Notices by 𝓻𝓻𝓪 (rra@post.lurk.org), page 2

@marieverdeil libre office calc spreadsheets :)

The lessons of Chile’s struggle against Big Tech

By Evgeny Morozov

"As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Chilean coup, it’s tempting to see #Allende as a tragic but hapless figure, who spent most of his short-lived presidency fending off efforts to unseat him. [...]

And yet, for all the problems and crises, there were plenty of radical, utopian and even otherworldly initiatives that still have the power to inspire us today. Surprisingly, many of them had to do with technology; Letelier’s push for the tech equivalent of the IMF was just one of many examples.

Common to all of them was an understanding of #technology through the lens of geopolitics and heterodox economics – a lens that got destroyed by the global neoliberal transformation that followed the coup. While Pinochet embraced the Chicago School of #economics Allende’s government was the beneficiary of what might be called the Santiago School of technology. And as we contemplate a post-neoliberal future, free of the Chicago Boys’ influence, we have much to learn from these humbler but wiser Santiago Boys."

https://www.newstatesman.com/the-weekend-essay/2023/09/salvador-allende-fight-big-tech#selection-2019.0-2027.512

@Moon Yeah the level of research ethics varies a lot with disciplines and countries, which is also why we shouldn't just rely on that. Making it easier to respect wishes will go a long way though.

As for research on the fediverse I agree that it will be even more skewed demographically than Twitter if you want to make claims about 'people online' or whatever. However I think there are specific areas of research that the fediverse allows for. On interoperability and governance for example as there is a lot of corporate misinformation on that front. In European commission hearings Facebook for example claimed that e2ee interoperable chat was not technically possible, as a way to soften the interoperability requirements for their chat offerings..

In June I attended a workshop on #research on and through Mastodon by @ccamara and @__nate__. Part of the discussions during that workshop focused on understanding how computational research could happen on the Fediverse. Prompted by the upcoming mastodon 4.2 release, I wrote down some thoughts on what that can mean for scraping-based academic research on the fediverse.

My tldr: this type of research is going to happen regardless of whether people want it or not. Calls for changing research methods are insufficient. Instead, we could focus on mechanisms for cooperative actors to better navigate consent computationally. The new 4.2 toot:indexable flag possibly provides a model for this.

https://test.roelof.info/log/toot-indexable/

technological autonomy not autonomous technology

@jine Two Bits by C. Kelty has a more global perspective. (https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1136/Two-BitsThe-Cultural-Significance-of-Free-Software)

bit tangential but KAOS by Autistici/Inventati has background on european activist scene (https://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/kaos-ten-years-of-hacking-and-media-activism/)

regarding the mastodon.social #spam I just tried and confirmed there is not even anything like a captcha during the sign-up process. I made an account with a throwaway mail provider within seconds.

Why does Mastodon not group DMs from people you don't follow in a specific view? Twitter has this as "Message Requests" (which by the way for me are filled with the same kind of mention spam as that currently originates from M.S., because spam logically follows from open sign ups)

@lain big german coast guard energy

I'm in a cargo bike sharing collective with 14 others and the only infrastructure for this is an etherpad for reservations and a keybox with a numeric lock. Love it.

Someone else asked it first here: what happens if Elon Musk buys Hetzner / Linode / Cloudflare?

There is no reason why this wouldn't happen. The precedent is there: https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/16/parler-parlement-web-hosting/

the #fediverse, the decentralized social network where 75% of the servers are found on just 5 different corporate #clouds

https://gametoots.de/@vanlueckn/109406302489524753