Month: August 2020

Replied to Why I Started Microblogging by Bryan Bryan (Bryan Sebesta)
So, I’ve started to microblog. I was inspired by Alan Jacobs’ recent article, getting back to the open web via micro.blog. One of the big reasons he supports starting a microblog this way is is because he owns the content; it’s part of his own domain, his turf. And that’s appealing to me. Ad...
Welcome to the game Bryan! Curious why you’re hosting your microblog separate from your main site instead of running them both from WordPress (not that you need to/have to)?

I’ve enjoyed linkblogging. When I read something, I can share the link along with a quote or reflection on how it affected me. It’s a great space to think out loud. ❧

Annotated on August 05, 2020 at 01:51PM

As Austin Kleon notes, blogging is a great way to discover what you have to say. My microblog has given me a chance to have thoughts, and this longer blog has given me a space to figure out what it means–to discover what it is I have to say. In other words, my microblog is where I collect the raw materials; my blog is where I assemble them into questions and, perhaps, answers. It’s a place where I figure out what I really think. ❧

Annotated on August 05, 2020 at 01:54PM

Read How would I improve RSS? Three ideas by Matt Webb (interconnected.org)
My sense is that RSS is having a mini resurgence. People are getting wary of the social media platforms and their rapacious appetite for data. We’re getting fatigued from notifications; our inboxes are overflowing. And people are saying that maybe, just maybe, RSS can help. So I’m seeing RSS being discussed more in 2020 than I have done for years. There are signs of life in the ecosystem.
Matt has got a good overview and some useful ideas and I like the direction he’s moving. There has been more work on not only RSS but other feeds and specs like Microsub in the past few years. The IndieWeb has moved the needle a bit on this topic as well as related work on things like OPML. Even then, we still have a way to go on making the UI as easy as social media sites do.
Liked a tweet (Twitter)
Won’t say a word… Curious how it works out.
Bookmarked Lecture Notes by Arun DebrayArun Debray (web.ma.utexas.edu)
I LATEXed up lecture notes for many of the classes I have taken; feel free to read through them or use them to review. If you find a mistake or typo, please let me know. If you want to look over the .tex source for any of these notes, please send me an email.
A great set of LaTeXed notes from a variety of coursework.

via Rama Kunapuli.

Read Improve Your Remote Collaboration With P2 by Miguel LezamaMiguel Lezama (The WordPress.com Blog)
P2 powers internal collaboration at WordPress.com — and now it’s free for everyone. As more collaboration is happening remotely and online — work yes, but increasingly also school and persona…
It looks like Automattic is dusting off their old p2 / o2 theme projects for a new remote working platform? Here’s hoping that they consider Webmention support for true distributed cross-site @​mentions.
Read Metacrap: Putting the torch to seven straw-men of the meta-utopia by Cory DoctorowCory Doctorow (well.com)
Metadata is "data about data" -- information like keywords, page-length, title, word-count, abstract, location, SKU, ISBN, and so on. Explicit, human-generated metadata has enjoyed recent trendiness, especially in the world of XML. A typical scenario goes like this: a number of suppliers get together and agree on a metadata standard -- a Document Type Definition or scheme -- for a given subject area, say washing machines. They agree to a common vocabulary for describing washing machines: size, capacity, energy consumption, water consumption, price. They create machine-readable databases of their inventory, which are available in whole or part to search agents and other databases, so that a consumer can enter the parameters of the washing machine he's seeking and query multiple sites simultaneously for an exhaustive list of the available washing machines that meet his criteria.
Doctorow apparently drew out the roadmap for Twitter, democracy, and the future of society in 2001.

If everyone would subscribe to such a system and create good metadata for the purposes of describing their goods, services and information, it would be a trivial matter to search the Internet for highly qualified, context-sensitive results: a fan could find all the downloadable music in a given genre, a manufacturer could efficiently discover suppliers, travelers could easily choose a hotel room for an upcoming trip.
A world of exhaustive, reliable metadata would be a utopia. It’s also a pipe-dream, founded on self-delusion, nerd hubris and hysterically inflated market opportunities. ❧

Apparently this also now applies to politics and democracy too.
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:12AM

When poisoning the well confers benefits to the poisoners, the meta-waters get awfully toxic in short order. ❧

If we look at Twitter as a worldwide annotation tool which is generating metadata on a much tinier subset of primary documents (some of which are not truthful themselves), this seems to bear out in that setting as well.

ref: Kalir & Garcia in Annotation
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:17AM

Schemas aren’t neutral ❧

This section highlights why relying on algorithmic feeds in social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be toxic. Your feed is full of what they think you’ll like and click on instead of giving you the choice.
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:23AM

It’s wishful thinking to believe that a group of people competing to advance their agendas will be universally pleased with any hierarchy of knowledge. The best that we can hope for is a detente in which everyone is equally miserable. ❧

The fate of true democracies.
Annotated on August 06, 2020 at 09:33AM

↬ Jeremy Keith Replying to a tweet from @hdv ()

Listened to Behavioral Economics When Psychology and Economics Collide — Lecture 1: What Is a Good Decision? by Scott HuettelScott Huettel from The Great Courses
Begin by examining “rational choice” models of decision making from traditional economics, which assume consistent, foresighted, and self-interested decision makers. Then consider how this concept fails to explain many human decisions that appear counterintuitive or paradoxical. Identify two fundamental limitations that challenge our decision-making process.
4% done; Finished Lecture 1
Fairly facile introduction from my perspective. Didn’t learn anything new here.
Liked a tweet (Twitter)
I remember thinking, “Surely they’ll make things right after such a massive failing and miserable PR….” 

I was apparently wrong. This poor post by B.A. surely didn’t age well: https://www.instagram.com/p/CA3iPVznD5X/

Read - Reading: The Mad Scientists' Club by Bertrand R. Brinley (Scholastic)
A strange sea monster appears on the lake ...a fortune is unearthed from an old cannon ...a valuable dinosaur egg is stolen. Watch out as the Mad Scientists turn Mammoth Falls upside down!
20% done

Read two chapters: The Strange Sea Monster of Strawberry Lake and The Unidentified Flying Man of Mammoth Falls

Liked a tweet (Twitter)