Chasing white rabbits and exploring glitches in the matrix blento.app (aggregating my other presences on the Atmosphere and elsewhere online).
Chasing white rabbits and exploring glitches in the matrix blento.app (aggregating my other presences on the Atmosphere and elsewhere online).
Democracy Needs Friction To Function
AI promises to help us find common ground. But democracy was never meant to resolve our disagreements.
Local-first software: You own your data, in spite of the cloud
A new generation of collaborative software that allows users to retain ownership of their data.
The case against efficiency: friction in social media
Social media platforms frequently prioritize efficiency to maximize ad revenue and user engagement, often sacrificing deliberation, trust, and reflective, purposeful cognitive engagement in the process. This manuscript examines the potential of friction—design choices that intentionally slow user interactions—as an alternate approach. We present a case against efficiency as the dominant paradigm on social media and advocate for a complex systems approach to understanding and analyzing friction. Drawing from interdisciplinary literature, real-world examples, and industry experiments, we highlight the potential for friction to mitigate issues like polarization, disinformation, and toxic content without resorting to censorship. We propose a state space representation of friction to establish a multidimensional framework and language for analyzing the diverse forms and functions through which friction can be implemented. Additionally, we propose several experimental designs to examine the impact of friction on system dynamics, user behavior, and information ecosystems, each designed with complex systems solutions and perspectives in mind. Our case against efficiency underscores the critical role of friction in shaping digital spaces, challenging the relentless pursuit of efficiency and exploring the potential of thoughtful slowing.
Generative AI for Pro-Democracy Platforms · From Novel Chemicals to Opera
Online discourse faces challenges in facilitating substantive and productive political conversations. Recent technologies have explored the potential of generative AI to promote civil discourse, encourage the development of mutual understanding in a discussion, produce . . .
Maarten van Rossem heeft ongelijk: de EU heeft wel degelijk christelijke wortels
Hoe het Europese project is begonnen in de kerkbanken van een Duitse abdij
What a community taught an AI about itself: Conservation Technology with Arte & Escola na Floresta
By Nurfatin Hamzah, Diego Rivera, David Dao & Arte & Escola na Floresta
‘Ontluisterend en illegaal’: hoe Shell erin slaagt in Nederland geen cent belasting te betalen
Wetenschappers zeggen in gehackte documenten te hebben ontdekt hoe het Shell lukt in Nederland geen belasting te betalen: door aan buitenlandse dochterbedrijven diensten te verlenen onder de marktprijs. ‘Shell zakt door de ondergrens.’
Root Systems: towards a decentralized internet at Dweb Camp
This July, I spent an amazing five days at DWeb Camp, a gathering at a former Stasi holdout in Germany’s Brandenburger forest, that has been repurposed by the Alte Hölle collective striving towards sustainable and equitable futures. The event, organised by the Internet Archive Dweb-community and the
co/core · 5.0 ★ | at-store
co/core is a cooperative for AI inference — people pooling the Macs they already own to run open models for each other. Tag: Developer.
AI, Agency and Protocols_ Power and Governance in Open Social Networks.pdf
Announcing mu.social, and other news - Updates from the Modal Foundation
Major updates and announcements
After the Feed: Trust, connection, and the next era of social technology | New_ Public | May 2026
After the Feed: Trust, connection, and the next era of social technology By Eli Pariser, Co-Director, Angelica Quicksey, Managing Director, Arnobio Morelix, AI Fellow May 2026 Newpublic.org
After the feed with Eli Pariser, Ben Smith, and Jasmine Sun
Het wooncollectief: een blauwdruk voor een andere wereld – Jacobin
De Tweede Kamer nam afgelopen week de Wet bevordering wooncoöperaties aan. Daarmee komt de Kamer tegemoet aan een groeiende groep mensen die het heft in eigen hand neemt om een oplossing voor de woonproblematiek te vinden. Zij werken aan een nieuwe economische logica die behoefte centraal stelt en gebaseerd is op zeggenschap en solidariteit.
Who Pays for the Commons?
Three and a half years after the emergence of generative AI as a new technology paradigm, there is broad agreement that AI companies have extracted enorm...
