I’ve updated my state parks page with today’s visit, hitting the 20th park this year. Good milestone, but a long way to go. Might plot out a trip later this year to hit a few more at once.
People and blogs involved with and about the IndieWeb community, the fediverse, and/or the open web in general.
Finished reading: Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Enjoyed this so much. Just the book I needed this week. 📚
I recorded a new episode of Timetable today. Still angry. I need to flip the iTunes explicit bit on this one.
ChatGPT image of me
I asked ChatGPT: "Based on what you know about me, draw a picture of what you think my current life looks like."
Dave's life as imagined by ChatGPT.I'd like to hear from tech vendors, asap, which ones will help American voters learn what's true independent of whatever "truth" the government wants us to believe? Who will stand with the people? A good question for all of us to ask. Ask news orgs the same question.
Lost Maples State Park.
I see they have a piece about the "Manosphere." Stop blaming men. Lose that habit now. It's toxic.
It's worth listening to On The Media, interview with Masha Gassen, saying that the authoritarian government will want to define what's true and not. Since we now understand that most of the information flow now goes around the NYT, CNN etc -- even Fox, and largely through soc...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
PSA: Social media privacy and you
I’ve noticed a few mistaken assumptions circulating on social media lately, so I thought it was worth clarifying a few things around privacy and surveillance.
Much of this depends on the idea of a threat model: a term that refers to the potential risks you face based on who...
Optimism
I think of myself of as an optimist. It makes me insufferable sometimes.
When someone is having a moan about something in the news and they say something like “people are terrible”, I can’t resist weighing in with a “well, actually…” Then I’ll start channeling Rutger Bregma...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Journalists - is Twitter actually your community?
[Damon Kiesow in Working Systems]
Damon Kiesow, who is the Knight Chair in Digital Editing and Producing at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, writes:
"We ourselves have torn down the wall between editorial and business interests if as journalists, our calcu...
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Accessible tips for people to protect their privacy
[Bill Fitzgerald]
Bill Fitzgerald has updated his open source guide to personal privacy:
"Conversations about privacy and security often focus on technology and give scant attention to the human, non-technological factors that affect personal privacy and sec...
Day 1 of #IndieWebCamp #Berlin 2024¹ was very well attended!* 20 participants, more than 3x the previous one in 2022, and second highest (2019 had 22).* 18 introduced themselves² and their personal sites or aspirations for oneCollectively we proposed and facilitated 11 breako...
BTW, there's a lot of talk about new ways to communicate that don't depend on silos that could be sold to billionaires. One way to do it is with my product FeedLand. It manages news streams for feeds you subscribe to. I think every publication should share news from feeds they depend on, experts they quote, other news sources they read. We can build our own networks this way. We've done it before and can do it again. The advantage of this approach is that it is truly decentralized and not at all complicated to use. Here's the news stream I provide for readers of my blog. It's the most popular feature on the site. With FeedLand you can create your own.
Ben Werdmuller
• Ben Werdmuller
Wind the clock
Unsure what to do now? Molly White has some solid ways to get started helping:
""Many of us have looked back on historic events where people have bravely stood up against powerful adversaries and wondered, “what would I have done?” Now is your chance to find out. It did not just start with this election; it has been that time for a long time. If you’re just realizing it now, get your ass in gear. Make yourself proud.""
There are compelling suggestions here around protecting yourself; working to support press freedom and access to information; migrant rights; reproductive rights; trans rights. But more than that, the spirit of this post is that we should have a bias towards meaningful action.
[Link]
Well, #FFConf today was a wonderful balm for the soul. The talks were excellent, and it was really, really good to see people I hadn’t seen in a while—I needed that. Thank you, Julie. Thank you, Remy.
Well, #FFConf today was a wonderful balm for the soul.
The talks were excellent, and it was really, really good to see people I hadn’t seen in a while—I needed that.
Thank you, Julie. Thank you, Remy.
All of my favorite podcasts are talking about the same thing this week. Can’t listen to them. I’m making progress on some audiobooks instead.
> I think it is beautiful if people have a purpose. But it should be valid to lead a purposeless life too. … Maybe it is okay to not pursue potential and just be okay with being. — Winne Lim
I think it is beautiful if people have a purpose. But it should be valid to lead a purposeless life too. … Maybe it is okay to not pursue potential and just be okay with being.
— Winne Lim
There’s a lot of great discussion at #FFconf about meaning and purpose, but I keep thinking about this terrific blog post by Winnie Lim on leading a purposeless life: https://winnielim.org/journal/on-leading-a-purposeless-life/
There’s a lot of great discussion at #FFconf about meaning and purpose, but I keep thinking about this terrific blog post by Winnie Lim on leading a purposeless life:
https://winnielim.org/journal/on-leading-a-purposeless-life/
Spinning off Strata
Micro.blog does a lot. We have a handful of companion mobile apps because some things are just easier in a more focused app. That allows us to keep the main official blogging app as uncluttered as possible.
Over the next few months, I’m planning to take the next step with th...