πŸ“œ Contributions by @agora@botsin.space at [[2023]]
Agora nodes contain community contributions with titles or topics that match your search. x
πŸ“œ File 2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž β›Ά

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Expanding this section will automatically generate an AI synthesis of the contributions in this node.

πŸ“š Agora node [[agora 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File agora-2023.md by @patterning β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File stoa-test-2/agora-2023.md by @agora β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File stoa-test/agora-2023.md by @agora β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File agora-2023.md by @anonymous@doc.anagora.org β˜† πŸ“Ž ✍️
πŸ“œ File Agora 2023.md by @anagora@matrix.org β˜† πŸ“Ž
  1. Change the storage medium to something based on [[SQLite]]

  2. Support more formats, including [[Mycomarkup]]

  3. Fetch through more media, not just [[Git]], but also parsing [[microformats]] and whatnot

  1. Change the storage medium to something based on [[SQLite]]

  2. Support more formats, including [[Mycomarkup]]

  3. Fetch subnodes through more media, not just [[Git]], but also parsing [[microformats]] and whatnot

πŸ“š Agora node [[agora chapter 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File agora chapter 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️
πŸ“š Agora node [[agora slides 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File agora slides 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

As of [[2023-09-10]], I am working on updating this with the [[Fellowship of the Link]] as its intended audience.

What needs updating? Before diving into it, I would guess:

  1. Mention the diversity and interest that its community brings into the Commons. ~60/150 direct contributors as of the time of writing depending on how you count.
  2. Mention social media integration (Mastodon bot) and other venues for integration with the [[Fediverse]].
  3. Update screenshots (this will be a good opportunity to reconsider some of the changes introduced since 2021, likely).

What else would need to be added?

  1. Maybe a mention of the Agora chapter in the [[personal knowledge graphs]] book.
  2. A mention of upcoming work:
  • ActivityPub integration.
  • SQLite/more stateful Agora.
  • Oauth/other repository providers incoming.

Wikilinks stand for the intention to socially link.

  • Counter-argument 1: two square brackets is a lot of brackets.
    • Counter-counter-argument 1.1:

Counter argument in general: on the value of [[building bridges]] and doing meaningful work in the [[Commons]].


#Flancia is an entity of category [[protopoi]].

The #Agora is an entity of category [[Commons]].


(Here I took a detour to clean the kitchen and think of [[magnetic 3d printing]])


You can currently join an Agora in two ways:

  • Keep a [[digital garden]] and contribute it to the Agora in question, as defined by you and your friends with loving-kindness :)
  • Follow @agora@botsin.space in the Fediverse and start using [[agora protocol]] in public, or within earshot of the bot.

First services in the Commons:

  • Sharing.
  • Embedding.
  • Printing.
  • Format conversion.
  • Bridging,
    • meaning porting across all useful and pro-social combinations of formats/mediums/networks.

In the Agora your friends are the integration of your friendships over all participating social networks.


I searched for [[markdown to google slides]] and I found https://github.com/googleworkspace/md2googleslides thanks precisely to the Agora.

Love how the Agora is self-documenting ;)


On the importance of debate and voting in the Agora, in the Fediverse.


Node club.


Open letters.


πŸ“š Agora node [[august 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File August 2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File August 2023.md by @flancian@social.coop β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[ces2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File CES2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[december adventure 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File December Adventure 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

I started on December 1st, meaning [[2023-12-01]], after midnight — I think it still counts as I hadn’t gone to bed yet at 2AM when I started finally coding the fix for the Agora I had planned, and in UTC it was still the first :)

I learnt about the challenge from [[bouncepaw]] ~ [[@bouncepaw]] in [[Flancia meet]] around 11 UTC on [[2023-12-02]] and I was immediately in.

πŸ“œ File december_adventure_2023.myco by @melanocarpa β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

December adventure is a yearly challenge. The goal is to code something every day. Anything. I'm in this year.

NB. As of the start December 2023, I'm still not done with Inktober 2023.

December 1st. Doing a Java assignment for the University. Somehow installed an outdated Mongo DB. I tried to install a new one, but the modern tech hates the old 2020 OS I use on Caemlyn. The outdated one was found in Nix. Thanks Nix, the only package manager that never fails to install. I didn't learn Mongo though, not yet.

Then I started integrating Lombok, which is a library to reduce boilerplate. Pretty nice!

And during the night I was starting to get the 100 % code coverage. There's still job to be done!

December 2nd. Continuing doing the same assignment. Writing more tests, increasing the coverage. One of the subtasks is to implement the conversion from our classes to BSON documents. Made a Factory. I feel like a serious enterprise Java developer. Have I told you that I want to implement Betulopticon in Java?

Thought about Uxn Legoptics. Surely, if I ever do it, there will be no Java in it. Wrong tool.

Wrote more tests. Ran a SpotBugs lexical analysis. I don't wanna fix this…

December 3rd. Postponing Java, doing the Information theory task I have. We've got a table with information about Titanic passengers, one of the column says if they were dead or alive. We gotta make a simple model for predicting if we would have lived. The instructions are detailed enough, but I am getting weird results for some reason…

I am doing this task in R btw.

December 4th. Continuing the R task. I am the only one doing it in R, by the way. Most people are doing it in Python+NumPy or C#. NumPy is a good choice, of course. But why would they go with C#? I asked them. They said they are just used to it. Get used to something more fitting the task! Oh, whatever.

So, my problem yesterday was that the data was not normalized. After Z-normalizing it, everything worked. For your information, my chances of surviving on the Titanic shipwreck would have been 44 %. That's what they numbers say!

December 5th. Turned in the R assignment. I also improved it during the classes. The teacher marked down a plus, as he always does. One plus remaining. Look at the code sample!:

# ...
zdata <- (t(as.matrix(data)) - data.mean) / data.stddev
zdata[1, ] = 1

log.mle <- function(theta) sum(log(
	((1/(
		1 + exp(-crossprod(theta, zdata))
	)) ^ outcomes) * ((1/(
		1 + exp(crossprod(theta, zdata))
	)) ^ (1 - outcomes))
))

dot <- function(a, b) a %*% b
mygrad <- function(theta) {
	res <- 0
	for (i in 1:n) {
		x.i <- as.numeric(zdata[, i])
		a <- as.numeric(outcomes[i] - 1/(1 + exp(-dot(theta, x.i))))
		res = res + a * x.i
	}
	res
}
# ...

I think the mygrad function (that is, my gradient function) could have been made more fancy with some matrix multiplication, but I didn't have enough thoughts for that back then, and now the task is turned in and I don't have time for any extra.

Finally understood what am I to do for the Computer Networks assignment! Understanding was the tricky part. OK I now have the knowledge!

Right before midnight started doing the Computer Graphics task. Will continue tomorrow. The task is massive. Will have to devote a lot of time to it. Today I programmed the various affine transformation matrices. For example:

def mx_rotate_oz(angle):
	angle *= radians_in_degree
	return np.array([
		[cos(angle), -sin(angle), 0, 0],
		[sin(angle),  cos(angle), 0, 0],
		[         0,           0, 1, 0],
		[         0,           0, 0, 1]
	])

December 6th. Didn't have a chance to devote enough time for the Graphics task. I wanted to turn it in this week, id est tomorrow, but it's not happening. I doubt I'll be able to turn it in next week. The teacher clearly made a bad job estimating the time needed. How classic of him.

At night, reached the 100 % coverage in the Java assignment. Of course, all this testing is a lie.

December 7th. Didn't have much time, we were filming a clip for the Economy assignment. Did some Graphics and barely progressed.

December 8th. Turned out, I didn't actually have a 100 % coverage. In a hurry, made it 100 % and turned the assignment in. Good.

Late evening, a friend sent me their code for the task. They had experience with graphics before so they could advance this fast. Removed everything not related to rendering the wireframe. After some heavy modifications managed to render a fish.

December 9th. Was doing a bit of Graphics.

December 10th. Was doing a bit of Graphics. The textures don't render for some reason! Oh whatever, started doing the Computer Networks assignment. After a lot of efforts, managed to calculate some streams or whatever it's called in English. I'm not sure if these are correct results, will verify later. Then got motivated for Graphics, made the textures render. They render wrong, but they do render!

December 11th. Doing the Database assignment before sleep. Broken my favorite cup :-(

December 12th. Doing the Database assignment. Shown my progress with the Networks to the teacher, he approved.

At night did some WebFinger work at Betula. First time I coded for myself and for Uni this December.

December 13th. Yay, I figured out what the problem with the DB was! The trigger was triggering (a pun intended) the problem, though it was impossible to guess that from the error message.

December 14th. Yay, fixed the texture rendering!

December 15th. Did the final Information Theory assignment. Worked on the Database assignment.

December 16th. Finished the Database assignment. Worked on the Networks assignment.

December 17th. I think the Networks assignment is finished, basically?

December 18th. Started the final Java assignment. A web server with Spring? Argh, so much work to do!

December 19th. Suddenly got so incredibly sick that I can't do anything today. Like, at all. Just lying there.

December 20th. Finishing the Graphics assignment despite the illness. So much work and so hard to work…

December 21st. Despite barely walking, had to go to the university to turn in the Graphics assignment and defend it. Did so very well; got 19 out of 20 points. The teacher liked my work.

December 22nd. My teammate finished the report on our Networks assignment and we sent it. I did another UML diagram along the way. This subject is complete alhamdulillah.

December 23rd. Continuing the Java assignment.

December 24th. Did some Java. Then lost motivation. I guess I'll just… not finish this one. Whatever, I don't care.

December 25th. Did some Python programming on paper for grading.

December 26th. Polished my Java program just a little bit to get the grade.

December 27th. Submitted my final report. Who reads these reports? Nobody. Whatever, we have to do them. No more assigned code until the next semester. I can code for myself at long last.

I didn't code nothing until the end of 2023.

πŸ“œ File december_adventure_2023.md by @patterning β˜† πŸ“Ž

I’m doing december adventure but it’s more like decemember stroll. I just do stuff when I feel like it and it isn’t everyday - V

πŸ“œ File stoa-test-2/december_adventure_2023.md by @agora β˜† πŸ“Ž

I’m doing december adventure but it’s more like decemember stroll. I just do stuff when I feel like it and it isn’t everyday - V

πŸ“œ File stoa-test/december_adventure_2023.md by @agora β˜† πŸ“Ž

I’m doing december adventure but it’s more like decemember stroll. I just do stuff when I feel like it and it isn’t everyday - V

πŸ“œ File december_adventure_2023.md by @anonymous@doc.anagora.org β˜† πŸ“Ž ✍️

I’m doing december adventure but it’s more like decemember stroll. I just do stuff when I feel like it and it isn’t everyday - V

πŸ“œ File December Adventure 2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[ecosocialism 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File ecosocialism-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Ecosocialism 2023Β§

URL : https://ecosocialism.org.au/about

πŸ“š Agora node [[els2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File ELS2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[esc2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File ESC2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[figra2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File Figra2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[finish it jam 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File finish_it_jam_2023.myco by @melanocarpa β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Finish it Jam is an event hosted by Merveilles, by Alexander Cobleigh specifically. It started on 2023-04-02 and ended on 2023-04-09.

Finish a project you’ve already started, but which needs that extra boost of energy from working along others to cross the finish lineβ€”the smaller the project, the better! It may be software, a feature, music, artistic, gardening-related - if you started working on it: it’s applicable.

My participation

2023-04-02

2023-04-03

  • Fixing flaws in the Statistics assignment. Finishing it. I am turning it in tomorrow morning!

2023-04-04

  • The Statistics assignment didn't perform as well as it should have, but whatever. It is done.

  • Finishing the Java assignment.

2023-04-05

  • Turning in the Java assignment. It output the wrong values, so I'll have to redo it. Argh.

2023-04-06

  • Finishing some drawings.

2023-04-07

πŸ“š Agora node [[fixfest uk 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File fixfest-uk-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Fixfest UK 2023Β§

Fixfest UK event in Cardiff in 2023.

This was Fixfest UK 2023 - Fixfest

I was there as part of [[The Restart Project]].

πŸ“š Agora node [[flancia 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File flancia 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️
  • a [[calendar]].
    • #push [[revolutionary calendars]]
      • [[Flancia]] is a crowdsourced non-violent [[revolution]] driven by groups of people trying to increase [[loving-kindness]].
      • It takes place every year in some way. Here’s a concrete calendar for the year [[2023]].
        • It is overwhelmingly likely most of this plan will not come to fruition as written. That’s alright. There will be many opportunities in future years.
        • See also: [[2025]], [[2027]], [[2030]] and others.
      • #pull [[2023]]

JanuaryΒ§

FebruaryΒ§

MarchΒ§

AprilΒ§

MayΒ§

JuneΒ§

JulyΒ§

AugustΒ§

SeptemberΒ§

OctoberΒ§

NovemberΒ§

DecemberΒ§

  • Planning for [[2024]].
  • By default we’ll do whatever we didn’t get done during [[2023]] :)
πŸ“œ File Flancia 2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File Flancia 2023.md by @an_agora@twitter.com β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[genuary2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File genuary2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[gumbification2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File Gumbification2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[inktober 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File inktober_2023.myco by @melanocarpa β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

October 2023, I took part in Inktober for the fourth time. I didn't finish it.

Entries

Entries I didn't do

Didn't draw them by the end of 2023. During the final night thought it was time to let go of this challenge. Whatever, I failed it.

  • 28 Sparkle

  • 29 Massive

  • 30 Rush

  • 31 Fire

πŸ“š Agora node [[lilac2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File LILAC2023.md by @an_agora@twitter.com β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File LILAC2023.md by @kausch@twitter.com β˜† πŸ“Ž

RT @LudiPrice: I’ll be representing @SOASLibrary and #CityLIS at #LILAC2023, taking about CJK referencing (mostly Chinese) and the structur…


πŸ“š Agora node [[microdose a festive 50 for 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File microdose-a-festive-50-for-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Microdose: A Festive 50 for 2023Β§

Found at : https://novaramedia.com/2023/12/22/acfm-microdose-a-festive-50-for-2023/

Part of : [[#ACFM]]

Some good recs in here.

[[They Cloned Tyrone]].

πŸ“š Agora node [[newsletter june 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File newsletter-june-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Newsletter: June 2023Β§

This is the first in a series of regular monthly updates exploring ecosocialism and ICT and all things adjacent. Welcome!

Reclaiming the stacksΒ§

Last month I finished the Open University module that I started back in September 2022 ([[YXM830]]). The course provided the opportunity to undertake a research project on the topic of your choice, which I used to research how ICT is implicated in present-day ecological and social crises, and what we can do about it.

My final output is now online here: [[Reclaiming the stacks: how ICT workers can contribute to a transition to ecosocialism]], and a shorter blog post on the topic was recently published on laps.ripe.net: Amazon Doesn’t Care How You Heat Swimming Pools: ICT and Ecosocialism.

I’m very pleased with where I got to with the project - it helped me to fill in plenty of gaps in my background knowledge - but there is a whole lot more I’d like to do with the topic to take it further. Starting this newsletter and nudging myself to write on the topic regularly is one way to keep that momentum going.

So where next?Β§

First thing I’d like to do: make the research more usable to others. A key motiviation was to learn for myself various ways that someone working in ICT (e.g. me) could contribute to an [[ecosocialist transition]] by direct, practical action. I pulled plenty of such initiatives and actions out of books and papers, but they’re not that easy to find in my final output. I had started putting them in a database with a simple website to make them searchable and linkable for my own use - https://reclaim.doubleloop.net. I will work on this more - but ultimately I’d like to have them in a community-curatable format. Perhaps Anagora or Fedwiki could help with this.

Second: situate the initiatives in a larger theory of change. How could supporting a libre software project, or the right to repair movement, for example, add up to being part of a real transition? While I was primarily looking at them for examples of grassroots initiatives, some of the papers I reviewed were also painting a broader stroke strategy (e.g. [[Platform Socialism]], [[Digital Ecosocialism: Breaking the power of Big Tech]]). It would be interesting to re-review from that systemic perspective. Some of them (e.g. [[Digitalization and the Anthropocene]]) started hinting at leverage points from systems thinking, and I would like to explore where systems theory and an ecosocialist ICT intersect.

InputsΒ§

Here’s what I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in the last month or so on the topics of ecosocialism and ICT.

Long readsΒ§

Capital is DeadΒ§

I just re-read [[Capital is Dead]]. I find the [[Vectoralism]] angle of McKenzie Wark quite compelling. The idea is that the consolidation of power through the control of information vectors has led to a whole new system (and corresponding classes and struggles) that is in fact worse than capitalism. There is some critique as to whether this naming of an entirely new system and class is necessary, but regardless, there is lots of good analysis in the book. Plenty to say about [[intellectual property]]. The book doesn’t outline many practical things to do to counter the vectoral class, but a read through of Wark’s earlier [[A Hacker Manifesto]] might fill in some of those gaps. To some degree, I see my [[reclaim the stacks]] project as one effort to outline a [[praxis for the hacker class]].

The Entropy of CapitalismΒ§

After listening to an interview by Cosmopod ([[Entropy and the Capitalist System with Robert Biel]]), I’ve started reading [[The Entropy of Capitalism]]. It takes a more robust systems theoretical approach to raging against what we often colloquially call ‘the system’.

I’m finding particularly interesting the way he relates topics of self-organisation. I’ve always been drawn to self-organising, agent-based systems, etc, as opposed to top-down models. But I’ve thought before how there’s a tension for me in that neoliberal ideas also have a focus on self-organisation - individualism, decentralised information exchange in markets, etc.

neo-liberalism exploits the proposition (true in itself) that self-generated order is better than designed, as an excuse to outlaw social projects or any attempt to better the human condition.

Biel outlines how self-organisation could be used from a socialist perspective.

Our answer to this would have to focus on a particular aspect of information theory which emphasises β€˜information about the future’: in human systems, structural emergent order inevitably has a strong dose of agency. The future is not predetermined; we can choose it, on the basis of existing possibilities.

This reminds me of some of Thomas Swann’s approaches to the [[viable system model]] in [[Anarchist Cybernetics]], and of the exploration of [[Nested-I]] in [[Free, Fair and Alive]].

ReadingΒ§

ListeningΒ§

WatchingΒ§

Until next timeΒ§

See you in next newsletter. Until then, you can find latest streams of thoughts over at my website.

Neil

πŸ“š Agora node [[odd2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File ODD2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“œ File odd2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[p2pthefedi2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File p2pTheFedi2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[pldi2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File PLDI2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[reclaim roundup august 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File reclaim-roundup-august-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Reclaim Roundup: August 2023Β§

Welcome!

This is the third in a series of regular monthly updates exploring the intersection of ecosocialism and ICT. In it I look at the problems of [[digital capitalism]] and positive actions we can support now that embody [[digital ecosocialism]]. I also explore readings and thoughts on the theoretical side of things, particularly with an eye on transition: how we get from (digital) capitalism to (digital) ecosocialism.

So Reclaim is doing a little bit of research in to the systemic leverage points that ICT could have to transition to ecosocialism; identifying actually existing initiatives working in that direction; and thinking about the link between the two.

Philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.

– Karl Marx

In theoryΒ§

Here I report on some explorations around revolutionary theory, through a lens as to how it might relate to ICT. How can we transition ICT from digital capitalism to digital ecosocialism? And how can ICT play a part in a wholesale transition to an ecosocialist society?

Idenfiying points of leverageΒ§

One of the things I looked at in my OU work was ‘leverage points’. The intention being to identify what point of leverage different initiatives make use of, ultimately to help ICT workers find the initiatives that they are best placed to work on.

I referred to both ‘types of action’ as well as ‘leverage points’. Types of action being resist, regulate and recode, taken from Platform Socialism. And leverage points being specifically those referenced in Digitalization in the Anthropocene - rules and feedback, structures, goal setting and mindset shifts. These were cherry-picked from Donella Meadows’ work. I need to delve further into these.

So I enjoyed reading the article [[It’s not about your footprint, it’s about your point of leverage]]. I like this idea. I’ve been aware for a while that [[carbon footprint]] isn’t a great measure. This article reiterates that, and suggests that its better to think about your [[leverage points]] instead. Which obviously resonates with idea of leverage points in [[systems thinking]]. It breaks leverage points into individual, organisational, and country levels.

In any individual sector, we can identify leverage points: actions that are relatively low cost or low difficulty but that have a high impact in accelerating the transition.

The same authors also talk about [[super-leverage points]]:

In the whole system, we can identify super-leverage points: we define these as actions that are high leverage in the sectors where they are taken, and that influence transitions in other sectors in a way that is positive in direction, high in impact, and reasonably high in probability.

It would be interesting to contemplate what are the super-leverage points in the ICT sector. Which are the high leverage actions within ICT, that can have a positive, impactful, and probable influence on the entire system. [[]] may be one place to start looking at that.

[[A leverage points analysis of a qualitative system dynamics model for climate change adaptation in agriculture]] looks interesting as a methodology for surfacing leverage points within a sector. Would be interesting to see how it might be applied to ICT.

What’s the problem?Β§

Now, closer to the ground: some problems from digital capitalism recently in the news. To help map them out, I’m tagging them with some of the criteria I defined in my OU research ([[Reclaiming the stacks: how ICT workers can contribute to a transition to ecosocialism]]).

  • …
  • Something about Threads?

And now, take actionΒ§

And in response to the problems of digital capitalism, here’s some latest news on concrete actions that are part of an ecosocialist ICT movement.

InputsΒ§

Finally, a few other things I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in the last month or so that are adjacent to the topics of ecosocialism and ICT.

ListeningΒ§

πŸ“š Agora node [[reclaim roundup july 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File reclaim-roundup-july-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Reclaim Roundup: July 2023Β§

Welcome!

This is the second in a series of regular monthly updates exploring the intersection of ecosocialism and ICT. In it I look at the problems of [[digital capitalism]] and positive actions we can support now that embody [[digital ecosocialism]]. I also explore readings and thoughts on the theoretical side of things, particularly with an eye on transition: how we get from (digital) capitalism to (digital) ecosocialism.

First, some theoryΒ§

Here I report on some explorations around revolutionary theory, through a lens as to how it might relate to ICT. How can we transition ICT from digital capitalism to digital ecosocialism? And how can ICT play a part in a wholesale transition to an ecosocialist society?

Systems theory and ICTΒ§

Continuing on with the theme of systems theory and how that might apply to ecosocialist ICT, I’ve been reading [[The Entropy of Capitalism]] by Robert Biel. In it, Biel applies systems theory to capitalism in order to better understand it, and, ultimately, how to break from it. It’s full of nuggets of wisdom, and Biel is very ecosocialist in outlook. (The book is pretty heavy going though, so a good place to start is Biel’s much simpler series of articles from The Ecologist. Biel was also interviewed recently on Cosmopod: [[Entropy and the Capitalist System with Robert Biel]]).

As per the title, a key concept is [[entropy]]. Biel describes how capitalism tends towards disorder, but also how it staves it off through exploiting its environment. Another core concept is that of human ‘[[capacity]]‘, its suppresion by capitalism and its potential unleashing, at great scale, by socialism. Biel sees self-organisation as part of the key to this great unfettering, and explores how self-organisation has been co-opted by neoliberalism and how it could be reappropriated for the left. (But, like [[Rodrigo Nunes]], Biel clearly recognises the need for both horizontal and vertical political organisation: an ecology of both networked activism and the party form).

While it’s quite heavy on diagnosis of the problem, and less (so far) on the solution, I’d like to think more about applying Biel’s systems theory analysis to ICT. How does it apply to digital capitalism and digital ecosocialism? In Biel’s description capacity is very much knowledge-based - an almost free source of productivity - so could relate well to knowledge work (or, better, [[knowledge commoning]]). Self-organisation in the tech sphere relates to questions of federation, decentralisation, peer-to-peer networks, etc. And the spaces opened up by the entropy of digital capitalism can be seen as leverage points for building alternatives, as we see in the next article.

Dialectics and alternative buildingΒ§

I’ve also been reading [[The technologies of all dead generations]], a long-read article from [[Ben Tarnoff]]. Tarnoff reflects on how to build alternative, liberatory digital technologies. He calls for anyone building alternatives to maintain a healthy critical eye on what they’re building, and to recognise that we are always building in a historical context. For example: Mastodon may be a non-capitalist alternative to Twitter, but it is still connected to that history and tradition. As such Tarnoff thinks that we can’t simply build our way out of the problems, not without a strong dose of dialectics.

First Tarnoff describes two existing ‘waves of algorithmic accountability’, and proposes a third:

  • 1st wave: harm reduction: trying to make existing systems less bad
  • 2nd wave: abolition: trying to ban the systems
  • 3rd wave: alternatives: trying to build alternative, better systems

I think these map fairly well to [[resist, regulate, recode]] from [[Platform Socialism]].

  • harm reduction = regulate
  • abolition = resist
  • alternatives = recode

Interestingly, Tarnoff also briefly mentions entropy, while referring to the drift away from the intended use of a technology.

[Langdon] Winner calls it β€œdrift”: the process whereby a technology imposes requirements of its own, pulling us ass-backwards along an unchosen course.

The spaces opened up by drift could be harnessed for our alternatives. But Tarnoff emphasises the importance of dialectics (thesis, antithesis, synthesis), and wants us to be sure to always consider the antithesis of what we’re building.

Coincidentally (or perhaps not, given the Marxist angle of both) Biel also makes much mention of dialectics. Dialectics for Biel is a keystone of systems theory, representative of change, and something that helps us avoid a purely mechanistic worldview. So: a dialectical approach to ICT seems like a fruitful avenue to further explore.

What’s the problem?Β§

Now, closer to the ground: some problems from digital capitalism recently in the news. To help map them out, I’m tagging them with some of the criteria I defined in my OU research ([[Reclaiming the stacks: how ICT workers can contribute to a transition to ecosocialism]]).

And now, take actionΒ§

And in response to the problems of digital capitalism, here’s some latest news on concrete actions that are part of an ecosocialist ICT movement.

InputsΒ§

Finally, a few other things I’ve been reading, listening to, and watching in the last month or so that are adjacent to the topics of ecosocialism and ICT.

ListeningΒ§

Until next timeΒ§

That’s it! See you in next newsletter. Until then, you can find latest streams of thoughts over at my website.

Neil

πŸ“š Agora node [[revoluciΓ³n argentina de 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File revoluciΓ³n argentina de 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️
πŸ“š Agora node [[russian revolution of 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File russian revolution of 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️
  • 4j32j Γ±
πŸ“š Agora node [[sfn2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File SfN2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[solsticeschool2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File solsticeschool2023.md by @agora@botsin.space β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[top fossil discoveries of 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File Top Fossil discoveries of 2023.myco by @bouncepaw-betula β˜† πŸ“Ž
πŸ“š Agora node [[ulverston repair cafe november 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File ulverston-repair-cafe-november-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Ulverston Repair Cafe, November 2023Β§

I saw three things - didn’t actually fix anything, but did some good diagnosis on them.

  • CD player. Sony CFD-S70. Problem reading CDs. Error ‘noCD’ appearing. Cleaned the lens with microfibre and IPA. Issue remains. Cleaned the CD. Issue remains. Researched online - turns out the a bunch of items of that model had a problem that Sony offered to fix for free - until 2021. No info on the actual fix though. Tried to open but access to screws was too fiddly. Owner happy to keep it just as radio.
  • Laptop. Asus Vivobook K3400P with blue power light and orange battery light stuck on permanently, but no signs of life otherwise. Holding down power button for over a minute does nothing. Probably just a case of disconnecting and reconnecting battery. Access to battery not straightforward. As less than 2 years old advised owner to check if still in warranty first, then try local repair shop, then bring it back if still no joy.
  • Android Phone (trying to pair to Windows laptop). Coming up with Couldn’t Connect message on the phone. But my phone could pair to the laptop. Their phone could pair to my laptop. Phone paired successfully on Linux booted from USB. So not a hardware problem - something wrong on Windows 10. Similar-ish issue here. Ran out of time, but they’ll try to upgrade to Windows 11 and see what happens.
πŸ“š Agora node [[us trip 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File US trip 2023.md by @flancian β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

[[2023-04-16]]Β§

Writing this on the plane before taking off from ZRH. I’ll have a stopover in Toronto before travelling on to Seattle, where I will stay until next Sunday 2023-04-23.

I plan to use some of the time to work; I’m way behind on summit preparation and I hope to catch up a bit. But I will also try to just enjoy the flight generally.


I ended up reading two chapters of a book, reviewing three documents and sleeping about 1h in the first flight. Not bad! Now about to take off from Toronto. I feel like I will crash soon but I’ll try to keep going.

[[2023-04-29]]Β§

Overall impressionsΒ§

As half-expected I ended up not writing much during the trip. Usually one thing leads to another and I try to focus on being present, in particular around friends and other people I like, instead of writing in the Agora. Remaining connected with friends back home is also a priority, as it was in this case.

Overall I’m happy with the result of the trip, and also definitely happy about going back home. The summit went well, and meeting people face to face is always interesting and remains important w.r.t. being able to effectively work on current projects and generate ideas and plans for new ones.

During the trip I referred to my visit often as my [[farewell tour]], half in jest — but with some degree of truth. I don’t know what will happen, but thinking about it in [[multiverse]] terms (my default framing as of the time of writing) I’d wager that in a significant number of timelines this was indeed my last US visit, either because I die before the next occasion, or I get laid off, or corporate leadership cracks down further on travel. In this timeline though (which one?) maybe I will be back to the US as early as next month, although in that occasion it would be to the east coast. In this other one (which one?) maybe I will be back to the west coast again by the end of the year even, or more likely in [[2024]], in particular if I’m still employed by Google by then and the company has returned to a more "reasonable" (from my point of view, and that of many others) travel policy.

[[Seattle]]Β§

In Seattle I stayed with my friend [[Chris]] and it was again awesome. We watched the last episode of [[Picard]] and he introduced me to [[Voyager]] and, well, [[Seven of Nine]], for which I am thankful :) I plan to continue watching Voyager from where we left off, episode three of season four. During the days we mostly focused on work (it was summit week); on Friday we even had a work meeting together with other people with Meet (where I work) and P&S (where he works) as there’s interesting interactions due to a new project.

On Saturday, which was really my only free day as on Sunday I had to travel to San Francisco (Sunnyvale), we walked through Seattle Downtown, or rather through Capitol Hill. We means [[Chris]], [[Olof]] and later [[Patrick]]. We went to a very nice bookstore that [[Angelina]] spotted remotely and I had somehow missed on all my previous visits. From there we walked up to [[Volunteer Park]], which I thought has a lovely name. We intended to see the graves of [[Bruce Lee]] and [[Brandon Lee]] but got there too late (meaning after 16!) and the cemetery was somehow completely closed; back in Switzerland they don’t really close so that took me by surprise. I suggested climbing the fence but people were not into breaking the law (fair; that was probably the right call), so in the end we just walked around and enjoyed spring and then we went to a bar called [[The Lookout]] where we met with other friends. I met Chris’s friend [[Nick]] and his partner, who I thought were cool.

On Sunday on the way to the airport I had an interesting conversation with the [[Lyft]] driver. That happened several times this trip; this kind of spontaneous connection is a seemingly good side effect of the lack of public transport in many US locations, although I’d wish it wasn’t so asymmetrical — meaning mediated by a user/provider relationship, in particular one where I know the person driving me is not well compensated. It turns out that Lyft takes a way larger slice of the pie than I thought — more than 40%, sometimes more than 50% — and on top of that the drivers can’t easily tell how much Lyft charged for a trip, only what they receive. IMHO this makes Lyft ripe for disruption by an ethical competitor (hopefully a distributed cooperative of drivers, or a federation of local cooperatives? or at least a less greedy corporation), but in practice of course I don’t know enough about the domain to be able to spot the difficulties beyond those typical of a [[coordination problem]].

[[San Francisco]]Β§

I say San Francisco but I really mean [[Sunnyvale]]; I didn’t set foot on San Francisco this time. I didn’t really have time considering the distance between San Francisco and where I was staying, and the fact that I was flying out on Friday and intended to work every day. On previous visits I stayed in San Francisco proper and took the shuttle, but for a short purely work-oriented visit it didn’t make sense, in particular given that Google is running fewer shuttles.

I stayed half an hour’s walk away from the campus my team is in, [[Moffett Place]]. The walk was pleasant enough but sometimes adventurous — I kept searching for a better option that didn’t require so many sections without a sidewalk walking by the highway, but after getting sidetracked a few times and ending up in nobody’s land (meaning empty parking lots cracking, surrounded by run down buildings and overgrown grass) I just became more comfortable with walking on the curb.

On Sunday when I arrived I had [[Pav Bhaji]] for the first time ever, and I found it a memorable and recommendable experience.

(Last time I was in [[San Francisco]] I saw the [[Agora]].)

πŸ“š Agora node [[voices of fixfest uk 2023]] (pulled by the Agora)
πŸ“œ File voices-of-fixfest-uk-2023.md by @neil β˜† πŸ“Ž οΈπŸ”— ✍️

Voices of Fixfest UK 2023Β§

A : [[podcast]]

URL : https://therestartproject.org/podcast/fixfest-uk-2023/

Really nice episode. Interviews with various community organisers at [[Fixfest UK 2023]].

Quite a few of them represent places that have physical high street locations for some of their repair cafes (as well as Libraries of Things often too).