I’ve been thinking (perhaps too much) about digital sovereignty recently. As a Canadian, the idea that we need to have independent, domestic control over our digital infrastructure, data, and policy has been a widely debated topic with fresh urgency.
As an individual, I think there are three reasons for considering the location of our technology choices:
Canadians' quite reasonable dislike for Trump and MAGA trolling of our country. This is all intertwined with our trade war and various boycotts.
Interest in supporting new Canadian providers that could, ultimately, help enhance Canada’s competitive advantages and economy.
The first reason is both totally understandable and the least important in the long run.
Adopting Indie Web principles and good technology practices (like reliable backups) mostly take care of the second reason. I own my own domain name and use it for my blog, social networking, and email. The domain registrar is Hover, a Canadian company based in Toronto. I can readily swap out backend providers for my blog or email without too much trouble. The Micro.Blog service that I’m using does have an option to use EU servers, instead of US ones, but that’s only swapping one foreign government for another (though one of them is much more reliable these days). So, a nice feature to have available that I won’t enable for now.
Given I like tinkering with technology, the third reason has some appeal. I’m trying two specific services for this reason.
I’ve switched to Augure as my AI service. Not only is it Canadian-made, it also has been specifically tuned for Canadian context, which also often makes its answers more useful. Although the iOS app isn’t quite as polished as Claude’s, I’ve found the actual responses to be absolutely suitable to my needs. That said, I don’t use AI for any complex coding, so can’t comment on how well Augure works for this.
I’m dabbling with Gander.Social as a social network. In addition to being Canadian owned and operated, they also have many good ideas about how to do social networking properly that are worth supporting.
These seemed like two good places to start and I’m keen to keep exploring. I’ve found Michael Geist to be a useful resource on the policy side of this topic.
Finished reading: I like the idea of Origin Uncertain by Anatoly Liberman. The book really demonstrates well the fluidity and creativity of the English language. The chapters do get daunting though. Lots of details that are hard to keep track of and a bit of a slog 📚
Resistance in the face of bad faith and coercion is a moral end in and of itself.
🇨🇦 Of the many reasons to resist America’s bullying, this one is particularly important
🏃♂️ Approaching the time of day when, having run into work this morning, I debate if I should just take the train back. The return run seemed like a much better idea this morning
Finished reading: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky was a fun read. Tchaikovsky is great at creating interesting aliens and having humans struggle to understand them 📚
After fifteen years of renting various cottages in the area, my wife and I are very excited to have purchased a property in Haliburton.
This had been our long-term retirement plan: sell the Toronto home and move up there year round. So, we’ve been keeping an eye on the market and happened to find the right place at the right price. After renting seven different places on seven different lakes, we had a very clear sense of what we wanted and this one had all the right attributes. We’re just about ten-years earlier than planned.
Our rental experience always felt very contained. We’d go up for two or three (glorious) weeks. Then pack all of our stuff back up and plan for the next year. Now we’re in this new circumstance of being able to go up north on any particular weekend. This flexibility really extends the experience which infuses our weekly planning with the potential of getting out of the city and up to the lake.
I’ll confess that it is very surreal to reach what seemed like an unattainable goal and I don’t want to take this for granted. We are very fortunate to be able to do this. That said, I do now have a whole new list of projects, decisions, and expenses to manage. This is both exciting and daunting.
🎵 Song of the week for my daughter —
Lovers In A Dangerous Time by Bruce Cockburn from Stealing Fire (Deluxe Edition). “Got to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight” is a great line
We really enjoyed having so many friends and family join us for our fifth, and final, year renting the Torch Lake cottage. Such a special place!
As our vacation gets near the end, I’ll miss this view
🎵 Song of the week for my daughter —
Feather, Fur & Fin by Danny Michel from Feather, Fur & Fin. A conservation biologist’s theme song with a fun horn section
🏃♂️ At 335m, my watch tells me this is the largest elevation gain of the year
Finished reading: Aubrey McKee by Alex Pugsley is a delight. Great writing and quirky characters, along with nostalgia for my own childhood. Recommended via Paul Wells 📚
Thanks to my sister for bringing these whiskeys from the Elora Distilling Company. I’m starting with the Royal Amber
Because the only metric by which you can actually judge a productivity system is this: did it allow you to produce something or not?
A good reminder for those of us that spend too much time adjusting our systems
🏊♂️ The lake was like glass for this afternoon’s swim
My daughter captured me in full cottage vacation mode: a beer in one hand and book in the other
🎶 After hearing my son and nephew rehearsing Is What It Is by Chance Peña, I’ve been a bit obsessed with it. They were practicing for an upcoming campfire concert at their summer camp, where there was recently a tragedy. Watching the campers comfort each other through the tragedy seemed resonant with the song’s lyrics
Finished reading: The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan is a compelling story about justice and the law. A great start to the series 📚
