McFilter

Interesting Things on the Internet: September 17th 2018

• The future of OSS. I don't agree with all of this, but it's good to be having more discussions and thoughts about how we fund open source software. Especially given that it underpins so much of all the software systems we use, even the ones that we pay for.
• "This is my bag of tricks — loose notes, design patterns, rules-of-thumb, methods of enquiry, tools, cheatsheets, gimmicks, leverage points, descriptions of systems, key questions, risks, and unknowns.". Some gold in that bag of tricks.
• Why Love Generative Art? Nice overview of generative/computational art.
• What do the people do? Excellent primer on making interactive art, from Tom Igoe.
• The Untold Story of NotPetya, the Most Devastating Cyberattack in History. Read this and then tell me it's a good idea to move to a fully cmoputerised, cashless society. More diversity in computer systems, more decentralisation and redundancy in infrastructure, less chasing hyper-lean-efficiency-to-wring-ever-last-penny-of-profit and crossing our fingers. Please.
• Decisions on behalf of others: different institutional and disciplinary interpretations of risk. Really liked the framing of how we might approach working as experts, and the musings on whether sensor data and the like could replace rules and regulations in ensuring that the things we build are (and remain) fit for purpose. Feels like we'd still need experts in those scenarios, although their job would involve more explaining and discussing the scenario and risks with the public rather than dictating to. Which is a good thing, to my mind. Also liked the concept of "the skills to deal not just with complex structures in simple contexts but with simple structures in complex contexts."
• Obama’s Lost Army. Politics is changing, but the usual suspects don't want to cede any of their control and power, and so lose all of their control and power.

And I've enthused about this to a bunch of people now, so I should definitely share it here...

Eyeo 2018 - Nathaniel Raymond from Eyeo Festival on Vimeo.

Ignore the Innovators

How do we encourage engineers to get better at talking about their work, and to talk about it more often? How do we improve the public's ability to spot the difference between the blaggers and those who have a clue?

It's something that exercises me far more than it probably should. I think it comes from a general belief that all of us should take an active role in our society, that we should engage with the dark matter of policy and politics, and generally try to help others understand what we know so that we can all make progress.

Mostly I need to get better at ignoring it and focusing on my own work, and talking about my own work. Ignore the innovation theatre, the performative industry that exists to soak up all of the money we're investing as a country into things that purport to make life better but mostly just chase buzzwords and spend their time talking themselves up.

This article, Delusions of Grandeur, sums it up nicely.

At some point I'll make the time to write up the dataset analysis example that I developed as part of Ross Dalziel's course on data tools for artists. It analyzed some work that looks from a distance like the organisations involved are fulfilling their remit and moving the UK forward, but if you look any closer, soon dissolves into pointless busywork. Not that those organsiations are special, I'm sure you could build similar critiques of the Catapult centres or Innovate UK or...

I think the problem is that they're all tasked with the wrong thing: the pursuit of "innovation". It's ridiculously difficult to separate what might be truly innovative with what is just a crazy idea, even for the experts. And these organisations rarely attract the experts, because they're generally busy exploring the edges of their field, rather than casting around for quango jobs where they can't win.

Judging projects solely by whether or not they appear innovative favours things that are full of buzzwords and which promise easy wins. Scientists show how this one neat trick will save the world...

Where's the catapult centre for finding who's already solved the problem and doing the hard work to adopt it? We could make a good start by ignoring anyone and everyone who uses the word "innovation".

Interesting Things on the Internet: September 3rd 2018

• Mud and Antler Bone. An Interview with Martin Shaw. "During a day, where do you put your time and energy? And who is the deity that stands behind your time and energy? In whose temple do you serve?[...]If you’re over the age of twelve and under the age of ninety and you’re not in some kind of trouble, what the hell are you doing?"
• The IT Not the IOT (Internet Thing not Internet OF Things. I'd argue that the IoT is part of the Internet Thing, but yes, this is good. We need more of society to understand the world we live in now, and that world has the Internet in it. As the old saying goes, we want people who are of the Internet, not on the Internet, never mind those who think that they aren't even on the Internet...
• A group is its own worst enemy.
• Seniority, anxiety and dealing with confidence issues We need to get better at training people up as managers. Pieces like this help.