Writing about Facebook, Franklin Foer explores the concept of algorithms to highlight a more human element: > An algorithm is a system, like plumbing or a military chain of command. It takes knowhow, calculation and creativity to make a system work properly. But some systems, like some armies, are much more reliable than others. A system is a human artefact, not a m...
Intimate Spaces [...] |
Sometimes the strength of ideas and collaboration comes via the creation of appropriate spaces. Isaac Kohane discusses the importance of *intimate spaces* where people are about to come together. > Isacc Kohane says. “Even in the era of big science, when researchers spend so much time on the Internet, it’s still so important to create intimate spaces.”A new gen...
Authentic Dissent [...] |
In a discussion of collaboration and group work, Jonah Lehrer highlights the power of disruption in pushing our thinking further. An example of this is the notion of *authentic dissent* where ideas are generated to purposely disrupt the thinking. > In a way, the power of dissent is the power of surprise. After hearing someone shout out an errant answer, we work to un...
Diversity and Perspective [...] |
Reflecting on a life within the technology industry, Ellen Ullman shares why diversity is so important: > We need to involve women and minorities and people who come from all social classes because they bring in new sets of values. The newcomers deepen the conversation. They carry in fresh sources of creativity. They enrich our understanding of the relationships betw...
Power of Stories [...] |
Discussing the *social age*, Julian Stodd uppacks the power of stories. For him, the question often relates to whom owns the story and how it flows. > Stories are the mechanism of transmission of cultural and tacit knowledge: they are units of information, heavily contextualised, highly magnetic, almost frictionless, and can be very, very, long lived. If i tell a sto...
Silicon Valley Seasteads [...] |
American libertarian activist Patri Friedman thinks that the future of the city-state are 'seasteads': > Patri is taking the Silicon Valley mindset and applying it to the nation-state. There are all these things you could now do that didn’t exist when our current system of government was invented, he told me. Constant online direct-democracy voting, building smart-c...
The Myth of the Nation-State [...] |
In his reflections on the city-state, Jamie Barlett explains that: > nation-states are nothing but agreed-upon myths: we give up certain freedoms in order to secure others. But if that transaction no longer works, and we stop agreeing on the myth, it ceases to have power over us. This is similar to the ideas of Benedict Anderson and the notion of . It is also intere...
Strategies for Gathering Student Data with more Care [...] |
Amy Collier provides seven strategies for taking more care when working with data: > Audit student data repositories and policies associated with third-party providers. Document every "place" that student data goes and what the policies are for handling student data. What third parties have access to student data, why do they have access, and what can they do with th...
Decentralised Networks [...] |
The web by its nature is decentralised, however platforms often try to centralise it. Paul Ford discusses the benefits of setting up your own server and the lessons one is able to learn through the process. > Then I look at Raspberry Pi Zeros with Wi-Fi built in and I keep thinking, what would it take to just have a little web server that was only for three or four ...
Participation within Assemblages [...] |
Ian Guest reflects on the nature of participation from the perspective of their place within an assemblage: > What about the epistemological contribution of the nonhumans I wondered? Leaving aside the potentially emotive discussion of animals in research for a moment, I’m not going to claim that nonhumans should be part of our ethical discussions; they’re not lik...
