iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Now this was *interesting*, and is pointing us on the path to RELAY

I've built Watershed, a free five-minute check on how well your organisation works as a system. Rate 12 plain statements and see which loops keep your problems coming back. For charities, co-ops and public services. Nothing leaves your browser. substrate.dougbelshaw.com/watershed

Landing page inviting organisations to take a five-minute systems check — headline asks "How well does your organisation work as a system?", explanatory text and a "Start the check" button at left; Venn diagram at right shows Knowing, Structure, Change overlapping at "Order" with "Chaos" at the

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 29/09/2026

I'm in Toronto for a few days over the weekend for a Mozilla Alumni gathering. I return early evening on Monday so have most of the day free if there's anyone who fancies meeting up?

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 29/09/2026

Favourite music albums of 2026 so far: 1. Fink - The City Is Coming To Erase It All 2. Boards of Canada - Inferno 3. Beck - Ride Lonesome Not necessarily always in that order. Fight me.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 28/09/2026

Trying a new thing, kind of a #weeknote but at the start of the week! Here's #Weekstarter 40/2026 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/weekstarter-...

Black and white photo of Bluebell Wood, Morpeth

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 27/09/2026

A European voice assistant for the Rabbit r1 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/carrot

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Reposted by Doug Belshaw

Tom watson @tomcw.xyz · 27/09/2026

In a world of easy answers what we really need is space and time to work reflect, adapt evolve. Maybe we need friction. tomcw.xyz/finding-fric...

tomcw.xyz

Finding friction

In a world of easy answers what we really need is space and time to work reflect, adapt evolve. Maybe we need friction.

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Reposted by Doug Belshaw

Roland Meyer @bildoperationen.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

AI #slopaganda is not so much about fakes or disinformation. It's about aligning the world with your preformulated descriptions of it, making reality disappear behind its formulaic image, rendering visible all your fears at once in order to enjoy them more. It's a technology of fascist daydreaming

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026

Those who went to private school, worked for the IDC, and advised Michael Gove don't get to criticise attempted education reforms. Or at least, at the same time as being taken seriously.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 24/09/2026

"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." – A.N. Whitehead

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 23/09/2026

Some brief reflections on #SysPrac26 – Day 2 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/sysprac26-da...

Conference name badge for the SysPrac26 / SCiO event showing an attendee's printed name and the title "Director, Dynamic Skillset" on a woven straw background.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 23/09/2026

Unexpectedly got 2 copies of CW-PUB-001 / Field Notes on Productive Friction available for purchase (limited to 50 copies, UK addresses only, no digital version) cognitivewallpaper.com DM me or contact via hello [at] dynamicskillset [dot] com Comments off here to encourage direct contact only.

cognitivewallpaper.com

Cognitive Wallpaper — Register of Publications

A register of publications on the textures of attention, the architecture of thought, and the patterns we mistake for productivity. Issue 001 exhausted. Later entries withheld.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 21/09/2026

#SysPrac26 – Day 1 substrate.dougbelshaw.com/sysprac26-da...

Sunlit branch laden with ripe blue-black sloe plums clustered among glossy green leaves, suggesting a late-summer harvest against a softly blurred woodland background.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026

Debería tomar más fotos substrate.dougbelshaw.com/debera-tomar...

A poster listing 25 photographic prompts for a public '25 Photographs' project, numbered items in green (examples: 'An empty room,' 'Someone in motion,' 'A red car') with submission details and instructions in black text.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026

Big Tech & AI: "Guilty until proven wealthy" substrate.dougbelshaw.com/big-tech-ai-...

$A photographic rendering of a smiling face emoji seen through a refractive glass grid, overlaid with a diagram of a neural network.$

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026

”Civilisation is a thin film across an ocean of chaos.” — Werner Herzog

Aerial view of a complex multi-level highway interchange with looping, ribbon-like overpasses and scattered vehicles weaving through layered lanes.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 19/09/2026

Despite all our accomplishments we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains

Partially excavated Easter Island moai statue standing upright in a deep pit, with archaeologists and ropes revealing its buried body and showing scale.

Humorous framed sign from the Farm Equipment Association of Minnesota and South Dakota reading: 'Despite all our accomplishments we owe our existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains.'

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 17/09/2026

Today I hath been in the Big Smoke at a #CoTech event, my first since @weareopen.coop closed its doors in May. Was great to see everyone! As someone said while I was in London, I am merely "between co-ops" 😉

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 16/09/2026

A friend of *mine* that I totally didn't make up works in nuclear and has moved his family to the moon with a month's supply of oxygen.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 15/09/2026

What happens when AI fades into the background (like gigabit fibre)? substrate.dougbelshaw.com/what-happens...

Bird's eye view photo of a small hut and a concrete path through a lush green forest. However, the image is slightly distorted by digital artefacts.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026

Quite excited by the potential behind what we'll be experimenting with tomorrow!

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 14/09/2026

Riffing on @danhon.com's latest and considering both sociotechnical systems and the legibility of conversations in the light of Apple's announcement of 'Live Rewind' substrate.dougbelshaw.com/the-legibili...

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 13/09/2026

I've read, and re-read @thejaymo.net's fantastic INTERNET OPERATOR zine and, in this note, share some of my favourite ideas from it: substrate.dougbelshaw.com/internet-ope...

Gif of a hand flicking through the INTERNET OPERATOR zine, showing highlighted sections

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 13/09/2026

Different ways of making zines substrate.dougbelshaw.com/different-wa...

Two hands positioning a mint-green square paper on a green gridded cutting mat with a small label reading "FRONT", surrounded by scissors, a marker, and a metal paper trimmer—preparing the sheet for measuring or cutting.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 13/09/2026

My first #zine sold out quickly. The second one will be limited-edition too, so sign up to be notified when pre-orders go live! cognitivewallpaper.com

Register of Publications document listing originator DAJ Belshaw, register opened Q3 2026, distribution "Open / Physical Only," and entries including "001 Field Notes on Productive Friction — Q3 2026 — EXHAUSTED" plus other redacted or not-yet-issued items.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 12/09/2026

Contours is an #OpenSource topographic skills-profile visualiser and #OpenBadges v3 credential generator. contours.dynamicskillset.com Define competency axes and values; the tool renders layered contour lines as a signed, portable badge you can keep, share, and reload.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 12/09/2026

Groundwork is dashboard for freelancers that lives entirely on your computer. Track your leads, income, time, and to-do list — without subscriptions, accounts, or sending your data anywhere. framagit.org/dynamicskill...

Freelancer sales and workload dashboard showing annual target progress, a pipeline board with leads/proposals/active/invoiced/paid columns and amounts, a monthly income bar chart, weekly time & capacity bars, and a prioritized next-actions task list.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 11/09/2026

I'm proud of this tool I built and use it every day: taskdial.app ❌ Treating your to-do list separately to your calendar 🤔 Adding to-do's to your calendar ✅ Showing your to-do's on a clock face along with your calendar events

Homepage hero for TaskDial with headline "Plan your day on a clock face," a Get Started CTA, and a circular 24-hour task dial showing colored activity segments and weather icons around a central clock reading Mon 7 Sept, 10:42.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 11/09/2026

Sightlines provides three interactive #SystemsThinking tools for people working in mission-driven organisations. sightlines.dynamicskillset.com It's built around 3 core aspects required to get a basic understanding of thinking in systems: boundaries, multiple perspectives, and feedback loops.

Landing page for "Sightlines," a three-tool guide for thinking through complex situations, showing an intro and call-to-action button plus three numbered cards to define system boundaries, map stakeholders' perspectives, and trace connections between elements.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 11/09/2026

Not sure if it was the whisky I drank last night but I'm giving off strong "people are wrong on the internet" vibes this morning 🥃 In fact, that would be such an awesome newsletter to curate: a catalogue of all the people who are wrong, and why. #Misanthropy #MiddleAge #SlightlyGrumpyDoug

Person sits at a desk typing at a computer, telling a voice asking Are you coming to bed that they can't because this is important: someone is wrong on the internet. Source: xkcd

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 11/09/2026

It's sad to say (and to see) but most of the academic papers citing my work these days are utter shite substrate.dougbelshaw.com/on-the-joys-...

Bar chart titled "Student Literacy Levels Based on the Belshaw Model" showing percentage scores for eight elements—Civic, Critical, Creative, Confident, Communicative, Constructive, Cognitive, Cultural—with most bars roughly between 60% and 95%.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 11/09/2026

AI-engineered superviruses probably aren't going to kill us all any time soon substrate.dougbelshaw.com/ai-engineere...

Global outbreak map showing red circles of varying size marking case concentrations across Europe, Asia, North America, Africa, and Australia, with the largest clusters visible over Europe and East Asia.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 10/09/2026

Last year, I co-authored a report for Friends of the Earth on #AI and Environmental Justice policy.friendsoftheearth.uk/reports/harn... We outlined 7 principles that activists and campaigners of all types can use as a starting point for their own work.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 10/09/2026

I've decided to attend #SysPrac26 at the end of the month substrate.dougbelshaw.com/sysprac26

Promotional poster for SysPrac26 systems-thinking conference at Cranfield University (21–22 Sept 2026), highlighting "Connecting ideas; Working with complexity; Creating positive change" and a circular diagram linking people, planet, policies, and prosperity to systems thinking.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 10/09/2026

Sightlines: a practical introduction to Systems Thinking substrate.dougbelshaw.com/sightlines-a...

Online one-hour Zoom workshop titled "Sightlines: a practical introduction to Systems Thinking" scheduled Wednesday 25 November 14:00–15:00 GMT, with a register button, short event blurb about using interactive tools to examine system boundaries and a simple diagram of connected circles.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 09/09/2026

A few months ago, I was the lead author on a values-based, practical #AILiteracy framework for public service media organisations downloads.bbc.co.uk/rd/responsib... (PDF) The research involved a landscape review, including analysis of 40 AI Literacy frameworks, 35 expert interviews & survey data.

Cover of a research report titled "Supporting AI Literacies for Young Adults Aged 14–19," presenting a value-based framework for public service media, with a large multicolored segmented ring graphic and partner logos (BBC R&D, UKRI, BRAID, WAO).

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 09/09/2026

Alongside my current clients, I have some immediate capacity (up to ~2 days/week) to help your organisation. Let me know how I can help! Let's have a chat: calendar.proton.me/u/0/bookings... ----- Image: David Clode / Unsplash

Close-up of a pufferfish head with a yellow pectoral fin against deep blue water, showing textured, spotted skin, a large round eye, and a small puckered mouth.

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Doug Belshaw @dougbelshaw.com · 09/09/2026

Today we ran a free taster session which was great. Now very much looking forward to welcoming the next cohort in October!

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