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Dr Pen

@penworks.bsky.social

140 followers 440 following 310 posts

Londoner in Malta. Technology & media in society academic. UX, TEL, webdev OS CMS. OS advocate. Emeritus rocknroller. Luddite. Mostly on Masto, follow me there from here with Bridgy Fed. @DrPen.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy Website: https://penworks.net

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Dr Pen @penworks.bsky.social · Feb 11

A theme that many now discuss: the quality of information on the knowledge web. I first wrote about this on my blog back in June 2023. (I discuss it as part of 2 subsequent academic papers.)
#genai #fakenews #misinformation #knowledgecommons https://penworks.net/blog/the-knowledge-web-problem

The Knowledge Web Problem | penworks.net

There is a huge problem rapidly approaching on the horizon of data society: the authenticity and custodianship of the Knowledge Web. This has been...

penworks.net

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 22h

#WarRavagedPortland

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 21h

"Why would OpenAI and Microsoft spend $23 million to give 'free training' on how to use AI to teachers? Because they love teachers? No. Because they want to get their products into public schools in an attempt to cultivate the education market. ... To automate teachers, in other words."

Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 1d

It takes no special technical expertise to know that
1) AI's main value proposition today is automating labor,
2) AI is going to supercharge economic inequality, and
3) If we do not get out in front of that policy-wise, we are fools.

www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/thinking-o...

Thinking of AI as a Social Problem

No need to know the unknowable. The knowable is bad enough.

www.hamiltonnolan.com

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Dr Pen @penworks.bsky.social · 16h

Come to London if you want to see a bus service in a very busy massive city. They've got it sorted. Main routes often every 10 or even 5 minutes. Small buses for short quick runs too. A lot of bus lanes. Not free, but £1 journeys often, or daily travel cap. Come! Sadiq Khan would love to see you

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Hamilton Nolan @hamiltonnolan.bsky.social · 1d

Thinking of AI as a Social Problem

No need to know the unknowable. The knowable is bad enough.

www.hamiltonnolan.com

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Dr Pen @penworks.bsky.social · 1d

Hello Blues-sky. Just checking in to say the world is not all terrible.

Here's an icon of a boombox.

a png icon of a boombox done in semi cartoon vector style.

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Courtney Vaughn @courtneyvaughn.bsky.social · 1d

Streets are still closed off in front of the Portland ICE facility at 8:30pm. Protesters have gathered on a side street. Dance party in progress.

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flux.community @flux.community · 1d

The Link banning controversy reveals Bluesky’s decentralized aspiration isn’t reality.

Bluesky’s protocol is so complicated that not even the biggest alternative, Blacksky, has been able to become independent plus.flux.community/p/banning-co...

Banning controversy reveals Bluesky’s federation isn’t there yet

Bluesky’s protocol is so complicated that not even the biggest alternative network has figured out how to become independent

plus.flux.community

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Erin Kissane @kissane.myatproto.social · Aug 22

I believe we need to be able to understand what is happening to us. That's the sole reason for my work on knowledge ecosystems over the years, including Covid Tracking Project. A lot of things *can* be known, even in this political blender. We deserve real knowledge, not close-enough flyby guessing.

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 2d

The way I see it, there are only two real possibilities here — either OpenAI is so desperate to prove it's still on the cutting edge of AI to placate investors and partners, or it's so arrogant that it thinks it can harvest and appropriate intellectual property at will, regardless of current law.

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Anna Kornbluh @annakornbluh.bsky.social · 2d

"the solution is still the one that can succeed: to build a new cultural order, a new civilization. To do so, academics must embrace an unusual new role: as knowledge workers, they must seize the means of knowledge production."

www.publicbooks.org/academics-mu...

Academics Must Seize the Means of Knowledge Production - Public Books

Trumpism has canceled the knowledge society.

www.publicbooks.org

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Brian Merchant @bcmerchant.bsky.social · 2d

OpenAI's Sora gambit is somehow even more reckless and arrogant than we've grown accustomed to with the company. OpenAI is betting that it can spit in the face of creatives, workers, and the largest media companies on the planet—and bend copyright law to its whims.

The incredible arrogance of OpenAI

With Sora 2, OpenAI is betting it can spit in the face of workers, creators, and the biggest media conglomerates on the planet — and win

www.bloodinthemachine.com

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David William @nrvscrcts.bsky.social · 3d

Begging everyone to think just a little bit about the explicit goals of tech companies before buying the lastest 'innovative' product

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 3d

I think often about the Amazon engineer who wrote in an open letter to the company that Ring was “incompatible” with a free society.

Analysis | Amazon’s Ring plans to scan everyone’s face at the door

For the first time, the company is putting facial recognition into its home security doorbells and video cameras.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 4d

Private equity discourse about education is ramping up again:

"education has become a compelling asset class offering strong returns, long-term stability, and global scalability"

PE investors are desperate to turn education into financial assets with long-term ROI huntscanlon.com/private-equi...

Private Equity’s Resurgent Interest in Education: Key Trends for 2025 - Hunt Scanlon Media

Following a phase of cautious investment, private equity firms have rekindled their interest in the education sector in 2025, adopting focused strategies and prioritizing long-term value generation. E...

huntscanlon.com

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Dr Pen @penworks.bsky.social · 4d

I suppose down here its a generic term loosely acknowledging shared language and cultural heritages but faith and 'ethnic' bg vary and intermingle. As u may know, the Maltese word for God is Alla.

Dr Pen @penworks.bsky.social · 4d

I live in Malta. The Maltese are Semitic people.

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 5d

There is a whole micro-industry in edtech market valuation that aims to support investors to price their investments - and humongous figures like the $8t conjured up by big financial orgs surely help prop up edtech markets even when markets look bad www.holoniq.com/notes/edtech...

EdTech funding drops again in early 2025. Fewer deals, but bigger bets

$410M in Global EdTech VC funding with fewer deals, larger checks, and new regional momentum hint at where investment is heading next.

www.holoniq.com

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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 5d

Billionaire-owned “philosopher” Benjamin Bratton finally coming out as full technofash in this declaration of alliance with JD Vance & a16z — here’s his scathing rejection of those who “stand in the way” of corporate AI agendas nobody wants. www.noemamag.com/is-european-...

Is European AI A Lost Cause? Not Necessarily. | NOEMA

If Europe wants to build a new AI Stack it should stop listening to critics who claim to lead the way but only offer resistance.

www.noemamag.com

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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 5d

Weird when “media studies” is portrayed as a powerful anti-AI lobby. “AI progress” has not been “blocked” — look at stock valuations or US policy! Media scholars are not cited in AI regulation or invited to Trump’s inauguration. It’s a weird cabal to invent and blame for a world that doesn’t exist!

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4d

“The opera will tell two parallel stories: one set in 2030 focusing on a tech entrepreneur who has created a humanoid AI, the other set in 1813 telling the story of the luddite leader, George Mellor, as he faces the gallows.”

‘Let’s learn from that history’: opera looks to luddites for how to deal with AI

New work by Ben Crick and Kamal Kaan suggests we could benefit from knowing more about the ‘machine-wreckers’

www.theguardian.com

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Eryk Salvaggio @eryk.bsky.social · 4d

“The media studies cabal is holding back AI”

Alexander Clarkson @aphclarkson.bsky.social · 4d

And some people still say that THIS IS FINE

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Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 4d

“All of this feels ridiculous because that’s exactly what it is. But the larger goal is to inure you to the strangeness of it all so that when these products — be they movies, shows, or TikToks — finally come to market, your reaction is ‘Sure, why not?’”

Tilly Norwood is a gen AI psyop

The point is to normalize generative AI in your mind.

www.theverge.com

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 4d

Such an excellent piece on private equity edtech investors building "a portfolio of companies that amass data and effectively track kids throughout their educational journeys" as a route to big returns.

Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 4d

This is the 2022 story poorly screenshotted above.

This Private Equity Firm Is Amassing Companies That Collect Data on America’s Children – The Markup

Vista Equity Partners has been buying up software used in schools. Parents want to know what the companies do with kids’ data

themarkup.org

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ændra. @aendra.com · 4d

CNWL NHS Adult ADHD Service: "We're so sorry you've been waiting 203 weeks for a follow-up after your initial diagnosis, submit a Shared Care Agreement from your GP immediately or you will be removed from the wait list! Ta!"

eMed, my GP: "Trying to login? 404, fuck you."

NHS app: "Call your GP!"

ændra. @aendra.com · 4d

The NHS telemedicine options are a goddamn embarrassment.

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Ben Williamson @benpatrickwill.bsky.social · 4d

"Hype is no longer fleeting noise. It has become institutionalised, calculable, and consequential."

Neat little essay on studying hype practices, devices, and techniques www.business-school.ed.ac.uk/about/news/h...

Hype is not noise: Why we need Hype Studies

In this article, Professor Neil Pollock, Chair in Innovation and Social Informatics at the University of Edinburgh Business School, and Professor Robin Williams, Director of the Institute for the Stud...

www.business-school.ed.ac.uk

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