Hello friends,
please enjoy this podcast episode with
[read: chic].Xiq founded the community archive, an open database and API that’s based on people uploading their tweet archives voluntarily. Xiq is also an event host, hosting XiqWeek! in 2023 and Portal in 2024.
Xiq and I met at Ananta’s birthday in Berlin in 2022, which was a big Proto-TPOT event for me. I met xiq IRL before ever seeing him on Twitter. I started yapping about something, and he had a very sharp and smart reply, and I thought, holy shit, this guy is onto something! It was a key moment of feeling like I wasn’t alone in “being onto something” anymore. At XiqWeek! I came up with the meme that xiq is an academic thinkboi philosopher and I’m a simpleton farmer philosopher. A good mix.
Our conversation takes place on 15 August 2024, shortly after Portal, and the inception of the community archive. We talk about our backstory, and get into an interesting tension field between working “from the scene”, as in using and delivering tpot wisdom towards the free market, or “for the scene”, as in furthering the scene with events, resources and attention. At some point we notice the tension and I think we’re doing a pretty good job at navigating it skillfully.
Very fittingly, xiq is a big proponent of the “it’s all part of the same elephant” metaphor, and I feel like we are modeling a great live example of “hey we’re actually talking about the same thing”.
So what do you think? Building for the scene? Building from the scene? Can we agree on “building!!!”? Thanks for listening and catch you soon!
Xiq on Twitter: https://twitter.com/exgenesis
Xiq about Portal: https://substack.com/home/post/p-147528202
Xiq’s manifesto v0.1: https://substack.com/home/post/p-143990054
Community Archive: https://www.community-archive.org/
My links:
Website: https://simonohler.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/simon_ohler
Substack: https://nowsimon.substack.com
YouTube: https://youtube.com/nowSimon
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