@erlend@writing.exchange
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

erlend

@erlend@writing.exchange

Bullish on kindness.
Founder of Spicy Lobster studios and Commune.
https://blog.erlend.sh/assembling-community-os

Formerly VP of Community / Product Manager at Discourse.

#opensource #fediverse #gamedev #fedi22 searchable

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

erlend, to random
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

From @pluralistic in https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/08/permanent-overlords/

The authors [of the paper "Coopting Disruption: Has Big Tech disrupted disruption itself?”] propose a four-step program for the would-be Tech Baron hoping to defend their turf from disruption.

1️⃣ First, gather information about startups that might develop disruptive technologies and steer them away from competing with you, by investing in them or partnering with them.

raffomania, to random
@raffomania@mstdn.io avatar

How it's going with linkblocks so far. There are bookmarks, notes and lists.
But not for long. I'm going to revamp the db schema and UI completely now :blobbongocat:

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@raffomania still deciding on a license?

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@raffomania MPL maybe?

erlend, to internet
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopolies_of_knowledge

Monopolies of knowledge arise when the ruling class maintains political power through control of key communications technologies.

[Such monopolies] gradually suppress new ways of thinking. Entrenched hierarchies become increasingly rigid and out of touch with social realities.

Challenges to elite power are often likely to arise on the margins of society. The arts, for example, are often seen as a means of escape from the sterility of conformist thought.

erlend, to Matrix
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

https://blog.commune.sh/chat-is-minimum-viable-anything/

Two or more people together in a group chat room; that's a minimum-viable community.

A few drivers together in a group chat; that's a minimum-viable ride-sharing platform.

One person together with an LLM in a chat interface; that's a minimum-viable AI assistant.

Lots of ventures started as nothing more than a group chat. It’s how you throw kindling on the initial spark of an idea: a test of resonance ❤️‍🔥

eatallyourdarlings, to random

@erlend hey I really love your blog Open Indie — is there a way to view an index of all your articles?

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@eatallyourdarlings good question! I am as surprised as you are to learn that there’s an archive index of all my posts available at https://blog.erlend.sh/archive/

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@eatallyourdarlings any suggestion for a fix? I’m a css noob so I just used a stock dark-theme hack for @write_as

erlend, to rust
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

Yet another stellar release by Rauthy OIDC:

https://github.com/sebadob/rauthy/releases/tag/v0.20.0

Encrypted backups automation · bot & spam protection with spow · separate users cache.

I'm building a new kind of app on top of the Rauthy identity layer together with a former colleague from Discourse: https://writing.exchange/@erlend/110015148048407614

erlend, to aitools
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@creativecommons we are in dire need of a non-commercial content license made with the in mind.

The CC org could spark a lot of generative dialog by simply drafting such a license in the open, long before calling it Done.

I don’t know how to put this in generalized legal language, but I know what I oppose.

I do NOT consent to my content being used in:

  • for-profit
  • for-profit LLM/SMM training
  • for-profit profiling

My content belongs to the NC-SA

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@creativecommons this kind of thing is good for a laugh:

https://ihateailicense.eu

..but we can and must do better.

dale, to firefox
@dale@toot.cafe avatar

Seeing lots of discussion around Firefox marketshare, would be interested to hear what features / functionality people thought Firefox could implement that would make a big impact?

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@dale identity.

Same as Mozilla partnered with Mullvad for VPN, they could partner with the likes of Ory or Zitadel for ‘Firefox Login’, based on regular OAuth/OIDC rather than the custom stuff that’s been going on.

Let me add a more open and user-respecting alternative to the Google/Facebook/GitHub socials login of my app, and give me a reason to advocate for ‘Firefox Login’ to be added to my favorite services.

From there you can work towards a wallet baked into the browser.

parismarx, to random
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

I want to believe @anildash, but I don’t see the nostalgic comparison between now and the early web.

Things are may be getting a little weirder, but the web is far more commercialized than it was then. Power shifts don’t mean redistribution, but new monopolists displacing the old.

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-commentary/internet-future-about-to-get-weird-1234938403/

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@anildash @parismarx the dragon is still flying around torching villages, but some of its protective scales have fallen off. Though the sky is still on fire, there’s never gonna be a better (or other) time to take our shot in hopes of reclaiming our power and agency.

anildash, to random
@anildash@me.dm avatar

https://www.anildash.com/2024/01/03/human-web-renaissance/

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@anildash “More and more, I think of it as "the people's web". And like so many things that come from, and by, the power of the people, it's a movement that can be delayed, or undermined, but increasingly I have come to believe that it cannot possibly be truly stopped.”

Hear hear! 🙌

https://blog.erlend.sh/web-of-the-people

kik, (edited ) to fediverse
@kik@techhub.social avatar

So, how is implementation in going? Steadily, if a bit slowly!

In the last four months, we've been working on implementing the first ActivityPub actor, the one allowing to subscribe to projects releases. The ActivityPub part is already written, but there will still be a couple month before it's fully merged. Turns out that the most time consuming part is code review : there is no dedicated team to this (but there is a dedicated developer assisting me, thanks Patrick!), so people reviewing code discover ActivityPub at the time they have to review it (and, by the way, it's incredible how they get out of their way to help a contributor on such a complex subject, they rock). For that reason, we have to make smaller than usual merge requests, splitting the feature as much as possible, and then some again, to make it as easy to understand as possible. And even then it usually takes about a month to get one chunk merged. (more in thread)

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@kik you can specifically advertise this sort of thing with #-getfedihired

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@kik yeah, it’s very hard to reach baseline sustainability. Usually only feasible for really high profile projects/people with a lot of visibility in their respective ecosystem.

Still, worth a shot if you keep the setup simple. I recommend GitHub Sponsors in the spirit of pragmatism. Basically no fees and very powerful network effects that are even better than Patreon’s when targeting fellow developers.

erlend, to ai
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

Been a while since I did a CAPTCHA. It has truly gotten wild huh? This is a real one I just got on Discord before sending a DM to a new connection.

The prompt was “Please click on each picture of something you can eat” and it shows me AI generated pictures of mangled llamas 🦙 a pair of steaks 🥩 three excavators 🚧and a crow 🐦‍⬛

This is messed up on multiple levels. It’s asking me to make a normative assumption, not a logical deduction. Feels like my answer just helps a shitty get shittier.

anildash, to random
@anildash@me.dm avatar

The folks who said they endorse colonialism and who fund platforms where they target trans people and want to destroy accountability media finally admit that they have an explicit political agenda. Billionaires who love fascists are an existential threat to America. https://a16z.com/politics-and-the-future/

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@anildash
> Artificial Intelligence has the potential to uplift all of humanity to an unprecedented quality of living

If not now, when?

> Decentralized technologies from the blockchain/crypto/web3 ecosystem will create a fairer, more inclusive economy

If not now, when?

I wonder how much longer we’re supposed to wait until these technologies that currently serve only to enrich the mega-wealthy somehow trickle down to the general public.

Also, since when was a16z not ‘Big Tech’? Ridiculous.

parismarx, to tech
@parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

I signed an open letter demanding answers from Substack leadership on why they’re platforming and monetizing Nazis, white nationalists, and other far-right figures.

This isn’t free speech. It’s hate speech.

https://www.disconnect.blog/p/substackers-against-nazis

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@ryansingel @parismarx agreed!

There’s never been a better time to move to Ghost, especially now that they even support open web recommendations, bringing back the good ol’ webrings vibes:

https://ghost.org/changelog/recommendations/

I’m already a Patron of Tech Won’t Save us and would gladly support Disconnect as well if it was on a network that aligned with my values. (Not that Patreon is a perfect fit either, but we gotta tackle one platform at a time..)

eloquence, to threads
@eloquence@social.coop avatar

Earlier this year, landed on a "limiting" policy for after a democratic vote: you can follow accounts, but their posts won't make it into other people's feeds who don't follow them.

That works for me so I can follow e.g. NGOs that only maintain a presence on Threads (and sooner or later bug them to get their own instance ;-). I understand why other servers may prefer to suspend, or even why some may prefer to do nothing.

Glad fedi gives us a full range of choices.

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@eloquence this seems like a very sane default, and I’m convinced most fedizens do not know that this is even an option.

The debate is stuck in a false “block or not” dichotomy.

erlend, to beeper
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

https://blog.beeper.com/p/beeper-mini-is-back

Kudos to for their competitive compatibility hijinks as of late.

No doubt they’re intentionally building a case for regulators. They’ve forced Apple’s hand, effectively showing that cross-platform comms is a matter of willingness, not technical limitation.

Seeing as Apple’s company policy is provably anti-competitive, we the users rely on state-mandated policies to overrule them in favor of adversarial interop.

cc @pluralistic

erlend, (edited ) to opensource
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

https://blog.erlend.sh/big-ai-commons

"They’ve already laid claim to our collective land, labor and attention. With AI, they want to own our thoughts and the last shred of agency that comes with them. If we fail to defend our personal sovereignty at this juncture, a dark age of the corporate singularity awaits us."

"To land a real blow, look for where the machines are at their most materialized. Take aim at their massive bodies of data and strike there with conviction."

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

Intro piece:

What comes out of Big Corp’s ASS

When you hook up your mind to a cloud-controlled Artificial Synthesizer (ASS), you plainly receive their fully digested discharge.

You don’t get to see what happened further up in the synthetic digestive tract of the ASS, where copious amounts of data grub were initially ingested and processed by a divine black-box entity.

1/2

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

You don’t have any insight into where and who those morsels of data came from, and you certainly don’t get any say in which of them the entity should or should not consume for processing and output, delivered to you through the ASS-as-a-Service.

All you’re supposed to do is open your mind’s mouth wide and say “please” and “thank you” for the grossly diluted information bits you’re about to receive.

2/2

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@khleedril that question can take us to a lot of places, but simply put I think what we need to concern ourselves with keeping track of the links between thoughts more so than the provenance of any specific thought.

Thoughts are brought into being through an elaborate chain of This Then That. The provenance of thought-connections is what I’m interested in, not so much who said what when.

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@sabbatical fine on my end. Perhaps you’re somehow not getting the edited version od the post with an updated link? I changed the URL shortly after posting:

https://blog.erlend.sh/big-ai-commons

erlend, (edited ) to fediverse
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

Communal Bonfires; creating space for group-scale discourse on top of @matrix

https://blog.erlend.sh/communal-bonfires

Today we're pre-releasing Commune, our first foundational step towards a community platform built specifically for alignment with digital gardens.

Cyber-ecological messaging anyone?!

It's an evolving piece of software serving as the primary bonfire component of the overarching Community OS concept.

https://github.com/commune-os/commune-server

erlend,
@erlend@writing.exchange avatar

@samuel ah, what gave you the impression that it’s being built on AP? We will get into some AP integrations further down the line, but it’s in no way a backbone of the app the way Matrix is.

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