Tangled Web

From my earliest days of work, I was warned about an affliction that might threaten my career.This affliction was known as the hole in the CV or the gap in the résumé.Anyone who contracted this dreaded disease, I was told, would likely never get a decent job again.As a coder in my early twenties, I calculated the consequences of this admonition. If I were to be allowed no gaps in my résumé, then I'd have to spend my entire life working. I'd be coding every day, every year, every decade until I dropped dead.It was as if I were being warned never to do anything interesting with my life.So I did what any self-respecting twenty-something would do. I quit. I left my decent job as a coder and didn't get another one. I wrote a book. I went to Antarctica.I've spent the decades since peppering my CV with as many holes as I possibly can.Here's how one technology has entrenched the idea of job after job after job, and how another technology promises to explode that convention.—The technology that has entrenched the idea of job after job after job is, of course, LinkedIn.The technology promises to explode that convention is Polywork.The many things I'm working on include Open Web Mind, Tangled Web, The Last Theory, The Quit Work Project, things made thinkable and goodwoodglobes.You can find me on Polywork at polywork.com/markjeffery.—I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Martin Feld believes in RSS, the protocol for getting podcasts out there, so much that he used the letters RSS to name his Really Specific Stories podcast.Why? Because RSS is open. No one controls it. Anyone can put out a podcast on RSS.In our short conversation, Martin and I talk about tech podcasting, touching on his research into how it fits into the media landscape, and how fandom and persona influence how people show up on podcasts.Above all, we discuss why it's so important that podcasting remain open.You can find Martin's podcasts Hemispheric Views at hemisphericviews.com and Really Specific Stories at www.rsspod.net, and you can find out more about what Martin's up to at martinfeld.infoI release this podcast as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Tarek Madany Mamlouk is all about tech content.From hour-long multi-host podcasts through snappy YouTube explainers to TikToks, he has it all covered.What are the different demands of each format? How do you repurpose content from audio to video and vice versa? When will it work as is and when will the recording need to be adapted to the different medium?Join Tarek and me for our lively conversation about tech content creation.You can find Tarek's podcasts The Innovation Engineer at tie-pod.com and Tech Review at techreview.axelspringer.com.–I release this podcast as a video too! Watch here.I recorded this podcast using Riverside because it's a brilliant way to record high-quality audio and video. This is an affiliate link, so if you're interested in using Riverside to record your own podcasts, I'd be forever grateful if you'd click here to check it out and support my podcasting at the same time!Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Alexandra Arens is host of the Venly Expert Talks podcast, where she releases weekly conversations about all things web3.I wanted to talk to Alexandra as part of my deep dive into tech podcasting, to help me with where I'm going with this podcast.We talk about how tech podcasters can differentiate themselves in a crowded space, how video can help with the notorious issue of discoverability, and the strengths and weaknesses of podcasting as a medium for talking about tech.And we dive into web3: the good, the bad and the scammy.You can listen to Alexandra every week on the Venly Expert Talks podcast, and you can connect with her on LinkedIn.—Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Tangled Web is about tech, not investment. It's for information purposes only and you should not base any investment decisions on it. Do your own research.—I release this podcast as a video too! Watch here.I recorded this podcast using Riverside because it's a brilliant way to record high-quality audio and video. This is an affiliate link, so if you're interested in using Riverside to record your own podcasts, I'd be forever grateful if you'd click here to check it out and support my podcasting at the same time!Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

I've reached a pivot point with Tangled Web.I don't quite know where I'm going to be taking it from here.Rather than decide in isolation, I thought I'd let you know what I'm thinking.If you have any thoughts, do let me know what you're thinking, too!—Check out my very first article, podcast or video, The web has only just begun, for a brief introduction to the Open Web Mind.—I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Facebook is dead.I'm aware that this is a bold statement, seeing as 3½ billion people are on Facebook.That's a sizeable user base for a dead tech giant.How do I know that Facebook is dead?Here's the clue: Facebook won't let me give them money.—According to Statista, in 2020, 97.9% of Facebook's revenue came from advertisingCheck out my wood-carved maps and globesSign up for Facebook at facebook.com ... let me know whether you succeed!Yep, I really do want to implement the Open Web Mind in virtual reality—Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Tangled Web is about tech, not investment. It's for information purposes only and you should not base any investment decisions on it. Do your own research.—I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Why does nothing work on the web?Well, you've heard of a single point of failure, right? It's when just one thing going wrong can cause everything to fail.That is not the problem with the web.It's way worse than that.On the web, there are single points of failure every step of the way.The web is so complex – so many different things have to work together – that a small chance of any one of them failing adds up to a strong chance that things won't work.How did this happen?I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

One of the reasons I launched Tangled Web was to talk about the Open Web Mind.It's my most ambitious project.Put as simply as possible, the Open Web Mind is a protocol for shared human intelligence.How to get started on such an enormous project?Take the first step. Then take the next step. Keep going until you're taking steps you could never have anticipated. That's how.Here are the 7 steps that I anticipate will take me to the Open Web Mind.If you'd like to stay up-to-date with my progress on the Open Web Mind, subscribe to Tangled Web, where I'll be talking about it regularly.I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

A friend asked me: What is Bitcoin?I think she was expecting a long answer. Every explanation of Bitcoin I've ever heard has gone deep into cryptography, blockchain, mining and Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency's semi-mythical creator.Instead, I gave my friend a short answer.What is Bitcoin?It's money.It's just that, unlike the dollars we're more familiar with, it's not issued by a government.It's issued by an algorithm.That's it.Well, I do have a little more to say in today's episode.I don't go into cryptography, blockchain, mining or Satoshi Nakamoto, but I do go a little deeper into what it means that Bitcoin is money that's issued by an algorithm, not a government.—Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Tangled Web is about tech, not investment. It's for information purposes only and you should not base any investment decisions on it. Do your own research.I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

“Why do there have to be so many?“ a friend asked me recently.All she wanted to do was save an image (simple, right?) but she faced a bewildering array of possible file formats: .png, .jpg, .gif, .tiff, .tga, and on and on.How's anyone who's not a file format expert meant to choose?Here's my account of what happens when file formats breed: who benefits, who bears the costs, and why it happens.—Pei-Yuan Wei created a version of the ViolaWWW web browser for X terminals in the year 1990.I use elevation data from the US Geological Survey (USGS) to carve three-dimensional mountain maps out of wood.Recently, the USGS ditched the GeoTIFF format in favour of Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF.—I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

When you start work on an ambitious project, you're forced to make many foundational decisions.It's hard to know the consequences of each and every one of those decisions. Will this decision help the project thrive? Will that decision constrain it?The solution is to establish the fundamental principles of the project right from the start. That way you can simply ask of any decision: is it consistent with those principles?That's what I did when I started work on my most ambitious project, the Open Web Mind.Here, then, are 7 principles of the Open Web Mind.I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Welcome to Tangled Web.I'm Mark Jeffery, and this is a quick message to let you know that I'm switching to an every-other-week schedule for Tangled Web over the summer.I have long list of tech topics I want to talk about, and you'll get another full episode in your podcast player next Tuesday, and every other Tuesday after that.The reason for the switch?Well, as well as getting out into the wilderness over the summer, I want to have time to work on the Open Web Mind, the inspiration behind Tangled Web.I'm really enjoying creating this conversation about where we are now and where we're going with the web, and about the Open Web Mind in particular. I hope to continue it long into the future.If you're enjoying it too, please leave a rating and review in your podcast player!It'll really help other people find the podcast and help me attract more great guests.So if you're able to spare a couple of minutes to leave a rating and review right now, I'd be truly grateful!Thanks so much for being part of Tangled Web.I'll talk to you again on Tuesday!Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Everyone agrees that we need to do something about Facebook, Google, Apple and Twitter.Well, almost everyone. As I said in Episode #013, Everyone wants to fix Facebook (listen or watch), I'd prefer we did nothing. But that's just me.Given that the something-must-be-done mob is likely to win, here are three ways we could fix Facebook: the worst way, the not-quite-so-bad way and (let me dream a little) the best way.—“Of the top 10 companies by market capitalization at the turn of the century, only one is still in the top 10 twenty years later” – 2001 v 2021 – Michael Mauboussin on the Acquired podcastI release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

When I quit my job to go all in on my own projects, I had to make a decision.I had so many ideas.Should I pursue several of these ideas at the same time? That way, I'd increase the odds that one of them would take off.Or should I focus on a single idea? That way, I could put all my time and energy into making it a success.Many small bets or one big bet?—Today's episode is from an article I published on Indie Hackers this weekIndie builders I mention: Pieter Levels Arvid Kahl Josh Pigford My biggest idea is the Open Web MindYou can find all my projects at markjeffery.comI release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

There are a lot of numbers on the web.Table after table gives you column after column and row after row of numbers.If only there were a way to visualize all those values.Here's how the Open Web Mind might make sense of all the numbers on the web.—This episode follows on from a previous post on Tangled Web:A visualization from the Open Web MindOpen Web Mind:Open Web MindWikipedia: List of chemical elements Atomic radii data page Electrical resistivities data page Thermal conductivities data page things made thinkable: things made thinkable Atoms Planets NASA:NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive – Planetary Fact SheetLicensing: Content from Wikipedia reproduced under CC BY-SA 3.0 Content from NASA reproduced under US Government Works License I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The defining characteristic of our times is this: everyone wants to tell everyone else what to do.Especially when it comes to Facebook.Twitter, too. And TikTok. But mostly Facebook.Everyone want to fix Facebook.Here's why I, for one, would rather leave Facebook alone.I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Doc Williams' YouTube channels – Doc Williams and Maker Tech Tools – cover a wide range of just the kind of tech topics that interest me.I especially wanted to talk to him when I saw that he'd created NFTs called Atom Bomb Bunnies using no-code tools.No-code meets web3: that's irresistible!You can connect with Doc Williams on Twitter @_docwilliams or on his YouTube channels Doc Williams and Maker Tech Tools—Doc Williams mentioned: 100 days of no-code Sabrina's Workshop – his wife's YouTube channel as well as these people: Max Haining @HainingMax KP @thisiskp_ Noah Kagan @noahkagan and these tools: AppSumo buildspace thirdweb Procreate MetaMask I release this podcast as a video too! Watch here.I recorded this podcast using Riverside because it's a brilliant way to record high-quality audio and video. This is an affiliate link, so if you're interested in using Riverside to record your own podcasts, I'd be forever grateful if you'd click here to check it out and support my podcasting at the same time!Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Tangled Web is about tech, not investment. It's for information purposes only and you should not base any investment decisions on it. Do your own research.

Packy McCormick takes a simple approach to podcasting.On most episodes of his Not Boring podcast, about web3 and startup strategy, he simply reads his latest newsletter.This works for me as a listener. I don't have much time to read. I do have time to listen: while I'm driving, while I'm doing the dishes, while I'm working out.Simply by reading what he's written, Packy widens his audience to include me and countless other podcast-first people.But a wider audience isn't the only reason I've adopted Packy's podcast style.Here are some even more compelling reasons: writing helps you think writing helps you talk talking helps you write You can connect with Packy McCormick on Twitter @packyM, read his writing at notboring.co and find his podcast by searching for Not Boring in your player.I release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

The Open Web Mind is my most ambitious project.It's what I work on when I'm not writing articles or recording podcasts.It's so ambitious that it's difficult to know where to start when talking about it.When I talk expansively to my friends about what the Open Web Mind could be, they come away confused about what it is.So I'm going to start small and specific.Today I talk about a visualization of Startup Hubs around the world, and how the Open Web Mind made it easy to generate.—Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021Startup GenomeMy visualization of Startup Genome's top 40 startup ecosystemsthings made thinkableOpen Web MindI release Tangled Web as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

How much time do we lose when important emails end up in our spam folders? How many opportunities do we miss out on?We tend not to think about it, because we tend to think that there's nothing we can do about it.We think of spam filters as if they're forces of nature.They're not.Spam filters are software written by the likes of Google and Microsoft: software so bad that the most innocuous emails from my closest friends and family are being classified as spam these days.There's a reason spam filters are so bad... and getting worse.I release this podcast as a video too! Watch here.The full article is here.Kootenay Village Ventures Inc.

Fraser Gorrie advocates no-code first. He'll write code when he has to, but only when he has to.Find out how Fraser uses no-code to better serve his clients.This is a continuation my series about no-code. If you're interested in no-code, you can also check out Episode #004 with Lola Ojabowale: What is no‑code and why does it matter? You can listen to the audio or watch the video.If you'd like to connect with Fraser, you can reach him on Twitter @frasergorrie or on his web site frasergorrie.com.Prefer to watch the video? Watch here.I recorded this podcast using Riverside because it's a brilliant way to record high-quality audio and video. This is an affiliate link, so if you're interested in using Riverside to record your own podcasts, I'd be forever grateful if you'd click here to check it out and support my podcasting at the same time!

Try the free online toolThis is one for all the Indie Hackers out there.If you're interested in starting a side hustle, or a full-on startup, you might be finding it hard to decide which of your dozens of business ideas you should focus on.Here's how I evaluate my own ideas.I've made it into a free online tool, where you'll be able to calculate a score for each of your ideas.Do try out the tool on your ideas: it's really easy to use.And let me know what you think: what I got right, what I got wrong, and what I missed entirely.Try the free online toolPrefer to watch the video? Watch here.

I've never been convinced that we really need web3.You know, web3: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, smart contracts, NFTs and all that.These blockchain technologies are all pretty nifty, but do we really need them?Isn't the blockchain just a seriously slow, extremely expensive, disastrously distributed database?Well, something weird just happened to me that helped convince me that we do need web3.It's going to sound absurd, but bear with me.There's a point to all this, I promise.Prefer to watch the video? Watch here.The full article is here.

I neglected my visualizations web site, things made thinkable, for too long. Here's what I did to bring it back to life: Fixed the aspect ratio Made it reactive Embraced SVG Started a mailing list Stopped reusing code Switched to newer fonts Reduced bloat Added social meta tags Started tweeting about it Quit my jobs —Animating PNG images: Prototype, script.aculo.us and jQueryAnimating SVG: Snap.svgWeb-safe fontsMy go-to fonts: Bellefair and LatoSelf-hosting fontsBloatware: jsSocials, Font Awesome and Google AnalyticsMeta tagsMy Twitter handle: @markjjefferyAnother of my podcasts: The Quit Work PodcastCompare and contrast my first visualization:Trillion Dollar Economies (circa 2010, 960px wide)with my latest:Rivers of the Atlantic (circa 2022, scalable)Prefer to watch the video? Watch hereThe full article is here

I'm the worst person to talk about no-code: I always want to code everything from scratch!So I asked Lola Ojabowale from Lunch Pail Labs to help me out.We talked about how the no-code revolution is helping people build everything from simple web sites to complex SaaS products, without writing a line of code.And we talked about why it matters: how no-code makes software innovation permissionless and available to ever more people.You can find links to all Lola's content at lola.fyi or you can connect with her on Twitter at @ojabowalola.Lola mentioned these no-code products: Bubble Atomic Fusion Yep.so – I love Yep's value proposition: “Kill your terrible ideas faster.“ Figma Zapier Integromat Lola also mentioned Riverside, the product I used to record this podcast, because it's a brilliant way to record high-quality audio and video. This is an affiliate link, so if you're interested in using Riverside to record your own podcasts, I'd be forever grateful if you'd click here to check it out and support my podcasting at the same time!Prefer to watch the video? Watch here.

Today, I bought a mirror.It cost $200. Not bad for a mirror, especially one this big.How big? Well, I'm not sure exactly. Maybe 20 feet high? Maybe 200 feet high?Truth is, I can't see the mirror I bought, because it doesn't exist in this universe.It's in the metaverse.And, unfortunately, I can't get there to go take a look.—This is my first attempt to make sense of probably the most arcanely-named tech innovation ever: Non-Fungible Tokens.You can check out the mirrors designed by J. Demsky at Anima.Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. Tangled Web is about tech, not investment. It's for information purposes only and you should not base any investment decisions on it. Do your own research.Prefer to watch the video? Watch here.The full article is here.

When we talk about the creator economy, we're talking about people doing creative work, on their own or with a few others.Here's the thing.If you're not in the creator economy, I have some bad news for you: you're out of a job. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But some day, and for the rest of your life.Pretty soon, the creator economy, along with the caring economy, will be the economy.That's a good thing. Here's why.–Prefer to watch the video? Watch hereThe full article is here–“less than 3% of us are employed in textiles, farming and mining” – 2,349,000 in agriculture, 684,000 in mining and 444,000 in textiles out of a total of 147,795,000 employed in the US in 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

There was a feeling, during the dot.com bust in the year 2000, that the web was over.It wasn't.Back then, the web had only just begun.There's a feeling again now, with a few tech giants mediating so much of what we do online, that the web is all tied up.It isn't.Even now, the web has only just begun.

Welcome to Tangled Web, a conversation about where we are now and where we're going with the web.I believe that the web will continue to evolve exponentially for decades to come.I believe that the future web will be more free, more open and more human than ever.On Tangled Web, I talk about the tech transformations that could change everything.Join me for fresh insights into the future of the web every other week: subscribe to the free newsletter, podcast or YouTube channel at tangledweb.mediaThe web has only just begun.