Technology should be the glue that supports real-life community building, not the focus that pulls us away from it. Over the past several months, I've been actively looking for ways to augment my own work as a community-builder with a new set of AI-powered tools at my disposal. The most acute, current outlet for my work thus far has been my work with our block association.
Last week, I hosted the first planning committee meeting for our revitalized block association, The Manhattan 75, on the Upper West Side.
In just an hour, about nine of us gathered in a neighbor’s living room, swapping stories of past community building and brainstorming ideas to improve our block. By the end, we’d landed on three priority projects: rat mitigation, community events, and a better communication strategy (think emails, a website, newsletters—the works).
But as the days passed, the initial excitement led to an inbox explosion. Messages about planning, schedules, subject lines, flier content and formatting—and, eventually, messages about the fact that there were too many messages, messages about the subject lines of each new message, and messages reminding people to read earlier messages before responding to later ones.
Needless to say, things got out of hand pretty quickly. Four separate people reached out to me to express fatigue of the communication flow. Not great.
It reminded me of the now-outdated “listserv” culture from my college days. Back then, every dorm had a shared listserv for announcements, updates, and the occasional rogue message thread that would spiral out of control.
In one memorable thread from 2006, over 60 messages bombarded 180+ people in just three days—most of them complaining about how everyone was too busy to be dealing with so many emails.
One of my favorite highlights came about 30 messages in to one particularly prominent thread:
STOP! EVERYONE JUST STOP! PLEASE!! I REALIZE THE IRONY IN ME SENDING ANOTHER MESSAGE TO SAY STOP, BUT PLEASE. LET THIS BE THE LAST MESSAGE. FOR ALL OF OUR SANITIES. AND PLEASE, NO ONE SEND AN EMAIL SAYING "YEAH. I AGREE WITH JENNY." JUST WRITE IT ON MY FACEBOOK WALL OR SOMETHING. THANK YOU.
Yeah. I agree with Jenny. If anybody else agrees let your voice be heard and send out an email!
Yeah. I also agree with Jenny. Voice your opinions! Agree with Jenny!
Yeah!!
I agree with Jenny completely… You go girl… Reply all...Your voices must be heard
I HAVE MIDTERMS TO STUDY FOR!!!!! DO YOU THINK THIS IS HELPING AT ALL!? WHY CAN’T PEOPLE JUST BE CONSIDERATE OF MY FEELINGS!
Clearly this isn’t the first time that digital channels get in the way of IRL progress.
It strikes me as ironic that a community group focused on enhancing our real-life neighborhood experience was spending so much time tangled up in digital communication and logistics.
Is it really the best use of our time for four people to debate whether or not we need a QR code on a flier? Wouldn’t it be great if we could cut through the tech hurdles and get back to what really matters—walking the streets, meeting neighbors for coffee, and showing up when it counts?
This is where AI excites me most in community-building. Not too long ago, creating something as simple as a website and sign-up flow for a block association took months of planning, approvals, and funding.
Today, you can set up a fully functional website, complete with a sign-up system and infrastructure for collecting member dues, in under an hour. I know, because I did it in just 40 minutes on Saturday night.
Here’s what excites me about how AI can lighten the load for community builders:
Instant Digitization of Paper Trails: No more hunting down forms or handouts—AI quickly turns analog into digital.
Effortless Online Presence: Putting content, events, and updates online takes near-zero effort (whether or not you consider yourself to be a developer).
Instant Content Remixing: English or Spanish? QR code or not? AI can instantly create multiple versions, so there’s no need to debate.
Customized Communication Streams: Prefer updates via email? Text? No problem—pick your preferred channel.
Auto-Updating Event Info: With automatic summaries and workflows, we can move smoothly from “planning” to “promoting” without getting stuck in limbo.
Insight Surfacing: AI can track local updates and direct them to the right people based on interests, keeping everyone in the loop effortlessly—even when we're too busy to follow up.
AI Assistants for Accountability: Following up on meetings, setting up reminders, and even streamlining some task execution through the work of agents becomes immediately accessible.
Instant Activation Flow for Newbies: One of the toughest parts of communities is how to seamlessly onboard and activate new entrants; AI can activate volunteers instantly and immediately direct them to relevant events, planning meetings, or content they care about.
What excites me most about using AI as a community-builder is the feeling that I can (maybe, finally...) get ahead of myself—having technology that reinforces my goals and supports me, even when I’m too tired to push things forward myself.
I’m eager to experiment with these workflows on my block in the coming weeks, and I’d love to hear about the AI tools and strategies that are working for you, too.
Bethany Crystal
Over 600 subscribers
Super good perspective, and I totally agree -- it's super hard (hard mode first, heh) to corral people in group conversation like this! Curious to see how your AI-infused approach shapes up!
Many of these types of issues can also be helped along by DAOs (liquid democracy is my preferred type, to also avoid most of the voting clutter), and I’m looking forward to when the tools for setting up a DAO and working within it are nearly as easy as setting up a group message, with ai tools that serve group self-management built into that experience from the start.
New post: Building community, not clutter let’s be real, sometimes digital channels get in the way of IRL progress (Anyone who has ever been on an old school email listserve knows what I’m talking about here….) Can the promise and potential of AI (maybe? Finally…?) help offload the work of community builders so we can use technology as the glue and let us spend our time where it counts? I don’t know but I am very keen to find out. https://paragraph.xyz/@bethanycrystal/building-community,-not-clutter