File format inflation

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.