Podcast # 27, Performance Evaluation

Combining the Performance Evaluation and Statistics & Analytics modules into one podcast turned out surprisingly good. The discussion sets in place the necessity of having the data’s structure and integrity established in the system first and foremost. Otherwise garbage in, garbage out rules. Consequently members of either the Joint Operating Committee or producer firms will be able to analyze that data with confidence and consistency. 

And there’s more. This data that’s been interpreted by the user is then able to be used in the Artificial Intelligence and Business Operations Management modules. Where the user may be able to capture unique competitive advantages from a deep pool of data. 

The podcast is presented well and captures the spirit of these modules in the overall Preliminary Specification. 

Pod up

🎙️Podcast

📝Performance Evaluation 

📝Statistics & Analytics

📝Artificial Intelligence

📝Business Operations

📚Index

Podcast # 26, Security, Compliance and Blockchain

 This stellar podcast, created by the Artificial Intelligence bots, surprisingly exceeded expectations by efficiently combining three seemingly uninteresting modules. These modules, all related to security, compliance, and blockchain, share numerous overlapping concerns. The podcasts aim to offer a concise review of the material for interested audiences, saving them time and providing insight into our methods of issue resolution. 
Pod up

🎙️Podcast 
📝Security & Access Control 
📝Compliance & Governance
📝Blockchain
📚Index 

Podcast # 25, Artificial Intelligence Module

 Artificial Intelligence holds far greater commercial promise than the novelty of conversational tools alone. Perplexity’s orientation toward business differentiates it from its peers, yet the real obstacle for AI in enterprise remains the condition of the data itself. In oil and gas, accounting information is functionally unusable at the Joint Operating Committee (JOC) level, forcing operations to rely instead on reserve reports and regional cost estimates that only approximate reality.

Within this environment, Artificial Intelligence costs and success are often inverse of one another. That tension will only sharpen as industries enter their inevitable “bright shiny object” stage of AI adoption. Enterprises today report 85% of corporate ERP systems remain on prem. It's not that Cloud use is a requirement of AI use, it just shows the speed at which corporate America falls short of their claims. 

The Artificial Intelligence Module of People, Ideas & Objects addresses this by embedding fundamental cost discipline into its design. It does so by pooling development and infrastructure costs across producers and establishing common frameworks that can then be extended and adapted by each firm’s distinct competitive advantage. This ensures AI delivers real value—grounded in accurate reporting and sustainable economics—rather than merely absorbing resources.

Pod up

🎙️Podcast 

📝Specification

📚Index 

Podcast # 24, Knowledge & Learning Module

 The Research & Development and Knowledge & Learning modules are designed to align scientific and technical capabilities with the locus of decision rights. Within the industry, that locus is the Joint Operating Committee, which integrates legal, financial, operational decision making, cultural, communication, strategic and innovative frameworks. The Joint Operating Committee embodies the property partnership, and the Knowledge & Learning module aggregates and presents the explicit technical knowledge of each producer within the Joint Operating Committee—making the collective expertise available for decision-making.

People, Ideas & Objects shifts knowledge to where decisions are made, directly addressing the primary operational accountability gap that exists today. Consider the drilling of a well: the operator proposes a program, the Joint Operating Committee votes, and if the approval threshold is met, the operator proceeds. If the well fails, who is responsible—the operator or the Joint Operating Committee? The Preliminary Specification resolves this ambiguity. The Research & Capabilities and Knowledge & Learning modules movement of the knowledge to where the decision rights are held ensures that outcomes are properly attributed, not to penalize individuals, but to capture learnings, avoid repetition of mistakes, and replicate successes.

This structure also mitigates the chronic engineering resource constraint facing the industry. Today, each producer maintains just-in-time engineering capacity across all their properties—an approach that is costly and ultimately unsustainable. By reorganizing around specialization and division of labor, the industry can scale capabilities more efficiently, ensuring commercial viability while reducing duplication of effort. Specialization on particular scientific capabilities, each producer contributes that high value knowledge of theirs to the Joint Operating Committee. Generic capabilities can be augmented from the Resource Marketplace module. 

The accompanying podcast provides further detail and explores the auxiliary aspects of these modules.

Pod up

🎙️Podcast

📝Specification 

📚Index

Podcast # 23, Research & Capabilities

 Following our discussion of the Business Operations Management Module, we now turn to the Research & Capabilities Module—a conceptually new addition for the oil and gas industry. This module is designed to capture and organize a producer’s explicit engineering and geological knowledge, the very foundation of its competitive advantage. By doing so, it ensures that resources are aligned and that tacit expertise is applied consistently across the organization—putting everyone on the “same page.”

A central aim of the module is to strengthen accountability. Today, operational knowledge and decision rights are split between producers and their Joint Operating Committees, creating confusion and misplaced responsibility. By embedding knowledge directly within the Joint Operating Committee’s operational decision-making framework, accountability becomes clear, eliminating the cycle of finger-pointing that has long plagued the industry.

The module also manages two critical processes of innovation. First, it isolates research and development activities from day-to-day operations, allowing costs to be managed more effectively while preventing disruptions. Recognizing that innovation is defined as much by its failures as its successes, this approach ensures that lessons learned are retained, duplication is avoided, and future efforts can build directly on prior work. In this way, producers develop an institutional memory that sustains innovation rather than restarting it each time.

Pod up

🎙️Podcast
📝Specification 
📚Index

Podcast #22, Business Operations Management

 One of the core challenges in developing the Preliminary Specification has been the sheer breadth of accounting, administrative, and operational concerns facing producers and the Joint Operating Committee. This stems from the reality that what is required is not a minor adjustment—but a wholesale rebuild of the producer, the industry, and the service sector on a cultural foundation of reserves preservation, performance, and profitability.

The status quo has collapsed under its own weight. Its culture of “muddle through” has failed predictably and spectacularly, leaving no value worth reconciling. Any attempt to accommodate such a culture would only obstruct progress, frustrate innovation, and exhaust resources.

The Business Operations Management Module offers a new path forward. It empowers engineers, geologists, and business leaders to actively manage operational performance, innovation, accountability, and profitability within their assigned domains—anchored to the financial realities of the Joint Operating Committee. This ensures that their initiatives not only survive but continue to build lasting value.

Pod up

🎙️Podcast 
📝Business Operations Management 
📚Index

Financial Marketplace Podcast # 21

Once again, the virtual presenters in our podcast series have managed to distill the larger strategic themes embedded within the finer points of our content. This episode focuses on the Financial Marketplace Module, which—like its predecessors—will no doubt provoke renewed debate over the Marketplace Interface. At People, Ideas & Objects, we’ve become entirely numb and fully desensitized to the criticism and laughter this interface has generated. That said, the two presenters offered notably thoughtful commentary on the subject.

We currently have a major paper in development that addresses the Marketplace Interface directly, scheduled for release after our next publication. Once it’s out, we’ll see who shares in our laughter. 🤓

The Financial Marketplace Module is the third and final instalment in our marketplace module podcast series. From my perspective, there are three key takeaways:

• Increased throughput and speed in Financial Marketplace Module agreements and transactions, benefiting both producers and Joint Operating Committees (JOCs).

• Recognition that speed without control is an operational liability.

• Expanded integration between producers and JOCs, moving beyond an internal focus to embrace a broader spectrum of opportunities and risks.

For those seeking a concise introduction to the modules, the components of the Preliminary Specification, and People, Ideas & Objects as a whole, these podcasts offer an efficient, high-level way to gauge both interest and understanding.

Pod up

🎙️  Podcast
📝  Financial Marketplace Module
📚  Index

Podcast # 20, Petroleum Lease Marketplace

I am very pleased with the content of this podcast. It captures the subtle complexity inherent in the interactions within the Petroleum Lease Marketplace module—complexity that underpins the data and process integrity across all other modules of the Preliminary Specification.

As the second in our series covering the three marketplace modules, this episode moves beyond the central theme of data integrity to explore the broader strategic implications of the module and the downstream consequences of its design. I was impressed by the clarity and depth with which these topics were addressed, as well as the ease and fluency of the virtual presenters in navigating such a sophisticated discussion.

Pod up

🎙️ Petroleum Lease podcast 

📝 Preliminary Specification - Petroleum Lease 

📚 Podcast index

Resource Marketplace, Podcast # 19

We are transitioning our podcast series from this year’s White Papers to a focused exploration of the fourteen modules within the Preliminary Specification. The first episode in this new series, released today, covers the Resource Marketplace module. Upcoming episodes will feature the Petroleum Lease Marketplace module on Tuesday, followed by the Finance Marketplace module on Friday.

One of the remarkable aspects of substantive writing is how it can evolve in meaning over time. When a document is set aside for six months or more, revisiting it often reveals insights and themes the author was unaware of during its creation. This has been my experience with the six papers published this year, and it is motivating me to expand certain sections of the Preliminary Specification to incorporate these new perspectives.

Separately, I’ve observed an unusually high volume of asset sales in the oil and gas sector. What stands out most is that the identities of the buyers are rarely disclosed.

Pod up

🎙️ Podcast 

📝 Resource Marketplace module 

📚 Podcast Index

Breaking the Cycle, Podcast # 18

People, Ideas & Objects continues the conversation with today’s episode, building on yesterday’s release of “Breaking the Cycle.” The first few minutes are a warm-up, but once the discussion hits its stride, it delivers high-value insights for anyone serious about oil & gas reform.

This episode marks the completion of our six-paper podcast series for 2025. Next, we shift gears to cover the remaining twelve modules of the Preliminary Specification—laying out the operational blueprint for the industry’s future.

   
Pod up

🎙 Podcast
📄 Paper 
📚 Podcast Index

Hyper-specialization, Artificial Intelligence & Intellectual Property - Podcast #17

 I have some reservations about publishing this podcast, as it fails to fully convey the core argument of the accompanying paper. The central thesis is this: to significantly improve both the productivity and quality of work within the oil and gas industry, we must fundamentally reorganize ourselves around the principles of specialization and division of labor.

This transformation is currently constrained by two primary structural limitations. First, individual producers lack sufficient operational throughput to deconstruct their workflows further without encountering diminishing returns. Achieving material productivity gains would therefore require the aggregation of work across multiple producers, enabling the deployment of hyper-specialized capabilities.

Second, expanding operational processes to their optimal levels introduces overwhelming complexity in terms of coordination and control. Managing the flow of data and information at that scale rapidly exceeds the capacity of conventional organizational structures and human oversight.

The productivity potential of hyper-specialization is not in dispute. Its benefits include exponential improvements in output, precision, and organizational velocity. However, realizing this potential requires a system that can manage such complexity without collapsing under it. Human managers alone are inadequate to fulfill the role of coordinating high-volume, high-speed workflows among hyper-specialized agents.

The Preliminary Specification addresses this challenge through a triadic framework:

1. Intellectual Property – IP must define and assign the rights to specific work domains. This enables clear delineation of responsibilities and prevents the chaos that would arise from unregulated competition for work.
   
   
2. Contractual Structures – These must bind individuals and firms to their areas of specialization, ensuring accountability and coordination.
   
   
3. Artificial Intelligence – AI systems are required to act as the “traffic cops,” managing throughput, enforcing workflows, and maintaining system-wide coordination among authorized participants.

Without these elements working in concert—IP rights, enforceable contracts, and intelligent automation—we will remain constrained by the limitations of our current organizational structures and be unable to achieve the performance step-change the industry requires. The paper being discussed today is:

Hyper-Specialization in Today’s AI & IP Enabled Workforce: 

Strategic Implications and Operational Consequences 

for the Oil & Gas Sector

Other than these points the podcast is a little rough around the edges but the content is well portrayed. 

Pod up

Podcast

Paper

Podcast Index

Podcast # 16, Innovative Organizational Excellence

 On February 10, 2025, People, Ideas & Objects released the paper titled:

Innovative Organizational Excellence: How Elon Musk and Visionary Leaders Build High Performance Enterprises—Strategies for Emulating Their Success Within Our User Community.

In today’s podcast, there are a few rambling moments at the start—nothing to worry about. Despite this, I’m reluctant to re-record it because, once it gets on track, it delivers valuable insights on what our user community and service providers need to focus on to evolve into the forward-thinking organizations that the oil & gas industry urgently requires.

Pod up

The Podcast 

The Paper

Our Podcast Index

Catalysts for Cultural Change - Podcast # 15

 The quality of our podcasts continues to surpass expectations. This week’s two episodes, covering papers we released on January 20, 2025, are particularly aligned in theme and purpose—each highlighting a core leadership role in rebuilding oil and gas through the lens of the Preliminary Specification.

Tuesday’s episode focused on the leadership required from engineers and geologists. Today’s episode shifts to address the expectations of new investors, engineers, and geologists regarding administration and accounting within this reimagined industry framework and needs of the Preliminary Specification. 

Catalysts for Cultural Change: 

The Leadership Role of 

People, Ideas & Objects 

User Community

If there was a flaw in today’s episode, it escaped me. We’re beginning to dial in the right cadence, tone, and format—and the quality of the supporting technology is becoming a real asset.

If these two podcasts don’t motivate you—given the state of the broader U.S. economy and industry—you’re probably close to your retirement date.

This latest paper also outlines our user community’s compensation plan, detailing short-, medium-, and long-term value-generating components: hourly compensation, bonus structures, licensing arrangements, and proprietorship opportunities.

Pod up

User Community Leadership Podcast 
User Community Leadership Podcast Transcript 
Podcast Index
User Community Leadership Paper

Episode Fourteen: Reconstructing Oil & Gas

Today marks the release of our fourteenth podcast episode. I’m pleased with how the discussion unfolded. Aside from a minor technical glitch at the start and a misstatement referring to “operations” instead of “overhead” being capitalized, we continue to work through the bugs and improve with each episode.

This discussion centers on our January 20, 2025 White Paper:

Reconstructing Oil & Gas: Enabling Engineers and Geologists to be This Century’s Pioneers and Lead the Industry’s Future

The paper was released in anticipation of renewed “animal spirits” following the inauguration of the Trump administration. It outlines how engineers and geologists can take the lead in rebuilding North America’s oil and gas sector.

Following that, we published the Arbitrage Strategy, which sees hedge funds now returning to the industry and investing directly in multibillion-dollar investments in oil & gas properties. These assets will require sustained exploration and production programs—providing a welcome pathway for new startup producers and a long-term capital re-engagement with the industry.

Importantly, these investors have no interest in existing producers. The current operators have demonstrated they neither understand what is required to achieve profitability nor possess the will to do so. Instead, the focus must shift to new entrants—firms with business models that move beyond the drill-and-produce status quo.

Central to enabling this transition is the Preliminary Specification. Investors are solely interested in producers who can remain competitive within North American capital markets. The industry’s current strategic position is untenable. Overcoming these challenges requires a new class of producer—one that is dynamic, innovative, accountable, and profitable.
People, Ideas & Objects, along with our user community and service providers, is designed to provide the accounting and administration for that producer.

Pod up

The Podcast
The Podcast Transcript 
The Paper 
Our Podcast Index

Podcast # 13, Our Preliminary Specification Executive Summary

 Another podcast to summarize and inform. Still a few bugs to work out but nothing major standing in our way. 

Pod up

Number 13

Our Index of Podcasts 

Partnership Accounting, Podcast # 12

Our Partnership Accounting module is an essential complement to the Accounting Voucher module, specifically addressing the complexities introduced when People, Ideas & Objects uses the Joint Operating Committee as the key organizational construct. Nothing in the producer firm is unchanged when we make this change.

I’m finding these podcasts valuable for the initial introduction to our content. Opening a window as to what, how and why the Preliminary Specification is different. And a comprehensive summary for those who already have a good grasp of our product. 

I’ve once again included the url for the Accounting Voucher module and Podcast Index. 

Pod up

Partnership Accounting 

Accounting Voucher

Podcast Index

Podcast # 11, Value Proposition

 

I’m quite enjoying these podcasts we’re producing these days. They will become a regular feature of the content that we produce. They seem to capture many of the subtleties that may be hidden in plain sight to most readers. Having them confirmed at least is worthwhile. Today’s topic is our value proposition which is well covered here. There are still some minor details that need to be figured out how to correct, and this episode introduces what I would consider is an AI hallucination. One of the presenters stating they remember when something occurred back in the late 1970s. 

With each post now I’ll be posting the podcast and an index of the podcasts to date for users to access. 

Pod up. 

Index. 

Podcast # 10 - Rebuilding Oil & Gas White Paper

Summer is in full swing, and People, Ideas & Objects are thrilled with the enthusiastic response to our podcast series, which introduces the Preliminary Specification and its underlying concepts. We’ll be pausing regular blog posts in July and August to focus on releasing white papers.

Over the next three weeks, we’re launching more podcasts, each highlighting one of the six white papers People, Ideas & Objects published in 2025. The first podcast, covering our April 7, 2025 paper, “Oil & Gas Arbitrage: The Market Finds Away” explores how investors can drive transformative change using the Preliminary Specification and participate effectively in rebuilding the industry. 

Pod up

Professor Paul Romer’s Theories, Podcast # 9

One of People, Ideas & Objects seven Organizational Constructs is the implementation of Professor Paul Romer’s theories captured in his 1990 paper “Endogenous Technical Change.” A principle we’ve adopted throughout the North American oil & gas industry and producer population. Where, for example, we share the cost of our Cloud Administration & Accounting for Oil & Gas software and services as opposed to each producer building the infrastructure individually within their company. 

It’s not just administration and accounting that’s covered by these principles. Operations, geological and engineering also have benefits from Romer’s thinking in the Preliminary Specification. 

Pod up

Professor Giovanni Dosi Theories, Podcast, # 8

 Just as Tuesdays podcast covered Professor Langlois’ theories and our application of those to oil and gas. Today is Professor Giovanni Dosi’s ideas under the microscope. And if I hadn’t mentioned it before this AI tool is good at compiling vast quantities of information and making it easy to digest. 189 documents produced 141 blog posts and summarized in the Preliminary Specification on our wiki. 

Professor Dosi has specialized in innovation and the foundational document we used to prepare a large percentage of our features of the Preliminary Specification was “Sources, Procedures and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation.”

Pod up