See Village in Action
Also here: a working demonstration of party messaging. Not an example Village — a single page, open without an account, using an invented party. The coordination half is real code running on the text you type.
Open the demonstration → · Read how it works →A walk through the Village web app. Eight short stops with invented content, explaining what members use every day and noting what each part does not do. Nothing you do there is saved.
Take the walk →Pick any example Village below. These are ready-made examples — we can set up more if people ask; contact us. Each one is a working Village filled with made-up content, so you can see what the platform is like to use. The people and posts aren't real, so go ahead and try things: write a post, edit it, delete it, invite someone, upload a photo. Please keep it friendly. If someone you know might like this, please share.
The examples are hosted here in New Zealand and Europe. Every night they reset to a clean starting point, so the next person sees a fresh version.
What you can do in each demo
Each example opens as a visitor, so you can look around — stories, photos, calendar, polls, documents, and the built-in help assistant. A banner at the top lets you switch to the moderator's view to see what they see. You can post, edit, delete, invite, and upload to get a feel for it; anything you add is wiped at the nightly reset.
Plenty of tools can copy the everyday features. The harder part is what sits underneath every Village: plain rules everyone can see, a helper that works for your group, a dependable record of what was decided, and a way to link up with other Villages without a company in the middle.
See what a Village looks after →New here? Two free courses explain the thinking behind these Villages — go at your own pace, no sign-up needed.
Governance Course → · Small Business Course →Village Community
Riverside Network — neighbourhood civic community
A small-town community space — neighbour-to-neighbour help, community gardens, local events, and a shared shed for borrowing tools and gear. A simple starting example of what a residents' association or local group looks like on Village.
Open Village Community → Read about this Village →Village Family
Brennan-Hayes Family — multi-generational, multi-locale
A family spread across countries and time zones — a shared family tree, recipes and traditions, photos, a calendar that works across zones, and sensible safety settings for children and older relatives. Shows how Village handles a family with all ages in it.
Open Village Family → Read about this Village →Village Whānau
Te Whānau o Wairoa-Āwhā — extended-whānau collective
A digital home for whānau, hapū, and iwi — pūrākau, whakapapa, tikanga, organising hui, in te reo Māori and English. Built so the whānau keeps control of its own information and taonga, in line with tikanga.
Open Village Whānau → Read about this Village →Village Diaspora
Polish Diaspora UK Chapter — diaspora community
For communities living far from their homeland. Keep oral histories and archives, run language classes and cultural events, help newcomers settle, and link up with sister chapters in other places. Hosted in Europe by default.
Open Village Diaspora → Read about this Village →Village Alumni
Pinehurst Academy Class of 2010 — alumni cohort
For school and university year groups. A verified member directory, reunion planning, mentoring, class-gift fundraising, and a yearbook archive. Members choose who can see what, and nobody sells the details on.
Open Village Alumni → Read about this Village →Village Governance
Boards, rūnanga and advisory groups
Deliberations, resolutions, a correspondence register and financial tracking, working together as one record. Decisions are sealed when they are made, so what was decided can be checked afterwards by the people it belongs to. An assistant that works within your rules — it can help you think a question through, but it never casts a vote.
Open Village Governance → Read about this Village →Village Kāhui Māori
Te Kāhui Māori — a Māori governance advisory group
A kaupapa Māori version of the governance tools — for iwi authorities, hapū committees, marae trustees, whānau trusts, and advisory rōpū. Te reo Māori as the main language, decisions made kanohi-ki-te-kanohi through hui, and shaped around the iwi it serves. Māori information stays under Māori control.
Open Village Kāhui Māori → Read about this Village →Village Episcopal
Anglican / Episcopal parish — worship coordination + vestry governance
A parish-level example for Anglican and Episcopal congregations — vestry business, parish notices, pastoral care, the church calendar, and ministry rosters. The help assistant is set up to respect the tradition. A locally-hosted alternative to the usual church software.
Open Village Episcopal → Read about this Village →Village Membership
South Otago Photographic Society — membership organisation
For membership groups with AGMs, membership tiers, and formal rules — photographic and historical societies, gardening clubs, choirs, writing groups. Membership tiers, AGM voting, competitions and exhibitions, an equipment library, and mentoring.
Open Village Membership → Read about this Village →Keeping a Solid Record of Board Decisions
For boards, trustees, committees & governance leads
A free, work-at-your-own-pace course on why a shaky record of decisions creates legal and trust problems for a board — and how a solid, dependable record changes that. Eight short modules, group exercises, worksheets to download, and a glossary. Free to share under CC BY 4.0; koha welcome. A gentle way in to the governance tools.
Start the free course → See the course outline →Governance Academy
The companion to the free course — a lean board governance Village
Finished the course? Have a look around a working board Village — board members, resolutions and minutes, and a real decision followed from proposal, through discussion, to a recorded resolution (the course's final "governance memo", kept on the record). It starts small, and the help assistant knows the course's own terms.
Explore the Academy demo → Read about this Village →Village Committee
Project committees, neighbourhood associations & volunteer groups
Tidy coordination for a committee without the heavy machinery — agendas, task tracking, correspondence, and a money register. Decisions, the correspondence register, and finances are optional: start simple with messages and events, and turn on the rest as the committee grows.
Open Village Committee → Read about this Village →Village Certification
Regulated entities — AML/CTF due-diligence & AI-use certification
For lawyers, conveyancers, accountants, and trust and company service providers who have to check who they're dealing with — sign-offs done by a person (never filled in by the assistant), a clear trail of the checks done, and a record of how AI was used. Hosted in New Zealand or the EU.
Open Village Certification → Read about this Village →Homeground
A New Zealand way to buy and sell a home
A demonstration of a New Zealand-owned, New Zealand-hosted way to buy and sell a home — where every offer is kept on a record that can't be quietly changed, and you pay a flat membership instead of a slice of the sale price. Sample listings, a working listing page built to keep buyers safe, and the "sell your way" idea (list it yourself, let agents compete, or sell privately with a lawyer). This is a demonstration only — no real homes, no real sales.
Open Homeground → Read about this Village →Village Small Business
Otago Hill Cabinetry — small business workspace
A workspace for a small business — consultants, contractors, professional services, creative agencies. Contacts, time tracking, invoices with NZ/AU GST sorted, and project coordination. There's a business-plan review where the assistant picks holes in your plan and you answer each point — the plan and the whole back-and-forth are kept on the record. Payments run through Airwallex, a New Zealand-regulated provider.
Open Village Small Business → Read about this Village →Village Recruitment
Southern Trades Talent — NZ trades recruitment consultancy
Careful, rule-based candidate screening for a trades recruiter — a rulebook you can edit with a fixed fairness check built in, a guided assessment, a clear record of decisions, and a person making the call. Client briefs stay confidential, and candidates' privacy is built in: a CV stays on our own systems (New Zealand or Europe), is never sold on or handed to outside AI, and candidates never see each other. The point is a trustworthy trail you can show — not another applicant-tracking system.
Open Village Recruitment → Read about this Village →Village Conservation
Kōwhai Reserve Restoration Network — community conservation
Native planting, river care, predator-free trapping, and citizen science. Organise working bees, keep monitoring records, track grants, get reminders before permits expire, and work alongside iwi on culturally significant sites.
Open Village Conservation → Read about this Village →Village Clubs
Maple Valley Cricket Club — sports/hobby club
Sports and hobby clubs — cricket, rugby, sailing, cycling, chess, and the rest. Fixture lists, training times, subs tracking, gear booking, AGM voting, safety settings for junior members, and an archive of past seasons.
Open Village Clubs → Read about this Village →Village Carpool
Wellington–Lower Hutt Commute — commute carpool
A regular group of commuters sharing rides. Rota, cost-splitting, route preferences, and the handy bit: members can call each other through the app without swapping phone numbers. No matching with strangers, and no leftover contact details when someone leaves.
Open Village Carpool → Read about this Village →Ready to begin?
In a demo you can try anything — post, edit, invite, upload — and it all rolls back at the nightly reset. If you'd like a real Village of your own — for a community, family, club, business, or organisation, invitation-only and hosted here in New Zealand or Europe — tell us about it. We'll help you set it up and stay hands-on for the first month while your group finds its feet.
Start Your Own Village →