A new section. A clearer signal. A more complete picture.

• The3rdParty.co/

   Agency Work, Digital Infrastructure, and AI-Aware Strategy

  My work through The3rdParty.co, moving quite a lot further forward since my wife Leslie Mason co-founded this agency with me, continues to grow as a practical blend of consulting, digital strategy, website development, content systems, visibility work, and what I increasingly describe as AI-aware marketing infrastructure.

  Part of that means working on websites and digital systems that need to function in the real world, not just look good in mockups. Part of it means helping people and organizations think beyond traditional SEO and toward a more current reality in which visibility increasingly depends on how well a business, project, or institution can be understood by AI systems, search engines, answer engines, and human visitors all at once.

  That work has included refining how I talk about modern digital growth itself: not as isolated tactics, but as a combination of audits, funnels, automation, structured content, reporting, user experience, and more intentional systems thinking.

  It also includes client-facing work.

  One example is LosHongosCafe.com, a project that fits naturally with a more cultural, health-conscious, and experience-centered web presence. Work like this sits at an intersection I know well: web development, content positioning, aesthetic direction, navigation, commerce, and the challenge of building digital presence for businesses that are more than just “businesses.” In cases like that, the website has to communicate atmosphere, product identity, menu logic, events, brand voice, and discoverability all at the same time.

  More broadly, The3rdParty.co is also where I continue clarifying my long-term positioning:

  • digital strategy informed by AI and answer-engine visibility
  • content architecture and semantic clarity
  • systems for lead generation, conversion, and trust
  • practical implementation, not just abstract advice
  • support for clients who need someone who understands both the technical side and the human side

  I’ve spent a lot of time lately shaping this into language that is clear enough for prospects, grounded enough for real clients, and flexible enough to support work across nonprofit, education, arts, events, and emerging ventures.

  In other words: I’m not just building websites. I’m building the connective tissue around what websites are now supposed to do.

• Incubator.org

  Building the Platform, the Content, the Logic, and the On-Ramps

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  A huge percentage of my work over the past year, and especially since last summer, has gone into Incubator.org.

  This is one of the largest and most layered projects I’ve ever worked on because it is not simply a website. It is an ecosystem.

  It includes:

  • blogs
  • courses
  • discussions
  • resources
  • community participation
  • data collection
  • user guidance
  • role-based permissions
  • scaffolding for workshops, pilot programs, and future curriculum

  And unlike many platforms that look simple from the outside, this one carries a serious internal complexity because it is meant to support different kinds of people at different levels of involvement:

  • students
  • teachers
  • assistants
  • editors
  • managers
  • community participants
  • future workshop cohorts
  • collaborators in Arizona and Mexico

  A lot of my work has gone into making that complexity more usable, more explainable, and more welcoming.

  Content Development at Scale

  One important part of this effort has been content production.

  Over many months, I have been developing a high percentage of the written material that has gone into Incubator.org’s growing blog and curriculum direction. This has included:

  • how-to articles
  • AI literacy content
  • digital literacy frameworks
  • prompt literacy materials
  • career-prep and future-of-work pieces
  • tutorials
  • structured blog articles
  • remixed source material turned into learner-friendly content
  • courseware ideas for the LMS
  • frameworks that can later become lessons, decks, workshops, and printable resources

  This work has not been random. It has been strategic.

  I have been building a content library that supports a much bigger vision: helping youth, students, emerging workers, educators, and community participants gain access to the kinds of literacies and tools that are becoming essential right now.

  That includes digital literacy.

  That includes AI literacy.

  That includes prompt literacy.

  That includes project-based thinking.

  That includes the ability to learn, adapt, communicate, and make one’s way forward in a changing economy.

  Some of the existing public-facing content already reflects this direction. For example, I have published work around community impact opportunities in Sonora, pathways for youth who need more relevant educational framing, and engagement structures that invite people to tell us who they are, what they want to learn, and how they would like to participate.

  Support of Users Inside a Multi-Tiered Permission Model

  Another major part of my effort has been operational, architectural, and deeply practical: supporting users within a platform that has a real multi-tiered permission structure.

  This means I have been working not only on public-facing content but also on:

  • onboarding logic
  • registration and login flow
  • membership levels
  • coupon-based training access
  • role-specific expectations
  • user guidance documentation
  • administrator testing
  • front-end clarity for people with different levels of digital literacy
  • gamification systems to encourage participation, contribution, and progression
  • entrepreneurship pathways and business development framing for student and adult learners
  • AI literacy, prompt literacy, and real-world skill scaffolding
  • content pipelines that connect blog articles to LMS lessons, workshops, and interactive learning experiences
  • community engagement structures including discussions, prompts, and feedback loops
  • data-informed participation models to better understand user behavior, needs, and outcomes
  • bridging online learning with real-world application, events, and collaborative projects

  One of the biggest real-world lessons from this work has been that many so-called “platform problems” are actually mental-model problems. In plain language: people do not always interpret “log in,” “register,” “member area,” or “account activation” the way a technically literate person assumes they will.

  That has led me to work intensely on simplifying the experience and clarifying the sequence:

  register first, then log in.

  It sounds simple, but in practice this has been a major UX and documentation issue, especially for mobile-first users, less digitally literate participants, and some of our intended audiences in Sonora and Lower Arizona.

  So I have been doing the less glamorous but absolutely necessary work of making the platform more understandable, more navigable, and more humane.

  Workshops, Scaffolding, and the Future Membership Vision

  I have also been building toward future workshops, guided participation, and stronger reasons for people to actually join and remain involved.

  This includes:

  • courseware development ideas
  • teacher-facing materials
  • assistant-level guidance
  • workshop framing
  • cohort-based participation concepts
  • projects that can connect blog content to LMS lessons
  • community seeding through discussions, prompts, and polls
  • better pathways from “I found the site” to “I know what to do next”

  That work also connects directly to my intention for Incubator.org to increasingly replace and expand on earlier work I once did in youth-oriented educational web development. I want this platform to become a much more modern, much more powerful space for the audiences that still matter deeply to me: youth preparing for college, scholarships, creative careers, entrepreneurship, practical digital skills, and future resilience.

  Pilot Projects, PCC, GCC, and CIFR

  Another important layer of this work is the broader organizational and educational ecosystem around it.

  I have continued developing thinking, planning, and supporting materials connected to:

  • Pima Community College-related pilot possibilities
  • GCC as a larger intergenerational and reciprocal-learning framework
  • CIFR as a parallel and culturally important dimension of progress with collaborators in Mexico
  • future workshops, proof-of-concept programs, and educational partnerships

  Part of this has involved writing, refining, and organizing communication for different stakeholders so that the work is explained accurately, respectfully, and strategically. 

  These communications matter because the work itself is often misunderstood when viewed only from the outside. 
  
  It is easy for someone to look at a platform and evaluate it at the surface level, focusing on how many members exist, whether pages load, links work, or a user was able to log in once. But that perspective misses what is actually at stake.

  What I have been building is not just a collection of pages. It is an evolving system of information architecture, user pathways, onboarding logic, and participation design that determines whether someone can realistically enter the platform, understand what to do, and continue moving forward.

  This includes mobile-first onboarding considerations, simplifying the sequence from registration to engagement, restructuring navigation so it aligns with how real users think (not how developers assume they think), and rebuilding large portions of the platform from a clean slate after identifying where earlier configurations created friction or failure points.

  It also builds on years of prior work, including earlier LMS-oriented efforts and foundational models that informed what Incubator.org is becoming now. The difference is that the current version is being re-architected to meet present-day realities: AI-assisted learning, lower digital literacy thresholds, cross-cultural participation, and the need for clear, actionable pathways rather than abstract features.

  So the real challenge is not whether a page exists. The challenge is whether a person can arrive, understand, participate, learn, and continue without getting lost, discouraged, or blocked along the way. It is much harder to see the years of design logic, content architecture, membership systems, learning models, experimentation, and institutional translation that sit behind the surface.

  That is the level at which I’ve been working.

  So yes, part of my work lately has been building systems.

  But part of it has also been explaining systems.

  Defending systems.

  Reframing systems.

  And trying to move them toward a future where they can be better understood, better used, and better supported.

  An Unexpected but Encouraging Sign

  One small but meaningful moment recently was seeing a new user subscribe seemingly out of the blue, without any obvious prompting from me. I did not know where he came from. I did not know what exactly pulled him in. But that kind of event matters.

  It suggests that even while the platform is still evolving, even while I am still refining its language and pathways, something about the signal is already reaching people.

  That matters a lot.

• Collaboration, Context, and How I Approach Partnerships

  Another important part of what I’ve been working on, which often sits behind the scenes, is how I navigate collaboration, communication, and formal agreements with the people I build alongside.

  This became especially visible recently in the context of reviewing and responding to a proposed NDA, where I needed to clarify not just legal terms, but the actual working relationships, history, and roles involved.

  Working with Mike (CCLAC, Inc. Founder Context)

  A significant portion of my work connects back to my long-standing relationship with Mike Rohrbach, who is not only a key figure in the origin of this ecosystem, but someone whose foundational ideas around reciprocal learning, intergenerational knowledge exchange, and community-based education continue to shape the direction of what we are building.

  In many ways, my current work represents a continuation and modernization of earlier efforts, translated into current platforms, tools, and realities. That includes expanding the original vision into a much more digitally integrated environment through Incubator.org and related initiatives.

  At the same time, part of my responsibility has been to clearly articulate the distinction between:

  • historical vision and founding contributions
  • current platform development and digital infrastructure work
  • ongoing operational responsibilities and future direction

  This is not about conflict. It is about clarity.

  When working across different phases of a project’s life, especially one that spans years, multiple stakeholders, and evolving technology, it becomes essential to make sure that roles, expectations, and contributions are accurately understood.

  That clarity ultimately supports the work itself.

  Working with Lubna (Colleague, Collaborator, and Friend)

  I also want to acknowledge Lubna Alyousfi, who has been an important collaborator in both creative and outreach capacities.

  Our working relationship includes:

  • design and visual communication support
  • outreach and participant engagement
  • cross-cultural and cross-regional collaboration efforts
  • shared involvement in ongoing platform and community development

  Beyond roles and responsibilities, there is also a personal dimension here. Lubna is someone I consider both a colleague and a friend, and that matters in the way we approach the work.

  Like many real collaborations, our process has included moments of alignment, moments of friction, and ongoing efforts to improve communication and coordination. That is normal when people are working toward something that is still taking shape.

  What matters is that the intention remains shared: to build something meaningful, useful, and accessible for the communities we are trying to serve.

  Why This Matters

  I include this context because the work I’m doing is not happening in isolation.

  It exists within a network of relationships, histories, expectations, and evolving roles. When I respond to agreements, proposals, or new opportunities, I’m not just reacting to a document. I’m representing a body of work, a set of responsibilities, and a broader ecosystem that has been actively under development.

  That means I take collaboration seriously.

  It means I advocate for clarity when it is needed.

  It means I try to ensure that contributions are understood in the right context.

  And it means I approach partnerships with the intention of building something that can actually function, grow, and endure.

  So here I want to express appreciation for my special friends Andi, Arelis, Brian, and especially Jack, my musical partner in MyxTek, whose creative collaboration continues to ground and inspire an essential part of my work. You all have been an important part of my journey for several years now. Mad props for being there for me for all this time. Also special shout outs to the best 2 buddies a techie could ever ask for: Don (Flyin' Ace) Peek & Hawk (da LAN Man) who make everything I work on possible with their support... and Ted Villella, who designs learning systems that actually work. It's nice to have close friends who share my love of geeking out over the expression "How is this going to fly in real use?"

  I also want to take a moment to honor friends who are no longer with us, including Dr. Brecken Chinn and Enrique Feldman, whose presence, influence, and shared experiences continue to resonate in the work and the path forward.

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