our communities. Tell us you would come.

   I would walk with you
3. Donatebeing built

   Donations will arrive by bank transfer (ACH). The account and the donation page are being set up. Tell us you want to give and we will write to you when the door opens.

   I want to donate
4. Suggest a jobopen

   Name a piece of work this community needs done. It goes on the jobs board with open books, where anyone can fund it or do it.

   Name a job
5. Fund a jobopen

   Pick a job on the board and pay for it, in whole or in part. Every dollar and every hour on a job is visible on the job's own page.

   See the jobs board
6. Complete a jobopen

   Pick a job and do the work. Paid work first, on the board, in the open.

   Find a job to do
7. Hire us as consultantsopen

   We partner with Social Enterprise Advisors to provide consulting services in Forward Deployed Engineering, Operations, Program Management, Privacy, Agentic Workflows, and AI Governance. Consulting income keeps the open knowledge and open source work going.

   Talk to us about consulting
8. Volunteer with a Working Groupbeing built

   Working groups take one subject each and meet until the work is done. Tell us which subject you would work on and how much time you have.

   I would volunteer
9. Buy swag or handmade itemsbeing built

   A shop for handmade items, art, and KISOP merchandise is planned. Nothing is for sale yet. The plan and the rules a shop must meet first are on Support the AI Commons.

   Tell me when the shop opens
10. Start a solution center in your neighborhoodbeing built

    Solution Centers explains the idea. Here is how you start one.

    1. Sign up for an interview.
    2. Complete our training.
    3. Onboard. Sign the agreements, including the one on fraud, waste, and abuse. No political activity.
    4. Pick a location: a local library, a school, a community center.
    5. Announce your kickoff. Use social media, our website, and a text to your personal friends. Do not send spam to everyone you know; that is illegal. Put up a printed sign at your local coffee shop or school, with permission and within the community's guidelines.
    6. Set up goals. Support after layoffs and job loss. Small local businesses with lower costs. A community craft fair.
    7. Build fellowship. When someone is sick, take food. Look at real income.
    8. Protect and serve the elderly.

    The interview is the first step. The training is being written.

    Sign up for an interview

Make the invisible visible

Our work aims to help in the “spaces in between”:

• When there aren't enough jobs for everyone.
• When the money runs out.
• When there is no access to health care nearby.
• For the 63 million caregivers.
• For working adults.
• For the sandwich generation, caring for both parents and children while trying to maintain their own health along the way.
• For people with ideas on how to make things better, but no opportunity to turn those ideas into reality.

AI for good is one workstream

When it’s helpful, we use AI. When it could cause harms, we don’t. New initiatives are a function of time, cost, and scope. AI may help us do something faster, but we may pay more for it. We work with intention to avoid inadvertently taking money away from something else that is needed. Together, we find the right balance.