You know how the Curse of the Monkey's paw works: a cursed object grants all of your wishes, but in the worst way possible: "be careful what you wish for."
That's what we're living through with Big Tech right now.
I'm all for regulating Big Tech, but not all regulation is created equal. Some regulation can dampen the power of Big Tech, while other regulation can make it permanent, even creating powerful stakeholders for monopolies within government.
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Making this video took me pretty long but I wanted to correctly underline how great and unique the design of this smartphone is :
https://puri.sm/posts/the-design-behind-a-modular-and-secure-mobile-phone/
Action precedes motivation, procrastination precedes frustration.
My recipe to getting shit done is breaking down tasks into smaller and smaller chunks, until they seem almost too trivial to accomplish. Take baby steps into the right direction instead of going for the big leaps! Persist and you will eventually get there. Believe in yourself!
Friendica is a free open source federated social network with a Facebook-style interface, and part of the Fediverse. You can follow the official blog at:
➡️ @news
The official site is at https://friendi.ca/
Some good up-to-date instances include https://libranet.de and https://squeet.me
Installation guide for self-hosting: https://friendi.ca/resources/installation/
The @fedilab app is compatible with Friendica accounts.
#Friendica #Fediverse #ActivityPub #Facebook #Alternatives #FOSS #FLOSS
I have some great news about Boston Public Schools and free software. You may know that my Co-op has been hosting some Boston Public School courses over the summer using free software.
Assessments of student progress shows that the teachers that stuck with BBB had better assessment scores for their students!! Especially the Math teachers. Scores were SIGNIFICANTLY higher by about 10-15 percentage points and it is believed that is because BBB allowed for student engagement more than Zoom did.
Wanna help further convince the devs at DotsMesh to implement #ActivityPub and be part of the #fediverse?
Am mentioning 'further convince' because they're already quite positive. Their platform is at its early beginnings. Ideal to get the integration going at this stage, I'd say 😃
I've created an issue with some AP resources to get them going. Please if you like to see them on Fedi, give some love ❤️ to the issue and place your upvote or heart!
What's a good alternative to Google Forms?
Starting a new organisation called "Members For Cooperation Between Cooperatives".
The name explains it pretty well. The idea is especially to organise rank-and-file members of big and old consumer cooperatives to advocate for them to cooperate more with new, small worker cooperatives.
If you are interested in joining (it's free!) let me know :)
Experts with the Transition Integrity Project ran a simulation of Trump refusing to concede defeat in the 2020 election. Such a situation could get ugly. But one conclusion was the influence of Fox News and Facebook.
"These people [Murdoch and Zuckerberg] will hold the state of the republic in their hands, potentially."
This for me is the problem with FB. *No person* should have so much power. And that is why we need the Fediverse and a decentralized social web.
I'm tired of social networks and want to read more through RSS.
So I suggest that we regularly share our favourite feeds with the tag #RSS. For each feed, we explain why we like it.
I start with https://hnrss.org/frontpage?points=100 which provides every news on HackerNews with more than 100 votes.
I like this feed because it allows me to have a quick glance at what is trendy in the tech world. I also sometimes found interesting read I would not have found otherwise.
#DeleteFacebook Entry 10
Investigation source: https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Hosting-the-Holohoax.pdf
I have an idea for a patreon like system for software devlopment.
Suppose a software takes $10,000 to develop.
Then you set a minimum amount like $100 per license.
Then once 100 people buy it, the price of the license reduces to $10,000 ÷ 101. The difference is credited to all the original buyers. So as more and more people buy it, the per license price keeps dropping and the differnce is credited to all buyers.
I'd love to see someone implement this idea. Boosts appreciated.
How far the #fediverse has come in 2 years:
https://www.reddit.com/r/opensource/comments/90fz3z/activitypub_and_the_fediverse_do_you_think_it_can/
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There is no scenario in which a user of Instagram should expect to have biometrics gathered.
We must stop victim blaming people, as done in comments and posts about the Instagram situation.
This violation of trust is solely in the hands of #Instagram / #Facebook and all actors involved in the illegal gathering of biometric data.
Working together to fight those that illegally invade #privacy is a path to victory.
https://www.macrumors.com/2020/08/12/instagram-accused-of-harvesting-data/
In case you missed it, I wrote a little something about the Small Web on Friday.
What’s the Small Web?
Exactly.
Read on… ;)
Economist. Antitrust policy; industrial organization; history of economics