Scott Frankum

"The H&M Foundation just called on fashion to stop thinking in silos because it won't hit net zero unless it operates as interconnected systems—spanning materials, manufacturing, policy, investment, and consumer behavior."

hmfoundation.com/wp-content/u...?

The Battle for Interoperable Data & Measurement Standards The Problem

open.substack.com/pub/crafts/p... The lack of standards buried the work of 200 million Indian hand weavers beneath fast fashion for 20 years.

This idea needs a convening institution or history could repeat in Web3.

Exclusive: Big Philanthropy teams up to take on Big AI A new coalition of 10 major givers, including the Omidyar Network and Ford Foundation, are investing $500 million in an effort to ensure Americans have a say in how artificial intelligence impacts the...

500 Million in grants to redirect the arc of AI back towards people
www.fastcompany.com/91420384/exc...

humanityai.ai
omidyarnetworks

#AI #people #creativity #progress #democracy

Centralized economic models are dying because the pursuit of shareholder value created risk and harm that destroyed trust—at the same moment affordable, verifiable, Global South-friendly technology became available. 

#design #fashion #retail #products #SUSTAINABILITY #decentralization #holochain

The Battle for Interoperable Data & Measurement Standards The Problem

Interoperability is the biggest thing no one at San Francisco Tech Week was talking about. It accelerates good things and impedes bad things. We should talk about it. Link to free Substack.
#interoperability #ESPR #SB251 #SB263

www.weave3.org/p/the-battle...

The Trust Layer: How Proof Will Redefine Fashion, Tech & Commerce Proof-native commerce is the new brand promise — and the next evolution of fashion’s operating system. Part 2 of the “Proof-Native Future” Series by Caroline Rothwell Gerstein & Scott Frankum.

We’re building what we believe is fashion’s next operating system — one where proof replaces promises.

caroconsulting.substack.com/p/the-trust-...

#climate #commerce #distributednetworks #espr #sb261 #sb253

Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away. – Marcus Aurelius

Did he say when? – Scott

CARO’s Substack | Substack My personal Substack. Click to read CARO’s Substack, a Substack publication. Launched 2 years ago.

Coming Tuesday!

Glossy pledges won’t survive the decade.
✅ Proof is the new price of entry.

caroconsulting.substack.com

@caroconsulting
@scottfrankum

California's Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (CARB)

In July 2025, CARB issued a long-awaited FAQ document to clarify how businesses should approach SB 253 and SB 261. Circularity doesn't work without material properties, environmental data, and performance metrics interoperability.

Let's talk about ethical technology and how incentives change in better directions that create systemic change.

Read more at www.weave3.org and Economy3.org

#DecentralizedWeb #Fediverse #DigitalPublicInfrastructure #ethicaltechnology #OpenProtocols #Web3 #systemicchange

Only JSON-LD Meets Legislation and Works in the Global South JSON-RPC and JSON are Not Fit for Purpose

The EC's August 11, 2025 update highlights the use of interoperable, standardized data models, including JSON-LD, especially for issuing European Digital Credentials and supporting cross-border administrative procedures.
 
My take: www.weave3.org/p/only-json-...

#PeerToPeer
#DecentralizedWeb

DWeb Seminar 2025 - August 13-17, 2025, San Francisco Map the current DWeb technological landscape, learn from each other, and define the challenges ahead

Seminar this weekend at the Internet Archive. Subject: “Current science in peer-to-peer systems and the decentralized web.”

dwebseminar.org/weekend/

#DWebSeminar
#PeerToPeer
#DecentralizedWeb
#OpenProtocols
#FutureOfWeb

After more than ten years of pioneering work toward a genuinely decentralized and distributed system, DWeb Seminar takes stock of how far the decentralized web has come.

#DWebSeminar
#PeerToPeer
#DecentralizedWeb
#OpenProtocols
#FutureOfWeb

Russia partially restricts WhatsApp and Telegram calls to 'combat criminals' In what it called an effort to "combat criminals," Russia said Wednesday it would restrict calls on the popular messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram, platforms a watchdog says are used for fraud, exto...

I thought Telegram was distributed. It is unclear how Russia plans to block it. What's app is private but centralized. That will be easier:

www.france24.com/en/europe/20...?

😂 Good!

www.msn.com/en-in/news/w...

I signed-up for Chat GPT 5. So far…it is kind of an idiot.

Open-source digital public infrastructure connects the real economy and creative work to on-chain solutions that help brands manage climate risk and move away from extractive models while empowering producers at scale.

AI's New Career in Sales August 4th, 2025. The day AI officially crossed the line from helpful assistant to salesperson

The Day AI Started a New Career in Sales, by @ScottFrankum

All of the LLMs have announced plans, but today I used Perplexity to search for: "I need to start recording social videos. Here's what happened.

open.substack.com/pub/crafts/p...

Competitors in the EU and China, who can build traceable supply chains, have a new strategic advantage to win in US domestic sales.

Market fundamentalism in the age of AI has unintended consequences.

The Resulting Paradox: US companies may be liberated by deregulation in some ways, but are now disadvantages in others, like online sales. Note: Climate Change is not part of the economic argument. I mean...it is...but I don't need it to make the point.

The Tension: AI created requirements for this exact same information. AI now rewards factual, structured data with discovery and sales. It effectively makes the "friction" Trump's deregulation seeks to remove, into a critical component for online sales success.

The Problem: The Trump administration's market fundamentalism deregulation policies removed the legal requirement for US companies to disclose certain information (e.g., supply chain data, environmental impact).

The Problem: The Trump administration's market fundamentalism deregulation policies removed the legal requirement for US companies to disclose certain information (e.g., supply chain data, environmental impact).

Scott Frankum (@scottfrankum) Value Destruction in a Mother-May-I Economy The Problem: The Trump administration's market fundamentalism deregulation policies removed the legal requirement for US companies to disclose certain info...

substack.com/@scottfranku...

From REA to hREA: A Journey into Decentralized Economic Systems In a world grappling with the limits of centralized control and outdated accounting, a new set of tools is emerging. These frameworks promise to reshape how we model, manage, and understand economic a...

I spent the week dogging Loro Piana & their tracing platform, the Aura Blockchain Consortium, commercial tracing ventures that do not meet regulated requirements & GS1, which I does not align with W3C standards = unfit Digital Product Passports.

happeningscommunity.substack.com/p/from-rea-t...?

AI makes climate action, social responsibility, & product stories into the new SEO. At Google’s 2025 developer conference: “AI Mode” would deliver answers by analyzing trustworthy, organized facts about how products are made, where materials come from, & what happens after use.

Why? The Internet is evolving from centralized control to distributed networks where shared ownership and open, commons-based logic enable synchronized collaboration and decentralized microtransactions across entire value chains.

AI is turning climate compliance, social responsibility, and transparent product data into the new SEO—and into core drivers of business value.

HOW DISTRIBUTED VALUE WORKS

Put simply, if you can describe an exchange, you can trace the transaction, attribute its value, and link it to entities regardless of size—even down to a QR code that identifies a parcel of land’s history.