Thoughts and ideas of a dyslexic designer/developer
While hearing Cass Sunstein talk about his new book Sludge, I thought surely this is fiction?
Not knocking it, I’m already known for saying friction can be a good thing.
One of the things I really like about the design guidance is the time to stop. A lot of the time we rush design in a frictionless way but we need to deliberately add friction.
Ian Forrester speaking at the ICO Privacy by Design 2021 conference
The ethical dilemma cafe in 2014 really shook up the already amazing Mozilla Festival. The walls have eyes went on to be nominated for a design award, for years afterwards the festival embraced playful interventions and its still something people talk about.
In the background there has been talk about what would the ethical dilemma cafe look like in 2020? By the time me and Jasmine talked about it here, there was enough momentum between Mozilla’s internet health report and BBC R&D’s research into the public service internet, to really make it happen.
With Mozilla Festival currently mainly virtual, it was a good time to try a more distributed festival. Hence why not run the ethical dilemma cafe locally in Manchester, in a real cafe with real hot drinks and with the general public too? Heck yes!
Last last week it was announced along side the complete schedule for the 2022 festival.
In 2014 we worried about hidden microphones, secret cameras and toys with prying eyes. We asked for off buttons, clearer privacy terms and control over our own data. What has changed since then? Are our worries still valid? What are the new areas of concern? Or are we just more accepting of relinquishing control?
The Ethical Dilemma Cafe is a relaxing space to grab a free coffee and meet fellow festival participants. However there is a catch!
You will have the opportunity to let your personal data take you on a journey through a space full of wonder and intrigue, where you will uncover the power of data and algorithms and how they shape your world, whether you’re aware of it or not. But nothing in this world is for free, the dilemma you face is your willingness to cross the threshold and be complicit in the interpretation of how your data defines you and your community, in perpetuity.
This year the Cafe will show you how your data is reflecting your identity in the digital world. How measurement, categorisation, and labelling of humans by machines determines the barriers and privilege you experience. It will prompt you to question if the established metrics are measuring the right things, at an appropriate granularity and how their influence touches your online and offline experiences.
If you are local to Manchester, join us from April 25-26 2022
If you are local to Manchester or can travel from around the UK, you don’t want to miss this 2 day event. Put it in your calendar now, Tuesday 25th & Wednesday 26th April.
Get your Mozilla Festival tickets now, and look out for much more details in the coming months.
I had a strange dream last night… No not that kind of a dream!
I have been doing a number of sleeping/dreaming tests during the pandemic including trying build back up my ability to lucid dream.
With that, I had quite a amazing one last night (Wednesday 2nd Feb 2022)
I lucid dreamed I was seeing the Google’s new attempt at the tablet market. It was different size tablets, from 7inches to 13inches. I assume it might have been the news about root access to the remarkable 2 earlier the same day, which got me thinking. The noteworthy part of the dream was the sales room was in a traditional Japanese wooden house (complete opposite of apple’s white and glass stores) a distance from the centre of town, surrounded by lots grass and water. Plus the tablets were housed in wood rather than plastic or metal.
There were many pastel colours from yellow, purple, red, greens, browns and blacks. The tablets were quite thin but comfortable to hold. The tablet supported both finger control and a thin pen like stylus. The screen had some different kind of technology, like colour ink but a more vivid. I expected to see a new futuristic version of Android to be installed on picking one up. But instead was greeted with Fuchsia.
Other features? Multiple day battery, Google tensor chip, light to carry, usual wireless connections including bluetooth, wifi, nfc, 5g but no cameras and not waterproof only dust proof. All for 349 pounds?
Later the same day I heard the news story that Google is rethinking tablets again. Honestly had no idea but I don’t think for how great the tablets were I was dreaming, google is going to do wood tablets… or will they *wink*
Over the last few months theres been a ton of interest in the metaverse, we all know why. Its been annoying seeing people wooing over something which others have started building decades earlier.
Off the back of the hype for the corporate metaverse (I really want to separate the hard work others have done/doing from what the likes of Facebook/Meta are attempting to do – aka take it over for their own benefit). I started to explore the corporate metaverse in a blog and previous to that the parallels with digital and physical spaces.
This got me thinking about the values and ethics which make the public service internet so important and so different from the corporate metaverse. But rather than think it out myself alone, I wrote a proposal for Mozfest 2022 to explore this in a discussion with a number of people. Evaluating emerging technology to understand its benefits and its problem. To hopefully shape the technology for the benefit of the public and society, is the goal of the session.
I’m extremely proud to say it was accepted and in March this year, I will lead the session sketching out the stark differences.
I almost want to add Web3 to the line up, but I believe there will be plenty to cover just in the metaverse alone.
Want to be at the session? Grab a early bird ticket before they go! You can also volunteer to help make the whole festival amazing.
On the run up to the release of the Matrix Resurrections. Epic games put out a Unreal 5 demo/prototype recreating part of the Matrix with aspects of Matrix 4. The matrix awakens, which you can play on Playstation 5 & Xbox series X/S.
Its impressive, perfectly timed and fitted perfectly with the questions raised with the Matrix. The textures are good but not perfect, but I am impressed with the luminosity which helps it sit within the environment. The biggest give away is the movements of people but things like objects are pretty close.
Its something Chris Sizemore talked about in his Manchester Futurist podcast. Hope to catch up soon to talk about this and much more.
By the way, I know a lot of people are not blown away by Matrix 4 but I have seen it 5 times now and still rate it 8/10. Just below the original but ahead of the 2 and 3.
This weekend is usually Mozfest weekend when it was in London. It was always a special time full of wonder, joy and great people.
Its now moved to a March date since moving to Amsterdam. However its still well worth not only attending but also participating in.
Every year there is a call for proposals to join the many great sessions in some fantastic spaces at Mozfest 2022.
Submit A Session Idea for MozFest
MozFest is a unique hybrid: part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world.
There are 9 Spaces created by the Wranglers that address urgent issues such as: digital privacy; neurodiversity and wellbeing; intersectionality in tech; and climate and sustainability. MozFest is looking for collaborative, participatory and inclusive sessions, workshops, skillshares, immersive art projects, and more that interrogate these issues and drive forward the conversations around Trustworthy AI.
Excited about leading a session? You can learn more here about the process here.
There was a point when one person mentioned the customization of Android vs iOS, something like “you only just widgets last year”
But there is something which I have been thinking about in that general space.
Most phones are super similar and the software is what makes it different, its why I stick to the Google phones. I’m not keen on the Samsung opinionated software choices, although I understand people do find much comfort in the per-installed software and decisions. I think of it like Debian vs Ubuntu (of sorts). When Ubuntu came with Unity, I always installed Gnome Shell. It was easy enough to do, but its very difficult to do on a phone (replace Samsung’s UI with plain Android).
But back to phones…
The customization is key… I was originally concerned when Google was following Apple’s approach a while ago but then they seemed to understand the power of Android being yours and leaned right into customization.
Having upgraded to Android 12 a couple of days ago, I really like the system. Material you is surprising and is just right even in dark mode.
I am using Yatse remote which changes the background of my phone depending on what I am watching.That change will persist till I watch something else. I thought it might cause a clash but it doesn’t and still manages to look good always. The colour palette works no matter what. What would Joney Ive and Steve Jobs make of this design approach? Can’t imagine they would be a fan. Its one of the rejections I had about objectified the film/documentary is the lack of customization.
I found this video which sums up what I’m thinking. I look forward to seeing Material you on my new Pixel 6 soon.
I watched a part of the ThisIsUnfinished conference (partly because I assumed the timezone were New York time and made the manual change to my calendar and I attended another conference in person on the Friday)
Anyway all the talks are online (Vimeo) to watch now. I did a little sum up for work but found the conference fascinating, especially when Baratunde Thurston filling in for time asked a member of the audience what they felt so far.
You couldn’t hear the reply but it was longer than expecting. Baratunde summed it up, saying the member of audience had found the contrasts of the talks interesting. I would agree, because in some talks you had people talking about web3 (internet 3 really) in the scope of DLTs (blockchain tech) and on the other hand you had talks like Eli Parser’s section of talks about what we can learn for the future.
I’m still going through the ones I missed but this insight is summed up in A Rallying Cry for a Free Digital Future.
This is great quote from Anil Dash…
Take a look at the phone in your pocket. Take a look at the tabs in your browser. Ask yourself. How many of those apps were made by people who you know, of know who they are there from your community. Maybe they’re local homegrown organic, just like the food that you eat, you know, where it’s tourist and do they share your values and care about the things you care about? And if you don’t feel good about what you’re putting in your eyes, when you put it in your mouth and make some changes. We do have a lot of power to make that thing a lot better.
This leads nicely into the potential of web3 beyond the short sighted put everything on the blockchain stuff.
Remember…
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
Made to stick by Chip Heath, Dan Heath (although this isn’t what I remember it to be)
Even reading the titles now makes it very clear how much things have changed.
I have to give credit to Bill Thompson for his thoughts around the public service internet. In one of our conversations Bill suggested a need for a picture to sum up the internet now and where we are going.
It feels like two pictures, but images can be powerful and stoke up vivid responses in the mind. Its a challenge I have been thinking about quite a bit and put it on the Publicspaces international matrix chat (#PublicSpacesInt:matrix.org).
Challenge for you all… If there was one picture which would sum up the state of the internet now, what would it be? Also what picture would sum up the internet if things go the way you would like what would it be?
Theres been a few entries but my favorite so far has been Erik who posted the one above.
This image would probably sum up my ideal internet as a magical portal to empower yourself with all the knowledge, and a connection to all the people in the world.
Others saw this as a way of breathing new life into the internet. While I started thinking about modifying the picture into something with multiple people breathing life into the internet (closer to this in nature). I like this image but don’t like the fact shes looking at her phone, likewise this image is striking but hands behind her back feels less participatory that where I think we are going. This is better but needs multiple people working together.
Like my colleagues in BBC R&D looking to change the way AI and Machine learning are displayed in the general media. I think I might take it upon myself to craft something using inkscape/glimpse and lots of creative commons media. Just something which speaks closer to what I think I’m going for when I talk about public service internet.
Love to know what others come up with?