A lot of people are switching from #WhatsApp to #Signal these days. I don't like where it's going. Messaging should be as decentralised as e-mail is, otherwise we're heading to the same problem as we had with WhatsApp. Who guarantees that Signal won't be acquired by somebody we dislike in the future? For example, Matrix is a better alternative as its decentralised protocol guarantees that it can't be fully owned by anyone. (And there are possibly more options.) (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2021-01-11-emlyc/)
Just received a YubiKey from CZ.NIC (in exchange for writing about it with #overenomojeid). After setting up the two-factor authentication in mojeid.cz I can easily manage my citizen profile. It's great to see some progress in Czech "e-governance". (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2021-01-04-c4eae/)
While being stuck in England because my flights were cancelled, I watched a Moshe Vardi's talk that aptly argues against Cyber Libertarianism, why we can't reach (economic) equilibria and more. His OWL's talk is here youtu.be/BipEbkdbVNc. (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-12-22-1fcy1/)
IT'S OFFICIAL: @gitchat@twitter.com now natively speaks Matrix!! Read all about what it takes to add native Matrix support to a large existing chat app, and bask in the glow of a world where FOSS chat is increasingly FOSS, open & interoperable once more :D 🎉🥳🍾🌉🚀 https://matrix.org/blog/2020/12/07/gitter-now-speaks-matrix
I'm just incredibly tired of having to deal with the cookie pop-ups everywhere. Is there any legitimate use-case for third-party #cookies, apart from advertising? If not, we should just finally ban them (legislatively). Those that want to track us will use browser fingerprints anyway... (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-11-28-keiyz/)
"Parliament wants to boost #sustainability by promoting #reuse and #repairs and by tackling practices that shorten the lifespan of products."
A huge win for the #RighttoRepair 🙌 🛠️ : https://bit.ly/3misaVW
Mobilizon. Your events. Your groups. Your data.
Go behind the scenes of the design of #Mobilizon, our new tool to free your groups and events from Facebook.
https://framablog.org/2020/10/27/mobilizon-your-events-your-groups-your-data
(illus CC-By @davidrevoy)
From next year on, all software developed by the city of Munich will be Free Software. This year they will already select five projects to start with.
https://www.golem.de/news/nach-limux-aus-muenchen-will-schnell-open-source-auf-den-weg-bringen-2010-151702.html (de)
#FreeSoftware #Munich #Germany #policy #PublicMoney #PublicCode
Mental note for myself: restarters.net have a great wiki https://wiki.restarters.net/, full of tutorials and other material for people that prefer to repair laptops, phones and other electronics rather than throwing it away. (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-10-20-im0cn/)
Last Sunday the UK/US/CA/AU/NZ/IN/JP govts issued a statement asking tech companies to add backdoors into E2E encryption. This is a big deal: unfortunately *backdoors do not work*. Read about our alternative: combating abuse via decentralised reputation.🔒 https://matrix.org/blog/2020/10/19/combating-abuse-in-matrix-without-backdoors
The end of my first day of quarantine. I'm staying in my flat and eating food powder. It feels a bit like being an astronaut with an abundance of gravity. 🙂 It's thirteen more days to go, wish me luck! (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-09-05-8h945/)
We’re proud to officially announce the Fairphone 3+ 🙌 It has improved cameras, upgraded software and even more fair materials, but here’s the twist: The exact same modules can also be used to upgrade the Fairphone 3. 🌍 📱 Read more: https://bit.ly/2D2uIpJ
And we have the link to the video of the talk:
https://livestream.com/internetsociety3/hope2020/videos/209151556
(thanks @c0debabe for the hint!)
For completeness sake, here's the text again (contains links!):
https://git.rys.io/rysiek/talks/blob/master/HOPE2020/text.md
And the relevant project links:
https://0xacab.org/rysiek/fasada/
https://0xacab.org/rysiek/samizdat/
#HongKong swiftly approves a law effectively extending the Great Firewall of China to Hong Kong. There is no doubt that this is the end of Hong Kong that we know today. Source: https://protonmail.com/blog/china-censorship-hong-kong/ (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-07-09-jx0fc/)
I missed this great news from a couple of months back. The EU has standardised what #repairability means. Soon we might see score (on scale from A to E) when buying electronics evaluating its repeatability. https://de.ifixit.com/News/35879/repairability-standard-en45554 (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-06-28-oydke/)
I really love podcasts. Not only do they provide great entertainment value as an alternative to audiobooks, but they are also one of the last open ecosystems on the web. Anyone can start a podcast by publishing an RSS feed on their website without having to rely on a central platform (thus nobody can “ban” your podcast). Once published listeners can consume their favorite podcasts from any RSS reader, including many specially made for podcasts like PocketCasts and Overcast.
This arrangement is beneficial to creators because it gives them full freedom of expression without having to worry about the censors on platforms like YouTube, and it gives them complete freedom of choice on how to monetize their work. It is equally beneficial to consumers who get to choose among hundreds of independently developed podcast apps to find the one with the best features for them. If a consumer wants to switch podcast players they can also do so while taking their subscriptions with them.
However, over the last few years Spotify has been making moves that could threaten this open ecosystem.
EmbraceIn 2015, Spotify started embracing podcasts by enabling users to discover and subscribe shows right in the Spotify app. The feature works just like any other podcast client and scrapes RSS feeds found on the web.
Later in 2019, Spotify acquired the podcast networks Gimlet Media, Anchor FM, and Parcast. However, they did not limit access to podcasts produced on those networks so users could still listen using their client of choice.
ExtendIn May 2020, Spotify announced that it acquired an exclusive license to The Joe Rogan Experience (a popular comedy podcast) for $100 million dollars. Starting in September 2020, Joe’s podcast will be removed from all 3rd party podcasting apps and made available only in Spotify’s own podcasts section.
If the Joe Rogan license is a commercial success then it seems likely that the shows from the other podcast networks that Spotify owns will also be made exclusive to their own apps.
ExtinguishIf Spotify chooses to continue on their current path of exclusive content it will break interoperability with other podcast apps and force listeners of those shows to use the Spotify podcast client. I suspect that many listeners will also transfer their existing subscriptions into Spotify to avoid needing two separate podcast clients.
If Spotify gains enough market share then it will effectively become the de facto gatekeeper of podcasts (similar to how Google Play is the de facto gatekeeper of Android apps despite side loading and alternative app stores). Once that happens many of the benefits of podcasts will be destroyed. Creators will no longer have full creative freedom as they risk annoying the Spotify censors and having a large portion of their audience taken away from them. Consumers will no longer have choice in podcast clients if they want to listen to shows that are exclusive to Spotify.
I really hope that Spotify’s attempt to centralize the podcasting ecosystem around their apps is a colossal failure, however, the Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish strategy is quite effective and thus I fear they may succeed.
As a small and feeble attempt to protest this direction that Spotify is moving I have decided to cancel my Spotify Premium subscription.
To put into perspective just how significant bringing Android 9 to our 5-year old Fairphone 2 is, we like to think of this project as being a bit like building a house. Read more or sign up to beta test: https://bit.ly/2NfEF4w #wearefairphone #longevity #sustainabilty
> "I think it is wrong to teach maths without teaching programming. We all learn to use calculators at school. This was an innovation of the 20th century. Now it is 2020 and it is time to move on." --- Alex Kurz (https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-06-16-338je/)
Normally countries would find their own ways to regulate TV, radio, press, etc. from foreign influence. However, what do you do when #BigTech takes their role and gives you no real oversight or even monitoring capabilities? I like that the #EU is now demanding clearly what it wants, instead of just unpredictably suing the Big Tech companies and hoping that they will somehow get better. Of course we have to be vigilant and make sure that while we're fighting… https://nest.jakl.one/notes/2020-06-05-ryvg3/
(Avatar by fractalfriday.com)