Who is Nick?

Asking all my life.

  • Governance and Orality

    I’ve been digging into a thought for the past week starring out into the void wondering what to do next.

    With Decentralized/Federated Social Media, I’m seeing a lot of discussions on how do we want to run ourselves? Ethical, rights, power and other conversations all around and to do with Governance.

    Before I do continue, here’s something I use as my framework

    My Web Pyramid

    Like Maslow’s Pyramid, here’s how I picture the evolution of the web.

    Web 1 – Media (publishing)
    Web 2 – Communication* (2 way communication)
    Web 3 – Economies
    Web 4 – Governance
    Web 5 – Citizenship

    And like Maslow’s theory, these layers aren’t independent, and we are always in flux as we go up and down depending on social need.

    * Update: I previously have called Web 2 “Community”, but I’m rejigging that thought a bit.

    Decentralized?

    Could this pyramid be more about a decentralized, autonomous, or independent web? Could this be about scale and accessibility? 🤷

    Not just the ability to publish, but at an economical scale that it’s easy and cheap for one to publish. Just like it’s easy to discuss, or now… make your own digital currency.

    The structures of Governance

    I’ve started investigating several types of governance. Smart Contracts, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), Coops/Unions/Guilds. There are so many ways we’ve governed ourselves.

    Here’s a nice summary of options in 2 parts:

    Worldbuilding: 36 Types of Government (Part 1)
    Worldbuilding: 36 Types of Government (Part 2)

    Tech to help?

    One of the cons in all of governance is the time and effort. And that’s where I’m curious about the tech that could help. Where could it help? But some of these are it’s tricky and at scale costly.

    • AI
      • Summarize all the legalese
      • Get updates to legislation
      • Keep everyone aligned
      • Ask for advise and next steps
      • Seek feedback from
    • Decentralized and transparent ( open )
      • polling and decision making
      • identity (this one is not really a can we… it’s more like which methods)
      • law & legislation management

    Creative Commons but for governance

    Creative Commons helps me understand copyright in a way that made it accessible. It gave me tools and options I never thought of. Governance feel the same in a way.

    • Where does one start?
    • What are the options?
    • How do I pick methods and models?
    • Can I cherry pick or modify?
    • Is there a common resource option to discuss
    • Can we make it a bit more relatable?

    What it all means with Orality

    As we shift into an aliterate world we’re going to need to all understand governance a lot more.

    When England reached a literate tipping point ( 50% ) the monarchy changed dramatically. At the time of the formation of The United States it was most literate societies on the planet.

    Our governance will shift dramatically again. It’s time we have a good foundation or understanding when it does.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-05-26

    AKA: More like bi-monthly.. now with the option of daily

    I’ve been temporarily laid off. You could call it a furlough ( though no one ever used that term ).

    A string of bad luck in the world of startups. They’ll call me back if they can. We just don’t know when.

    Oh whoa is me… boo hoo boo hoo.

    Photo by Pawel Janiak on Unsplash

    My cheese was moved

    If anyone knows me, I’m the world of “who moved my cheese“, I’m not the one who’s sitting back. I lean forward and move.

    It’s time to ( in no particular order ):

    • clean the house ( seriously… I’m going into housekeeper dad mode )
    • wallow for a teensy moment while watching some Sci-fi
    • ponder the mysteries of universe and reconsider the place I want to be in it
    • Write ( aka this blog )
    • Give’er 🇨🇦

    Any plans?

    Not yet. After all it’s only day 1. I will trust my golden horseshoe and whim.

    • What does that look like right now 🤷
    • What does that look like next week 🤷
    • What does that look like next month 🤷
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  • Weeknotes 2025-03-22

    Correction: Monthnotes 2025-03-22.

    All that energy last month to mix it up, took me down. I was doing ok but then snap – damn you ADHD!

    I, of course haven’t done nothing, just different things:

    • Convert a newer/older laptop to Ubuntu
    • Remembered Drupal; saw they were trying to make a shift to simplify ( no doubt from all the “wordpress hi jinks” ) and started to remember how powerful it was when I replaced my college radio station’s site with it… that was a fun couple years.
    • Lot’s of work, and internal work weeknotes, with the hopes that someone, oh someone, will go on the ride with me. But, it’s just me sitting alone in the park.
    • Oh ya, and fighting f*!#’n mice! The scourge of Langley!

    It’s insanity! My house is a mix of towels under door jams, everything is in a box. At first you’re like, wow it’s organized, and then you’re like, which box was that in, and then your like, F!*#’n boxes!

    I’m not really much of an handy man, so the idea of figuring out what to do, is kind of super monumental at the moment.

    Then you think you’ve done enough, and then after the kids go to bed 4 of them come out of nowhere and run around like crazy teens, while your wife looses her mind, and the rest of the night, your trying to figure out not only how to get these guys out, but also do it in a way that your partner, who is now curled up in a ball mumbling “make them go away”, doesn’t fully break.

    Photo by Ryan Stone on Unsplash

    So, monthnotes it may have to be while all the energy I have left is trying to deal with that.

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  • Ong’s Oral Culture Recap

    Where was I? I’ve forgotten where I was in reflecting on Ong’s Psychodynamics of Orality with our current culture. So this recap is partly for me as it is you.

    I hope you can see where I’m going with this.

    It was coined “secondary orality” because I don’t think anyone realized how close could it get to a primary oral culture?

    In the thick of academia and logic, it’s hard to imagine. However, with recent events unfolding before our eyes, I think we’re realizing, perhaps it’s closer that we thought.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-02-22

    Now with Shit Goggles!

    I’m usually a happy-go-lucky look-on-the-bright-side-of-life kinda guy, but seems like not been so much.

    My wife had to have a hard talk with me.

    And now, boy oh boy do I hear it. The back handed comments, the “sure this is good, but….” amendments to every sentence.

    So, what do I do? These things feel a little glued on right now. So I’m going to focus on the small things. The things I can change. I’m going to break a pattern or two, ever so slightly.

    Breaking patterns, even the smallest pattern, by the fewest of moments, means you can change the big things.

    It’s a twist on the classic making your bed speech.

    Hold off on picking up your phone for 20seconds once in the morning, then tomorrow you can wait 22; then 30; then a minute; then 5; then 15; then 30; then an hour; then longer.

    Go to bed 1 minute earlier.

    Get up 10 minutes earlier

    Sit on the opposite side of the couch.

    Instead of doing X – try doing Y, just once a day.

    And when my patterns can change, hopefully the shit can crack a little, and a little more until it rolls away, and I can get to that happy-go-lucky look-on-the-bright-side-of-life kinda guy.

    Oh ya – and I was inspired by Derek Sivers’s now page so, I have one too now.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-02-07

    Way things are going, it’s been more bi-weekly updates. But the thing with weeknotes, remind myself, that’s ok. Keep Calm and Post on.

    Laravel & Statamic

    I’ve really been reading more and digging into Laravel, specifically Statamic.

    I’ve been looking for a foundation to do my own ActivityPub “thing”. I have my own ideas on what it can do, should do, and with a plugin.. maybe… 🤔

    Other ActivityPub thoughts

    I don’t want to re-invent the wheel, there’s a lot of really good foundational apps already in the wild. WP’s ActivityPub plugin is fine. I also really like what’s going on with Ghost. But, Statamic and Known have caught my eye from an infrastructure perspective.

    • Statamic being having more jazz hands, flare, and a very vocal and fun loving community
    • Known having a really portable and rock solid underbelly and foundation.

    Reading through the ActivityPub specs, there’s a lot of really interesting possibilities, however right now, it feels like projects are mostly staying in their own lanes. Taking a smaller lane approaches, which makes total sense. However, I really want to “play” with the whole specification; more extreme possibilities, like IntransitiveActivity:

    • Replace Last.fm scrobble with something in ActivityPub
    • If we’re going old school, Fouresquare check-in’s.
    • The Quantified Self all via ActivityPub

    But more than that – I’m imagining a more monolithic app rather than micro-service approach to it all. One that doesn’t need fancy cloud hosts or only a hand full of hosts offer support for crazy languages ( not that I can’t set those thing up… ). I just want to sftp it on a classic host and go from there.

    But as always no time

    Yet as always, I am bound by a 3 years old and 6 year old that rule my world ( btw: I love that they do ). I’m still struggling to find a balance to get some “me” time. And when I do, being at a computer is not always what I want – I’m on it all day after all.

    So hey, if you you ever want to chat more with me, ask away on the socials. Want to take it on yourself and beat me to it? Who’s got two thumbs and can beta test. Have at it.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-01-24

    Noticed I missed last week did you?

    “the void in your mind when you forget to do something because you’re so overwhelmed”

    It’s been that kinda few weeks where one gets sucked into the suck of the web. I’m Canadian, I have a lot of hope, but man… that hope is being tested for sure. I think we need to come up with some other name for doom scrolling… it’s not so much doom as WTF.

    I’ve been trying to pick the pieces up from my last weeknotes. I had a nice hiatus celebrating my Wife’s Birth Week ( yup a whole week here, full of zany 3yr & 6yr old ideas for how to celebrate ). Topping off with a great no-kids bday party which opened a window just a little bit in my immune system for me to then be smote down by some good awful bug. One that taunts you be being healthy just enough during the day to try and work or feel really guilty for not, and then when the sun sets, the beast is released in a rage of heat and chills.

    So, in the end, those pieces I’ve been trying to pick up off the ground, pieces of my ego, hope, drive… ya, those are mostly still on the ground being gently shuffled over by a dirty slipper to make a path to my bed.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-01-10

    I’ll keep if brief.

    How I feel at work

    How I feel at home

    Update: Haha! it’s 2025, not 2024. Let’s change that title shall we. I’ve since typed 2024 10,000 more times by accident.

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  • Weeknotes 2025-01-04

    You know, sometimes you start the day tripping over something in the dark trying to get up quietly no to wake anyone up. Then you bang around and the whole house is awake?

    That feels like the beginning of my year.

    I’m not going to jinx it, because I remember that on those day’s, while it take a bit, I do get some semblance of recovery.

    Missions

    My weeknotes for work ( I do them on an internal blog ) was about setting missions. I used to do Chris Brogans 3 Words. But right now, that seems much to much. I’m going to focus a but more low key on smaller missions this year. What’s my mission today? this week? Nothing more, nothing longer.

    The goal, if I choose to accept, is simply complete the mission.

    Is work not that into me?

    One mission I have is to get people at work sharing. There’s something about our communication that feels too silent for a relatively small, all remote, growth stage company.

    Part of the difficulty of working all remote, is something you feel like “they just aren’t that into me”. Which most of the time that’s not the case. Silence, when you don’t want it, is probably the hardest part of remote working. You go a bit zany. The more asynchronous communication processes you can instill, can help with those moments.

    Right now, I’m feeling it.

    And I want to fix it.

    Designing my life

    My outside work mission? To get into the drivers seat to design my life. There’s a few exercises I’m stuck on, but one foot in front of the other. I’ll get there. I’m saying it out loud on a blog on the internet, so it must come true – By the end of the year I’ll be prototyping and experimenting with life idea’s.

    Happy 2025!

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  • Weeknotes 2024-12-27 +1

    Missed it by that much

    This week has been health and family first. The rest can wait.

    I’ve had several conversations over the course of the week that have me thinking about repackaging a couple idea’s into an upcoming post:

    • The Literaty – the idea that there will always be a deep underground group of active readers.
    • Proficiently Literate – that as the US drop below 50% proficiently literate, what’s going to happen?
    • The rise of government during the rise of literacy = the reduction of oligarchy as literacy rises. What happens in the other direction?
    • I want to learn more about serfdom. I have a feeling there’s something in there that has some parallels to what we’re seeing in the world. I just can’t put my finger on it.
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