It's not enough to have better ideals.
You also need to build a better product.
"The protocol world has been trying to solve the problem of how to leave, and the next step is working on how we can stay together."
It's not enough to be free. We also need to be in community
To reach your big goal, you need to sell where you're heading next
"You need to sell Point C: the concrete, vivid destination you will take yourself, your team, and your company to over the next twelve to twenty-four months."
The Fediverse is not a product. It's time to get real about marketing
If projects are going to convince people to try alternatives to Big Tech, they need to do a much better job of explaining why they're better for people who don't care about technical details like protocols and decentralization.
When the AI boom subsides, the data centers will remain. What we do now matters
Data centers are the new factories. How we think about the precedents they set matters.
The Pope used his first encyclical to warn about tech centralization
"When such power is concentrated in the hands of a few, it tends to become opaque and evade public oversight, [giving] rise to new dependencies, exclusions, manipulations and inequalities."
Affordances for me, but not for thee
For years, people have tried hard to get websites to build accessibility affordances. Now developers are willingly building them for AI.
Like sunrise over a sink
It appears that the winner of a short story prize was generated with AI. But how was it selected?
Why micropayments can't save news
Why an ephemeral model can't fund relationship-based work
A quarter of a century of open educational technology
Every day for 25 years, Stephen Downes has written about edtech, informing an entire industry.
Notable links: May 15, 2026
What happens after the feed? And how can publishers remain independent?
52 actionable posts about building a culture of innovation
One year of consistent posts is nothing to sneeze at. But when each one is genuinely useful, actionable, and insightful, that's another level of achievement.
AI may be the new gatekeepers, but human connection is more needed than ever
"What comes next, after the algorithmic social feed that’s defined our digital social lives for the last decade?" I believe this very useful presentation will be referred back to for years to come.