You know, the feeling that little, uh, pang, when you realize you forgot a
friend's birthday again, or you just can't quite place the details of that
really important chat you had last week.
Oh, absolutely.
Trying to keep track of everyone we care about it.
Well, it feels like juggling sometimes, doesn't it?
It really does.
Our lives are so packed and you know, all these digital tools connect us.
Sure.
But they also add to the, the noise makes it hard to be intentional.
Exactly.
It's easy to lose that focus on nurturing the connections that really
matter.
Right.
And before we dive into a tool that's actually designed to tackle that
specific challenge, we really want to give a shout out to our sponsor.
Yeah, they make these deep dives possible.
Today we're thanking safe server.
They handle the hosting for software, just like the kind we're talking about
today, and they're fantastic at supporting digital transformation.
If you want to check them out, you can find more info at www.safeserver.de.
Let me spell that, www.sas, S-E-R-V-E-R dot D-E.
Great stuff.
Thanks safe server.
So, okay, let's get into it.
Today's topic is Monica.
Yep.
We're doing a deep dive into this thing called Monica, which is an open source
personal relationship management system.
And where are we getting our info?
We've pulled key bits from the Monica page on GitHub and also from
their official website.
Our goal here is pretty simple.
Really, we want to unpack what Monica actually is, figure out who it's really
for and get a feel for its core principles.
Basically think of it as exploring a tool that's built to be like your personal
memory bank for all the important people in your life, making it easy to grasp,
especially if this whole PRM idea is new to you.
So, okay.
What is Monica fundamentally?
The sources call it a personal relationship management system or PRM.
Right.
PRM.
Now that might sound a bit corporate or technical.
Yeah, let's break that down.
Most people have probably heard of CRM, right?
Customer relationship management.
Sure.
Businesses use it all the time.
Tracking calls, sales, meeting notes, all that jazz.
Exactly.
It's for managing business relationships effectively.
Monica though, takes that basic idea.
And flips it completely.
Right.
For your personal life, it's a PRM for friends, family, your partner, even like
professional contacts you actually care about personally.
The goal isn't making a sale.
The sources are super clear.
It's built to help you be a better friend, family member or spouse.
How does it do that?
Yeah.
By helping you remember the details.
Precisely remembering your friend's kid's name or what you discussed last time
with your aunt or that important anniversary, little things, but they build
connection.
So it's like a dedicated private space for all that stuff.
Instead of scattered notes or just relying on memory, kind of a
super powered personal Rolodex.
That's a good way to put it.
Everything about the people you care about all in one secure place.
Okay. That makes sense.
So who is this actually for then?
Well, the sources say it's for anyone who, um, wants to actively document their
life and maybe more broadly for people who just find it hard to remember all
those details about everyone they care about.
Honestly, with how busy life is, that sounds like almost everyone I know.
Huh?
Yeah, probably.
They specifically mentioned people juggling jobs, families, that whole
work life balance struggle, basically busy people who feel like those important
details sometimes slip through the cracks.
Okay.
But the sources mentioned something else really interesting too, about
specific groups finding it helpful.
Yes.
This was quite striking.
They highlight positive feedback from people with Asperger's syndrome,
Alzheimer's disease, and also introverts who apparently use Monica daily.
Wow.
That's, that's unexpected.
Why those groups in particular, do you think?
The sources don't dive into clinical reasons, but you can kind of see why for
someone who might find social cues or interactions a bit overwhelming, maybe
like some introverts or individuals with Asperger's.
Having a structured way to track conversations and details could help.
Exactly.
It could potentially lower anxiety, make interactions feel more
manageable and for conditions impacting memory like Alzheimer's.
Well, having a reliable private external record of relationships and past
interactions seems incredibly valuable.
Yeah.
I can see that it really shows the power of just documenting
connections in an organized way.
It really does.
Okay.
So let's get practical.
How does Monica actually help you do this documenting and remembering?
What are the key features?
It's got a pretty wide range of features.
You've got your basic contact management, obviously names,
phone numbers, emails, standard stuff.
But then you can also define the relationships between your contacts.
So you can note that say Sarah is married to Tom or that Tim is Jane's son.
Ah, so you see the network.
That's clever.
Yeah.
It helps you understand the whole social context.
And then there are reminders, birthdays, anniversaries.
Yep.
Automatic birthday reminders are mentioned.
Plus you can set custom reminders for absolutely anything else related to a person.
Like remember to ask about the new job.
Nice.
And what about notes?
Detailed notes on any contact.
You can even record how you met someone, which, you know, can be surprisingly
useful later on.
Totally.
And tracking interactions seems like a core part of it.
Definitely.
You can manage activities with contacts.
That's where you log things like phone calls, coffee meetups, email sent.
It builds a history of your connection.
So you can see when you last spoke what you talked about.
Right.
And you can also manage tasks related to contacts, like need to send that article
to Sarah.
So it's active, not just a static list.
It tracks the relationship over time.
Exactly.
And it goes beyond just the basics.
Like what?
Well, the sources mentioned things like tracking a contact's pets.
Pets.
Okay.
That is personal.
Asking someone about their dog by name, that makes a difference.
It does.
And you can also track gift ideas you have for someone or even gifts you've already
given them so you don't repeat yourself.
Good feature.
What about tracking your own life, not just others?
There's a diary feature included.
So you can jot down notes about your own day, your thoughts, major life events.
So you can see your interactions in the context of your own life.
Yeah.
It helps tie it all together.
Plus you can upload documents and photos, maybe link a photo to a
contact or a diary entry.
And can you tailor it to your needs?
Is it customizable?
Oh yeah, quite a bit.
You can define custom genders if needed, create your own activity types, choose
what sections appear on a contacts page, use labels for organizing, lots of
flexibility there.
Sounds comprehensive.
And it seems built for broader use too.
Multiple vaults, users, lots of languages.
Yeah.
Multiple vaults for different contexts, maybe multi-user support and translations
into, I think, 27 languages.
That's a serious commitment.
Okay.
So we've got a good handle on what Monica is and what it does, but sometimes
knowing what something isn't is just as important, especially with digital tools
today.
Absolutely.
And this is where Monica draws some really clear lines in the sand, according
to the sources.
First big one.
It is not a social network.
Emphatically not.
They stress it never will be.
It's not about connecting through the app or broadcasting updates.
It is fundamentally private for your eyes only, I think was the phrase.
That's the one.
No public profiles, no feeds, no likes, no sharing functionality.
It's purely your personal private record.
Okay.
So it's not trying to be Facebook or Instagram.
Is it like a smart assistant trying to predict what you need?
Explicitly not a smart assistant or an AI tool.
The sources are clear.
It won't guess what you want.
No integrations with things like chat.
GPT doesn't try to be clever, right?
They even playfully say it's pretty dumb.
In that sense, it only does what you explicitly tell.
It reminds you about a birthday.
You entered shows you notes.
You wrote you're in control, which leads to the huge question.
Everyone has data privacy.
What happens with all this personal info you put in?
This seems to be their absolute cornerstone principle.
It does not scan your data.
It does not do as they put it, nasty things with it.
Okay.
Their statement is really direct.
Yeah.
Your data, your server, do whatever you want with it.
All the power, all the control stays with the user.
Wow.
That's, that's massively different from the standard model where the service
provider owns and analyzes everything completely different and flowing from
that no ads based on what you write zero ads explicitly not ad supported and
users are not tracked period.
These aren't just features.
They're baked into the project's DNA.
That's really interesting.
So talking about DNA, what are the core principles or the big
vision driving Monica?
What's the philosophy?
The sources lay out a clear set of guiding principles.
It has to help improve relationships.
Obviously it needs to be simple, simple to use, simple to contribute to, simple
to understand, simple to maintain.
Simplicity is key.
Definitely.
And then the knots, not a social network, no ads, no tracking.
Plus it aims to be transparent, fully open source, focused on doing one
thing while documenting your life.
And it needs to be well-documented itself.
That focus on simplicity and transparency really comes through.
Yeah.
And the ultimate goal, the big picture vision.
It's stated very simply and powerfully to help people have
more meaningful relationships.
Simple, direct, very human.
And how do they plan to achieve that vision?
What are the project's specific goals?
They want it to be really easy to use for anybody.
Truly open source, making it easy for others to contribute and accessible
everywhere by being straightforward to install and run.
Let's dig into that open source aspect a bit more.
Why is that so central for them?
Well, open source means the actual code, the instructions that make the
software work is publicly available.
Anyone can look at it, see how it functions, check for issues, even
suggest improvements or add features.
And the Monica team sees real benefits in taking that path.
Oh yeah.
Firstly, there's this strong belief that the tool itself could really
change people's lives and they feel making it open source is the way to help
it grow much bigger than they could manage alone.
Harnessing the power of the community.
Exactly.
They put it quite plainly.
You can't make something great alone.
Having a community means bugs get found faster, new ideas bubble up.
People who are passionate about it can help improve it for everyone.
Makes sense.
Any other reasons?
Transparency is huge.
When development happens in the open, it builds trust.
Anyone can see what the code is doing or not doing.
There's no space for hidden malicious stuff because it's
all out there for scrutiny.
They say this openness fosters formidable things.
And building that developer community itself is a goal.
It seems so.
They see it as a win.
Developers often become advocates, helping to spread the word and
the underlying philosophy.
And has this open source approach actually worked?
Does it have traction?
The numbers suggest it has.
The sources mentioned things like over 44,000 registered users managing
collectively over 340,000 contacts.
That's a lot of relationships being documented.
Wow.
Any other metrics?
Yeah.
28,000 activities logged, nearly 90,000 reminders set up.
And on the developer side on GitHub, it has over 22,000 stars.
That's like a thumbs up from other developers and 2,300 forks, meaning
people have copied the code to work on it themselves.
So there's definitely activity who's behind it all.
There's a core team mentioning names like Regis and Alexa Settler, but
they really emphasize the contribution of the wider community.
It's not just one or two people.
And is properly licensed as open source.
Yep.
Uses the AGPL 3.0 license, pretty standard for ensuring code stays open.
And they proudly mentioned it's a Canadian project.
Okay.
So let's bring this all back home.
We've gone deep into Monica.
What does this mean for you listening right now?
Well, think about the digital world we live in.
It's often noisy, pushing us towards public sharing, sometimes feeling a
bit invasive with our data.
Monica represents a really deliberate choice, an alternative path.
It offers a quiet, structured, private space where the only focus is on
intentionally looking after your important personal connections.
So it's about pushing back against that noise, prioritizing depth over breath,
maybe privacy over public performance.
Exactly.
It shows that technology can be used differently, not just for broadcasting
to the many, but as a focused personal tool to genuinely strengthen the bonds
with the people who truly matter to you.
It's a concrete example of how just remembering, documenting those details
intentionally can help you be more present, more supportive in your relationships.
And that kind of leaves us with a final thought to chew on, doesn't it?
Go on.
If a tool like Monica suggests that meaningful relationships thrive on things
like intentionality, memory, and crucially privacy, what does that imply
about the way we typically use most other digital platforms today?
You know, the ones built around broadcasting and maybe more passive connection.
It makes you question the tools and why we're using them for connection, doesn't it?
It really does.
Monica makes a strong case for using tech to support our core human
connections in a way that respects privacy and puts the user firmly in control.
Exploring tools with that kind of different philosophy.
Yeah.
It could definitely make you rethink things.
It's certainly food for thought.
Well, on that note, I think that wraps up our deep dive for today.
We hope this walkthrough of Monica has given you a clear picture of what it offers.
And a huge thank you once again to our sponsor, Safe Server.
Their support makes these explorations possible and they're great partners
for digital transformation.
Don't forget, you can find out more about Safe Server and their hosting
services at www.dot.de.
That's www.d-s-a-s-e-s-e-r-v-e-r-dot.de.
Thanks so much for joining us.
We'll catch you on the next deep dive.