Who doesn’t want to meet the space wranglers this year?
Its September and the Mozilla Festival is right around the corner. Now is a very good time to book a hotel and get your ticket for the first global festival since London in 2019.
If you haven’t heard the tickets or badges have gone through a bit of a change too, thanks in part from the space wranglers speaking up and the Mozilla Foundation hearing our heartfelt concerns. The wranglers have always been thinking about the communities we represent and the result of this is the community badges/tickets.
But don’t worry, if you want to support the Mozilla Foundation which are (I imagine) thinking a lot about the recent DOJ judgement, but earn a bit of a bonus too. Use the promocode – IF-WRANGLER to get 25% off and individual tickets and 50% off group tickets (when buying in batches of 5 or more).
My loving supportive partner Alison while Japanese whiskey tasting
Its been around 4 months since I officially left BBC R&D. Its been a while since I did a catch up of where I am and a lot has happened.
First of all I have setup a limited company, one of the main reasons is to seriously pursue how to build the public space as an viable alternative to commercial and government space.
A large part of this is working with others on the notion of a digital public space. One of the leaders in this space is New_Public and I’m really excited to announce, I am going to be working with them to achieve their open source plans. As most of you know, open source isn’t just about the code but about the community and everything which surrounds it. Hence my time running BBC Backstage, is certainly useful.
On the digital legacy front following on from the Republica panel discussion with Identity 2.0 and Linn. I have been thinking about the letter of wishes and how it could actually work in line with HDI (human data interaction) and public values? Its actually something I felt a public service company like the BBC could transform, as it screams public value but it wasn’t to be.
To this I entered my thoughts into a call for participation with the Mydata conference and happy to say they really liked it as a workshop. Which means in September, I will host a workshop around the notion of a machine readable letter of wishes. I am hopefully going to be joined by a fellow digital legacy collaborator but prepared to run it alone.
Been seriously thinking about how to make this real and a standard format seems the best way to go. What software/services which can read and execute this fungible document, is something for others; but a prototype is perfectly possible. Even if it scratches my own itch, it could also help me play/learn with some of the new declarative (React, Vue.js, Xproc) or even object-originated programming languages/frameworks (Rust).
In a similar space, of me rethinking what a public service company could do to be more relevant in the age of endless scroll, enshittification and a loneliness epidemic; as touched on in the future of social report recently.
With all this, I have been writing my own book about this all and pretty much finished. Can I also say how amazing Librewrite has gotten for editing complex books like this…
In the last few months I submitted my book to Conduit Books and signed up to a course by Kenyon author services. Mainly to rethink how I proactively encourage people to buy the book or at least read it. Considered going through the publishers and agent book again but I just don’t have the time, plus I have a plan of action which includes a online dating manifesto, potential podcast and maybe a potential dating service which clings to public values and the HDI principles mentioned before. Some of this might come sooner than expected, as I actually mentioned the dating manifesto (borrowed heavily from Julia) and even showed the cover & title (tbc) to my book at the PublicSpaces conference, during the lunch break.
The manifesto which will be collaborative, will feature at the end of the book and is something Mydata is interested in because its very related to HDI and use of data. I did put it in as a session but it may work better as a short workshop. Watch this space…
I have had a long relationship with Mozilla via the festival (Mozfest), which this year goes global in Barcelona in November. Unfortunately the call for participation has closed and the wrangling part has started. The spacewrangler role is very important, as we are the face and hearts of the festival. One thing which concerned the spacewranglers was the price of the tickets compared to 2019 ticket prices in London. Yes that was a while ago ,a lot has happened including a pandemic and global inflation. However the wranglers have pushed back on the Mozilla foundation. Mozilla have listened and replied with a number of changes including community badges which are a similar price to the ones in London in 2019!
Lets be honest this is a deal, especially with all the challenges Mozilla is facing right now. I would grab your community ticket for €45 now and join us as we write the internet’s next chapter.
Running a limited business comes with a bunch of administrative challenges including accounting. Originally I thought I could use something open and self host it but, the realisation that no accountant will use it and even if I transfer it to something like Xero, Freeagent or Quickbooks. They would need to run through the whole thing again. So I am using Quickbooks for now and seeking a good accountant which isn’t too expensive, can deal with international clients (I have spent far too much time trying to understand and fill in the W-8BEN-E form) and manage my lack of interest in taxes. The notion of a portfolio career keeps coming up, but its really not me… However I do generally have quite a few projects going on at once. This post is testament to this.
In the meanwhile, I have been travelling a lot, my carbon footprint isn’t great but I did recently go to southern France. Somewhere re-reading my school report I wanted to live. Crazy eh?
In the background, I have made a lot of changes to my self hosting setup. I still need to fix quite a few things including my Yunohost Pi server which was broken due to the Debian bookworm update. I decided my mixgarden should just be a Peertube instance which makes a lot of sense. I certainly need to sort out my docker setup because that would make things so much easier. In the meanwhile I have finally settled on Anytype for my personal knowledge store and Vikunja for tasks and kambam. My Framework laptop is going well, especially with a 64gig of memory now, however Ubuntu is doing strange things with the keyboard while using Wayland.
Considering blogging more and setting up separate spaces for the publicservice internet notes, business stuff (which I really need to sort out) and a few other things.
Another strange thing, I just started is baking my own Sourdough bread. Its early days but will attempt my first loaf tomorrow. Yes I know its years after everyone was doing it during the pandemic but hopefully I’ll get into it.
There is so much more but not for public blogging right now. I’m still seeing friends when ever possible, mainly in the UK but when I’m out of the country, catching up with international friends.
I’m very fortunate to have a loving, caring and understanding partner, who is helping me through all this insane amount of change.
I will be part of the team running the Mozilla/BBCRD ethical dilemma cafe. You maybe asking what is the ethical dilemma cafe? Well there is more here and if you are deeply interested, we started pulling everything together here in this public github (barcamp style)
As its a Mozilla House event, the event will focus on the issues with the Netherlands and the EU but have a heavy dose of the wider internet health concerns.
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.
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: 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
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
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
March has been so busy and I really enjoyed the start of the month at the Mozilla Festival 2022 virtual (which reminds me I must write that up, maybe in my new conference new style as suggested by Bill Thompson).
More information will be revealed but you can now book tickets to guarantee your time in the cafe. Simply click register for ticket.
We are limiting the numbers for the safety and comfort of everybody including the volunteers and staff. We will also follow the government guidance on Covid19.
Don’t forget to check out #mozfestedc (Mozilla Festival Ethical Dilemma Cafe) for more announcements.
Remember a healthy internet means a healthy society and a healthy you.
In short every Mozfest ticket holder will receive a free coil account with 5 dollars of webmon funding. On top of all the usual coil benefits, you will see changes in the virtual mozfest with the ability to tip speakers for their workshops. Tipping is quite new but a interesting addition to webmon.
What is The Grand MozFest Web Monetization Experiment, you ask?
It is an experiment to see how the creative minds of MozFest Community can apply the Web Monetization Standard to their MozFest resources and assets to raise money for an Internet Health initiative of their choosing, inclusive of their own work.
What Does this Mean for MozFest Attendees?
This means that every MozFest attendee will receive a 6-month pre-paid Coil account* stocked with $10 US worth of tips to use on Web Monetized resources and assets at MozFest, in addition to $5 US / month of micropayments to stream to Web Monetized resources and assets that you spend time on each month.
I look forward to seeing how the experiment changes how virtual Mozfest works in 2022 and beyond (maybe). Its certainly something which I can imagine many others conferences try and copy in years to come.
It happened and I have updated my Coil account after getting my email from Mozilla
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!
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?
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.
