A quarter of a century of open educational technology
Every day for 25 years, Stephen Downes has written about edtech, informing an entire industry.
Latest
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.
Bridging feels seamless. Behind the scenes, it's a technical marvel
"When you all give us your hard-earned money, we feel a deep responsibility to use it as well, and as efficiently, as possible." A responsibility A New Social lives up to in spades.
To maintain their independence, publishers are fleeing Substack
"Substack faced talent drain in 2024 linked to its platforming of Nazi newsletters, but now it’s not just the platform’s stance on hate speech that’s driving away creators."
Asking platforms to do better won't work. We need to force their hands
"If there were a dictator of the internet who intentionally set out to destroy your ability to get accurate information, the result would look a lot like what’s already on your screen. But why?"
WordPress powers 47% of the web. Now it's more social, too
WordPress is the most popular publishing platform in the world. It wants you to publish and be heard - and that means supporting conversation.
Canvas is open source, but its cloud services ransomware attack really hurts
It's "the biggest student data privacy disaster in history" - even though the core platform is open source.
Notable links: May 8, 2026
Building a civic information economy, not cultures of extraction.
Plugging the gaps won't save news. It's time to redesign
"Journalists, cultural workers, content creators, and other trusted messengers are enabling better civic insight for communities. How do we economically support the civic information future that society needs?"
The way to save news is not to create monopolistic monocultures
"Why, a funder asked me recently, do two intermediaries this funder saw as offering duplicative services both still exist? Because you—and your funder colleagues—let them, I said." But consolidation is a dangerous road.
Technology
Open source maintainers need to go in with open eyes
"To labour out of love, and to choose to share their work freely in a market society, OSS developers find themselves in a position where they are vulnerable to exploitation and harm."
AI
Claude Opus can now identify an author from their writing
"AI only needs 150 words to identify me. What does that mean for you?"
Notable links
Notable links: May 1, 2026
AI and society; and sustaining innovation has failed us.
Fiction
IndieWeb Fiction Carnival: May 2026
This month's prompt is "sticks and stones will break my bones".
Technology
Matt Mullenweg thinks WordPress is in decline. He may be right
When open source becomes a bureaucracy, it stops being able to innovate. For a product, that can mean death.
Business
Product-shaped or movement-shaped?
People love your work because of its impact, not how it works.
Business
Building with love, and paying for it
How do you fund work people don't want to pay for?
Technology
That terrible Signal exploit has been fixed. We have journalism to thank for it
"Apple’s fix means iPhones should no longer save copies of deleted messages from Signal or other apps, and Apple said the patch also purges already saved and related notifications."
Music
All You Fascists (Bound to Lose)
A collection of Woody Guthrie covers
Democracy
Sustaining innovation has failed us. It's time to think more radically
Some innovations create a new future that serves people better. Some sustain the status quo. It's time to think more radically.
AI
AI is not a magic wand and it won’t fix your problems
Without investment in people, processes, and working conditions, AI becomes merely "a technological smoke screen for deeper institutional decline."
AI
The world is not a database
One of the most important pieces of AI commentary: "software brain" is important to understand if we want to get through this era with our humanity intact.