Structuring the Web

The web has more know-how than anyone can read. How to find clients, how to launch a site, how to move a company abroad: it is all out there, spread across thousands of posts, threads and videos that contradict each other. More information does not help. You still have to work out which steps matter, in what order, and what will go wrong.

Curation was the first answer. Someone who knows the field picks what matters and puts it in order. That is what a good guide or course does, and it was the idea behind the first Xevol.

Structure goes one step further. Once know-how is laid out as steps, checks and tools, it does not have to be read and followed by hand. It can run. That is a system: it asks you a few questions, does the work the way someone experienced would, checks itself, and asks you before anything goes out.

Why structure

A system can be checked, because every step has a type and a place. It can be improved, because every run is recorded and the weak step shows itself. And it can be reused, because the next system starts where the last one ended instead of from a blank page.

Underneath, everything in Xevol has the same shape: an address, a type, one owner and a history of versions. A site, an offer page, a film and a list of leads are all built the same way, so people, agents and programs can all read and change them the same way.

Where it goes

Making things got cheap. Anyone can get a website, an app or a video made in an afternoon. Knowing what to do did not get cheap. Structuring the web means turning that know-how into systems anyone can run, so they do not have to learn every lesson the expensive way first.

–Kuan