Hello there! 👋
How is your summer treating you? We did a lot of travel as a family (link from the blog down below) in August but this month was also one of events.
Although part of the organizing committee, I could not attend DWeb Camp Cascadia (a few parting pics) since I was in Quebec. I did go to the retrospective meeting afterwards which had way more people than expected show up, all asking the same question: "You are doing this again next year, right?!" I suppose we better.
I spent a week in New York organizing and running Protocols for Publishers on behalf of Unternet. We had an amazing collection of publishers (Washington Post, Semafor, ProPublica, and more) in the room and I really look forward to convening more of this community both online and at future in person events (London next?). Check some of the media coverage here.
After PfP I attended the ATProto NYC Community Hack Day & Evening Social in Brooklyn. I met up with some old friends from ATmosphere in Seattle in March and a ton of cool new people in the atproto ecosystem. That ecosystem is getting much more mature and I am considering moving more of my online services to alternatives on atproto (things like hackmd, book tracking, and even long-form blogging!).
To be honest, I was a bit freaked out about going to the US, and that was before I saw this report showing how border searches of devices have reached a new high. I wiped my phone and laptop, loading them both with innocuous data before crossing the border. That was an ordeal. Setting everything up again (apps, credit cards, etc) is a giant pain, but doing it from another country just adds complexity. Travelling to Iran was a lot easier.
Anyways, I love doing events. I am already scheming on doing something here in Surrey to build more community, and there are some cool things coming up in the fall (Check out my running list of Interesting Conferences in 2025).
Enjoy the rest of the summer. Hopefully your Back to School isn’t too hectic.
Best,
Chad
🖋 From the Blog
Summer Travel
Travelogue by bullet point
Why BrainRot
What choice do teens have?
🧭 Elsewhere
Slashpages.net Link →
Hit 500 consecutive days of meditation 🧘 Link →
“What was the internet like when you were a boy?” Image →
Historical Tech Tree Visualization Link →
Charming website design Link →
Jesse Welles doesn’t just write protest music Video →
📖 What I’m Reading
Living Theravada: Demystifying the People, Places, and Practices of a Buddhist Tradition by Brooke Schedneck
(18% Complete)
I was feeling pretty frazzled on the road and wanted to read something that calmed my mind, so I grabbed this off the old To Read pile. Subconsciously I may be preparing for my week long retreat at Birken Monastery at the end of September. I am going to spend that retreat re-thinking about how I engage with Buddhism. It has been too long since I completed my Upasika training, and I might need a new structured approach.
Connect with me on GoodReads → or on Bookwyrm →