AMPLIFY is a groundbreaking initiative uniting artists, technologists, and researchers from 8 European countries to drive the digital transformation of the Cultural and Creative Industries. By merging physical and digital (phygital) experiences and fostering collaboration, AMPLIFY is creating innovative ways to connect creators and audiences!
…alternative profit models that are sustainable, inclusive, and community-rooted, including financial models and evolving payment systems.
Really looking forward to seeing the proposals and sessions which come through about this. I urge you to take the #unlearning seriously and think models which support sustainable future businesses, communities and society as a whole. Would love to have people from Gary Stevenson to the admins of the small Mastodon instances like friend.camp? (which I believe charges a monthly fee?) or people actively using micropayments like interledger or lightening; apply for example.
Finally but not least, I’ll be talking at the most excellent PublicSpaces 2025 conference about the future of social. This year it is a 1 day conference however there is a special event on the day before hosted by the Waag.
Aware of the irony of generating a image to visually describe the effect of acid clouds using an AI image generator…
From the PublicSpaces Waag event… I really like the idea of an acid server farm cloud… Speaks volumes about the state of sustainability and the nature of the internet right now, if left to the big commercial players.
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.”
Ian thinks: The Mozilla global festival 2025 call for participation is live. The theme this year is unlearning and includes unlearning design, security, harmful tech systems, traditional profit models, tech governance and tech Immateriality. A lot of unlearning! Get your proposals in before the 21st May deadline
Ian thinks: Not only do I think Digital legacy is important (even playing a part in Black Mirror’s Eulogy), if you attend Republica 2025, do look out for our conversation titled six feet under the data centre. One part of the conversation is how different nations/cultures face digital legacy and what could be learned for the future. This rest of world article is just the start.
Ian thinks: Unreported world is great at highlighting these stories and this one reminds me of the same problems of surveillance, and parents and young people are facing all over the world
Ian thinks 3 white men (Zuckerberg, Bezos and Musk) are on track to become trillionares a level wealth that is unimaginable. This video is a good summary of where we are and huge problem. The Buy, Borrow and Die loop hole is so prolific even I have heard about it. Gary Stevenson has plenty to say about this all and is included in the video
Ian thinks: With the up-tick in surveillance, is it possible to protest without being tired to a protest? Short answer not really but there are some practical tips to consider when near or in a protest. I wonder how many of us knew about the London tube trial?
Ian thinks: Carole Cadwalladr’s nervous but ever-so important talk, is right on the nose and strongly worded. Well shared and delivered right at the moment but if you find it short on substance; I recommend the follow up spicy interview with Cadwalladr and Anderson.
Ian thinks: Watching Rushkoff’s talk from SXSW 2025, with his thoughts from being an agent of change to an agent of care. Its clear to me there is so many connections with Maria Farrell’s ReWild the internet. If only they could come together in some way?
Ian thinks: This short which is a clip from the larger session about building communities across the social web. The whole session is worth a watch from SXSW’s social web space, covering the Fediverse (ActivityPub & ATproto) with a interesting panel from across the Fediverse. Also keep some time for Cory Doctorow in the same space.
Ian thinks: Rossmann, is a loud critic of the right to repair and ownership battle. Although he’s style is pretty in your face, he raises good points and many examples demostrating how enshittification and DRM go hand in hand with dense EULAs. Synology’s change and Black Mirror’s common people are examples.
Regardless, I did feel a bit tired from the lack of decent sleep over the last few weeks (Not spent much time at home recently) but I also felt cold but didn’t really think about it. The Mozilla team decided to take Covid tests and I did so not really thinking I would be positive.
Then it happened, 2 very red lines – a total surprise!
That was the moment I decided not attend Mozilla house Amsterdam because its a place where you talk to a lot of people and felt deeply responsible for passing on Covid on to others. I also decided to stay in my hotel room and only venture out for breakfast and to a supermarket which was about 15mins walk away. Both with a mask, which I happen to have in my laptop bag since 2021.
As close as I could get to Mozilla House Amsterdam
After a few days and a second covid test, I changed my plans and took a earlier flight back to the UK.
I did find it strange how people reacted to me wearing a mask, although I was trying to be a responsible person (No judgement on anyone else). I had assumed people would think I was protecting them as I might have Covid? There was one instance in the hotel lift when I informed a man they might want to wait as I have Covid. He decided to not worry about it but commented it was really good I was wearing a mask and most people don’t bother?
I know all the Covid policies have pretty much gone and we have moved from pandemic to endemic. Like myself, there was no way of knowing I had Covid till I tested. I wouldn’t have tested if I didn’t have access to tests and had a reason to test.
Its all quite a interesting catch 22…
How am I? I’m tired, slower but active. Cough has gone and I found my out of date Covid tests are still picking up on my positive Covid, although a year old. But I do have the new ones to confirm when I do believe I’m negative again.
Midjourney prompt : a close up portrait photo of a cyberpunk woman under neon lights, cyan and orange highlights, street photography, lifestyle, wet street –ar 16:9 –testp –upbeta
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.”
Ian thinks: During the busy Mozilla Festival, was the announcement Mozilla was investing in the emerging market of trustworthy AI. We all want it but is Mozilla too early or will we look back and say it was perfect time? According to Jaron Lanier maybe Mozilla is perfectly timed.
Ian thinks: Twitter’s plans to be yet another everything app is painful enough, but if you look deeper into the idea of everything apps. Its super clear the reasons to be the one app to rule them all.
Ian thinks: The FT’s series of podcasts about quantum is enlightening. Although quite dry its still a good listen for those like myself who know a surface level of information.
Ian thinks: I found this Rocket podcast episode, the most clear reasons why the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank actually matters. Its easy to ignore but looking at the long tail of startups and the people who rely on them, was eye opening.
Ian thinks:I found this Mozilla Festival session, answered one of those questions I wonder about. A QR alongside signs of surveillance, link to a human and machine readable datachain explaining its capability, who is involved, storage, etc. Best of all is the whole project is Apache 2 and CC licensed.
Ian thinks: Japan for me was always the future. However this critical view of robots in elder care really brought a number of technical and cultural concerns into clear view.
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.
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
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.
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.
The Ethical Dilemma Cafe Manchester happened last week on Tuesday 26-Wednesday 27th April. It was quite something to build, prepare and experience.
Building on the ethical dilemma cafe in Mozfest 2014, we took the idea into a real working cafe complete with the public coming and going, but experiencing the dilemma.
When I say the dilemma, what do I mean? In 2014…
The café offered popcorn, juice, and smoothies not found anywhere else at the festival, but to enter the café, you had to cross a boundary that required a ridiculous data user agreement. As part of this agreement, your personal information would be plastered through the festival’s halls hours later. This experience was about getting out of a chair and experiencing the dilemma in a real, tangible way. Would you read the agreement in order to obtain a glass of juice? Ignore the agreement and quench your thirst in ignorant bliss? Or read the agreement and walk away, and try to find snacks elsewhere because the agreement was unacceptable?
While in 2022 with the changes in how mobile phones are less leaky about data and a ton of frankly new challenges (some are explored in our virtual mozfest 2022 session), we decided to explore both the QR code and personal data sharing problems.
People scanned a QR code, signed up to a fake cafe ordering system with their email or social media login. After that, they are forced to answer a question before being presented with a QR code which can be scanned for a hot drink (or looking at the very very long receipt, cold drinks). If you went for a second, third, etc drink you will get more and much more personal questions. We had 5 levels of questions and the single 5th question was deeply personal. Is the coffee really worth it
Sometimes almost by random, the QR code would switch to a public rick roll (making clear you should be careful what you scan) but most of the time you get the webapp which will use any data used.
The biggest output being the questions and answers on a screen right on the cafe bar. Of course there were some intriguing answers to our questions.
I’m still wondering who wrote the answer with my name in it?
What do you value in a friendship? When Ian Forrester gives chocolate
The Dilemma is just the start, as there was a whole number of talks, workshops and exhibits/interventions.
On the exhibits end we had everything from the human values postcards by BBC R&D and is everybody happy by Open Data Manchester to Presence robots (reverse metaverse) to the Caravan of the future.
Talks included Designing the Internet for Children with the ICO, Keeping Trusted News Safe Online with BBC R&D, Trustworthy AI – what do we mean when we say with Mozilla.
Talks were kept to 15mins as it went out to the whole cafe and people were encouraged to take a table to keep the conversation going afterwards. In typical Mozfest style.
Finally the workshops included Materialising the Immaterial with Northumbria University, Designing the Internet for Children with the ICO, Why might you personalise your news with BBC R&D, Common Voice / Contribute-a-ton with Mozilla.
In the usual Mozfest style there was plenty of great moments for example when the traffic warden came to check out the Caravan of the Future.
There was plenty of interest in the reverse metaverse (presence bots), which was one of the projects which run through out the 2 days. Like the original ethical dilemma cafe, we wanted to expose people to work in progress rather than a museum, where everything is perfectly working. When they worked it really worked well.
To get a real sense of the reverse metaverse / presence bot, I recorded Jasmine for a short while with a remote person.
Does it understand me, is a speech to text system trained using the similar/same algorithms as the Amazon Alexa. It was so weird to see how when it got the wrong word, it guessed with something so strange. Like Deliveroo and Kindle?
Having the public come into the space was a positive, as many of the regulars popped in and end up going to a workshop or checking out a few of the interventions. Even better was having the staff of the feel good cafe joining in and enjoying the event. There’s a few times, when I overheard people asking what was going on and then the staff suggesting checking out the loom, human values postcards, etc.
The concept really came together well over the two days. Its something which will come back in other forms. Keep an eye out for future iterations of the ethical dilemma cafe soon.
Massive thanks to everyone involved in the Ethical Dilemma Cafe, so many people from the Mozilla Foundation, who took over a hotel in the northern quarter (it was so strange seeing people I usually see on Zoom or in London only 10mins away from my home), all the partners who took a leap of faith with the concept bringing their research and passion to the cafe. The cafe and the amazing woman (can’t remember her name) who really went with the concept. All the people who helped promote it and encourage others to join us over the 2 days. My colleagues who pulled out a number of stops to make things like the coffee with strings, reverse metaverse bots, etc. All amazing along with the talks and workshops, which nicely fitted with our partners. Thanks to the security guard who worked 2 full days and his presence was just right. Finally thank you to all the people who traveled sometimes from quite far to make the event, because without you there would be no ethical dilemma cafe.
There is likely people I have forgotten and I have deliberately not named anyone in-case I miss anyone by name. But I thank everybody especially Sarah, Lucie, Jasmine, Marc, Henry, Iain, Julian, Sam, Laura, Paul, Jesse, Bob, Steph, Lianne, Jimmy, Bill, Zach, Michael, Juliet, Georgina, Todd, Charlie, etc.
Question: What do you value most in a friendship? Answer: When Ian Forrester gives chocolate
Seen completely out of the blue while in the Mozilla/BBC Ethical Dilemma Cafe last week. I had to do a double take when I saw my name.
Question: What do you value most in a friendship? Answer: When Ian Forrester gives chocolate
The screen was part the ethical dilemma, where people use a QR code to register for free hot drinks but in return they need to answer personal questions getting more and more personal/intrusive the more hot drinks you have.
Do I know who wrote the answer?
Actually I do not, but I have a small number of people who I do think it could be…
Look out for a full blog post in the next few weeks.
While thinking about the experiment and the ability to tip people, I thought about this aspect within mixes. Originally I thought about it per mix as WebMontization is page level, although there are plans for link level monetization in store.
Then I saw a bunch of Hyperaudio experiments with WebMon. This got me thinking imagine if every artist/label had a payment pointer?
Its not like we don’t have the precise timing metadata, especially when recording a mix digitally.
For example here is the Pacemaker editor, which gives you exact times of when tunes are used and not used. The mix is my latest one, the incidental contact high mix, I do love that mix!
With the advantage of metadata lookup, it wouldn’t take a lot to correctly identify the tune and auto discover the payment pointer of the artist/label. For example here is Protoculture which is appears 3 times in the mix. With something like hyperaudio, it would be pretty straight forward to automatically send a stream or micropayment to the artist/label everytime the track is played within a mix.
With all this in mind, I’m thinking about creating an experiment.
If I was to do a mix using creative commons attributed licensed music, with all artists who have payment pointers. Then provide it through hyperaudio on my site.
The existing models for distributing DJ mixes is frankly painful with many DJs having to fight with take-down notices and copyright flags.
I am investigating ways to self-host and share DJ mixes with the care and attention of what a DJ would like to bring to the mix, and include a way to pay the artist/creator of the music in the mix.
Ways in Which I Am Web Monetizing These Resources
Currently I am Web Monetizing the whole of the site but I am going to change the audio player to HyperaudioLite and take advantage of the new feature to pay per section of the audio.
As a DJ, my main interest is to share the mix with as many as possible without limits and constraints. I will turn off WebMon for myself and use the payment providers of the artists instead. As I expect many artists have not heard of WebMon and so I recommend using payment providers of charities and non-profits instead (same ones Mozilla have used throughout the Mozilla virtual festival).
As more artists and labels start to support WebMontization and get payment pointers. It will be easy to reroute the payments to the new payment pointers and even split payments between groups/collaborations.
Ideally I’d like to see this fit within the fediverse systems like funkwhale, reel2bits or Castopod enabling support for future forms of sharing, ignoring and distributing.
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.
