Establishing Local AI Sovereignty

Most people understand why you have a backup generator; they just haven't realized yet that they need a "backup brain" for the community.

Building the "Digital Lifeboat" for our Farmers, Engineers, and Citizens.

The Mission: What happens to our community if the "Master Signal" goes dark? In an era of shifting geopolitics and increasing centralization, the tools we use to plan, farm, and build are often locked behind a corporate "subscription." If access to AI becomes a centralized privilege or is restricted during a crisis, Portage County faces a staggering power imbalance we cannot control.
We believe our community needs a plan. We are gathering to establish the Portage County Tech Node—a dedicated, offline AI infrastructure that ensures our technical sovereignty remains intact regardless of federal policy or internet stability.

Who We Are Looking For: We aren't looking for "fans" of AI; we are looking for collaborators and sticklers for protocol who want to build a resilient, air-gapped resource for our region:

• The Knowledge Architects (Librarians/Planners): People to help curate our "Local Vault"—gathering 100 years of Portage County agricultural data, local building codes, and engineering standards to feed our offline node.
• The Hardware Riggers & Designers (Engineers/Makers): People comfortable with local server builds, "VRAM is King" GPU strategies, and off-grid power solutions.
• The Industrial Experts (Farmers/Trades): The "End Users" who need the data. Help us define the protocols for how this tool can solve real-world problems in the field or on the shop floor.
• The Systems Ops (Devs/UX): Help us manage the Small Language Models (SLMs) and ensure the interface is actually usable by a 60-year-old farmer or a busy planner.
• Project Management Specialists

The Goal of This Meetup: This is an architecture session. We will discuss the spec for a $1,000 Community AI Box that can run 100% offline, protecting our data from "corporate pollination" and ensuring we have an "Intelligence Backup" for whenever the world gets weird.
No "Vibe-Based" Promises. Just Local Infrastructure.

This isn't a lecture; it's a community map-making session. Let's figure out where we stand so we can build a stronger, more resilient future for Ravenna/Portage County together.