iNDX CO+ Update - June 8-June 22: Wow, We Just Took a 2-Year Leap Forward for paddleNET and Every Business Everywhere. And Get Yourself to the COLAB in October. Here’s Why
Quick summary:
- Because of recent AI industry developments, paddleNET just took a major two-year leap forward.
- Outside of paddleNET, you can start applying this leap now in your own projects and workflows - I have downloads for you.
- Get yourself to the PTC COLAB in Montgomery this October, as I have thoughts on how we can leverage this two-year leap to help catapult the paddling industry forward.
paddleNET Retooling for This Leap Forward
Over the last month, several AI and workflow technologies converged faster than I expected. What I thought would take several years is now usable today. The original paddleNET networking component was meant to be a bridge toward this future, but that future is already here.
The hard part with the portable identity documents for networking - and the part I have really struggled with - is maintenance. How does anyone realistically keep a PID updated with everything they are doing, building, learning, fixing, creating, testing, offering, and discovering?
But the stars aligned in the last month and now, suddenly, AI can do that work with you.
So, I rebuilt the PID template and bundled it with a new PID Skill Pack. The goal is simple: download the pack, put it in a folder on your computer, point Claude Desktop or Codex at it, and let AI guide you.
No coding required. No technical background required. You can literally say: “Eddie keeps talking about this PID I need to create. What do I do?” Then show the AI where the folder is, give it your resume or existing PID if you have one, and let it walk you through the process.
The important shift is this: The intelligence is not locked inside a platform. It lives in what we call skill documents that you own.
Those documents are readable by you, usable by AI, and portable across tools. Claude, Codex, ChatGPT, and future AI systems can all work from the same underlying instructions.
This changes the paddleNET model. I used to think we needed 50 or 100 people to test whether the paddleNET networking component could work. I no longer think that.
If two people each have strong PIDs, and both use AI to maintain and interpret them, they can already create value for each other. Now imagine that expanding to 4 people, 8, 16, 32… At 100 people, there are 4,950 unique pairings where AI can scan for shared interests, complementary needs, useful introductions, collaboration opportunities, and other ways people might help one another. That’s what this two-year leap does for us now. Imagine 1,000 people; 10,000 people. The unique pairings get insane.
What to do:
- Download the PID Skill Pack.
- Put it in a folder on your computer. Google Drive or OneDrive works well because it stays backed up.
- Open Claude Desktop or Codex.
- Tell it where the folder is.
- Ask it to help you create or update your PID.
- Review and approve what it creates.
You stay in control. AI does the heavy lifting.
I am still building the next pieces, including skills that help with the actual networking and matching process. I am also reworking the networking side of the paddleNET website around this leap forward.
Download the PID Skill Pack here:
https://projects.eddiesoehnel.com/adminprojects/portable-identity-document-template-OPEN
I have also updated the paddleNET NetworkSIG page with the updated skill pack. Directions for using it are there as well: https://paddlenet.earth/graphs/network-sig/ But note that I am still working on the network discovery skills additions as well as the server-side coding, to accommodate the new leap in capabilities. When that is done, I will open it up for PID submissions.
Applying This Two-Year Leap Forward to Your Business
Apart from paddleNET, you need to start using skills for all your workflows. And this part is already figured out for you.
I open-sourced the broader skill template pack I am using across my own work to build AI-ready instructions, workflows, and reusable knowledge.
Confession: I did not create these from scratch. I melded them together from the best AI experts across the tech industry who are open-sourcing what they are doing for all of us to benefit. I am grateful for these pioneers.
You can use this template pack to create skills for your own projects and business processes. And the best part is this: you do not really have to write the skills yourself.
You guide AI, and AI builds them with you.
That is a significant shift in how we will all use AI. The know-how, process, and intelligence can live in documents you own, instead of being trapped inside one app, one platform, or one AI model.
You can get the open-source skill template pack here:
PTC COLAB
Get you, your associates and your business to Montgomery in October.
I will be there with major new updates about the future, why I believe paddling is well positioned for what is coming, and how we can use these new AI developments right now.
I am creating a detailed presentation and homework around this material, but I may not give a traditional presentation. I have proposed a different format to PTC because I think this work needs to become more actionable.
AI is now too important for another passive session where everyone sits and listens. Everyone is feeling anxious about AI and what it means for our jobs, our businesses, and our economy. We need an immersive, hands-on, three-hour working session that catapults us ahead of this.
The idea is simple:
We assemble in teams of 3-5 people. Each team uses AI to solve actual business challenges or create new workflows for real paddling businesses. Then we capture the outputs, I structure them for AI, post them online, and make them reusable into skill packs so others can copy, adapt, and implement them in their own businesses.
It will be intense. But that is the point. With intensity, we learn fast. We build useful solutions. We crowdsource the work. Then we open-source as much as possible so the whole industry benefits. You walk away from the COLAB AI-ready, with new tools you can adapt for your business.
This approach is modeled after hackathons used across the tech industry, but I am tooling it specifically for paddling. I am also adding a few new things that I think will make it exponentially better, and maybe we can use it as a recruiting tool - for talent, customers, and supporters - for the paddling industry.
I do not know yet whether PTC can fit this into the official program. If they can, we will send out a survey to PTC members to identify the most valuable challenges and workflows to work on.
And if it does not fit into the official program, I will still be there. We can do something on the side with anyone interested.
But if you want this in the programming, please let the PTC board know.