I’m soliciting prompts for discussion. This piece is a part of that series.
Erlend Sogge Heggen asks:
There’s legitimate reason to be worried about Meta’s P92 project being part of a EEE play against the fediverse.
How might the fediverse community counteract this, perhaps with its own EEE strategy?
We know Meta will attempt ...
May 31, 2023
Via Jeremy Keith, Future-First Design Thinking:
Incorporating non-human personas into the design thinking process would allow us to embody the essential elements that constitute our environment, such as air, trees, water, and land. These personas can serve as tangible reminders of the interconnectedness between our design decisions and the health of ...
May 31, 2023
I’m soliciting prompts for discussion. This piece is a part of that series.
An anonymous reader asks:
Do the good guys need to stoop to the tactics of the bad guys in order to avoid losing, or is there still value in holding oneself to certain standards?
First: who are the good guys ...
May 30, 2023
Inspired by Manton’s list of countries and states he’s been to, I thought I’d come up with my own.
I’ve lived in five:
The Netherlands 🇳🇱
England 🏴
Austria 🇦🇹
Scotland 🏴
The United States 🇺🇸
In addition to those, I’ve been to (excluding those “I’ve technically been to here but I really haven’t” airport layover visits):
Albania ...
May 29, 2023
I’m soliciting prompts for discussion. This piece is a part of that series.
Michael Kriegh asks:
Do you think AI is an evolutionary trend for intelligence in the universe? If so, what do you imagine that trend will look like in 50 years? 100 years? If not, why not?
There’s a body of ...
May 29, 2023
I think it’s important to understand that what’s happening today in social media is not because decentralization’s time has come: it’s because Twitter’s time has gone.
The core need being expressed by millions of users isn’t “get me a decentralized protocol that nobody owns where I can have my choice of ...
May 27, 2023
I’m soliciting prompts for discussion. This piece is a part of that series.
An anonymous reader asks:
Why do emails in jail cost 50 cents each?
Since around 2016, US inmates in 43 state prison systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been able to send electronic messages of a sort. Recipients ...
May 26, 2023
I’m soliciting prompts for discussion. This piece is a part of that series.
Hunter Walk asks, in two prompts:
What's one business model you wish consumers would get more comfortable with because it would be a net-positive for media/news/society? And similarly, what's one business model you wish media/news organization would spend more ...
May 24, 2023
I’m going to try something new for the next few weeks. I usually write about the intersection of media, technology, and democracy, often in reaction to new developments or something that’s been in the news.
But I’d love to know what you’re interested in. So here’s the idea: until further notice, ...
May 23, 2023
And that's the thing -- the best thing doesn't win -- the one that is easiest for others to build off of is what wins!~ Christina Warren on Mastodon, discussing ActivityPub and AT Protocol
This is exactly right. It’s not about ideological purity or architectural perfection.
Can a developer take your protocol, ...
May 20, 2023
I’ve loved every moment of working with The 19th. I was a supporter before I joined, and I’ll continue to be one afterwards. As well as well-executed journalism at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy, The 19th is a masterclass in building an equitable remote organizational culture that should ...
May 18, 2023
I’m learning that I cannot write at night. Many writers do their best work once everyone else has gone to bed when the house is quiet; I, on the other hand, am a ragged, sorry mess.
This is a bit of a turnaround for me: I wrote the first version of ...
May 11, 2023
A quick reminder: if your favorite service has added generative AI to its core functionality, that means it’s almost certainly also added sending your data to an AI service. Depending on which service that is, that may include sending your data across borders and adding personal information to a training ...
May 9, 2023
Fiction writers are popularly split into two camps: plotters and pantsters. Whereas plotters work closely on a detailed outline before they ever begin a word, iterating on the plot again and again so that it’s tight and hits the right themes, pantsters have a concept in mind, fill their heads ...
May 7, 2023
I’m disproportionately frustrated by news websites that don’t provide an RSS feed. Sure, most provide an email newsletter these days, and that will suit many users. (It also suits the publisher just fine, because now they know exactly who is subscribing.) But while it’s been around for a long time, ...
May 5, 2023
Ryan discusses the differences between the fediverse and the AT Protocol:
One core difference between the fediverse and the AT Protocol seems to be that AT decouples many key building blocks – identity, moderation, ranking algorithms, even your own data to some degree – from your server. The fediverse, on the ...
May 4, 2023
Google is adding to Brand Indicators for Message Identification:
Building upon that feature, users will now see a checkmark icon for senders that have adopted BIMI. This will help users identify messages from legitimate senders versus impersonators.
So in other words, Gmail will show a blue checkmark for email domains that ...
May 3, 2023
I’m focusing on the intersection of technology, media, and democracy. Subscribe by email to get every update.
It’s genuinely refreshing to see how non-profit newsrooms have been embracing the open web and the spirit of collaboration over competition. These are often resource-strapped organizations shedding light on underreported stories, many of which ...
May 3, 2023
How might Large Language Models transform journalism? ...
May 2, 2023
Interesting links for May. ...
May 1, 2023