Custom Gliders
A Custom Glider is a system I build for one organization, around its own material, so the people who know that material best can see much more of it.
Most organizations are sitting on more than they can see: an archive nobody has time to read end to end, ten years of research notes, a network of people who would work well together if anyone knew who they were, or a body of rules that contradict each other in places nobody has found yet.
A Custom Glider takes that material and makes it something you can move through: search it in plain language, follow a person or an idea across decades, compare one document with another clause by clause, and see where the patterns and the gaps are. Each one is designed around the questions your people actually ask, which is why I build them one at a time.
The name comes from the way I work. A glider has no engine. It stays up by finding rising air that nobody on the ground can see, and it needs a pilot to find it. The systems I build use a range of AI methods to cover a lot of ground quickly, and the steering stays with your people.
How an engagement runs
A conversation and a look
We talk about what you have and what you want from it. I look at a sample and tell you what I think a Glider could do with it, and what it couldn't. This part is free.
A preview
I build a working slice from part of your material, usually in about three weeks, so your people can try it on real questions before you decide anything more.
The full build
Sized to your material and your goals. I keep working on it with you afterward, as new material arrives and new questions come up.
What I have built
An author's research archive
For an author working through boxes of research documents for a nonfiction book. The documents are read, translated, and cross-referenced, with timelines, a page for each person, and the places where sources contradict each other. It runs on the author's own computer and is in use.
A mentoring network's people map
For a mentoring network that wanted to see who could work well with whom. More than 450 people, each described by expertise and by how they like to collaborate, explored as clusters on a private web address. In use by the network.
National AI laws, clause by clause
For a policy group comparing national AI laws. Each law is split into clauses, and each clause is read for who it empowers, burdens, protects, or leaves out, with a quotation as evidence for every reading.
Clients are not named here. I'm happy to describe any of these in more detail on a call.
Questions people ask
How long does it take?
The preview takes about three weeks. A full build depends on how much material there is and how many people will use it, and I'll tell you how long I expect it to take before we start.
What does it cost?
Every build is priced to its material, so I give you a figure once I have seen a sample, before you commit to anything.
What do you need from us?
A sample of the material, and some time with a few of the people who will use the system, so I can build it around the questions they bring to it.
Where does it run?
On your own computers or at a private web address, depending on what the material needs. The author's archive runs on the author's own computer, and the mentoring network reaches its map through a private link.
Who does the work?
I do. You work with me directly, from the first conversation through the build and after it.
Your material stays yours. It goes in only if you choose to include it, private previews stay private, and anything can be taken out on request. I build with your team and stay involved after launch, and the people who know the material decide what the system is for and when it gets something wrong.
If you are planning an anniversary, there is a version of this made for schools and colleges: anniversary archives.