Tag: opensource

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (March 2026)

A teenage girl looks at her smartphone while a algorithm recognises her face and places a box around it
mollyvsthemachines.com

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed hearing the insanity of prediction markets, potential governmental influence on app stores and Open AI confidence is dispensing.

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 a potential global privacy standard, The EU getting very serious about sovereignty and NHS doctors are urged to not use Palantir’s platform.

The worst idea of the 21st Century

Ian thinks: New scientist’s video conversation is a fantastic summary of some of the worst recent technology ideas. There’s all the usual ones and a few surprising ones but make sense when explained.

Your vibes are killing open source

Ian thinks:  Everyone is talking about vibe coding and there is a lot of discussion for and against. However this well researched piece in hackaday, really breaks down the destruction of the open source ecosystem. From the endless bug reports to the degrading of reusable code. Those vibes are the new kool-aid, rooting ecosystems everywhere.

Artificial intimacy

Ian thinks: The FT have a new series looking at the many issues which come from AI systems and intimacy. Perfectly timed for Valentines day… Through the series covers a lot of my thoughts about intimacy, the artificial intimacy, really touches so much of the future challenges we see with emotional hijacking

Perfectly intimacy programmed? (nsfw)

Ian thinks: Following on from the last link, Dr.Malik breaks down the different ways artificial intimacy is realistically happening now and finds research which points at its impact. There is blunt and real figures which are suitable for adults, but its worthy of watching as it makes this whole era of intimacy very real.

Gamifying life, sounds fun?

Ian thinks: This interview sheds a lot of light on the very dark side of gamification. If you were under any illusion how damaging gamification can be when controlled by someone else or entity. This discussion will make you rethink and readdress existing ideas. I personally sent it to someone in the last month.

Social death is forever?

Ian thinks: Being in the space of digital legacy, I can not understand how Meta was granted the patent as there are so many people who have setup DIY systems to do similar. Its pretty gross I personally think, especially if not done in a honest way.

A future trend report from Public broadcasters

Ian thinks: Future Media Hubs is a combination of many public service broadcasters mainly across Europe. This year, has some noticeable points for many different sectors including social, AI and young people. If you want to get a grip of what’s on broadcasts minds, this trend report speaks volume.

We should all be Luddites

Ian thinks: I recently finished blood in the machine, about the luddities movement started in the north of England. Since then I have been thinking about how this applies to the technology we use everyday. Of course I’m not the only one as the story of the luddite club first heard on Tech won’t save us, makes super clear. Can’t wait to see the documentary.

Stop Google from going back on its pinky promise for Android

Ian thinks: A while Google said they were going to get all developers to register before they can publish apps, then made side-loading even more difficult. The response from Android users & developers was strong, google then backed off. However months later, the pinky promise is no more, as Fdroid makes clear in their blog. If you care for an open ecosystem even if you are a IOS user, sign the petition.

Algorithms rules everything around you

Ian thinks: The trials over social media currently happening in the states is horrifying. There is a lot be said about each and every case. Taking a look just one, Mollys case is a real eye opener and this online piece really demonstrates how the incentives of traditional social media companies are so misaligned with humanity and real life.

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Smart rings turns your thoughts into text?

I had to share how different the approaches of both Sandbar Stream ($249) and the RePebble’s Index 01 ($75) are.

Sandbar’s stream ring is closed, propriety, beautiful, add day battery and uses AI.

RePebble’s index 01 ring is open source, funky/fuggy looking, battery which lasts years? and avoids AI

For me the Index 01 calls me (although I do worry about the battery as smart rings don’t have a good rep in this space) , because it has a vision of openness. I expect Index 02, 03 and others who build on top of it will do things which will be super interesting and useful. This is what made the Pebble super interesting and why I find Eric Migicovsky, such a fantastic designer/developer/creator. His values are infused through each project he’s started.

Public Service Internet monthly newsletter (Dec 2025)

Traffic jam of cabs in New York shot from the back with red lights from the cabs
Cars everywhere: (cc-by-nd) https://www.flickr.com/photos/strolicfurlan/24747443097/

We live in incredible times with such possibilities that is clear. Although its easily dismissed seeing the questionable AI courtcase in the UK, Zuck running an illegal school and big tech refusing to talk about election influencing in the Netherlands.

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 Android supporting airdrop, The Eurosky sovereign bluesky project now has open code and Dr Ruha Benjamin’s unlearn speech from Mozfest 2025.

The future of addiction

Ian thinks: I found this conversation spot on, as it touches on many things I find really interesting right now and links them up. From the problems of mass social media to weaponized addiction being generated on mass. Addiction is always a contentious point but regardless, it all points to a future where our revealed preferences are indulged without friction for profit and control..

Why we need a war on cars

Ian thinks: I don’t drive a car, and this episode is full of interesting points including the one about superman, electric cars effect on space and the city and the social impact on loneliness.

The characteristics of a AI bubble

Ian thinks: If you are in the tech field or even looking in, its clear everybody is talking about the AI bubble but this podcast from Wired again, really breaks down the characteristic of a bubble.

Keep Android open

Ian thinks: Great site, seems Google might have listened to the pressure in recent days. What they mean by an alternative is a big question however.

Reasons for divorce: AI relationship

Ian thinks: We all new this was coming. You message first thing in the morning, last thing at night, you message on the toilet! That relationship seems so innocent but engaging. Now there is legal challenges a foot, which could make that relationship grounds for a divorce.

Digital legacy and death tech overview

Ian thinks: This video from Wired magazine, starts off with the usual cryogenic nonsense  but then grief bots and AI avatars suddenly become a lot more real. I especially like the shout out to get a will and manage your digital legacy. This is something I am working on with a project called Machine readable wishes.

NSA’s mobile phone guide

Ian thinks: The NSA’s mobile guide is interesting reading, there are nuggets of information such as restart your phone weekly and have a case which block room audio. Paranoid or just good advice?

Bots are the future of social media?

Ian thinks: I recently gave a talk about AI to a health insurances. I talked a lot about loneliness and bots. Although I didn’t include it, this detailed video forecasts the logical end of social being the dead internet theory but far far worst.

What does 47,000 conversations with ChatGPT tell us?

Ian thinks: Remember when OpenAPI was sharing chatGPT conversations? Well analysis of the conversations by the Gerrit De Vynck tells us exactly how puppy like and integrated it is with peoples lives. Counter to what the AI companies have been saying, this is worry-some to hear and read.

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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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Adaptive podcasting is now open source for all


Video: Created by Vicky Barlow / Voice over: Bronnie McCarthy / Licensed CC-BY-SA  | Music: Sleepwalking by Airtone

It brings me absolute joy to finally open source all the code of Adaptive/Perceptive podcasting.

This research project has run for a long time and at some time thought about pulling the plug. I always thought it had so much potential and needed to reach different people who will explore and use it for many more use cases than a research agenda.

If you are wondering what Adaptive podcasting is, check out the post from R&D and my own thoughts last year.

Podcast listener with headphones

Now the code base is public under a Apache 2 license, it means anyone can make changes to the code base including I hope,

There is so many people who had a hand in Adaptive podcasting, which are all named in the credits. This project couldn’t have happened without them and it speaks volumes about a future where collaboration is the default.

Adaptive podcasting editor

I am personally humbled by everything and if I wasn’t in Amsterdam during the Society 5.0 conference would be sending out lots of emails letting everyone and anyone know. There is a long long list of people to contact to let them know its all public now. Its also one of the research projects which has always been in the forefront of my mind and consumed many of my cycles. Its a great project and in the history makes clear the trajectory of progression. However wouldn’t existed without the community of practice, which kept me on my toes. Even now, I’m keen to see the community grow and built the amazing experiences which we dreamed about.

This is a clear sign of the power of public service. Many will ask why would the BBC open source this? Its in the BBC’s royal charter, helping build the UK economy. This is also a natural end to the Perceptive Media workstream for me, looking at implicit interaction to drive experiences and narratives.

Ultimately I’m hoping to further the ambition on podcasts and adaptive audio full stop. I have always said and stood behind the notion media has so much more potential. I do expect some enterprising individual to take the source code and port it to the Apple app store. Although I’m already looking at fdroid for the latest player too.

If you have any questions about Adaptive/Perceptive podcasting please do get in touch via email or github. This project is leaking so much potential be it public, commercial, etc.

I really look forward to seeing what people do with it all…

Digital legacy the home made version

 

iStorage datAshur PRO 4GB Secure flash USB drive

For a long while since my brush with death, I have been thinking about my digital legacy as most of my stuff is digital. I know its not something most people think about but in the same way most people don’t think about their will till something major happens or its too late.

Digital legacy is in that place right now where there are companies which will do it for you but the trust model seems broken to me. Also they tend to need everything to be in one place/platform rather than the real way people use digital technology today and into the trustless/diy/open future.

With this in mind, I checked out a few different options and the one which came up consistently was Hereditas.

Hereditas, which means inheritance in Latin, is a static website generator that builds fully-trustless digital legacy boxes, where you can store information for your relatives to access in case of your sudden death or disappearance.

For example, you could use this to pass information such as passwords, cryptographic keys, cryptocurrency wallets, sensitive documents, etc.

Herditas is neat and the code is open source allowing anyone to investigate it. But as its alpha software I always felt a bit uneasy about using it for my digital legacy because it felt a bit too barebones (although I did sign up for Auth0).

I looked for alternatives such which also used the method of trustless, zero-knowledge and verification, but found little. So decided to try setting something up myself based on what I already have and use.

It was about the same time the lastpass security breach happened and although I’m not using a online password manager started thinking if there was a way to combine the both in a safe way.

So what did I do?

First I bought these secure USB drives and of course changed the passcode to something long and unique.

Then made a copy of my keepass database (my password manager) on to the USB drive along with my  Letter of wishes, a readme file and other bits and bobs. The database is locked up with a very long and difficult master password. That password is stored inside another online password manager, bitwarden which includes the feature of emergency access. I have already set up family members and close friends using this feature. Meaning only a few selected people can access it once I don’t reject their access request.

Once someone gets access to the bitwarden account, they would still need access to the database file, which is on the secure keys. Then to top that,  keepass has the option of a key file which can look like almost any file including ones on the secure USB stick. Its not elegant but I can’t see many flaws and it works in a simple way which was explained to my family.

I’m still experimenting with this all but been thinking a better option is to use another encrypted filesystem or Certs for the keepass 2nd authentication. Of course that file doesn’t have to even sit on the secure USB drive at all, as I’m considering buying and using more FIDO2 keys and using that instead.

Looking Herditas again, I quite like the idea of a static website on the secure website which could make a better solution that a readme file. It would be great if Herditas could actually run on/offline

Thoughts and comments are welcomed…

Is there a major flaw which I’m missing or is something which could work?

Update Tuesday 24th Jan

There has been some discussion on the fediverse about my post and I wanted to add some more details. Some people have asked why bother and I wanted to address some of them.

The scenario of death is a lot clearer and the death certificate will unlock a lot of things, however its worth noting some EULAs from the likes of dropbox need explicit consent before they will provide access. I’m also using the likes of Google, Facebook, etc’s legacy contact support.

The scenario I alluded to, was when I was in in ICU for 3-4 weeks and my family and friends needed to sort out my life when I was buying a new flat. I was lucky but I could have lost the flat. Yes its unique but a lot can happen when you are temporarily or even permanently out of action. Permanent disability is possible and providing access in a safe way, can make a lot of difference. I also think my thoughts still works in this case too.

Apple and their form of privacy

Apple's smug new iPhone ad says privacy matters, just ...

Ummmm right…

I get Apple are more private about data than others like Google (which pings Android phones so much people are suing for data charges) but there is something about misplaced trust with Apple which always bugs me. These latest adverts and recent news stories say it all.

Downloads outage down issues which is all around Apples Gatekeeper privacy and Apple’s latest OS update Big sur network traffic bypass.

Of course this is all clear reasons why I’m very much in the open source camp. Maybe I won’t understand the code, but someone will and can inspect it or track down the issue without signing an NDA. I urge for people to not blindly trust. Always look out for open code, zero-knowledge security, no logging, transparency, etc

Signal or Threema or how about both?

I have been a fan and person encouraging the use of signal over the likes of whatsapp. Its been good to me but like every piece of software there are things I would change about them. For example the whole pin code thing is not only concerning but also a real challenge for casual users.

The pin code thing and phone number thing is not that much of a concern for most but I’ve been keeping an eye on others coming into the space. Threema is one such messaging app which seems to have all the privacy and security needed backed with its strong European base in Switzerland.

I wrote it off in my mind because it didn’t have a open code base for security  experts to view openly. However that recently changed with them opensourcing the code base.

Because of this change I’m relooking at the Threema, although I don’t think I’ll be dumping Signal as a result but rather using both?

Trying Indigenous social timeline app

IndieWeb ecosystem
When I first saw this last year, I instantly thought about small pieces loosely joined

Last year I went to IndieWebCampBerlin, I learned a lot and really enjoyed it. One of the things I found most interesting is the indieweb ecosystem and in the indieweb way, how people were creating parts of the ecosystem. This is quite a different to the way existing social networks are built, dare I mentioned protocols not platforms again.

There was an app which was mentioned a few times as a example of how it could work. Indigenous, which supports micropub (publishing) and microsub (subscription) across the different pub/sub supporting services. It was neat but I couldn’t get it working on my Android phone. Mainly down to the Indieauth which didn’t work well with this blog. So I kinda left it till this week.

Indigenous allows you to engage with the internet as you do on social media sites, and post on your IndieWeb powered website or a federated instance like Mastodon, Pleroma or Pixelfed

Using Indigenous on Android

Unlike last time, there is a better more user-friendly introduction to the app. It seems to set up a default user for you and allows you add other accounts to it. I assume once you finally add a indieweb account it will release the default user and move the added accounts.

I added my Mastodon and Pixelfed account did a test post using Mastodon in Indigenous.

I did try and post it via Pixelfed but it didn’t seem to work, so I used Mastodon instead. So far so good, but I hoped to still get IndieAuth working but still no dice unfortunately.

It was only a day ago when I realised there was a desktop version, a electron app for Linux, so I gave it a try.

Its a bit different but I recognise parts. Although I couldn’t find the account part s wasn’t able to try the indieauth.

Expect more posting as I explore more, of course if anyone has pointers…? Do jump into the comments/web mentions or drop me something on Mastodon or Twitter.

Imagine a public service video conference service

Its pretty disheartening to hear about people who seeking/getting help for addiction being trolled. Business insider’s article about Trolls breaking into AA meetings held on Zoom and harassing recovering alcoholics. Speaks volumes about where we currently are with our technology and society.

Its easy to blame the people who would troll people who are seeking help and support. Yes but also Zoom are to blame? Well thats a very easy target and they are not doing themselves any favors although they recently seem to be sorting themselves out. The problem with default settings is a well known problem and the easy thing to do is switch to another platform right?

Looking at the list in the Guardian, its clear the amount which are profit making businesses just like zoom. Its not exactly their fault, the scenario of the public using your service for to run a help group wasn’t in the business plan.

Maybe its time there was a business which did have that in their plans? Maybe not a business at all? Maybe an organisation with public interest & benefit at the centre of its remit?

This is something I was thinking through with Herb the other day, as we talked through the problems with Zoom. Could an organisation like for example the BBC run a video conferencing system for the benefit of the public?

Wouldn’t this conflict with existing commercial businesses and be a problem? Nope not if done correctly. I used healthcare when talking with Herb.

The NHS is a catch all and provide baseline health care. If you want to pay for better/quicker healthcare you can pay BUPA or someone else. In the same way, could the BBC or others provide baseline video conferencing aimed to give everybody a free platform which is  basic but focused on important things like privacy, security, anonymity, etc. This means no custom backgrounds, no filters, no full HD, etc. Thats the realm of the  commercial providers.

I know its a thin line but we can’t such important public services be hostage to commercial factors/models.

There is another aspect to this, the public sector could finally double down on services which preserve privacy and security of the public with software which is audit-able, has levels of transparency and is decentralised & distributed in nature.  For example I was checking out Jitsi with its webRTC support. Jitsi meet might struggling if everybody is hitting the main site but as its self installable, suits a more decentralised model. A public company could easily set it up and run it for under-served audiences?

Thoughts?