Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (July 2025)

A couple look at a TV while the camera looks over their shoulders

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing how how much time we are spending on our smartphones. whats happening with GDPR and the low-background steel problem of the AI contaminated internet?

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 scientists proving ethical sourced AI is possible, plastic which dissolves in water and opensource coming to rescue owners of the humane pin.


Where is the future of social web going?

Ian thinks: Its finally available, the report myself and BBC R&D colleagues wrote on the emerging crisis for the social platforms. Exploring the toxic and polarised online environments but also the enormous potential to transform the world in positive ways, if built with the right values.

Theranos is back?

Ian thinks: Remember the whole testing a drop of blood to diagnose critical diseases? Well believe it or not Holmes is back in the form of Haemanthus who’s CEO happens to be Holmes partner.

Oversharenting has its own murky marketplace

Ian thinks: I did see the Ella campaign a while ago, if you haven’t see it go watch it. The video from NBTV, goes much further looking into sharing data without understanding or concern of how others will abuse it.

Ian thinks: Automatic Content Recognition, is actually old news (as the UCL study shows)  but recently become a long clearer recently as more researchers and journalists take a look at the privacy policies of smart TVs.

Building the EuroStack

Ian thinks: There has been a lot of discussion recently about Europe as the 3rd way (between commercial and government). Digital sovereignty is pinned to the stack along with the move to strategic autonomy and being Europe its a  of the EU but isn’t exclusive to Europe. Providing

This is the year of Open source in Europe, doubtful?

Ian thinks: Great to see more European countries using open source but there is a big question… What went wrong last time? We assume technology would save us and didn’t. We need to trace back the power and money.

Love with AI, all dopamine and no rejection?

Ian thinks: Cathy Hackl, took the plunge into the AI as a partner, and the results are what you imagine but the gentle responses do connect on some level. Hackl does point to this being a good simulator, which I’m less sure of because we all know the business model behind them?

Could chatbots have a public service remit?

Ian thinks: Following the endless amount of chatbot news and last months in joke about the sentient machine therapist. Tiku and Marx, discuss the real harms of chatbots generally. Which leads me to think could a LLM based chatbot be trained and given the metric of public service. Dare I say the loneliness epidemic is one good reason.

Bounce your followers around?

Ian thinks: As seen at the Fediforum last month, Bounce brings the ability to move around federated social networks but keep the followers. This is something which makes the fediverse unique.


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What are those blades you strapped to your feet?

Adidas SpringBlade

A long long time ago when I was much younger, I use to design trainers on paper in my bedroom. One of the things I drew many many decades ago was a trainer with empty soles. Idea being that the underlying structure was so strong it would hold up without it. Now this is slightly crazy talk but this is the time when the Nike Air 180’s had just come out (1991?) and kids were getting mugged for their Reebok Pumps (at least in Bristol they were).

To be fair I remember them looking more like the Adidas bounce’s (which I owned a while ago and the A3’s before that) but I think the Spring blades are very much in the same vein.

I like the fact were moving away from the classic trainer look again. Dare I say it,

…classic trainers are the skeuomorphism of the digital world. Let them die please!

There was a period of time recently when I couldn’t go into popular trainer shops without shaking my head and a little sigh of contempt for the shockingly boring line up of trainers. Thank goodness someone is trying something new. Even my Adidas ZX Flux (the socks as they have been known as) are quite different (although you could say Nike Presto’s done this 10+ years before)

I was reminded of this all, by the reaction I got to my trainers recently and the blog I just wrote about thinking digital manchester.

TDCMCR-08645

Interesting the effect of uniqueness. I recently had a lot of comments about my latest trainers (Adidas Spring blades).