Notices by Lori Emerson (loriemerson@post.lurk.org)

those of you who helped me advocate for the student who was wrongfully accused of using AI to write her essay might like to know that, faced with the articles you shared with me demonstrating that AI checkers are completely unreliable, the professor relented. I also wrote a long email to the department chair outlining how the professor violated university policy about uploading student data to AI...among other things. So weird we now have to be so vigilant about advocating for and protecting our students but this is the world we're living in! thank you for your help--- #ai

"Soldering is Easy" as a comic book! This is so fantastic - we need more of these guides for everyone out there who would like to cultivate a greater sense of autonomy when it comes to their electronics, both building and repairing https://mightyohm.com/blog/2011/04/soldering-is-easy-comic-book/

I have posted (and probably will continue to post for years to come) a lot here about #othernetworks - a cluster of projects that document networks before and/or outside of the internet along with artist experiments on these networks. The main project I recently finished is a catalog of about 85 of these other networks that will be published by Anthology Editions as a beautifully designed art book in spring 2025.

#othernetworks is an archival project and it's also an educational project that comes out of my belief that we are all capable both of understanding networks from the past and of building alternative networks for the future.

I also like to post about anything related to media archaeology, alternative histories of technology, alternative networks, and alternative network protocols. #introductions

"Moving to a world where protocols and not proprietary platforms dominate would solve many issues currently facing the internet today...In short, it would push the power and decision making out to the ends of the network, rather than keeping it centralized" https://knightcolumbia.org/content/protocols-not-platforms-a-technological-approach-to-free-speech #othernetworks

friends, can you recommend any articles discussing inaccurate AI checkers? I am trying to help a student who has been falsely accused of using AI to write her papers. incredibly, but not surprisingly, *all* of her writing is now being flagged by these checkers as being produced by AI. I'm trying to come up with ways to help her effectively make her case. #ai

I'm not a frequent reader of activist tactics - but I found this piece very clarifying, especially his points about the power not of protests or reason but of mass noncooperation. dangerous, messy, and very effective. https://wagingnonviolence.org/2024/11/10-things-to-do-if-trump-wins/

still pressing on in my quest to dump big tech and turn my back on billionaires, no matter how miniscule a difference it makes, here is another great resource: a catalog of "ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to well-known software." it even includes a list of alternatives to itself. (thank you @x_tof) https://switching.software/

SO GOOD. European alternatives for nearly all Amazon, Google, Microsoft products along with alts to Github, Slack, etc. now we need to create a North American version of this. thank you, @vortex! https://european-alternatives.eu/alternatives-to

now, as rage slowly overtakes sadness, it's perfectly clear to me that while it barely makes even a snowflake of difference, my job over the next 6 months is to completely transition out of Amazon & Google products/affiliates. if I cld leave Twitter after 13 years of investment, I can do this too. stay tuned, too, for a series of workshops by the @mediaarchaeologylab on how to disinvest from big tech.

echoing some things that @brettbalogh has been posting about, I'm also leaning harder than ever into #othernetworks. that alternative networks and network structures produce different ways of being in the world, with each other, is not a cute idea. it is at the heart of what we need to do next to wrest control away from big tech/billionaires. building yr own mini FM transmitter is also not a cute little time-wasting project. it is fundamental to this work & of taking back a small bit of autonomy over how we learn, relate, communicate w/each other. more on this in the coming years but in the meantime, https://othernetworks.net/2024/08/20/build-your-own-mini-fm-transmitter/

#othernetworks friends and even foes! the @mediaarchaeologylab is hosting another fantastic talk in our barbed wire fence phone installation this Wednesday at 12:30pm MT (on campus CASE W250) by the wonderful @ntnsndr! Prof. Schneider will be giving a talk titled "Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for Online Life." If you can’t attend in person, we are also streaming his talk on our Twitch channel – just go to https://www.twitch.tv/mediaarchaeology

the history of using barbed wire to communicate is surprisingly long and almost entirely undocumented, even though barbed wire fence phones in particular were an essential part of early- to mid-twentieth century rural life in many parts of the U.S. and Canada! to that end, I've posted a brief history of barbed wire and barbed wire fence phones on my blog, excerpted from my book _Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook_. enjoy and please share! #othernetworks https://loriemerson.net/2024/08/31/a-brief-history-of-barbed-wire-fence-telephone-networks/

I've only been a U.S. citizen for 6 months and already I'm like "oh gawd please can this be over now please it's all going to end terribly and I don't think I can handle any more slow-mo play-by-play for the next 4 months"

@rose_alibi good thing I also tried to wear a cute outfit today to soften the blow 😅

that moment in class when I try to explain what an ideology is by using capitalism as an example and talking about how it's close to impossible to imagine a world outside of capitalism and the whole room takes in a quick breath and I try to look as harmless as possible

what a day! after sitting on a domain for #othernetworks since about 2017, today @rose_alibi and I are officially launching a (modest...) website to collect all Other Networks related events, workshops, recipes for building your own networks (BYON!), and even an asynchronous book club! we hope you'll join in - more details about the book club to come via @mediaarchaeologylab https://othernetworks.net/

@mediaarchaeologylab @lolcat and here's a pdf I made of a rare book on Minitel! https://loriemerson.net/2016/03/14/minitel-an-other-network/ #othernetworks

the last of today's nerd dump: look at this incredible illustration of the complexity involved in sending photos via cable across the Atlantic in 1926! I believe this is an illustration of the Bartlane Cable Picture Transmission System which translated images into variations of five-hole punches onto Baudot telegraphic tape and then transmitted, reversing the process at the other end using a teletype machine. #othernetworks

@KJ7OMO @mediaarchaeologylab here's what it sounded like when she set it up in DC in 2013 https://vimeo.com/65726807

look at this jaw-dropping thing of beauty installed in the @mediaarchaeologylab right now: Emily Francisco's "Trans-Harmonium," a DIY clock radio synth. if you're in the area, you should really drop by during open house to try it out!