The AT Protocol

“The world needs a diverse market of connected services to ensure healthy competition. Interoperation needs to feel like second nature to the Web.” I’m cautiously optimistic - and certainly curious.  #Technology [Link]

The BBC at one hundred

“Its relationship with the British state has been fraught, a function of its peculiar dual status as both a news organization and a nominally unifying cultural service, and of its funding status.”  #Media [Link]

Facebook owner Meta to sell Giphy after UK watchdog confirms ruling

“The only way this can be addressed is by the sale of Giphy. This will promote innovation in digital advertising, and also ensure UK social media users continue to benefit from access to Giphy.”  #Technology [Link]

My bookmarks process

I tend to get my links from three sources: my feed subscriptions, links I find on social media (particularly using Twitter Blue’s excellent “top articles from people you follow” feature), and stuff that people send me directly. If I read something and find it particularly interesting, I’ll save

Monarch

“Not once at school was I told any of this stuff. I’d heard of the Raj before, although the British always spoke of it as if it was something to be proud of.” +1. And it is nothing to be proud of.  #Society [Link]

My Sister, the Serial Killer, by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Smartly pointed satire loosely disguised as a thriller. Witty and dark as hell. I loved it.  #Fiction [Link]

Coding

GitHub Copilot investigation

“Copi­lot’s whizzy code-retrieval meth­ods are a smoke­screen intended to con­ceal a grubby truth: Copi­lot is merely a con­ve­nient alter­na­tive inter­face to a large cor­pus of open-source code. There­fore, Copi­lot users may incur licens­ing oblig­a­

The 19th annual community survey

At The 19th, we’re running our annual community survey. If you’ve read a story on The 19th, or if you’re a woman or LGBTQ+ person, or are interested in policy and democracy news that affects women and LGBTQ+ people, we’d love to hear from you. Complete

How the web reads fiction

Last week, I asked you about your fiction-reading habits as part of my research for a personal project I’m working on. I also ran a separate survey on Google Surveys - getting in just before that service shuts down next month - to get a sense of what the

Coding

The Proprietary Syndication Formats

“Guess which format is going to outlast all these proprietary syndication formats. I’d say RSS, which I believe to be true, but really, it’s HTML.”  #Coding [Link]

Kanye West plans to acquire conservative social media site Parler

“Parler was created in September 2018 as a free speech alternative to apps like Twitter and Facebook. The app was de-platformed from Google and Apple's app stores in January 2021, following the January Capitol siege.”  #Technology [Link]

How a Secret Rent Algorithm Pushes Rents Higher

“For tenants, the system upends the practice of negotiating with apartment building staff. RealPage discourages bargaining with renters and has even recommended that landlords in some cases accept a lower occupancy rate in order to raise rents and make more money.”  #Business [Link]