#mozilla festival

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'll be in Stratford, Ontario, appearing onstage with Vass Bednar as part of the CBC IDEAS Festival. I'm also doing an afternoon session for middle-schoolers at the Stratford Public Library.

#15yrsago The Manuscript: a technothriller written by someone who understands technology https://memex.craphound.com/2008/11/14/the-manuscript-a-technothriller-written-by-someone-who-understands-technology/

#10yrsago UK Conservative party tries to send all official speeches down the memory hole https://www.computerweekly.com/blog/Public-Sector-IT/Conservatives-erase-Internet-history

#10yrsago TSA blows a billion bucks on unscientific “behavioral detection” program, reinvents phrenology https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/11/despite-lack-of-science-tsa-spent-millions-on-behavioral-detection-officers/

#10yrsago Renault ships a brickable car with battery DRM that you’re not allowed to own https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/drm-cars-will-drive-consumers-crazy

#10yrsago Punk Freedom of Information Access ninja learns how to beat FBI obfuscation, so they shut him out https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/11/foia-ryan-shapiro-fbi-files-lawsuit/

#10yrsago Massive 1978 Las Vegas fallout shelter https://www.cultofweird.com/architecture/underground-home-las-vegas/

#10yrsago TPP’s worst evil: making all future copyright reform impossible https://www.techdirt.com/2013/11/14/most-nefarious-part-tpp-proposal-making-copyright-reform-impossible/

#10yrsago Rob Ford: $170K/year, 11-3 working day https://www.joeydevilla.com/2013/11/14/one-thing-to-remember-during-this-whole-toronto-mayoral-kerfuffle/

#10yrsago Rob Ford articulates official mayoral cunnilingus policy https://www.joeydevilla.com/2013/11/14/rob-ford-will-ahem-go-down-in-history-with-this-quote/

#10yrsago Toronto council turns their back to Rob Ford every time he speaks https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/the-acting-attorney-general-helped-an-alleged-scam-company-hawk-bizarre-products/

#5yrsago Trump’s Acting Attorney General was an active participant in a scam company that marketed “masculine toilets” https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/11/the-acting-attorney-general-helped-an-alleged-scam-company-hawk-bizarre-products/

#5yrsago The Florida of ballot-design mistakes is… https://freedom-to-tinker.com/2018/11/14/florida-is-the-florida-of-ballot-design-mistakes/

#5yrsago “Privacy Not Included”: Mozilla’s guide to insecure, surveillant gadgets to avoid https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/

#5yrsago Alex Jones blames “leftist stay-behind networks in US intelligence agencies” for malware on his site https://www.zdnet.com/article/card-skimming-malware-removed-from-infowars-online-store/

#5yrsago Coalition of small cable operators calls for antitrust investigation into Comcast (Trump agrees) https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/12/18088846/comcast-nbcuniversal-american-cable-doj-antitrust-investigation-letter-trump-tweet

#5yrsago Nigerian telco says it accidentally routed Google traffic through China https://www.reuters.com/article/us-alphabet-disruption/nigerian-firm-takes-blame-for-routing-google-traffic-through-china-idUSKCN1NI2D9

#5yrsago 70 of the world’s leading human rights groups ask Mark Zuckerberg to create due process for censored content https://santaclaraprinciples.org/open-letter/

#5yrsago Apple’s world-beating financial engineering is teaching the corporate world how to exploit Trump’s tax cuts https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/apples-capital-return-program-where-are-the-patient-capitalists

#5yrsago Researchers keep finding Spectre-style bugs in processors https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/11/spectre-meltdown-researchers-unveil-7-more-speculative-execution-attacks/

#1yrago Even if you're paying for the product, you're still the product https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

[karina01]

Mirabelle Jones

Mirabelle Jones (they / them) is a queer, non-binary creative technologist, educator, researcher, and transdisciplinary artist focused on the development of interactive and immersive storytelling technologies, educational activism, and ethical AI practices through a lens of intersectional data feminism. In their practice, they design and develop immersive art installations, biofeedback wearables, educational toolkits, mixed reality sculptures, endurance performances, artist’s books, and AI and machine learning-based artworks. They are a PhD candidate at The University of Copenhagen in the Department of Computer Science within the Human-Centered Computing section exploring ethics and AI through creative critical technical practice. They are an affiliate of metaLAB Harvard. They are the founder and curator of AI Performance Space, an online gallery for performance artists around the world working with artificial intelligence. They are a member of Women in Hardware and The Building Trustworthy AI Working Group of Mozilla Festival.

Jones possesses an MFA in Book Art and Creative Writing from Mills College and a BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz which informs their narrative-centered creative process. They have taught graduate-level interactive art courses at HackadayU and Codame Art & Tech as well as workshops for metaLAB Harvard, Radiona, Catch: Center for Art, Design, and Technology, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, and Artsformation among others. Previously, they served as a Senior Designer / Developer of Interactive Technology for the award-winning immersive arts collective Meow Wolf. They are the founder of Art Against Assault, a grassroots initiative encouraging the development of creative works which promote advocacy and raise funds for sexual assault and domestic violence survivor resources. Jones’s works have most recently been featured at Harvard Art Museum, Catch: Center for Art Design and Technology, ATA Gallery, Museum Meermanno, the Center for Performance Research, and the Finnish National Opera and Ballet’s Opera Beyond competition. Their works appear in several collections including the One National Gay & Lesbian Archives and the Center on Contemporary Art’s historic Hear Our Voice (the Women’s March on Washington) collection as well as the special collections libraries of the School of the Art Institute Chicago, Syracuse University, University of California Berkeley, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mills College, and the University of Northern Texas.

Their performances and visual works have been heralded by the Huffington Post, ArtNet, Ms. Magazine, Techtopia, Ingeniøren, Bustle, ATTN, Refinery29, Mic, Sleek Magazine, Feminist Magazine, Deutsche Welle, Google News, and elsewhere. They have received awards and recognition from the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, Nordic Summer University, the Pollination Project, the Amplifier Foundation, the KALA Arts Institute Fellowship and the College Book Arts Association. They have been a guest speaker and presenter at arts institutions around the world including MIT, Aalborg University, the University of Gothenburg, School of the Art Institute in Chicago, Rhode Island School of Design, and Maryland Institute College of the Arts. They are a former Artist-in-Residence of Catch: Center for Art, Design, and Technology, Women’s Studio Workshop, KALA Art Institute, Codame Labs, University of Illinois (Unit One), Hive Gallery, and Arts Everywhere at UNC as well as a former Recurser.

MEOW WOLF SENTIENT SLIME

"Working with lead artist Oliver Polzin, I created a design for the interactive lighting of a group of sculptures throughout Meow Wolf Denver known as Sentient Slime. Using a combination of pressure sensors and RFID interactivity, we were able to incorporate visitor interactions with the slime to see if they were friends or enemies of the slime. Each visitor would receive different lighting and sound interactivity depending on their relationship and a digital storytelling layer provided a riddle for visitors to solve as they interacted with slimes throughout the exhibit."

MEOW WOLF FROG EGG GARDEN

"I had the pleasure of collaborating with Emmanuelle John on the lighting and sound interactivity for floor two of the Cosmohedron, the Frog Egg Garden, of Meow Wolf Denver. This gorgeous space is covered floor to ceiling in textures with embedded lighting giving an impression that is one part amphibious and one part extra terrestrial. Being huge fans of accessibility and spaces for people to rest, we included illuminated and cushioned benches next to large dome windows that look out over the enormous illuminated forest Numia by Caity Kennedy. Emmanuelle and I loved the idea of having small hand-sized sculptures that could work as powerful controllers for sound and lighting not only in the interior of the room but throughout Numia. In the end, we came up with six designs for sculptures, some of which started with Emmanuelle modeling them in clay then I transformed them into 3D sculptures using a combination of scanning and modeling from scratch. These models were then printed in a semi-translucent SLA reminiscent of glass using a Formlabs2. We created casings for these sculptures to hold side emitting LEDs and capacitive touch plates. We embedded the sculptures in the benches with the result that when people placed their hands on the sculptures they could control shifts in the lighting and sound as well as “shoot” light out throughout the forest. When all six of the sculptures were activated, a special environment was activated in the room and outside as well. We also created a wheelchair-height 3D printed ear sculpture with an embedded microphone that would pick up sounds in the room and mix them into the sound throughout the room and throughout Numia."

"Artificial Intimacy is a project that considers what happens when you produce non-normative chatbots based on diverse identities. This interactive installation has three parts: a video installation, two graphic wall hangings, and an interactive chatbot sculpture. The video installation consists of two video screens that depict Leslie Foster: a queer black bisexual artist whose works concern race, indigenous concepts, gender and identity, and Gorjeoux Moon: a trans non-binary femme poet whose works concern trauma, addiction, sex, and gender, conversing with chatbot versions of themselves. The chatbots were consensually trained on a dataset based on Foster and Moon’s social media profiles. The second part of the installation, the wall hangings, are made of a semi-translucent mesh in a gradient of mauve and gold. They depict silhouettes of Foster and Moon alongside quotes from the video. The third part of the installation is a 3D-printed interactive chatbot sculpture that allows you to talk to either Foster or Moon’s chatbot in a conversation of your choosing."

"The three parts of the installation combine to help the viewer explore: what happens when LGBTQAI and BIPOC individuals become the basis for chatbots? What non-normative values do the chatbots represent and how are these incorporated? The project interrogates gendered and racialized alternatives to normative voice assistant programs through two individuals while asking: what values are incorporated into voice assistant programs and how do these values manifest? It also considers: can we create digital copies of ourselves based on our data alone? As well as exploring subsequent questions such as: how much data is necessary and of what type to make a realistic replica? Do we prefer these kinds of models to normative chatbot systems? If the data is of us, but not us, what exactly separates us from our data?"

[algorithmsoflatecapitalism]

Presenting the fifth issue of the Algorithms of Late-Capitalism zine: "Shifting the Power” 🤖 Digital Edition 🤖 Self-printing Edition ——————————————

In this era of increased reliance on algorithmic systems that we can’t see and don’t control, how do we shift the power back to the citizen? By knowing where, how, and to which effects algorithmic systems influence our lives – we can start finding ways to reconfigure our relationships with the systems pervading our digitizing public sphere. By interrogating and critically examining the underpinnings of these systems, from our unique perspectives, we can shift the power from the pervading technocracies back to the citizens.

—————————————— This zine was created by internet teapot (Karla Zavala and Adriaan Odendaal) and participants of the workshop: “Algorithms of Late-Capitalism: Zine Co-creation Workshop” that took place at the Mozilla Festival on 17 March 2021 * You can sign up for our upcoming board game co-design workshop here *

[geekandsundry]

http://geekandsundry.com/uks-hacklab-ensures-the-future-of-tabletop-games-and-coding/

With International Tabletop Day around the corner, we’re counting down the days to the big celebration by highlighting friendly local gaming stores, their owners, and their awesome stories. Be sure to find an ITTD event near you so you can enjoy the festivities in your community. All...

[robpegoraro]

Weekly output: gadget customer satisfaction, Google Pay fact-checking rewards, right to repair, Mozilla browser-choice report, AI image generators

Weekly output: gadget customer satisfaction, Google Pay fact-checking rewards, right to repair, Mozilla browser-choice report, AI image generators

Through two years of building back my business-travel schedule, one frequent destination from the Before Times had remained off my calendar until this week: New York. My overdue reunion with NYC allowed an equally belated inspection of Penn Station’s Moynihan Train Hall (one thing I didn’t expect was how great it would be to see the sky through that glass ceiling as I ascended the escalator from…

[roaringup]

A long (quasi-) (very silly) poem made of elements from the Stardew valley release 1.4.x version history, selected and compiled in an order, meter, and spacing arrangement I found pleasing, laboriously copied and composed in both the tumblr text editor (via Mozilla Firefox) and gedit

Removed invisible trees from festivals. Vincent now loves snails. Fixed various issues related to naming horses. Fixed Penny washing dishes too far from the sink. Fixed a rare crash when attacking "slimes in love".

Fixed problem harvesting crops with the golden scythe.

Fixed Demetrius plowing through bushes by the fountain in summer. Fixed various issues related to the frogs that sometimes spawn on rainy days. Fixed crash after eating a Maki Roll while playing in French.

Dressers can now be used to store clothing, hats, shoes, and rings. You can now play Elliott's piano. You can now put hats on your children (once they can walk). All events should now be skippable. You can now trash copper pans and slingshots.

Fixed traveling merchant sometimes having the same item for sale for two different prices.

Fixed Dwarf always responding negatively to items it feels neutral about.

Fixed falling leaves in the Secret Woods not showing their seasonal variants in fall. Fixed Leah's summer schedule causing her to walk into the water and get stuck there for the rest of the day.

Fixed issue where villagers could get stuck doing their daily schedules late into the night after a festival. Fixed campfire lighting misaligned. Fixed white borders sometimes drawn on pieces of debris/ dropped items.

Trains now drop more items. The quarry now spawns oak & maple trees. Cloth now drops more often from mummies. Dressers now cost more.

Fixed issue where you'd need to click twice to clear the dialogue that appeared after falling down a mineshaft.

Sweet Gem Berry can no longer be bought from the traveling cart (you can only buy the seeds).

Fixed rare crash or invisible grass caused by grass sizes becoming invalid.

Improved Elliott's cabin interior design a bit.

The Legend can now only be caught once.

The lighting in the Secret Woods now changes more consistently with the rest of the world as time

passes through the day.

Fixed TV weather forecast not always matching actual weather. Fixed giant crops growing in a noticeable pattern.

Fixed being able to use the dagger while bathing.You can now go to sleep while holding an item.You no longer take damage from monsters while passing out at 2am.

[documentarynews]

Watch a deepfake of Richard Nixon giving a eulogy for the Apollo 11 astronauts

Imagine a past in which the crew of Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 — but then ended up stranded there, leading President Nixon to give a speech memorializing the astronauts.

A new MIT film installation uses that premise to shed light on deepfake videos and how they’re used to spread misinformation. Deepfakes use artificial intelligence technologies to create or alter a video to make them untrue in some way.

MIT’s Center for Advanced Virtuality created a video of Richard Nixon giving a speech that was written for him — but that he didn’t have to deliver.

The video is the centerpiece of “In Event of Moon Disaster,” opening Tuesday, November 26, at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

The film installation is supported by the Mozilla Foundation and the MIT Open Documentary Lab.

Watch the deepfake at WBUR.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Today (Jun 1) at 2PM, I’m in London to give the annual UCL Comptuer Science Peter Kirstein Lecture.

On Saturday (Jun 3) at 1:30PM, I’m in Edinburgh for the Cymera Festival on a panel with Nina Allen and Ian McDonald.

Then it’s back to London, then Berlin!

#20yrsago Can Mozilla live without Netscape? https://www.salon.com/2003/06/02/unholy_alliance/

#20yrsago FCC loosens media concentration, screws America https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/02/business/fcc-votes-to-relax-rules-limiting-media-ownership-2003060292418873791.html

#20yrsago Kids spend six years recreating Raiders of the Lost Ark http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/15348

#15yrsago Canada’s DMCA: a guide to the likely talking points https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2008/06/unofficial-cdmca-backgrounder-2/

#15yrsago Canadian DMCA will take $500/download from your kids’ college fund https://web.archive.org/web/20080604015130/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2989/125/

#10yrsago Gezi protester kicking away teargas cannister https://occupygezipics.tumblr.com/post/51912890789/a-young-woman-kicks-back-the-tear-gas

#10yrsago How markets allow people to violate their moral codes https://web.archive.org/web/20130607154129/https://www.uni-bonn.de/Press-releases/markets-erode-moral-values

#5yrsago Youtubers with millions of followers are dropping out, citing stress and burnout from algorithm kremlinology https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/1/17413542/burnout-mental-health-awareness-youtube-elle-mills-el-rubius-bobby-burns-pewdiepie

#5yrsago Leaked document shows Trump officials planning to force Americans to spend $311m-$11.8b/year to keep unprofitable coal and nuclear energy plants from shutting https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-01/trump-orders-perry-to-stem-coal-nuclear-power-plant-closures-jhw8smiv?leadSource=uverify wall

#5yrsago Citing bad publicity and internal dissent, Google announces it won’t renew contract to supply AI for US military drones https://gizmodo.com/google-plans-not-to-renew-its-contract-for-project-mave-1826488620

#5yrsago Tax-funded charter schools textbooks deny evolution, teach human-dinosaur cohabitation, endorse slavery and indigenous genocide https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2018/06/01/private-schools-curriculum-downplays-slavery-says-humans-and-dinosaurs-lived-together/

#5yrsago Amid wage stagnation, corporate leaders declare the end of annual raises triggered by increased profitability https://www.axios.com/2018/05/27/broad-based-pay-rises-retraining-automation-executives

#5yrsago Former Tory chancellor takes over newspaper, sells “money-can’t buy” coverage to Uber, Google and others https://web.archive.org/web/20180715000000*/https://www.opendemocracy.net/uk/james-cusick/george-osborne-s-london-evening-standard-promises-positive-news-coverage-to-uber-goo

#5yrsago Stanford prof Niall Ferguson conspired with campus Republicans to do oppo research on students who opposed invited eugenicist speaker https://stanforddaily.com/2018/05/31/emails-between-ferguson-scr-reveal-opposition-research-against-ocon-prompt-fergusons-resignation-from-cardinal-conversations-leadership-role/

#5yrsago Southwest wouldn’t let mixed-race family fly until mom “proved” parenthood https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2018/05/29/she-attempted-to-fly-with-her-biracial-son-southwest-asked-for-proof-she-was-his-mother/

#1yrago House sales are cratering but inventory is soaring https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/02/residential-casino/#asset-or-shelter

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Edinburgh, London, and Berlin!

[algorithmsoflatecapitalism]

Presenting the seventh issue of the Algorithms of Late-Capitalism zine: “Bots, Ghosts and Other Workers” 🤖 Digital Edition 🤖 Self-printing Edition ——————————————

AI systems are made of human labour and have an impact on human labour conditions. This feedback cycle is present in almost all sectors to some degree. Yet, these systems are often designed and deployed in ways that keep this reality strategically concealed. For this issue, we invited workshop participants to unpack some of the social and technological dimensions of AI and highlight the hidden human costs of automation. Who pays the price for increased automation? What changes are taking place in power relations at work? Can we imagine ways to make labour more fair in the age of AI?

—————————————— This edition of Algorithms of Late-Capitalism was created by internet teapot (Karla Zavala and Adriaan Odendaal) and the participants of the workshop: Algorithms of Late-Capitalism Zine Co-creation Workshop that took place during the Mozilla Festival in March 2022.

[enlaces-finde]

Impartirá Secretaría de Cultura talleres gratuitos de arte y desarrollo cultural

En el marco del Festival de Arte Nuevo 2021 se realizarán cuatro talleres virtuales vía zoom

El Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, a travéuatro talleres sobre arte y desarrollo cultural, que serán impartidos de manera gratuita del 4 al 22 de octubre, como parte de las actividades del Festival de Arte Nuevo (FAN) 2021.

La jornada de capacitaciones comienza el próximo lunes 4 de octubre a las 16:00 horas con el curso “Administración enfocada a agentes culturales”, a cargo de Heber Joel Marín Cárdenas, experto en administración y contabilidad, donde se revisarán aspectos básicos de la administración aplicada a la construcción de proyectos culturales.

La liga de inscripción es en: https://bit.ly/2ZFpF9D.

El mismo día y a la misma hora, se impartirá el “Taller de marketing cultural”, una oportunidad para todas las personas interesadas en hacer uso de las nuevas tecnologías para promover el emprendimiento cultural. Estará a cargo del chihuahuense Elías Castro y la liga de inscripción es: https://bit.ly/2Y7705K.

La actividad continúa el 11 octubre también a las 16:00 horas con el taller “Creación colectiva de piezas para plataforma virtual web”, el cual convoca a artistas de diversas disciplinas a trabajar en la creación de una pieza colectiva pensada y desarrollada para entornos virtuales en web, como nodo creativo que permita repensar la virtualidad de los espacios de interacción y convivencia a partir de otras perspectivas.

Será impartido por Ary Eremberg, co-fundador y director artístico de Meduslab, coordinador del Laboratorio de Inmersión del Centro de Cultura Digital de la Secretaría de Cultura Federal, un espacio para la experimentación, investigación y reflexión crítica en torno a las tecnologías y contenidos inmersivos.

El expositor es además, director artístico del Festival Internacional Inmersiva y fundador del Buró de Investigaciones Multisensoriales. Estará acompañado por César García Campos, cuyas investigaciones están dirigidas hacia la práctica de sistemas alternativos de comunicación. Las personas interesadas pueden inscribirse en: https://bit.ly/39Xj8ZK.

En el caso de los tres talleres antes mencionados, luego de la inscripción se recibirá un correo electrónico de confirmación con información para unirse al seminario web.

Por último, del 18 al 22 de octubre se llevará a cabo el taller “Creación de entornos virtuales para web en Mozilla Hubscultural”, donde las y los participantes conocerán y se apropiarán de los conceptos y herramientas técnicas y conceptuales necesarias para el desarrollo de un proyecto en la plataforma Mozilla Hubs.

Estará a cargo de Josep Trejo, programador de gráficos 3D en tiempo real. Trejo es originario de Veracruz, también pertenece al Centro de Cultura Digital y cuenta con experiencia en el desarrollo de juegos para eventos como el Global Game Jam y el Pixel Challenge (Canadá). La liga para unirse a esta sesión de Zoom es https://bit.ly/3A1xbIl con el ID de reunión: 817 4326 5414, y el código de acceso: 760867.

Bajo el lema “Intersecciones”, su edición 2021 se llevará a cabo del 4 al 23 de octubre, principalmente a través de Instagram. Mayores informes en:

https://bit.ly/3uumEod.

La entrada Impartirá Secretaría de Cultura talleres gratuitos de arte y desarrollo cultural se publicó primero en .

[chaosnightmare]

also mozilla has publicly supported BLM, pride, trans rights, women's equality, women in STEM, black history month, and I remember distinctly them being the first company I've ever seen (before news sources!) speak out about the rise in anti-asian hate crimes since covid. like by "openly supported" I mean these topics have shown up as banners at the bottom of the screen every single time you open up firefox. you know for a fact that you're supporting a company that doesn't want you dead, is what I'm saying.

also they market firefox as fantastic for privacy (it is) in many ways but one of my favorites is their yearly list that grades all of the big technology near christmas and how much each item spies on its users.

mozilla on how they help their trans employees

proof of mozillas unavoidable BLM banners (tw for racism)

mozilla supports LGBT equality

mozilla's CEO stepping down for contributing to an anti marriage equality bill and mozilla's ensuing apology

mozilla festival talk on the gender divide in technology

mozilla on gender equality in the workforce

mozillawiki - black history month

privacy not included

lmao at mozilla having to be like “not only did we not get rid of the fox in our logo but if all the people yelling at us actually use our browser they should have known that 🤔”

[noticiasq]

Es asustadizo es lo que obtendrías si cruzaras Clubhouse con Animal Crossing

Nueva Noticia publicada en https://noticiasq.com/es-asustadizo-es-lo-que-obtendrias-si-cruzaras-clubhouse-con-animal-crossing/

Es asustadizo es lo que obtendrías si cruzaras Clubhouse con Animal Crossing

Si siente que los anuncios de Instagram se están acercando y no puede cambiar su cámara Zoom en estos días, no está solo. Hasta bien entrado el 2021, muchas de las aplicaciones sociales y herramientas de chat virtual que mantuvieron al mundo conectado durante la pandemia se sienten más agotadoras que las interacciones de la vida real que deben simular.

Pero, ¿y si pasar el rato en línea no fuera… miserable?

Esa es la idea detrás de Skittish, una plataforma de eventos virtual basada en navegador del cofundador de XOXO, Andy Baio. Skittish es un cruce divertido entre una aplicación de chat de audio social como Discord o Clubhouse y un lindo videojuego, repleto de avatares de animales redondos y coloridos para elegir. A diferencia de una llamada de Zoom, Skittish es un lugar – uno en el que sus habitantes pueden toparse entre sí, hacer actividades juntos y esperar a que llegue la serendipia.

Skittish es una extensión natural de los intereses de Baio, una especie de espacio acogedor, ligeramente independiente y gamificado donde las personas creativas pueden exhibir su trabajo y pasar el rato. «Creo que simplemente me atraen los lugares donde las personas pueden ser ellas mismas», dijo Baio a TechCrunch. «Con Skittish, ha sido muy importante para mí que las personas puedan participar en el nivel con el que se sienten cómodos».

Baio tiene la reputación de curar espacios sociales, aunque anteriormente eran en su mayoría IRL. En 2012, Baio co-creó XOXO, un festival caprichoso con sede en Portland para personas extravagantes que hacen cosas. Si bien el festival se tomó algunos años debido a Covid, el evento sigue vivo en una animada comunidad en línea llena de desarrolladores de juegos independientes, podcasters poco convencionales y artistas digitales. Antes de XOXO, Baio trabajó en el prelanzamiento de Kickstarter y se desempeñó como el primer director de tecnología del sitio de crowdfunding. (Divulgación completa: soy un ex asistente de XOXO que es parte de la comunidad).

El acertadamente llamado Skittish está destinado a crear un espacio social en línea que no ponga a las personas en apuros. En el mundo virtual ideal de Baio, los introvertidos podían rodear la periferia mientras que los extrovertidos podían sumergirse y mantener la corte en el centro, como lo harían en la vida real. Esa gama de estilos sociales que no se refleja en entornos virtuales que son explícitamente para el trabajo o modelados después del trabajo y es suficiente para inspirar temor a mucha gente.

Para Baio, el chat de audio llega a un punto óptimo. Sacar la cámara de la ecuación hace que las personas se sientan socialmente fluidas, pero el audio aún evoca un grado de presencia social con el que el texto no puede competir.

“Existe la suposición en muchos eventos virtuales de que la gente quiere estar en cámara todo el tiempo con extraños, lo que me parece extraño”, dijo Baio. “Skittish es audio de forma predeterminada y utiliza audio espacial para que pueda escuchar a las personas a su alrededor y acechar un poco antes de decidir si desea iniciar una conversación. Socializar en cualquier lugar, incluso en línea, puede provocar ansiedad «.

Clubhouse podría ser sinónimo de audio social en este momento, pero su estructura aún no atrae a todos. «Me gusta el enfoque informal y conversacional del audio, pero [it] simplemente se siente como una serie de paneles de conferencias y necesita un moderador fuerte para ser lo suficientemente convincente como para sintonizarnos ”, dijo Baio.

Cómo funciona Skittish

En Skittish, caminar hacia un grupo de personas (animales, en realidad; los usuarios de Skittish pueden diferenciarse eligiendo uno de los más de 75 avatares de animales profundamente lindos) te permite escuchar una conversación como lo harías en la vida real. Retrocediendo, oirías que la charla se desvanecía hasta que finalmente ya no sería audible. Para tener una conversación lateral más privada, usted y un amigo (¿un cocodrilo, tal vez?) Podrían separarse de un grupo de otras personas y profundizar su charla en una caminata virtual.

Dentro de una sala Skittish, los participantes del evento pueden caminar, charlar con otros a través de un micrófono, colocar objetos virtuales e incluso saltar a través de portales a otras salas. Cualquiera que ejecute un espacio Skittish puede transmitir videos y música desde YouTube o Soundcloud a una pantalla virtual. Los organizadores de eventos también pueden transmitir ellos mismos u otros oradores a toda la sala, anulando las reglas de proximidad normales que le permiten escuchar lo que le rodea.

Baio no imagina a Skittish como un espacio social persistente, sino que quiere que brinde una plataforma flexible y lúdica para todo tipo de eventos, desde lecturas de podcasts en vivo y juegos de mesa hasta eventos de empresas más grandes. Baio dice que el público objetivo principal de Skittish es «cualquiera que tenga un Patreon», y los eventos más grandes de la empresa compensarán los costos para los creadores que usan Skittish para conectarse con sus comunidades. Cualquiera que organice un evento puede optar por poblar un espacio virtual con objetos virtuales prediseñados (piense en barcos piratas y donas gigantes) o idear su propio entorno desde cero.

Al diseñar un servicio que solo existe cuando la gente lo necesita, espera evitar el acoso y la toxicidad que abunda en las grandes redes sociales. Skittish aún incluirá un conjunto de herramientas que permiten al creador de un espacio silenciar, patear o incluso prohibir a los usuarios, pero lo ideal es que no lo necesite.

“Soy un gran fanático de las redes sociales oscuras, en general, donde las personas pueden sentirse más como ellas mismas y la moderación es mucho más humana y manejable”, dijo Baio.

Más allá del zoom

La pandemia arrojó nueva luz sobre lo que la gente realmente quiere de los espacios sociales en línea. La novedad de Zoom desapareció rápidamente y, a fines de 2020, el video chat grupal se sintió como un elemento arraigado del trabajo virtual, no del juego virtual. No debería sorprender que un simulador social suave con funciones multijugador ligeras surgiera como el juego de 2020.

«Es un poco cliché, pero Animal Crossing: New Horizons se convirtió en un escape confiable para mí durante la pandemia, una fuente diaria de consuelo y rutina cuando no podíamos salir», dijo Baio. Estaba encantado con su primera incursión en los famosos ritmos relajantes de la serie y el juego le ayudó a imaginarse Skittish.

«… Creo que lo que más me inspiró fue la simplicidad de los controles y la cámara, el tono general del juego y las características sociales, por limitadas que sean», dijo Baio. «Tienes un límite de siete visitantes y la gente tarda una eternidad en volar, pero a pesar de eso, es una experiencia agradable tener un grupo de personas en tu isla».

Con el Nintendo Switch agotado en todas partes y Animal Crossing subiendo las listas de ventas de todos los tiempos de la consola, fue obvio desde el principio que algo resonó. Las personas que normalmente no se considerarían jugadores compraron Switches y pasaron horas sacudiendo árboles virtuales, charlando con ardillas y recorriendo islas de amigos para obtener consejos de diseño de interiores. Con Skittish, Baio espera capturar un poco de esa misma magia.

Los juegos que funcionan como redes sociales están en auge en este momento, y con razón. Para muchas personas, es más natural socializar cuando están haciendo otra cosa juntos, ya sea formar un equipo para un dúo de Fortnite, construir una casa comunal vikinga en Valheim o probar juegos creados por usuarios dentro de Roblox.

Socializar en línea con avatares también le permite expresarse de una manera lo suficientemente significativa como para que Epic construya todo un negocio a su alrededor, con ventas de máscaras (atuendos virtuales) y emotes (movimientos de baile y gestos) que representan la mayor parte de los ingresos de Fortnite.

Construyendo Skittish y lo que sigue

Skittish surgió de una subvención de $ 100,000 otorgada por Grant For The Web, un fondo creado por Coil, Mozilla y Creative Commons para distribuir subvenciones a proyectos que incorporan micropagos para creadores en línea.

Baio comenzó a crear prototipos de Skittish en julio pasado, imaginándolo como un espacio emergente para eventos en lugar de un mundo virtual persistente. Las imágenes simples y coloridas del mundo 3D se crearon con React-Three-Fiber (R3F) y three.js. Para su chat de audio espacial de alta calidad, Skittish utiliza una API de High Fidelity, el último proyecto del creador de Second Life, Philip Rosedale. Sorprendentemente, Second Life agregó audio espacial a sus mundos en línea desde 2007 – hace catorce años.

Los espacios asustadizos inicialmente acomodaban hasta 120 voces mixtas en una sola habitación, pero la capacidad de audio es aún mayor ahora. Aunque todavía está probando cuáles podrían ser los nuevos límites, Skittish se está acercando al objetivo de Baio de organizar eventos de 1000 personas. Las habitaciones asustadizas ahora pueden estar protegidas con contraseña, solo por invitación o públicas, y Baio imagina espacios especiales y “acogedores” para 3-5 personas en el futuro del proyecto.

Skittish albergará sus primeros eventos pagos este mes como prueba, con invitaciones a seguir después de eso. Baio planea depender de eventos pagos para obtener ingresos y está indeciso acerca de ofrecer un nivel gratuito debido a preocupaciones de moderación y los costos asociados con albergar cientos de conversaciones simultáneas entre elefantes virtuales, cebras y mapaches.

Un paseo por Skittish

Me reuní con Baio en Skittish para charlar sobre el proyecto e inmediatamente me sentí menos incómodo que una llamada de Zoom o un Hangout de Google. Como un noble panda basura, seguí a la lechuza de Baio por el colorido escenario virtual poligonal como si hubiéramos caminado por un parque tomando un café juntos.

Skittish parece un videojuego y puedes moverte usando WASD si quieres, pero es lo suficientemente sencillo como para que cualquiera pueda entenderlo de inmediato. El estilo gráfico simple del mundo crea un ambiente relajado y creativo y los avatares incluso tienen una suave animación inactiva, una especie de rebote que da vida a su respectivo elefante, mapache o cebra.

Al igual que las experiencias que he tenido en algunos otros mundos virtuales innovadores basados ​​en avatar (me viene a la mente AltspaceVR), la sensación de estar realmente allí, simplemente pasar el rato, es reveladora. Los juegos multijugador han estado muy por delante de las redes sociales tradicionales en este fenómeno durante siglos; No es de extrañar que Fortnite y Minecraft sean redes sociales de facto para una gran cantidad de gente joven. En Skittish, el audio espacial de alta calidad y la divertida sensación de presencia ofrecen algo igualmente transportador.

Dejando a un lado los búhos virtuales, Baio dice que Skittish será un éxito cuando la gente comience a hacer conexiones reales allí que los sigan más allá del mundo virtual que ha creado.

“Al igual que los eventos que he organizado en la vida real, sabré que está funcionando cuando escuche historias de personas que se conocen en un ambiente lúdico y hacen nuevos amigos”, dijo Baio.

[quoteoftheweekblog]

QUOTATIONS - MARIA AUGUSTA TRAPP’S ‘THE STORY OF THE TRAPP FAMILY SINGERS’ (FIRST PUBLISHED 1949)

First sentence:

‘Somebody tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up from the workbooks of my fifth graders, which I was just correcting, into the lined, old face of a little sister, every wrinkle radiating kindliness.’ (Trapp, 2002, p.1).

On reading:

‘It is most amazing how much literature you can cover during the long winter evenings. We read fairy tales and legends, historical novels and biographies, and the works of the great masters of prose and poetry.’ (Trapp, 2002, p.51).

On carnival:

‘The time between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday is celebrated in Austria, as in all other Catholic countries, as a carnival. Festivities of all kinds and sorts are going on until “Fasching Dienstag” (Mardi Gras), when the last ball is stopped short at midnight and the season of Lent begins.’ (Trapp, 2002, p.53).

On Lent:

‘The people living in the country still celebrate Lent as it was understood by the many generations since the beginning of Christianity: by voluntary penance and mortification we should participate in the suffereings of Christ in order to be able to celebrate also the day of Resurrection together with Him. We should die to our old sinful self and rise as a new man. To this end fasting is one of the oldest precepts. In Poland, Italy, some valleys of Austria, and especially the Balkan countries, the fast is most conscientiously observed. One meal a day only, and no animal products: no meat, no fish, no eggs, butter, cheese, or milk’. (Trapp, 2002, p.55).

‘It turned out to be a beautiful six weeks.’  (Trapp, 2002, p.55).

On America:

‘ ... we had found out that as long as you are willing to work, America is still the land of unlimited opportunities. It is up to you to use them. And we had also found out that this was the only way to become American, a part of this nation of pioneers: to be a pioneer yourself.’  (Trapp, 2002, p.158).

‘The Americans never seemed to ask, “Who are you?” but “How good are you? Let’s see.” They gave you a fair chance to give your best, and then they accepted you for that, whether you came from Poland, Russia, England, or Austria.’  (Trapp, 2002, p.180).

REFERENCE

Trapp, M.A. (2002) ‘The story of the Trapp Family Singers’. Amazon.com [E-book]. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Story-Trapp-Family-Singers-ebook/dp/B004MMEIV4/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=maria+trapp+the+story+of+the+trapp+family+singers&link_code=qs&qid=1614607225&sourceid=Mozilla-search&sr=8-1&tag=firefox-uk-21 (Accessed 1 March 2021).

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Mozilla is throwing a science fiction convention in London

Kevin from Mozilla writes, "MozFest -- the annual internet festival hosted by Mozilla in London -- is all about software. Right? Not so. The festival explores the future of the internet. As such, there are a whole slew of sci-fi and fantasy sessions and workshops planned for the Oct. 26-28 gathering. The event is open to everyone and all ages. It's a chance for sci-fi fans of all stripes to geek out and chat with experts."

For example: A workshop, led by MIT, about creating interplanetary messaging tools.

A how-to course on identifying pulsars using LOFAR data.

An exploration of machine learning's impact of society. (The session title? "Rage Against the Machine Learning.")

And, a chance to co-create the first-ever VP Afrofuturist Museum.

https://boingboing.net/2018/10/02/afrofuturistic-museum.html

[enlaces-finde]

Impartirá Secretaría de Cultura talleres gratuitos de arte y desarrollo cultural

En el marco del Festival de Arte Nuevo 2021 se realizarán cuatro talleres virtuales vía zoom

El Gobierno del Estado de Chihuahua, a travéuatro talleres sobre arte y desarrollo cultural, que serán impartidos de manera gratuita del 4 al 22 de octubre, como parte de las actividades del Festival de Arte Nuevo (FAN) 2021.

La jornada de capacitaciones comienza el próximo lunes 4 de octubre a las 16:00 horas con el curso “Administración enfocada a agentes culturales”, a cargo de Heber Joel Marín Cárdenas, experto en administración y contabilidad, donde se revisarán aspectos básicos de la administración aplicada a la construcción de proyectos culturales.

La liga de inscripción es en: https://bit.ly/2ZFpF9D.

El mismo día y a la misma hora, se impartirá el “Taller de marketing cultural”, una oportunidad para todas las personas interesadas en hacer uso de las nuevas tecnologías para promover el emprendimiento cultural. Estará a cargo del chihuahuense Elías Castro y la liga de inscripción es: https://bit.ly/2Y7705K.

La actividad continúa el 11 octubre también a las 16:00 horas con el taller “Creación colectiva de piezas para plataforma virtual web”, el cual convoca a artistas de diversas disciplinas a trabajar en la creación de una pieza colectiva pensada y desarrollada para entornos virtuales en web, como nodo creativo que permita repensar la virtualidad de los espacios de interacción y convivencia a partir de otras perspectivas.

Será impartido por Ary Eremberg, co-fundador y director artístico de Meduslab, coordinador del Laboratorio de Inmersión del Centro de Cultura Digital de la Secretaría de Cultura Federal, un espacio para la experimentación, investigación y reflexión crítica en torno a las tecnologías y contenidos inmersivos.

El expositor es además, director artístico del Festival Internacional Inmersiva y fundador del Buró de Investigaciones Multisensoriales. Estará acompañado por César García Campos, cuyas investigaciones están dirigidas hacia la práctica de sistemas alternativos de comunicación. Las personas interesadas pueden inscribirse en: https://bit.ly/39Xj8ZK.

En el caso de los tres talleres antes mencionados, luego de la inscripción se recibirá un correo electrónico de confirmación con información para unirse al seminario web.

Por último, del 18 al 22 de octubre se llevará a cabo el taller “Creación de entornos virtuales para web en Mozilla Hubscultural”, donde las y los participantes conocerán y se apropiarán de los conceptos y herramientas técnicas y conceptuales necesarias para el desarrollo de un proyecto en la plataforma Mozilla Hubs.

Estará a cargo de Josep Trejo, programador de gráficos 3D en tiempo real. Trejo es originario de Veracruz, también pertenece al Centro de Cultura Digital y cuenta con experiencia en el desarrollo de juegos para eventos como el Global Game Jam y el Pixel Challenge (Canadá). La liga para unirse a esta sesión de Zoom es https://bit.ly/3A1xbIl con el ID de reunión: 817 4326 5414, y el código de acceso: 760867.

Bajo el lema “Intersecciones”, su edición 2021 se llevará a cabo del 4 al 23 de octubre, principalmente a través de Instagram. Mayores informes en:

https://bit.ly/3uumEod.

  La entrada Impartirá Secretaría de Cultura talleres gratuitos de arte y desarrollo cultural se publicó primero en .

[bentonpena]

11 things you can do to stop being manipulated by your phone, according to the tech experts on Netflix's 'The Social Dilemma'

11 things you can do to stop being manipulated by your phone, according to the tech experts on Netflix's 'The Social Dilemma' https://bit.ly/3iLN6ml

Netflix's "The Social Dilemma."

Netflix

Netflix's "The Social Dilemma" explores our deeply-entrenched societal addiction to social media and what large tech firms stand to gain from our engagement on the platforms. 

The film has been among the most-watched programs since it was released on the service on September 9 and features commentary from top industry figures and critics.

The docudrama is sobering to watch, but the credit reel features tips and tricks on how to cut down on phone use.

The suggestions include refusing to click on recommended posts and videos while surfing the web and uninstalling apps that you feel are wasting your time.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Experts have long discussed how we have become addicted to social media, and that addiction has only been inflamed in recent years.

A new Netflix documentary paints an alarming and sobering picture of the extent of that addiction and how social networks have capitalized on it, catapulting tech companies into global powerhouses in the process. "The Social Dilemma" explores different aspects and effects of the online world, including the lucrative attention-economy, addictive recommendation algorithms, misinformation, political polarization, and more.

The doc features ex-Google design ethicist and president of The Center For Humane Technology Tristan Harris, computer scientist Jaron Lanier, author Shoshana Zuboff, ex-Facebook director of monetization Tim Kendall, data scientist and author Cathy O'Neil, Asana co-founder and ex-Facebook engineering lead Justin Rosenstein, early Facebook investor Roger McNamee, and many others.

You might want to throw your phone across the room by the end of the hour-and-a-half-long docudrama. But fret not! The last five minutes is actually semi-uplifting as the industry experts dole out steps you can take to limit how much you use your phone and the addicting technology that lives in it.

We've rounded them up below — take a look:

Don't click on videos or posts that are recommended to you.

Jaron Lanier in New York City in 2019.

Mike Coppola/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

Recommendation algorithms have become somewhat of a secret sauce for tech platforms. They are what keep users engaged on the apps, queuing up related content for when you finish reading a post or watching a video. For example, the recommendation algorithm for TikTok — the uber-popular video-sharing app that's currently embroiled in a standoff with the Trump administration — is the shining jewel of the service that has captivated millions of young users.

Author and computer scientist Jaron Lanier, who has come to be known as the founding father of virtual reality, said that instead of letting the algorithms guide you, it's better to search for the next video you want to watch.

"Always choose," he says in the documentary. "That's another way to fight."

  Install a Chrome extension that can undo recommendations on platforms, said ex-YouTube engineer Guillaume Chaslot.

A man, not Chaslot, is pictured above with a device.

Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

There is a slew of such extensions available, such as one that blocks recommended videos and comments on YouTube.

The interviewer in the documentary comments that Chaslot is trying to undo something he helped create: Chaslot was a co-creator of YouTube's recommendation algorithm before he left Google in 2013.

  Turn off notifications on apps that aren't pinging you with important or timely information.

Tristan Harris at Collision in New Orleans in 2018.

Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile via Getty Images

This is a good way to set boundaries between you and the social networks beckoning to you from inside your phone, documentary subjects agreed, including Harris, ex-Facebook operations manager Sandy Parakilas, ex-head of user experience at Mozilla Aza Raskin, and Rosenstein.

      Uninstall apps that you don't use or that you feel are wasting your time.

Asana co-founder Justin Rosenstein in Dublin in 2014.

Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE via Getty Images

Rosenstein said he does that with social media and news apps.

  Don't use Google: Use an alternative search engine.

The French service was the default search engine on Huawei P40 devices in Europe.

Esra Hacioglu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Chaslot said heuses Qwant since it "doesn't store your search history."

Before you share a piece of content online, "fact-check, consider the source, do that extra Google."

Renee DiResta during a Senate hearing in 2018.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

Renee DiResta, research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory, said that if something seems like it's solely trying to "push your emotional buttons, it probably is."

This tip perhaps carries even more weight leading up to the upcoming 2020 presidential election, as tech firms scramble to police misinformation on their platforms.

Don't click on clickbait.

Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

When you click on "clickbait" — or stories with incendiary headlines that falsely advertise the true content of the article — you're feed an existing, broken system, according to Rosenstein. News publishers have been forced to adapt to these tech platforms' algorithms, he said, changing the kinds of stories they run based on what gets the most eyeballs online.

Follow people on social media that you don't agree with, said data scientist and author Cathy O'Neil.

OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images

Some experts say social media has exacerbated political polarization, another adverse side effect caused by tech platforms, according to the documentary.

Another school of thought is that though social media sites can be polarizing, it's not entirely their fault: US politics were already polarized, as The Verge's Casey Newton reported.

Contrary to O'Neil's advice, a 2018 study provided evidence that following those with opposing views online can actually increase political polarization, though the study did have several limitations.

Don't let your kids use social media.

A teenage girl is depicted in "The Social Dilemma."

Netflix

Several of the technologists featured in the documentary stood firmly by this rule. Alex Roetter, a former senior vice president of engineering at Twitter, said his kids don't use social media at all. "It's a rule," he said. Ex-Facebook director of monetization Tim Kendall also said he is adamant about it: "We don't let our kids have really any screen time," he said.

Jonathan Haidt, a New York University social psychologist and author, said if you are going to let your kids sign onto social media, wait until high school. "Middle school's hard enough," he said in the program.

Teen phone addiction is represented in a startling scene during the dramatized portion of "The Social Dilemma." At one point, the young daughter is visibly craving her phone after her mother locks each family member's device in a glass case during dinner. The daughter sneaks away from the table and wacks the case with a wrench, cracking it open to hungrily retrieve it, much to the horror of her mother.

Leave all of your devices outside of the bedroom at a fixed time each night.

Neil Godwin/Future via Getty Images

Haidt laid this tip out as a way for families to set boundaries for phone use in the house. He suggested that at a fixed time — perhaps half an hour before you go to sleep — you should leave your phone somewhere else in your home.

  Deleting your social media account can lead to progress, Lanier said.

Demonstrators on the east lawn of the Capitol ahead of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before a hearing on the protection of user data on April 10, 2018.

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Getty Images

He acknowledged it was unrealistic to expect everyone to do so, but he advised that even some people deleting their accounts and freeing themselves of the "manipulation engines" could help start a societal dialogue around the topic.

These are merely tips for cutting down on using your phone and the addictive technology and social media apps therein, but a whole slew of factors will need to work in tandem before we see any real change, such as massive public pressure and a desire from within these tech companies to reform, according to the technologists and experts in "The Social Dilemma."

The docudrama is now streaming on Netflix.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Tech via SAI https://bit.ly/3hB68ue September 19, 2020 at 09:51AM