Northfield resident Aleda Jonquil’s family tree is full of hardworking immigrants who stayed on their feet despite challenges, and that sort of moxie serves her well as she launches an online platform that flies in the face of aspects of the digital world that leave many users feeling frustrated.
Jonquil’s new platform, Trulee, makes use of internet conveniences while prioritizing human connection.
“I dropped Facebook because of its ties to authoritarianism and censorship,” Jonquil said. “Most social media platforms bombard users with ads, notifications and upsetting content.”
Yet, after dumping Facebook, Jonquil said she “felt the void, and yearned to create a safe, free and private platform that could make communities stronger.”
Trulee went live last month at trulee.social. The site is free, funded only by Jonquil and through donations.
Jonquil’s brainstorm resulted from the 2024 election.
“Social media spread propaganda and polarized people more than ever,” she said. “Harmful engagement tactics reached toxic levels, increasing people’s anxiety.”
Jonquil was also motivated by personal preferences; Trulee allows users to group contacts into “circles” so they can tailor requests when looking for social connections.
“One obstacle for me is feeling stalled when texting friends and waiting to hear back,” she said. “Trulee is perfect for spontaneous situations.”
In designing the platform, Jonquil skipped the buzz and chatter; there are no notifications, and users have full control.
“Everything that would be a notification is in your Bulletin Board,” Jonquil said, “and you choose when you look at it. And everything’s paginated, so there are natural stopping points.”
There’s a distinctive feature: “Every [Trulee user] has a Light Circle and a Light that you can switch on and off,” Jonquil noted. “When you turn it on, friends in your Light Circle — and only those people — can see it. It indicates that you’re feeling social and you can indicate your energy level, whether you want people to come to you or whether you’re willing to go out, and other details.”
Users can decide for themselves what sorts of content they’d like to see, too.
“You can exclude food posts, political posts or people’s vacation photos,” she added. “It’s all up to you.”
An aspect called Your Journal keeps everything users write private by default and allows various organizational methods.
“It shows what you’ve shared and what you’ve kept private,” Jonquil said. “You can add a poll to anything you write, which makes it a good place for group discussions. Trulee continuously offers users choices about who to share content with. You’re protected because for every page, you determine who to share with.”
Posts are designed to expire.
“To save a post, you transfer it to a Saved Posts category,” Jonquil explained. “The feed is a combination of all sections, showing whatever you have permission to see. But unlike a normal feed, you can choose and change which sections appear and use your lens to filter content.”
Skills gained during Jonquil’s career as a senior software engineer enabled her to design and build Trulee from the ground up.
“I’ve built websites, done app development and performed systems upgrades,” she said.
She used her expertise to tailor Trulee to align with her wish list.
“Trulee doesn’t sell or share anyone’s data, and content isn’t used to train AI,” she continued. She also created the software without engaging Amazon Web Services, the ubiquitous cloud computing platform.
Jonquil comes by her innovative spirit honestly. Describing her family members as “scrappy” would be an understatement. Jonquil is three-quarters Italian and one-quarter Polish.
“That was a common ethnic makeup of people in Utica, New York, where I grew up,” she said. “My dad’s parents emigrated from Italy, and my mom is half Italian and half Polish.”
Her father was a self-taught mechanic who never attended high school, yet developed skills in many arenas.
“He taught himself oil painting, and played a lot of chess,” said Jonquil, whose father became regionally well-known for his artwork. Jonquil’s mother was creative as well, expressing herself through drawings.
Jonquil’s mother’s story is one of resilience and courage.
“My mom was 20 years older than her youngest sister,” Jonquil said. “Both of their parents died by the time mom’s youngest sister was 4.”
Jonquil’s mother raised her orphaned sibling as her own child, alongside her biological children.
“I come from smart, inventive people who lacked opportunities,” she said. Jonquil is only the second person on her father’s side of the family to graduate from high school. “The unspoken rule was that you’d better do well, since there’s no cushion.”
In addition to curating Trulee, Jonquil runs Dome Space, which specializes in technical strategy and modernization consulting (visit domespace.dev).
“I can oversee the process of full system assessment and provide a roadmap for incrementally modernizing where it’s important, while keeping existing systems functioning,” she explained. “I can help people integrate AI into their workflows where it will make a positive impact, and provide technical guidance and management of existing IT departments.”
Despite her expertise in the digital world, Jonquil remains rooted in earthier aspects. To celebrate the launch of Trulee, she participated in the skillet toss at Conway’s Festival of the Hills.
“Mine was the shortest toss,” she said, “but I did it!”
Describing herself as a “forest-punk engineer and full-stack wizard,” Jonquil loves helping others navigate complexities to realize their dreams: “People come to me with ideas, and I figure out how to make them real.”
Eveline MacDougall is one of the least tech-savvy people on the planet, yet she admires those who engage in the digital world with expertise while remaining human. She can be reached at evelinemacdougall@gmail.com.