Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to pick the guy who compared abortion to slavery?
Reads
Reading list of books, magazines, newspaper articles, other physical documents, or online posts
👓 The democratized social podcasting platform that never existed.
One social place to record podcast audio, with any number of hosts, from anywhere in the world, on any device, for live audiences…and one place for that audio to live, for it to be listened to, curated and shared. Socially. It seemed obvious that just solving for existing podcasters was a waste of time. A democratized social podcasting platform implies, well, democracy. Besides, when it comes to podcasters; there aren’t very many of them, and they don’t have any money. So, we spent most of a year building it...
👓 Signl.fm on making a social media interface for Podcasts. | Matter
An overview of the history of Signl.fm and some of the experiments they've been doing in podcasting, audio, and social.
👓 Special counsel is investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice, officials say | Washington Post
Mueller is interviewing senior intelligence officials as the Russia probe widens.
👓 Fox News Is Dropping Its ‘Fair & Balanced’ Slogan | NYMag
It was too closely associated with Roger Ailes and had become a target for mockery, say insiders.
👓 James Mattis, a Warrior in Washington | New Yorker
The former Marine Corps general spent four decades on the front lines. How will he lead the Department of Defense?
A long read to be sure, but some great in-depth background and some analysis to put the United States’ position in world affairs into perspective. Even better the writer has been following Mattis’ career for a while, so there’s better contextualization.
👓 Layoffs & Tumblr the Centipede | BlueChooChoo
A hazy day for Tumblr. A shoe dropped. After a year of dancing around, the Yahoo (Tumblr owner)/Verizon deal closed. There were immediate layoffs across their new Frankenstein org, “Oath.” Some of these layoffs hit inside Tumblr, and that’s bad. In addition to the real life talented human beings impacted by these layoffs, the move is a warning and reminder- Tumblr is no longer in the protective purgatory of pre-Verizon Yahoo.
I know that bluechoochoo has hit the nail on the head when she previously saw people leaving Tumblr for Medium right before they pivoted this past January. Her prognostications on Tumblr are always worth reading.
👓 WordPress.com Announces New Importer for Medium Posts | WP Tavern
Medium started 2017 on uncertain footing, laying off a third of its staff in January after admitting that its ad-based business model was not working.
👓 The IndieWeb Movement Will Help People Control Their Own Web Presence? | Future Hosting
The early vision of the web was one of a decentralized and somewhat anarchic community where we each had control over our own content and our own online presence — that’s a vision that Tim Berners-Lee still endorses, but it’s one that’s put in jeopardy by the relentless centralizing tendency of big companies. And that’s why I find the Indie Web movement so interesting — not as a rejection of the corporate influence, but as a much needed counterbalance that provides the technology for people, should they so choose, to build an online presence of their own devising without giving up the communities and the connections that they have built on existing networks.
A short and succinct definition of the movement and just a few of the positive pieces. I think the movement is further along than the author gives it credit for though.
👓 WordPress’s owner is closing its San Francisco office because its employees never show up | QZ
Automattic, the technology company that owns WordPress.com, has a beautiful office in a converted San Francisco warehouse, with soaring ceilings, a library, and a custom-made barn door. If you like the space, you're free to move in. The office at 140 Hawthorne went on the market after CEO Matt Mullenweg came to the realization not...
👓 The case of the missing Lulu | Woman.Legend.Blog
The parental story of a lost stuffie.
A short, sweet read.
👓 Delta, Bank of America End Sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater Over Trump-Like ‘Julius Caesar'” | Hollywood Reporter
“No matter what your political stance may be, the graphic staging of 'Julius Caesar' at this summer’s Free Shakespeare in the Park does not reflect Delta Air Lines’ values," the airline said in a statement.
Even satire can’t be treated respectfully anymore.
Where’s the possible angle on the story that these companies are doing this for potential Trump retribution? What about other sponsors? Are they experiencing customer fall-out over their support of the piece? This story stopped far too short.
👓 The hunt for Twitter alternatives: Mastodon | AltPlatform
Let’s get this out of the way right at the start: Mastodon is not a Twitter killer. It’s more like Twitter crossed with Reddit, plus it’s open source. But while Mastodon is not going to take over the world, it does have promise as a community platform. Here’s why…
An interesting take on Mastodon a month or so after its rise in popularity.
Continue reading 👓 The hunt for Twitter alternatives: Mastodon | AltPlatform
👓 Indie, Open, Free: The Fraught Ideologies of Ed-Tech – Hybrid Pedagogy | Digital Pedagogy Lab
The ideas of being independent and signed are inherently contradictory, and this contradiction is what makes indie hard to define. Its ephemerality gives it both a mystique and a resistance to criticism ― after all, you can’t critique what you can’t define. And thus, using the term indie is often a great marketing move. But it’s a problematic critical move.
👓 Why We Post Nothing—Nothing—About Our Kid Online. You Should Do the Same for Your Kids. | Slate
I vividly remember the Facebook post. It was my friend’s 5-year-old daughter “Kate,” (a pseudonym) standing outside of her house in a bright yellow...