Breaking up with technology. It’s not me. It’s you.

14 Jun 2023

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7 min read

Good afternoon friends of OPENFORMAT

Last week I went for lunch with a good friend of mine. I hadn’t seen her in months and it was such a gift to grab an hour to catch up. Of the hour we had together I would guess we spent at least 1/3 of our time talking about tech. Not new emerging tech, the conversations I find myself in daily discussing AI and the latest SEC lawsuit in the States… no, far from it. We talked about the tech we as business leaders use every day to manage businesses. She was angry. “Why can’t these things talk to each other, I’m wasting so much time finding simple things like contacts, I don’t even know where some of them are. I think they’re lost.”

We’ve all been there. Wasting time not knowing if something is in Onedrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, an email or god knows where.

Did I create that in Keynote or Powerpoint? Mural or Miro? Is it in my cloud of someone else’s? A plethora of systems to choose from and search. A list that continues to grow as the company grows and people decide to use this app or that app and suddenly it is system mayhem. (I was reading about Glean’s raise last week with a lot of excitement for these reasons, but that’s a post for another day).

Today, my experience and choice of daily tech is different. Before what I used was based on what was allowed (when I was in corporate environments) or what was the easiest, most widely accepted (in my own business). Today OPENFORMAT has a set of principles that define what we choose to use and not use and they’re highly opinionated. Our principles, authored by Mark, talk of data, privacy, consequences, inclusivity, optimism and decentralisation. They’re our core beliefs about technology and how it needs to work with people. As the author of Small is Beautiful put it in 1973:

"Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful."

Ernst F. Schumacher

We all know actions speak louder than words. And so we do our absolute best to live by these principles not just in what we’re building for developers and creators, but also how we’re working day to day. The technology we use to run and build our business everyday.

Microsoft Teams, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook no chance. Google anything, Zoom, Dropbox, nope, nope and nope. We set out to find the tools to suit our business that are in keeping with our principles and so far this is where we’ve ended up:

To dive into a few, Gather is our virtual workspace. We work in here daily and do all video conferencing in here. It’s like what I imagine Sims to be but for the office. We all have our own characters that we have designed that we can move around the ‘office’ either walking, dancing or in a go-kart. Dave has massive purple hair, Bruce a mohawk, Dan a crown. Andy designed our office area. We have a Go-karting track, individual desks, a boardroom, break out spaces, lots of trees (which is where you’ll find Mark). It’s actually awesome. You can walk over to someone’s desk and a video pops up just like that, unless they’re on do not disturb. I ‘sit’ in between Andy and Dan with a desk covered in fairy lights, a globe, plants, a nice rug and (of course) a dog by my feet.

The other day Bruce and I were chatting away and Dave popped up to say hi, just as if he walked past our desks or bumped into us in the kitchen. Dan will ping me and say, “see you in my office in 5”, it makes me chuckle every time. Each morning we can all see each other there, working away. It feels nice. We’re connected even though we’re miles apart. The mobile experience leaves something to be desired. For the first two weeks of using it I was on my mobile a lot. On one call Andy said “do you know the whole time you’re talking I can only see your mouth…” gawd. I love it.

We use Proton mail, an end-to-end encrypted email service which protects email content and user data before it’s sent to servers (unlike Gmail and Outlook). You wouldn’t think using a different email service would be that big a deal, surely all emails work the same? Well, no. It’s easy to forget the amount of effort that has gone in to making something like Outlook as simple as it is to use. I’ve missed emails entirely because of not understanding how Proton works and don’t even get me started on the calendar. But the updates are frequent and it has improved significantly even in the last 3 months, or maybe I am just a lot more used to it. Most importantly it’s principled and meets our criteria, so we’re sticking with it.

Notion. I realise I am late to this. Shared documents is what we use it for most. I love it, or I did until we had over 100 documents all in a long list now needing some organisation, the problem there lies with me though, not Notion. We have an open Data Room on there for transparent and accessible updates on OPENFORMAT.

We have a timeline too, this has tested my patience I think more than any of our technology. I like a clear, detailed timeline as anyone who has ever worked with me will know. About a month ago I reverted back to a spreadsheet (of all things!) through frustration until Andy stepped in and offered to help me. He held me to account, in the kindest and most supportive way. I’m grateful.

Telegram is our instant messenger. It enables end-to-end encrypted messaging and prioritises user privacy, therefore in keeping with our principles. It has overtaken WhatsApp and Facebook in numerous countries around the world because of its privacy. As well as 1-2-1 comms all being in here, we have a couple of group channels in Telegram. One founders channel for decisions and updates. One news and info channel where we share the latest articles, research, things we find of interest. We’re considering making it open for anyone - let me know if you’d be interested in joining.

We’re far from perfect right now. I still have my own personal Zoom for some meetings, inviting a stranger into Gather feels a bit too weird. I have one Excel for our cash flow and forecasting because it is shared with our bookkeeper (and to be honest that’s my excuse, it is easier for me). We use Github which is owned by Microsoft, we’ve had a lot of debates about this, believe me. There are a number of examples where what we use is not as aligned to our principles as we’d ideally like. But we’re at the start and we’re trying. If you have any suggestions, questions or reflections I’m all ears.

Change is hard. It is uncomfortable and some days I really just want Outlook back (a statement I never thought I would say), but we have to be the change we want to see in the world. Our principles are so much more important than a few learning bumps here and there.

With gratitude,

Sarah