Steve Jankowski
@textaural.bsky.social
Assistant Professor in New Media Histories at UvA. Curator of Keywords for Studying Media, Culture & Information https://textaural.com/keywords/. I study Wikipedia, utopian computation, design and consensus politics, often all at once.
Huh. Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting-turned 2020s meme was used in 1997 for Wired Magazine's editorial on "The Digital Citizen". m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1a...
January 17, 2026 at 11:57 PM
Huh. Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting-turned 2020s meme was used in 1997 for Wired Magazine's editorial on "The Digital Citizen". m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1a...
Maybe a good place to start. _The Digital Revolution:
A Short History of an Ideology_ by Gabriele Balbi
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
A Short History of an Ideology_ by Gabriele Balbi
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
January 1, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Maybe a good place to start. _The Digital Revolution:
A Short History of an Ideology_ by Gabriele Balbi
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
A Short History of an Ideology_ by Gabriele Balbi
global.oup.com/academic/pro...
I love seeing old lectures published as webpages.
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
December 12, 2025 at 12:51 PM
I love seeing old lectures published as webpages.
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
2004: gyre.umeoce.maine.edu/physicalocea...
Q: Does Google use an "AI" to categorize your email?
A: The technical answer seems to be that they use Machine Learning (not the same as LLMs) and they are being cagey about whether your emails are part of the aggregated or not. They're not saying no.
Here's their blog blog.google/products/gma...
A: The technical answer seems to be that they use Machine Learning (not the same as LLMs) and they are being cagey about whether your emails are part of the aggregated or not. They're not saying no.
Here's their blog blog.google/products/gma...
November 21, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Q: Does Google use an "AI" to categorize your email?
A: The technical answer seems to be that they use Machine Learning (not the same as LLMs) and they are being cagey about whether your emails are part of the aggregated or not. They're not saying no.
Here's their blog blog.google/products/gma...
A: The technical answer seems to be that they use Machine Learning (not the same as LLMs) and they are being cagey about whether your emails are part of the aggregated or not. They're not saying no.
Here's their blog blog.google/products/gma...
This gets it functionally back to where it was before. Also choose the option to put these inboxes "Above" the main one.
November 20, 2025 at 8:32 PM
This gets it functionally back to where it was before. Also choose the option to put these inboxes "Above" the main one.
Many people have noted that the Primary / Social / Forums / Updates tabs are missing when you do this 👀. You can recreate these manually using the "Multiple Inbox" setup in settings. Basically, tell your inbox to include emails tagged "inbox" and exclude the social / forums / updates.
November 20, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Many people have noted that the Primary / Social / Forums / Updates tabs are missing when you do this 👀. You can recreate these manually using the "Multiple Inbox" setup in settings. Basically, tell your inbox to include emails tagged "inbox" and exclude the social / forums / updates.
Some pages are based on Wikipedia but then edited, and it includes an edit history (top right icon).
October 29, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Some pages are based on Wikipedia but then edited, and it includes an edit history (top right icon).
Well I'm a dumb-dumb. It literally says that it is a version of the Wikipedia page. So no mystery there.
October 29, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Well I'm a dumb-dumb. It literally says that it is a version of the Wikipedia page. So no mystery there.
Telltale signs about whether it is generated or a Wikipedia-forked page might be found in the References section.
The "Nobel Prize for Literature" (which was suggested on the front page of Grokipedia) has just URLs for the references. Compare that with the Wikipedia-fork of "Encyclopedias."
The "Nobel Prize for Literature" (which was suggested on the front page of Grokipedia) has just URLs for the references. Compare that with the Wikipedia-fork of "Encyclopedias."
October 29, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Telltale signs about whether it is generated or a Wikipedia-forked page might be found in the References section.
The "Nobel Prize for Literature" (which was suggested on the front page of Grokipedia) has just URLs for the references. Compare that with the Wikipedia-fork of "Encyclopedias."
The "Nobel Prize for Literature" (which was suggested on the front page of Grokipedia) has just URLs for the references. Compare that with the Wikipedia-fork of "Encyclopedias."
It looks like Grokipedia is at least a partial fork of English Wikipedia (which is allowable under Wikipedia's license). Verbatim paragraphs on the "Encyclopedia" page and includes Wikipedia artifacts (like the use of Wikitext: {{cite book}}).
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
October 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM
It looks like Grokipedia is at least a partial fork of English Wikipedia (which is allowable under Wikipedia's license). Verbatim paragraphs on the "Encyclopedia" page and includes Wikipedia artifacts (like the use of Wikitext: {{cite book}}).
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
[Left image is Grokipedia; Right image is Wikipedia]
Also: here's the auto-suggest for articles related to abortion between Grokipedia and Wikipedia.
October 29, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Also: here's the auto-suggest for articles related to abortion between Grokipedia and Wikipedia.
The "Canada" article also includes what looks like an artifact of the generation process where the Grok is talking to itself ... maybe?
"– wait, no wiki, alternative"
"– wait, no wiki, alternative"
October 29, 2025 at 3:16 PM
The "Canada" article also includes what looks like an artifact of the generation process where the Grok is talking to itself ... maybe?
"– wait, no wiki, alternative"
"– wait, no wiki, alternative"
Fine. I will have to wade more into this eventually. But for now, it took me literally 1 minute of reading my first article on Grokipedia before I couldn't help but make a head tilt: "Pre-Columbian Indigenous Societies" makes absolutely no sense for an article on "Canada."
October 29, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Fine. I will have to wade more into this eventually. But for now, it took me literally 1 minute of reading my first article on Grokipedia before I couldn't help but make a head tilt: "Pre-Columbian Indigenous Societies" makes absolutely no sense for an article on "Canada."
Writing an introduction to a special issue with my co-editor and we aimed to split the writing 50/50 for 7000 words. I've had two days of concentrated "writing" – which actually means turning my initial 11000 garbage words into 3500 beautiful words.
October 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Writing an introduction to a special issue with my co-editor and we aimed to split the writing 50/50 for 7000 words. I've had two days of concentrated "writing" – which actually means turning my initial 11000 garbage words into 3500 beautiful words.
My co-authors and I recently wrote about how GenAI hype is similiar to the hype (avant de lettre) of photography / daguerrotype in the 1800s. These commonalities exist because new media produce consistent contradictions surrounding art, culture and technology. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
October 20, 2025 at 2:52 PM
My co-authors and I recently wrote about how GenAI hype is similiar to the hype (avant de lettre) of photography / daguerrotype in the 1800s. These commonalities exist because new media produce consistent contradictions surrounding art, culture and technology. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
I just updated my Keywords Index and it now links to over 550 short essays (sometimes articles) on concepts and terms that are necessary for studying media, information, and culture. A great place to start for literature reviews. textaural.com/keywords/
October 17, 2025 at 12:58 PM
I just updated my Keywords Index and it now links to over 550 short essays (sometimes articles) on concepts and terms that are necessary for studying media, information, and culture. A great place to start for literature reviews. textaural.com/keywords/
A colleague of mine uses this meme for "The Internet" media.mas.to/media_attach...
September 12, 2025 at 1:12 PM
A colleague of mine uses this meme for "The Internet" media.mas.to/media_attach...
Here's my "AI" slide from this past Monday for one course and "The Internet" for a Lecture on Tuesday (although I double-down on the stock photos).
September 12, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Here's my "AI" slide from this past Monday for one course and "The Internet" for a Lecture on Tuesday (although I double-down on the stock photos).
Since grad school, I struggled to work through what discourse analysis was as a method. Inspired by a number of historians and works on method (below), here's my general model for thinking through the process.
September 11, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Since grad school, I struggled to work through what discourse analysis was as a method. Inspired by a number of historians and works on method (below), here's my general model for thinking through the process.
Perfect timing as I'm updating my lecture slides for the first class next week of "Digital Practices". That list of definitions will follow this slide I had for last year. Great work.
September 6, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Perfect timing as I'm updating my lecture slides for the first class next week of "Digital Practices". That list of definitions will follow this slide I had for last year. Great work.
It's nice to see a piece that carefully reminds people of Wikipedia's importance and what's at stake politically and culturally. If interested, there's a lot of recent and good work exploring these ideas further. Come check out what we've been up to. meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Critica...
September 4, 2025 at 6:14 PM
It's nice to see a piece that carefully reminds people of Wikipedia's importance and what's at stake politically and culturally. If interested, there's a lot of recent and good work exploring these ideas further. Come check out what we've been up to. meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Critica...
It's a two-car garage obviously
August 19, 2025 at 10:40 PM
It's a two-car garage obviously