Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, dies at 92

Rest in peace, and thank you for everything you did.  #Democracy [Link]

Decentralization isn't enough. It's about people.

I posted a link the other day to this sobering essay about how the promised migration to Mastodon didn’t go as hoped. It makes some assumptions about what people were hoping for in the first place, but if you were (as I was) hoping that this would be a

Google earned $10m from ads misdirecting abortion seekers to ‘pregnancy crisis centers’

“Google has made millions of dollars in the last two years from advertisements misdirecting users who were seeking abortion services to “pregnancy crisis centers” that do not actually provide care, according to a new study.”  #Technology [Link]

Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, by Douglas Rushkoff

A cathartic read that would be a great back-to-back pair with Matthew Desmond's Poverty, by America. I took some exception to his skepticism towards renewable energy, but the core message and diagnosis of what he calls The Mindset is right on. Now we have the diagnosis, the key

Google, one of AI’s biggest backers, warns own staff about chatbots

“Human reviewers may read the chats, and researchers found that similar AI could reproduce the data it absorbed during training, creating a leak risk. Alphabet also alerted its engineers to avoid direct use of computer code that chatbots can generate, some of the people said.”  #AI [Link]

Why did the #TwitterMigration fail?

Unfortunately, I agree with every word of this.  #Technology [Link]

Twitter Plunges on Annual Scoring of LGBTQ Safety on Social Media

“While none of the platforms achieve a passing score, Twitter is worst in class, with its score plunging 12 points compared to the prior year, to 33%. The company’s owner, Elon Musk, has used the platform to promote “bigoted and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric,” according to the watchdog group Media Matters

Nobel laureate Maria Ressa says research by Oxford institute can be used against reporters

“Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa has claimed Oxford University’s leading journalism institute is publishing flawed research that puts journalists and independent outlets at risk, particularly in the global south.”  #Media [Link]

Web 2.0 may finally be democratized

If you take investment to build your product, you will one day need to find a way to repay those investors. That might be a risk that you need to take because you otherwise wouldn't be able to build the thing you want to. But it's

US Internal Refugee Crisis: 130-260k Trans People Have Already Fled

“8% of all transgender people have already moved out of their community or state as a result of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. An additional 43% of transgender people are likewise considering moving.”  #Society [Link]

Metablogging

“Metablogging is something any team can and should do.” I very much like this practice.  #Technology [Link]

New Creative Era

“BUT WE DON’T WANT TO GO VIRAL. WE JUST WANT THE BASICS: TO MAKE WORK WE’RE PROUD OF WITH PEOPLE WE RESPECT AND WHO RESPECT US THAT’S TRUE TO OUR INTENTIONS AND WHO WE ARE AND ARE NOT”  #Culture [Link]