I'm on the Lawfare Podcast today talking about the bot panic on mainstream social media and also the benefits (and drawbacks) of decentralized social media:
https://www.lawfareblog.com/lawfare-podcast-darius-kazemi-great-bot-panic
This was a really funny/fun conversation with the hosts, it should be a pretty entertaining listen.
@pixelfed Hi does anyone have recommendations of PixelFed accounts to follow? Either on pixelfed.social or other instances?
For anyone looking, there is a wonderful account on my instance focused on cooking and baking content: @aisshwaryya
Here’s the video of my talk “Beyond surveillance capitalism: alternatives, stopgaps, Small Web, and Site.js.” from Creative Mornings Istanbul on Friday.
Edited to fix the audio sync issue, add captions, chapters, and links to all the mentioned tools, etc.
Enjoy + please share! :)
A bit of federated media history. The "fediverse" was coined to describe the OStatus network (anything compatible with GNU social), as distinct from "the federation" (anything compatible with Diaspora). Once the ActivityPub spec was finalized, and everyone announced plans to implement it (except Diaspora), "fediverse" started to be used to describe any app implementing OStatus, Diaspora, ActivityPub, or Zot. That's the definition we currently use for @fediverseparty party
Announcing ActivityPub Conf 2020!
Following a successful inaugural conference in 2019, we have expanded APConf 2020 to a four day event that will occur entirely on line via Big Blue Button!
The CFP is open through July 8 at: https://conf.activitypub.rocks/#cfp
We invite proposals for birds of a feather topics and 30- 60 minute talks related to ActivityPub. Register online (https://conf.activitypub.rocks/#register) or feel free to email us with questions (activitypubconf@riseup.net )
John Oliver shares a powerful example of what is wrong with the attitude towards #privacy and security in Silicon Valley. Don't give #GAFAM your data. It isn't safe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZjmlJPJgug
John Oliver succinctly explains why facial recognition software is so insidious, and why combined with widespread surveillance is so dangerous, even if you "have nothing to hide"
Is anyone aware of plans for a way to run a single #ActivityPub server that can serve both #PixelFed and #Mastodon frontends? It seems that PixelFed and Mastodon both could be like a plugin to a standard AP server.
Remember when WeWork bought MeetUp.com before their real estate scam of a business model imploded? Zebras Unite are agitating for WeWork to sell MeetUp to its members, making it a platform cooperative:
https://medium.com/@sexandstartups/meetup-to-the-people-how-a-zebra-could-rise-from-a-unicorns-fall-cfa93d83bcdc
"Think of us as venture capitalists with a radical social mission: to lend people the tools to democratically build lasting wealth for themselves, their businesses, and their communities. The Working World is a non-profit organization that provides investment capital and technical support for worker cooperatives using an innovative finance model."
https://www.theworkingworld.org/us/what-we-do/
In this panel, Christopher Lemmer Webber discusses ActivityPub's server-to-client and server-to-server protocols, and how they could be used to allow people to use a single account to log in to many Fediverse clients. This seems like an immensely useful feature, that could offer enough ease of use to entice people to join the Fediverse. Are there projects working on this?
Relevant discussion starts at minute 24:00:
https://archive.fosdem.org/2019/schedule/event/activitypub_panel/
#fediverse #foss #activitypub
"Hence, when it came to the simple matter of bamboozling the masses with ripping tales of government as the very embodiment of evil, as Friedman did, there were never any qualms expressed about their simultaneous drive to take over the Republican Party, and then the U.S. government, in order to impose a strong state and an even stronger set of state-instituted novel markets."
- # PhilipMirowski
https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2018/02/neoliberalism-movement-dare-not-speak-name/
Fascinating interview with Phil Mirowski on why COVID-19 is more of an opportunity than a threat for neoliberalism. https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/85-never-let-a-serious-crisis-go-to-waste-w-philip-mirowski
@lightweight might find this interesting.
I only recently learned about Digital Research and its founder Gary Kildall, but this history really makes it seem like Bill Gates ripped off CP/M to launch Microsoft. Is this right?? #foss #microsoft https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJNaAG2BXow
Facebook’s Giphy acquisition sounds antitrust alarms in Congress - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/15/21260653/facebook-giphy-acquisition-merger-elizabeth-warren-amy-klobuchar-josh-hawley-senate-antitrust
Economist. Antitrust policy; industrial organization; history of economics