Punchbowl Sunset
Medium
I like this framing of the Mastodon vs. All Social Media story. Mastodon doesn't have to supplant Twitter to be a success. If people like me enjoy using it (and I do!) then it's working on some level. Yet every article about Mastodon says, "it has a long way to go to supplant Twitter." When you look at raw number of users, that's true, but do we need massive centralized networks? This recent Mastodon 101 article falls into the same framing trap, but it's a good summary nonetheless: The quest to design an ethical social media platform.
Newport Sunset
Gimlet
This is the 2nd Podcast Saturday and I might as well jump straight to my desert island choices. I have been a fan of PJ and Alex since they were an offshoot of On the Media called TLDR back in the aught-fourteens. They report about Internet culture and it's the one podcast I look forward to the most. If you're reading this you've probably heard Reply All and I'm preaching to the choir. But if not, go ahead and dig into their catalog. I have a few favorites: #109 Is Facebook Spying on You?, #78 Very Quickly to the Drill, #102 Long Distance, #96 The Secret Life of Alex Goldman, and #44 Shine On You Crazy Goldman. And the Best Episode (once you're a hardcore fan): #36 Today's the Day. I still remember when & where I was driving when I heard this episode. Is that weird?
YouTube | Louie Zong
I really enjoyed this 60 second music lesson about the way chords color a melody. It made me think of Raymond Queneau's Exercises in Style. So if you like this thing you might like that thing too. [via mefi]
Mirror
Towards Data Science
“The data we are shown is not the only data there is.” A good description of a statistical analysis problem and a reminder to think about causes of data not just data you see in front of you. This reminds me of that old zen saying don’t confuse the moon with the finger that points at it.
Never Sleeping
austinkleon.comIn focus on this Newsletter Wednesday is Austin Kleon's newsletter. You may remember Austin from his books about creative work like Steal Like an Artist or his latest Keep Going. Each week he shares 'ten things worth sharing' and I always find interesting fuel for thought. I'm also inspired by the personal tone of his writing and it's something I'd like this blog to get closer to as it grows up.
Medium
Dave Pell asks us to vote against hate. Bonus link: Vote for Democrats Everywhere by Brent Simmons. Bonus link 2: Your vote determines the future of others by Sarah Kendzior. Bonus link 3: Why I, a young person, probably won’t vote by Alexandra Petri. Bonus link 4: Nancy. Voters get ice cream.
Freedom to TinkerWith elections on our minds (vote Tuesday!) here's Ed Felton describing a new voting system called E2E-V. I'm not sure I get the nuances of the coin-flip challenge voters but it sounds like a much better system than our current black-box, insecure, privately owned machines. And of course my favorite system is Oregon's statewide mail-in system. I'm sure it's not as secure as end-to-end verifiable cryptography but I think the convenience and ease of understanding how it works means more people participate.
Flickr of Destruction
Last April, photo sharing service SmugMug purchased photo sharing service Flickr and I was optimistic: Flickr of Hope. I still am, but Flickr's tension between being a public good and a private company is hitting the fan (so to speak) after they announced that they will delete photos from free accounts that have more than 1,000 photos: Why we’re changing Flickr free accounts.
I have 1,433 photos at Flickr and I'm not paying for a pro account so 433 photos will disappear in January. I'm not a pro member for many of the same reasons Brian Sawyer writes about here: So Long, Flickr, and Thanks for All the Photos. (Brian edited the Flickr Hacks book I co-wrote in 2006.) At one time I shared all of my photos online at Flickr but I don't use the service today. I downloaded those photos long ago, but I still think it's valuable to leave them in their original context. They're not important historic documents that need to be preserved but maybe the Flickr archives as a whole do count as an important historic document?
Alt copyright framework Creative Commons thinks so: CC Working with Flickr to Protect the Commons. They say, "Flickr is one of the most important platforms to host and share CC licensed works on the web, and over 400 million of the photos there are CC licensed – representing over a quarter of all CC licensed works on the web." Flickr's new policy could remove a good number of those but I haven't seen any estimates.
Flickr is in a difficult position. As a private company they can't store an infinite number of photos for free indefinitely. That's traditionally the role of institutions like The Library of Congress but does the LOC care about millions of personal snapshots? Maybe the Internet Archive could take them on, but I can imagine it would strain their resources as well.
I hope Creative Commons can help Flickr find a home for those photos. If not a new home, maybe a grant of some kind to help with the costs to preserve our collective history.
I have 1,433 photos at Flickr and I'm not paying for a pro account so 433 photos will disappear in January. I'm not a pro member for many of the same reasons Brian Sawyer writes about here: So Long, Flickr, and Thanks for All the Photos. (Brian edited the Flickr Hacks book I co-wrote in 2006.) At one time I shared all of my photos online at Flickr but I don't use the service today. I downloaded those photos long ago, but I still think it's valuable to leave them in their original context. They're not important historic documents that need to be preserved but maybe the Flickr archives as a whole do count as an important historic document?
Alt copyright framework Creative Commons thinks so: CC Working with Flickr to Protect the Commons. They say, "Flickr is one of the most important platforms to host and share CC licensed works on the web, and over 400 million of the photos there are CC licensed – representing over a quarter of all CC licensed works on the web." Flickr's new policy could remove a good number of those but I haven't seen any estimates.
Flickr is in a difficult position. As a private company they can't store an infinite number of photos for free indefinitely. That's traditionally the role of institutions like The Library of Congress but does the LOC care about millions of personal snapshots? Maybe the Internet Archive could take them on, but I can imagine it would strain their resources as well.
I hope Creative Commons can help Flickr find a home for those photos. If not a new home, maybe a grant of some kind to help with the costs to preserve our collective history.