Bits
“I just want to hang out online with people whose words and pictures and ideas intrigue and inspire and delight me, and who might feel similarly about my words and pictures and ideas. There are thousands of such people in the world, not millions. We want to congregate in different online spaces for different reasons. Now we can and I couldn’t be happier. When people say it can’t work, consider why, and who benefits from it not working.” #fediverse https://blog.jonudell.net/2023/01/19/of-course-the-attention-economy-is-threatened-by-the-fediverse/ via: @judell
“The corrective is more stories that show Wikipedia operates within a larger information ecosystem and relies on the availability of trustworthy media coverage. More broadly, we need journalism that reveals how the act of collecting knowledge—and even the concept of knowledge itself—is complex.” https://www.cjr.org/opinion/wikipedia-is-twenty-its-time-to-start-covering-it-better.php
“Eliza is a visual novel about an #ai counseling program, the people who develop it, and the people who use it.” #seriousgames https://www.zachtronics.com/eliza/
Search 5.8 billion images used to train popular #ai art models https://haveibeentrained.com/
“It’s undeniable; the #ai know me. Most have captured the outlines and signatures of my comics — black hair, bangs, striped T-shirts. To others, it may look like a drawing taking shape.
I see a monster forming.” https://archive.ph/UBidB
“the job of shadow librarians closely follows the ethos “information wants to be free,” which was famously put into practice by information activists like Aaron Swartz.” https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7vnn4/shadow-libraries-are-moving-their-pirated-books-to-the-dark-web-after-fed-crackdowns
“is the increasing belief in salvation through technology just religion in new clothes?” https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/salvation-through-technology
“if engineers must sell the necessity of paying back tech debt to a gatekeeper, you need to ask why the gatekeeper exists at all.” https://blog.alexewerlof.com/p/tech-debt-day
One thing that should be learned from the bitter lesson is the great power of general purpose methods, of methods that continue to scale with increased computation even as the available computation becomes very great. The two methods that seem to scale arbitrarily in this way are search and learning.” http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html
“The tech industry has hijacked a variety of commons and then rents us access to what should be open.” https://monroelab.net/chatgpt-super-rentier
“People talk about #innovation a whole lot, but what they are usually looking for is cheap wins and novelty. If you truly innovate, and change the way that people have to do things, expect mostly negative feedback. If you believe in what you’re doing, and know it will really improve things, then brace yourself for a long battle.” https://www.simplethread.com/20-things-ive
Arts
“to try to light up dark corners of cities, both installing new lights and encouraging citizens to interact with the wall—painting with light on it.” https://www.reskatestudio.com/
“it probably will never end, because every time I go into the sea I find a new form.” https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/these-gorgeous-photos-capture-life-inside-drop-seawater-180981297/
Sound & Music
The Sadies .. so much heart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUUgVGEOK90
Comics
“travel across this hidden world behind our screens to learn about the social, technical, ethical and human rights impacts of #ai, and help the characters find a way back to reality.” https://via.hypothes.is/https://unesdoc.unesco.org/in/rest/annotationSVC/DownloadWatermarkedAttachment/attach_import_0f6b6348-93cf-4a91-8618-0cb4fe2fe79c?_=382456eng.pdf&to=159&from=1
Teaching & Learning
Twenty-Fifth Year Reflections on the Public Knowledge Project https://pkp.sfu.ca/2023/01/11/twenty-fifth-year-reflections-on-pkp/
“To truly meet students where they are and get them to where they want to go, we need to assess what they already know on a granular level, give them credit for it, and help them fill in any gaps on an equally granular level.” #plar #highered https://eliterate.us/the-catalysts-for-competency-based-learning-and-prior-learning-assessments-have-arrived/
“Here is a brief rundown of the various projects that Kunanec and the Grade 11 and 12 students who have come through his Green Industries, Technological Design and Hospitality courses have designed … ” https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/01/19/news/toronto-students-turn-school-grounds-urban-farm-workshop-event-space
Politics & Economics
“Our economic system runs on human capabilities, and these are not a costless resource supplied by some self-sacrificing Mother Nature. Our own production, development, and maintenance requires both personal commitments and public support.” https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/18/wages-for-housework/#low-wage-workers-vs-poor-consumers
“The rescuers we need are mostly not individuals, they are collectives – movements, coalitions, campaigns, civil society.” https://www.theguardian.com/news/2023/jan/12/rebecca-solnit-climate-crisis-popular-imagination-why-we-need-new-stories
#truckpeacocking https://www.bugeyedandshameless.com/p/you-can-tell-a-man-by-his-truck
Cooperatives: An Ownership Model for Digital Networks https://media.orrick.com/Media%20Library/public/files/insights/2023/cooperatives-path-to-compliance-for-web3.pdf
Stories
“We are so conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unawares.” https://kentnerburn.com/the-cab-ride-ill-never-forget/