@robin@mastodon.social
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robin

@robin@mastodon.social

Governance & Standards at @protocollabs — Former NYT, W3C TAG, science.ai — Privacy, Web, Science, Politics, Philosophy. (he/him/Ishmael)

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ben, to random
@ben@werd.social avatar

The newsroom I work for just won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service journalism. Neat! https://werd.io/2024/my-employer-won-a-pulitzer

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@ben Congrats Ben, this is super deserved.

JustinH, to fediverse
@JustinH@twit.social avatar

"We Need To Rewild The Internet"
An absolutely excellent read (and great analogy) by @mariafarrell and @robin Probably the best piece I've read all year.

I often struggle to think of a term for "appearing messy from a distance is often, on a human scale, healthy actually." Comparing the social web to an ecosystem is exactly it.

https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

@fediverse

robin,
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@JustinH @mariafarrell @fediverse Thank you! Yes — "this chaotic-seeming thing is good, actually" is a tough message :)

fabrice, to random
@fabrice@fosstodon.org avatar

Interesting search engine project with customizable ranking and API access: https://github.com/StractOrg/stract / cc @robin

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice I think that Mark is doing something like that (really).

That said, I'm not sure you need the Fuse indirection: Tantivy has a pluggable directory abstraction that could go straight to WNFS.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice I really like that it's built around results customisability. I think that's a killer feature, assuming the indexing isn't the issue here.

I wonder if it can store its index on IPFS :)

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@fabrice Yeah: "A tantivy index is a collection of smaller independent immutable segments." This is promising, but the file names don't seem to be content addressable (though I'm not sure, maybe they can be!).

robin,
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@fabrice Hahaha, keep me posted, I'm really curious to hear if that could be a thing. It would make for a great IPFS Camp topic too. (Hint hint)

robin, to random
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The "IPFS on the Web" track which @dietrich brought together was awesome. I'm not going to detail all of it, watch it at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuhRWgmPaHtQ-TO65P62tqfUM85HCIqSj.

Feat.: convergence on new primitives that make the web better, great JS things, decent publishing…

robin, to random
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This joke is from 1974 (in Computer Lib). It only took 50 years to build.

luis_in_brief, to random
@luis_in_brief@social.coop avatar

I have seen a lot of fun+hopeful theorizing about indie/small web stuff lately, but what's the best writing on a plausible theory of how we get from 👇🏽 (Google black hole of content) to ... something more human(e). I admit I don't see what the virtuous spiral is that counteracts this ☹️
https://mastodon.social/@caseynewton/112521585565531048

robin,
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@luis_in_brief @molly0xfff @aral @mariafarrell The web is huge (or, at least, a healthy web is huge) and therefore we shouldn't expect a silver bullet solution that just works across the board in an instant. A core component of my plan is https://darobin.github.io/wise/ but it's still very much in development and that document doesn't have all of the moving parts yet.

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

If you haven't read it yet, this weekend would be a great time to find out why this article from @mariafarrell and I in Noema Magazine made it to The Syllabus's "Best of Journalism" this week! (See https://www.the-syllabus.com/cabinet/syllabus/3KabNgk-0K?__s=xxxxxxx&__s=xxxxxxx)

It's here: https://www.noemamag.com/we-need-to-rewild-the-internet/

robin,
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@fabrice @mariafarrell Glad you read it :)

I don't think that the solutions are purely state-based, though it would take more space to add details to that.

Enabling industrial policy would certainly help. I think we have the means to make that happen, but it requires some creative thinking to make it effective.

robin, to random
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We've been having many conversations about what to build as the digital sphere burns. Decentralisation sounds good, but what does that really require of us?

https://berjon.com/decent-imaginaries/

ntnsndr, to random
@ntnsndr@social.coop avatar

If you wanted to build a database/website on Notion but then instead wanted to do it in a portable, FLOSS-y way, how would you do it?

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@ntnsndr Accessible by others, but you're the one editing? I haven't tried it, but there's a hosted service that goes with Obsidian.

ntnsndr, to random
@ntnsndr@social.coop avatar

What is your search engine for scholarly publications?

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@ntnsndr I would love that to exist. When I worked in scholarly publishing ~10y ago, there was no such thing and I suspect that's still the case. But with the ongoing upheaval in search, I can see a path for such a thing to emerge.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@ntnsndr Is there one that's not terrible?

robin, to random
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Is there a feed reader (or similar thing) that you find particularly well made, pleasant, or that has interesting or powerful UI ideas?

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

Are you thinking about digital infrastructure?
Do you have plans this weekend?

There's still time to apply for a Digital Infrastructure Insights Funds grant and put the fun in funded!
https://mailchi.mp/544bc327c6fe/diif-countdown-2024-rfp-deadline-june-2nd

ntnsndr, to random
@ntnsndr@social.coop avatar

Is the Apple backlash finally coming? Time fop The Year of the Linux Smartphone?

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@ntnsndr Don't jinx it, man!

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

You wanted to read Rewilding but prefer it in Portuguese?

Right there for you! https://outraspalavras.net/tecnologiaemdisputa/internet-a-alternativa-refloresta/

mauve, to random
@mauve@mastodon.mauve.moe avatar

I am a living parser generator. :P

robin,
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@fabrice @mauve Ha, that would be hilarious.

robin,
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@mauve I even miss XSLT :)

robin, to random
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As closing arguments of the Google Search trial proceed, there are two things I would like to flag.

First, the way in which search works on the web is stuck in the 90s. We need not stay there and can imagine alternatives (that aren't crappy AI): https://berjon.com/fixing-search/.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@jszym Glad you enjoyed it and it's of course perfectly fine to disagree, my goal is to hopefully trigger some thinking!

Note that:

  1. Bing having an API has helped some alternatives emerge.
  2. It's impossible for anyone to make any kind of dent so long as Google is allowed to just buy the market. Everything in that post assumes that that has to change first (by legal intervention most likely).
  3. APIs are useful as part of a bigger solution, notably that there is no other browser default.
robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

@jszym 4) I don't think the APIs would disappear if that's the primary way in which a search engine can make money. Keep in mind that browser defaults matter a lot.
5) The new UX that APIs enable (and that browsers are largely not allowed to do under the current system) could IMHO be a game changer, and can't happen without them. It would be worth prototyping to show it.

robin,
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

And second, the default slot and royalties deals have a dreadful effect on competition, the web, and society, but some of the money levied that way is deployed usefully and we should preserve that.

We can do so by formalizing how that levy works (WIP): https://darobin.github.io/wise/.

robin, to random
@robin@mastodon.social avatar

Check out the updated tracks list for IPFS Camp! So much good stuff coming to Brussels this summer…
https://blog.ipfs.tech/ipfs-camp-2024-track-list/

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