A New Home for Old and New Ideas

Abstract

An update on recent research, including a study group on Nicos Poulantzas, continuing inquiries into online intellectual communities, and the development of a connected research library. It discusses the revision of the Metapattern Institute's bilingual website and the development of erikhaines.org as an independent home for writing, podcast conversations and scholarship. Updated following the October 30 publication of 34 historical articles, it also reflects on the use of AI in research and technical development, and on the continuing importance of judgment, reliability and continuity in knowledge management.

It’s been a little while since my last essay here in late August. I’ve been keeping busy with several related projects, including ongoing research, the development of the Metapattern Institute, and a new website for my own writing and ideas.

Much of this has involved returning to earlier material, pursuing new questions, and finding better ways to bring things together. Over the past few weeks, some of that work has begun to take a more visible form, and I wanted to share an update.

Research and work in progress

In September, I joined a study group on Nicos Poulantzas’s Political Power and Social Classes, which brought me back to debates involving Ralph Miliband, Ernesto Laclau and Leo Panitch, and to some longstanding questions about Canadian nationalism, economics, sovereignty, and the relationship between political institutions and social change.

I’ve also been continuing my research on various online digital communities, particularly how and why they form, the work they produce, the institutions they relate to, and how ideas circulate through their different audiences. Some of these interests grew out of my earlier podcast conversations, while others have emerged through more recent discussions and ideas.

These are subjects I hope to return to in future essays. For now, much remains in the form of notes, ongoing reading and developing arguments.

My approach to this work is informed by more than two decades of professional experience across IT, financial services, human/social services and various organizational settings. Throughout that time, I’ve developed a particular interest in how information is organized, maintained and put to use. More recently, I’ve been bringing that experience into my own research and scholarship, refining my research library, preserving sources and context, and developing ways to connect materials accumulated across different periods of inquiry.

AI-assisted tools have introduced new possibilities for research, retrieval and technical development, but the underlying concerns with reliability, continuity and sound judgment remain familiar ones.

The Metapattern Institute

I’ve also spent considerable time developing the Metapattern Institute, including a substantial revision of its website.

The new site is available in English and French and offers a fuller account of the Institute’s history, philosophy and current direction.

Metapattern has evolved considerably since its beginnings in communications and information technology. Its interests now extend across independent research, the digital humanities, information science and knowledge mobilization.

One of the questions guiding this work is how scholarship can be made more accessible and useful beyond the settings in which it was originally produced. That involves not only communicating findings, but preserving their context, connecting relevant sources and making them available for further inquiry.

Much of the recent work has taken place behind the scenes. I’ve been building and refining a working library, interconnected project and relationship records, and private environments for research and institutional history. Some of these are already useful in day-to-day work; others remain experimental.

The aim is to establish a foundation that can support the Institute’s continued growth while clarifying the kinds of research and collaborative work it might undertake.

You can explore the revised website at metapattern.org.

A new home for my writing and scholarship

In parallel, I’ve been developing my personal website, erikhaines.org, as a place to bring together my writing, podcast conversations and related scholarship.

The complete 21-episode Integral [+] Facticity podcast series is now available together on the website, with episode descriptions, guests, references and further reading.

It’s been especially enjoyable returning to these conversations. They cover a considerable range of subjects across philosophy, religion, politics and interdisciplinary scholarship, many of which continue to occupy me today. Revisiting them has also brought back connections and questions that I’d like to pursue further.

Update — 30 October 2026

Since I first published this update on October 27, the next stage of the website has been completed.

All 34 of my historical essays and updates are now available in full through Integral [+] Facticity on erikhaines.org, alongside the complete 21-episode podcast archive. The articles retain their original publication dates, images, references and historical context.

The corresponding posts on my Substack now provide abstracts and direct links to the complete articles, while preserving their original addresses and conversations.

The website is also intended to become more than a collection of my own work. I’m continuing to develop an interconnected scholarly reference resource documenting the people, publications, intellectual traditions and communities encountered throughout my research.

The Encyclopedia and Knowledge Graph remain part of that longer-term development. They will provide additional ways of exploring relationships among works, ideas, historical contexts and the communities in which they circulate.

Visit erikhaines.org

Explore the Integral [+] Facticity Podcast

Explore Integral [+] Facticity

Some reflections on the work

An interesting part of these projects has been working more extensively with AI, both for research support and technical development.

I’ve been using these tools to support source discovery, develop and test website features, and carry out technical work that would otherwise have required considerably more time or specialized resources. The process has involved plenty of experimentation and revision, along with the practical challenges of coordinating different tools and ensuring that the results meet my requirements.

Some approaches have worked remarkably well; others have proven unnecessarily complicated. The most useful results have come from having a clear sense of what I’m trying to accomplish, evaluating the work carefully, and knowing when an approach needs to be revised or abandoned.

In many ways, these projects bring my intellectual interests and professional experience into closer conversation. They’ve also provided an opportunity to extend my technical capabilities and demonstrate how that experience can be applied in new settings, particularly in knowledge management, information systems and digital scholarship.

For anyone interested in the technical side of these projects, I’ve recently updated my GitHub profile to document some of that work.

I'll continue using my Substack for Notes, updates and conversation, while erikhaines.org provides a more permanent home for my writing, podcast archive and developing scholarly reference work. The Metapattern Institute remains a distinct institutional setting for its own research and development.

There’s still a great deal I’d like to pursue, but I’m pleased to have reached this stage and look forward to sharing more as things develop.

Thanks for reading and following along.

Erik