design-and-ideas – Page 2 – Cubicgarden.com…

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Mar 2023)

See no evil: Loopholes in Google's Data Safety Labels

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing AI for everything, Elon changing the twitter algorithm to insure reach and even the BBC blue check mistake.

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

You are seeing aspects of this with large scale eink screens coming, BBC R&D’s remote interaction guidelines and young people falling out of love with cars.

Mozilla Festival and so much more

Ian thinks: March is the month of the 3rd virtual Mozilla festival, tickets are available now., Mozilla is also responsible for some hard cutting research into the recent data safety labels in the Android play store, which leads to even more Tiktok privacy worries.

The Public Spaces Incubator

Ian thinks: A whole number of public service broadcaster join New_Public to reclaim public spaces with a new incubator looking to tackle so many of the ills online right now. Will it be successful, I hope so, and will be a sign of the great collaborations to come

The internet in transition

Ian thinks: Another long thoughtful piece about the state of the internet within a larger existence of time and history. A lot forgotten in the endless cycle of short term news snippets

Stop talking and buy our stuff, the endless battle

Ian thinks: A reminder of the commercialisation of the internet, services and ultimately community. This thoughtful pieces is a clear reminder of the endless battle, which has been running for so long.

Leaving tech to the private sector is a mistake

Ian thinks: Rosie gets right into the nub of the problem with outsourcing technology to the private sector. In this detailed interview with Paris, you are left with the question of what happened and why?

Its so much worst for workers caught in the a dystopia of our making

Ian thinks: Another reminder of all those people doing your wishes and for so little. The separation from that buy to the dystopia, is so deliberate and carefully done. The only thing which will make it change is our conscious buying?

Encryption burn in the potential era of the UK safety bill

Ian thinks: Signal threatens to leave the UK, Meta and most others are clear this would be a bad idea to weaken encryption to save the children. Its the endless battle but we are getting a glimpse of the real result of this bill.

Ian thinks: Zuckerman and Rajendra-Nicolucci’s illustrated guide although old is a clearly engaging and a neat way to make a point specially now.

The third room metaverse update

Ian thinks: I have been following the third room work for a while now, and was very impressed to see the FOSDEM update. If this isn’t a sign of a open, decentralised, immersive metaverse – what is?

Find the archive here

A new meetup: Public service futures

NHS Nurse with mask and halo — Found on a wall in the Northern Quarter of Manchester

For a long while I have been thinking about the incredible role of public service in the fabric of modern society. Not only because I have worked for a public service company for almost 19 years. There is so much happening in the public space but its never really talked about or even celebrated? This is all right at a time when there is so many strikes in public services.

With all this in mind and the pandemic a lot more clear, I thought its time for a new type of meetup. Something I have been thinking about since the end of Manchester Futurists.

Passion led us here Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

One which is focused around the future of public service, ideally hosted in public services/spaces. Spaces like public libraries, health centres, national trusts spaces, etc. Its a challenge but could be great.

Since the days of London Geekdinners, I have greatly enjoyed running meetups and bringing people together. Its hard work but with a good group of like minded people it can work nicely.

Just recently I took part as remote guest in the think & drink.

Come, Think & Drink with us

It worked well with everyone in the room but me remotely connecting via zoom. They had a camera which would rotate to who is speaking. Not a huge number of people which made it a much easier to manage event it seemed.Nice hybrid event which worked.

If you are interested in the concept or/and possibility of being involved in one in Manchester, get in touch… Equally if you know a great guest which could fit the bill talking about the future of public service in the age of the internet, get in touch.

The Dyslexic Advantage (New Edition)

The Dyslexic Advantage old and new books

A while ago, Brock & Fernette announced they were working on an update to the Dyslexic advantage. As the book had such a profound effect, I pre-ordered it and it came a couple of days ago.

Of course I’ll be seeking out the audiobook but judging by the books side by side, there is quite a lot more in the new edition. I look forward to listening to it in full again real soon.

Also a big thumbs up on the new cover!

Adaptive podcasting at the podcast show 2023

The podcast show 2023 with Ian Forrester

I have the joy of speaking at The Podcast Show on the 24 – 25 May in London.

I’m going to be talking about Adaptive podcasting and object based media. I’ll be joined with a couple more people discussing the possibilities for the future of podcasting. You won’t want to miss this…

You can book your Day Passes now and save 25% (£55 Day/ £99 2-Day) to this major International festival for the business of podcasting. .

Join me at the virtual Mozilla Festival in 2023

https://player.vimeo.com/video/786738931

I’m very happy to say 4 of my proposals were accepted for the virtual Mozilla Festival 2023. Worth noting the tickets are available now for a pay what you can.

My 4 proposals are…

Designing for the future fediverse

in Allies in Practice on Thursday 23rd March – 18:30–20:00 GMT

A designer view on what the Fediverse could be for many people. Everything from the site, apps, platforms and beyond will be up for redesign.

Black crypto culture

in Tech & Biodiversity: Legado 2060 on Monday 20th – 13:45–14:45 GMT

A critical look at how people of colour, LGBT and others were targeted by the crypto pushers selling the dream of intergenerational wealth. Learning the techniques to prevent it in the future.

Building the Future of Public Service together

in Education & Access: You’re The Product Of Data on Monday 20th March – 21:30–22:30 GMT

Understanding what the public service internet could be and who else is doing similar, in what spaces and to what degree? We will together map for the benefit of everyone

Rabbit Holes Collective

in the Youth Zone on Tuesday 21st March – 17:00–18:00 GMT

Myself and Penny from Forest of imagination are going to run quickly through the rabbit holes collective launching in June. Then have a freestyle jam session with the Adaptive podcasting editor and the young people who attend.

Mozfest 2022

I know a lot of people are fed up with virtual festivals but the Mozilla virtual Festival is something very different. How different? Have a read of my review of 2021 Mozfest. Well worth the ticket price and don’t forget it gives you access to the festival till September allow you to catch up with sessions you missed and that incredible community

Hope to see you at the Mozilla Festival at some points.

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Feb 2023)

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing last pass scramble, the royal mail cyber attack and apple’s data use.

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

You are seeing aspects of this with the new range of biobatteries, Mozilla planning their own instance of Mastodon and the drop in ransomware payouts.

Channel 4’s privatisation U-turn

Ian thinks: Channel 4 survives the governments privatisation plans for now, but I do wonder for how long till the plans change again?

The on-demand economy debate isn’t finished

Ian thinks: A really good summary of the debate which has gone mainly quiet since the pandemic put the whole thing on pause. There hasn’t been much discussion since and Paris highlights the need for society

Breaking out of the Crystal Prison

Ian thinks: Its great to hear Bunnie talking, as its been a long time since the xbox hacking and the controversy at the time. Its also a good relaunch of the EFF podcast which is always full of good ideas.

Encryption still a difficult debate in Europe

Ian thinks: There is a lot of great privacy laws from the EU but as this wired post with Andy Yen points out. There is a lot of tension around encryption, which could under-mind the privacy laws created by the EU.

Fooled by randomness?

Ian thinks: So many people think Tiktok is magic but as explained in this post, its relatively high emphasis on exploration is higher than others and likely fooling people. However the point about the user interface is critical to its success and something to remember.

Has China gained a foothold in the so called publicspace?

Ian thinks: The link between Twitter and China propaganda is quite striking, as talked about in this video. What happens next is a good question, Its also worth reading through the New York Times piece if you prefer text.

Mark think about your obituaries

Ian thinks: Nobel laureate Maria Ressa recently cleared of tax evasion in Philippines, has a lot to say about social media and even more to say to Mark Zuckerberg.

A business model which works for a community

Ian thinks: Its not common I mention a film in the notes but the bank of dave is actually quite a good watch. More importantly is the true story and the banking business model which has been distorted beyond its original roots.

See the archive here

Google maps bias

I really like Google maps and used it since 2005. I means whats not to like from offline support to step by step directions.

However… driving directions which most people use a lot has bias.

I drive around on a maxi-scooter (600cc Silverwing) with a headset in my helmet. I can not see my phone while driving around and rely on google maps to tell me where to go (only if I don’t know where I am going).

There are some annoyances which I have mentioned elsewhere, but yesterday while trying to drive to a friends house via the Pennines it became super clear some of the bias of google maps. Bias towards car drivers who care about fuel and not the wellbeing of the driver.

Google maps really needs the option to drive via A roads and B roads (only if essential). The fastest route always takes you technically faster route, down country lanes. The route gmaps took me on yesterday, was full of country lanes and one of them was water logged. Fine for a SUV or big car but not for a 2 wheel scooter.
The above might seem quite scooter focused but as my partner pointed out on a journey to Bournemouth this year. She would rather had taken a A road most of the way instead of the headache of navigating country roads for over an hour. I had hoped eco drive would solve this but nope.
Another one from my partner but makes sense for motorbikes too. When Gmaps finds a quicker route, there should be an option to set the default to the original route unless you press the screen. Its really frustrating to have it change the route without being able to see what’s changed.
Likewise this is useful for car drivers who don’t want to press the screen in the middle of driving.
The stops option is useful for the route but when you reach the stop, it doesn’t continue on to the next stop automatically unless you press the screen. This means you can plot the perfect route but then need to press the screen each time. This should be a preference option again.
I once drove down to Bristol and Gmaps just stopped talking to me. Usually if this happens, it means keep going. However when it goes quiet due to a bug/error theres no way to know, especially on a motorway. Maybe a small beep every set minutes would be most useful.
It would be great if Gmaps on mobile used some of the contextual data. For example Gmaps could understand if I’m on a motorbike oppose to a car. The time of day to pick routes with street lights. Weather conditions could be useful to avoid flood risk roads. Of course these can adjusted in the preferences, otherwise they could be annoying for some drivers.

I’m sure there are many more but this are ones which come to mind since yesterday. Its clear google maps isn’t ideal for non screen viewing.

Adding activitypub or switching to peertube?

Mixcloud warning: You've reached your limit for published shows

In my latest mix the interdimensional transmission mix, I went to mixcloud to find, I’ve reached my limit for published shows. So been thinking about what mixcloud does do for me. Mainly distribution and a bit of charting.

On the distribution side, it seems like the fediverse could easily do a better job. Originally I would love to use funkwhale but from previous experience it doesn’t really support mixes well compared to single tunes. Which is why I setup my own webmixgarden.

Currently I’m using a static site generator (pubili) which is great because I could add webmonitisation. Although I’m wondering if I should switch to one which supports activitypub? However I feel there is a way which combines both and its likely another platform on the fediverse? I can’t be the only one who is putting out mixes right?

I tooted and had some suggestions. But decided to look at peertube to see if that could work. After finding a instance, which had rules which worked for what I was doing. I starter experimenting here but i’m waiting for my mix to be moderated (its a one man instance, so expect it might take some time). If things work out I might just install peertube on my server.

Update

My mix is now up on peertube via rankett.net, thats the big news.
However I wanted to talk through what happened.

William who runs the rankett instance of peertube messaged me via email asking about copyright details of the mix. This was a surprise because we are all use to faceless entities moderating via machine learning. We had a little chat over email and I explained what I was doing and shared this blog post. Happy with the explanation, my mix was unblacklisted and its now available for all to play.

I’m currently looking at ways to add chapters markers to the mix, by slightly abusing the captions feature. I can’t really see another way to do it.

Another update

LPS messaged me on mastodon and pointing out a undocumented feature of peertube.

I can easily add time points in the description and with the correct formatting will automatically turn into jump points into the mix.

We also talked about setting up peertube using yunohost, which I’m already using. So theres little excuse now for me to just set it up one day soon.

Don’t miss out: Mozilla Festival 2023’s call for proposals ends 16 Dec

Ian Quote text “I appreciate that Mozilla runs the festival in the open. It’s transparency to the tenth degree. I really appreciate that they’re trying this stuff, seeing where it goes, and kind of always in this constant cycle of, “Let’s try this, see how it goes. Let’s build on it or decide if it’s not for us.” Feedback is quick and used well”

Its a tricky one to remember because of the changes over the last few years but the Mozilla Festival will be back in March 2023 as a virtual festival complete with a number of in person events during the same year.

Because of the March virtual festival, the call for proposals is live and waiting.

I’m thinking about 2 or 3 proposals right now.

The public service internet
Design a client to take full advantage of the fediverse
Rethinking how we match people for the benefit of all

Sure more will come along but the community spotlight around transparency has me thinking even more, how these can benefit from transparency.

Founder Member of the Responsible Tech Collective – Interview

EMF Camp complete with Lasers — The bright future for the public service internet?

Following the talk I did at the Bright Ideas recently.

I also recently spoke with the Responsible Tech Collective, which is mainly out of Manchester.

The collective is a community of cross-sector organisations and community representatives, working to (first) establish Greater Manchester as an equitable, inclusive and sustainable examplar for responsible tech, through putting people first in its creation.

The collective has been one of those interesting groups which has been doing a lot around what I’m calling the public service internet ecosystem. Another group out of Manchester is Open Data Manchester.

You can read the whole piece on Medium below.

View at Medium.com

Its a good read and I especially like how it links different pieces of work together. Mainly the Adaptive podcasting, Personal Data Stores and Living room of the future in with the ethos of a Public Service Internet. The list of podcasts was a surprise question and hopefully will be of interest to others.

This all reminds me clearly why I moved to Manchester.

My talk at the Bright ideas gathering

I have been pretty busy recently and had not as much time to do much blogging. To be fair my mastodon microblogging has increased quite a bit, can’t think why…

During the busy last few months, I gave a talk at Durham’s Bright ideas gathering. It was a really good event which felt like a TEDx with a number of different topics and speakers.

Originally I was going to give a talk about the recently launched Adaptive podcasting but gave it more context with why its a important project. Along the way we stop at the big changes coming to the BBC looking at my own personal view of moving to Manchester.

Thank to Herb and the team which delivered another excellent conference even in the middle of train strikes.

I shared the slides on slideshare (which is still a thing it seems)

Ian Forrester – BBC, public service and adaptive podcasting .pdf from Ian Forrester

Adaptive podcasting is public and you can get it now

Last week BBC R&D launched the Adaptive podcasting ecosystem upon the world. There is a blog post to get you started if you want to dive straight in.

The Adaptive podcasting ecosystem is a combination of parts.

Adaptive podcasting beta Android app/player
Adaptive podcasting web editor
Adaptive podcasting XML specification (SMIL)

With the Android app/player you can listen to adaptive podcasts. With the app/player installed, you can load and listen to your own made podcasts. There is of course RSS support, providing the ability to load in a series of adaptive podcasts (replacing the default feed from BBC R&D).

With access to the web editor on BBC Makerbox, you can visually create adaptive podcasts in a few minutes. Its node like interface is running completely client side, meaning there is no server side processing. Just like the app/player, which does zero server callbacks to the BBC. Pure Javascript/HTML/CSS.

If you find the web editor not advanced/in-depth enough for you, there is the XML specification which is based on SMIL. As the code can be written or even generated. We even considered other editors like audacity.

With all 3, you have pretty much everything you need to get going, plus there is documentation gdoc and more information about the ecosystem here on github.

One of the most important parts is the community of practice around adaptive podcasting. Both on BBC Makerbox and Storytellers United. Also through research, I can see the podcast industry are very active and I was right with podnews, the podcast namespace, etc all throwing ideas around. Even the podfather added a comment.

I have written about Adaptive/Perceptive podcasting previously across my blog and talked about it at Mozfest 2021, for the Bristol Watershed and of course for the EBU. There is also an interview I did a couple weeks ago before the launch for podland, which is worth listening to with much more detail.

But I wanted to thank all the people who helped in making this go from the Perceptive Radio to Adaptive Podcasting. So far I started a github page but will write the history of how this happened when I got more time. Partly because its a interesting story but also because it demonstrates the power of collaboration, relationships, communities and the messy timeline of innovation.

Illustrations for my book: AI or not to AI?

Black man and White woman in AI drawn picture

Some of you might know I have been writing a book about my dating experiences.

Its moving along thanks to some great friends who have done such a great job editing, structuring and shaping the book. But one thing I turned my attention to a while ago, is the illustrations.

I did pay for an artist out of my own money but wasn’t quite happy with every single illustration for each chapter, so only had about half done. The rest I’m talking to another artist about but recently been quite impressed with the AI art generators like DALL-E 2, Midjourney, Nightcafe.

The generated works are strange and abstract enough to fit with what I’m looking for in the book. Not only that, the ownership and copyright seems to be working out (from what I read using DALL-E 2).

(c) Copyright. OpenAI will not assert copyright over Content generated by the API for you or your end users.

I certainly seen the AI bias in some of the images generated. For example if I don’t say what gender or race the person is, the AI defaults to male and white. Its only when I deliberately say Black male / female it then switches. I would also say the images of black women are not as fully thought out as white women. Because I’m generating pictures of dating, it always defaults to straight dating unless I add something to the query. Likewise the women are always thin never curvy unless specified. Actually a few times, I got women who were pregnant. Of course every single time I make a query, it takes credit (money) making it costly to really test its bias, sure someones already on this.

The big question I have is, if I was to use DALL-E for illustrations in my book, what would that say or mean for my stance around AI, bias and data use? To be honest, I’m actually thinking about generating the front & back covers in full colour, rather than the in book illustrations.

Maybe I should be less worried about this? Or even better I was thinking about ways to not just make clear it’s AI generated but show the process of selection or something similar?

Thoughts?

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (June 2022)

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed reading how Paypal wrote the crypto playbook, seeing the incredible insecurity of smart locks, and is Bluesky going anywhere soon?

To quote Buckminster Fuller “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

You are seeing aspects of this with the FT mentioning Mastodon, The right to repair research and the Lumous system identifying all those hidden camera in hotels.

Our password-less future is one step closer

Ian thinks: Everyone is throwing their weight behind FIDO and its looks extremely useful. Finally something which is user friendly, easy to use and secure.

Can you really trust that mental health app?

Ian thinks: Mozilla’s research into those apps many people used during the pandemic and varies lockdowns is simply a horror story. There has to be a better solution which doesn’t rely on misplaced trust?

Period tracking apps are tracking you

Ian thinks: On a similar note to the previous one, the consumer reports article is full of very useful tips to protect you. These are good for almost every single app I would say.

Dove uses deep fakes to really tell the story

Ian thinks: Dove’s self esteem project is consistently doing great things for society. Deep faked mothers talking to their daughters while sitting next to their real mothers is just incredible and so well thought out.

Proton taking on Google with a privacy edge

Ian thinks: Andy Yen Proton’s CEO gave a talk in the European Parliament hinting at this announcement. Taking on Google with a non surveillance business model is intriguing as scale isn’t as critical for success?

The time is now says PublicSpaces

Ian thinks: The Dutch collation, Publicspaces had their 2nd conference in May and a good number of the English language sessions are well worth your time. Always challenging and full of good threads to tug on.

Literacy, the forgotten side of our digital world

Ian thinks: This is a sobering and some what recently forgotten side of the digital revolution. If left to market forces, I can’t see things getting any better. Only a public service internet can really make the difference.

Regulating Algorithms?

Ian thinks: Although the register adds a level of snark to the idea, there is something which does speak true. Regulating algorithms could really provide a level of trust, comfort and agency which just doesn’t exist right now.

Education to promote agency?

Ian thinks: I love these projects explaining and educating diverse communities to take control of the technologies to avoid being the disadvantaged by them.

Learning the lessons of the past for the future of the internet

Ian thinks: In the middle of the hype, there is very little looking back and learning the lessons of previous generations. Dare I say it, those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it.

Find the archive here

WebMix: Webmonetization + Dj mixes for the next internet

While recovering from Covid, I got a little time to finally sort out the WebMix idea which I also wrote up for Mozfest earlier in the year.

With the incredible and generous help of Mark Boas of Hyperaudio, I was able to use Hyperaudio lite to make clearly mark up a list of tunes in a DJ mix. Its what I’ve been looking to do for ages to move away from Mixcloud,

My finally setup was something I was playing with for ages but mainly via a self installed wordpress on my raspberrypi. I found problems when installing hyperaudio and in the end decided to go with a static website. I choose Publii as it had a linux client and I could just write the HTML easily (so many use markdown and other things, which would have made working with hyperaudio more difficult than it needs to be)

With the site creation out the way, I needed somewhere to host it.

Originally I was going to use Yunohost but I couldn’t find a simple webserver to just host the static files, instead I found a proxy server, which points at my NAS, which is running a very simple webserver. Of course the NAS has plenty of space, its also where the mixes sit, has a excellent redundancy and backup system.

The result of the experiment all sits here – https://cubicgarden.info/mixes

The core part of WebMix (as I’m calling it) sits in hyperaudio’s transcript and webmontization support.

Hacking hyperaudio’s transcripts

Originally I always saw Hyperaudio for its ability to tie a knot between the written word and the audio (& video). It wasn’t till I saw a demo of the WebMon functionality is when I understood it could be the thing I need for DJ mixes.

With correctly written HTML, I can tell Hyperaudio what it should do, and with Mark’s help we had a prototype up and running.

Here is an example of the code from the quiver in the underground mix.

<li class="active" data-wm="$ilp.uphold.com/B69UrXkYeQPr"> Activator, I know you can (That kid chris mix) - Whatever girl</li> <li data-wm="$ilp.uphold.com/3h66mKZLrgQZ">Air traffic (Erik De Koning remix) - Three drives</li> <li data-wm="$ilp.uphold.com/B69UrXkYeQPr">Chinook - Markus Schulz pres. Dakota</li> <li data-wm="$ilp.uphold.com/3h66mKZLrgQZ">Opium (Quivver remix) - Jerome Isma-Ae & Alastor</li>

Each tune has a time configured using the attribute data-m, this is in milliseconds. As I have all the data in the old CUE files I created a long time ago. Mark helped me out with a nice script which saved me manually copying and pasting. (I also considered writing a XSLT to do the conversion). In between sleeping and relaxing with Covid, I got a number of mixes up, changed the theming and finally got to grips with the static file uploading process, and the results you can see on the site.

Payment and royalties

You will also notice each tune/list item also has data=”wm” attribute with a $ilp (payment pointers). Currently they are pointing to myself and Mark Boas. Obviously I would change them to the payment pointers of the artists/producers/djs involved but I don’t know any which have them so far. Which leads nicely on to the next challenge for WebMix.

I did/do have a plan to do a mix with dance music from artists which have payment providers but that is still in the pipeline. Along side this, myself and Mark thought about some kind of database/airtable/spreadsheet/etc with payment pointers crossed linked to their discogs profile.

Maybe this is something which could be done in the next grant for the web call for participation?

Back to the current experiment, here is Opium (Quivver Remix) – Jerome Isma-Ae Alastor. You could imagine one payment provider decided between all involved which could be used to pay for each time its played on the site. (I am very aware this is very simplex and the royalties of music is a total nightmare!) but the point of the payment pointer is to hide the complexity behind one simple payment pointer, how its divided afterwards is up to each of the parties involved. I’m imagining a management agent, organisation or even dare I say it DAO; responsible for the payment pointer. There’s already things like revshare, which means you can have multiple people/entities behind the payment pointer and theres interest in this space. Long tail economics certainly could benefit here.

Anyway its a long complex area which I’m best staying out of…?

The main point is its all working and expect more updates soon… I know Mark has other ideas, while I still need to get older mixes up. I also would like to tie the whole thing to something federated or at very least setup a activity-pub feed.

Maybe I should be more ill more often?