Personal Digital Governance Policy

Purpose

You never know which one will come first, tomorrow or the accident. For that reason, I need a personal digital governance policy such that if I suddenly die or become incapacitated:

• trusted people can act promptly and coherently;
• my digital presence can remain legible rather than collapse into silence or confusion; and
• my ongoing work can be continued, concluded, or handed off.

This document serves both as a living governance policy and as a directive for death or incapacity. It has three tasks:

• To enumerate and classify the digital artifacts I create and the digital platforms I use.
• To match digital artifacts to digital platforms best suited to store or disseminate them.
• To specify what trusted people should do if I die or become incapacitated.

The underlying philosophy is simple: public-first. I shall make all my digital artifacts public, or prepare them for public release.

Digital Artifacts

Major digital artifacts I create fall into two categories: storage artifacts and dissemination artifacts.

Storage Artifacts

These digital artifacts are intended for archival storage:

• Quipu: an auditable trail of work and life, including records of ongoing projects, drafts, notes, commitments, and other materials needed to understand continuity.
  • The Quipu contains an AGENTS.md file so that agents such as pi, Codex, Claude Code, and similar systems can perform natural-language queries against its contents.
• Secrets: accounts, passwords, PEM keys, etc.

Dissemination Artifacts

These digital artifacts should be created with the sole purpose of public dissemination:

• Source code
• Multimedia: photos, music, videos, etc.
• Announcements
• Memos
• Essays: philosophical writings, life philosophy, metaphysical reflections, literary essays, and other discursive personal writing that is neither a memo nor gray literature.
• Gray literature: manifestos, playbooks, policy documents, position papers, technical reports, etc.

Digital Platforms

Major digital platforms I use fall into three categories: storage platforms, dissemination platforms, and ephemeral platforms.

Storage Platforms

These digital platforms are intended for archival storage:

• External hard drive
• rsync.net

The rsync.net SSH username and password are distributed to family members, trusted friends, and other trusted people.

Dissemination Platforms

These digital platforms are used for public dissemination rather than archival storage:

• GitHub Pages personal website
• GitHub
• Substack
• Zenodo
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• WeChat
• X

Whenever possible, all dissemination platforms should link to one another so that audiences can move between them and discover the full body of public work.

Ephemeral Platforms

All personal devices, whether at home, at work, or elsewhere, are ephemeral platforms:

• Mobile phone
• Laptop
• Desktop
• Other personal computing devices

Ephmeral platforms are not password-protected. Anything stored on ephemeral platforms should be assumed vulnerable to loss, theft, compromise, casual access, or replacement.

Matching Digital Artifacts to Digital Platforms

Quipu

Primary digital platform:

• A Git repository within rsync.net

Backup and replication:

• Cloned to an external hard drive
• Cloned to ephemeral platforms on demand

Secrets

Primary digital platform:

• A Git repository within rsync.net

Backup and replication:

• Cloned to an external hard drive

Access model:

• Access individual files on ephemeral devices only on demand

Secrets are maintained primarily for operational continuity and handoff. Their confidentiality after death is not a design goal.

Source Code

Primary digital platform:

• GitHub

Multimedia

Primary digital platforms:

• Personal-event multimedia: publish to Instagram and WeChat with polished text descriptions suited to the platform
• Professional-event multimedia: publish to LinkedIn, WeChat, and X with polished text descriptions suited to the platform

Announcements

Primary digital platforms:

• LinkedIn
• X
• Personal website

Announcements should be released with polished text suited to the audience and platform.

Memos

Primary digital platform:

• Personal website

Memos should be released with polished text on the personal website.

Essays

Primary digital platform:

• Substack

Public announcement:

• Publish announcement posts with polished text to LinkedIn, X, and the personal website

Essays cover philosophical writings, life philosophy, metaphysical reflections, and literary essays. They are dissemination-first artifacts aimed at readership rather than archival permanence.

Gray Literature

Primary digital platform:

• Zenodo

Public announcement:

• Publish announcement posts with polished text to LinkedIn, X, and the personal website

What Trusted People Should Do If I Die or Become Incapacitated

If I die or become incapacitated, trusted people should use their best judgment and execute ondeath.

Outcome

A sound personal digital governance policy ensures that digital artifacts are not merely created, but also properly stored, disseminated, and handed off when necessary. The goal is continuity: continuity of presence, continuity of work, continuity of communication, and continuity of the public record.