leibniz*

I titoloni e la pancia di chi li legge

Mon, 05 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A proposito delle elezioni italiane del 4 marzo, credo che non dovrebbe andar perduta questa riflessione di Luca Sofri sulle modalità narrative del sistema dell’informazione italiana e sui messaggi che passano o no.

Quello di cui sono fatti i media italiani (giornali, programmi tv del pomeriggio, dichiarazioni di politici, eccetera, l’informazione) è testi e titoli: passano i titoli. Quello di cui sono fatti i media italiani è riflessioni accurate e sensazionalismo: passa il sensazionalismo. Quello di cui sono fatti i media italiani è immagine di progresso e terrorismo: passa il terrorismo. Quello di cui sono fatti i media italiani è spirito di convivenza e risentimento aizzato: passa il risentimento. Quello di cui sono fatti i media italiani è spiegazione dei fenomeni e litigio nei talk show: passa il litigio. Quello di cui sono fatti i media italiani è vero complesso e falso semplice: passa il falso.

[…] Perché non è vero che “tanta gente non si informa”: è vero che tanta gente – disabituata da decenni di media sciatti e cinici alla comprensione del mondo – registra solo le comunicazioni terroristiche, false, divisive e sobillatrici, delle quali sono complici tutti quanti, quelli che ora commentano l’inatteso 5%.

Feeds for journalists

Wed, 17 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This year started with a small project I really like: Feeds for Journalists, by Dave Winer. The idea is that RSS is still a valid technology to get an effective and unbiased flow of news.

As he puts it, after reading a tweet by Mathew Ingram:

If you’re a journalist and you love RSS, please join me in an easy project to improve both. Let’s put together a list of starter feeds for journalists.

Basically, we’re sharing our RSS bookmarks considering only the accountable sources. Since Facebook is pivoting from its initial position regarding news and its News Feed, I think even the timing of Feeds for Journalists is right.

When good ol’ Google Reader was killed by Google, I continued using RSS via Feedly, Inoreader and Electric River (the latter also by Dave). RSS is still the best option for massive news browsers, an indispensabile technology in any newsroom. Give it a try.

Update: Dave made a useful river here.

Bonus: since we spoke about Zuck, Frederic Filloux says Facebook has all the reasons in the world to get rid of journalism.

The Only Living Boy in New York

Sat, 21 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

There’s always mystery. You both know that. You both know it isn’t perfect. Excitement, trust and struggle, and the unknown privacies that keep us together. Glue of struggle. I raise my glass. The fragile glass we stomped on and shattered and will forever be putting back together, like the puzzles we first worked as children, learning to be patient, searching for what fits.

-The Only Living Boy in New York, written by Allan Loeb.

A disconnected generation

Sun, 15 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

We are constantly dazzled and blinded by power. We tend to allow and enable our leaders to play by a different set of moral rules and laws. While we distract ourselves with stupid selfies and pictures of our latest dinner, the real world around us spins out of control. Will we go down in history as the generation of connectivity that constantly disconnected itself from reality? I say - to hell with success and authority.

-Platon, Oct 15th 2017, via Instagram.

(I’m reposting it here because I think it’s an interesting angle from an artist who’s been taking portraits of powerful people for years)

Standing on the shoulders of tech giants

Sat, 14 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been reading a lot of good writing about Facebook, lately. Critics are fair and give us a lot to think about our relationship with the always on social network and the idea of “Building a global community”. As always, even before the Internet, it’s not enough we repeat “technology is neutral”. It is neutral, but we must commit so we get more good than bad, as Kevin Kelly said 7 years ago. But how can you work with something you do not own or comprehend? Because Facebook, as Max Read puts it in the first article you’ll read here, is «like a four-dimensional object: we catch slices of it when it passes through the three-dimensional world we recognize». So we need a four-dimensional approach, and a lot of patience.

Does Even Mark Zuckerberg Know What Facebook Is? by Max Read.

Facebook’s actual value system seems less positive than recursive. Facebook is good because it creates community; community is good because it enables Facebook. The values of Facebook are Facebook.

What Facebook Did to American Democracy

The truth is that while many reporters knew some things that were going on on Facebook, no one knew everything what was going on on Facebook, not even Facebook.

Tech Giants, Once Seen as Saviors, Are Now Viewed as Threats

Their amount of concentrated authority resembles the divine right of kings, and is sparking a backlash that is still gathering force.

Silicon Valley Is Not Your Friend

We need to break up these online monopolies because if a few people make the decisions about how we communicate, shop, learn the news, again, do we control our own society?

Bonus: The Times Issues Social Media Guidelines for the Newsroom

Good design is medium-agnostic

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Good design is medium-agnostic ➡ @jasonsantamaria @offscreenmag

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possed → @leibniz

The best food review of the year

Mon, 07 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I believe this is the best food review I’ve read this year.

Black Axe Mangal

Lamb Offal Flatbread*

There are dicks and vaginas on the floor. Metallica on the sound system, and the menu sometimes features something called a deepthroater. It’s so tempting to hate it. But then you eat former St John head chef Lee Tiernan’s dayglovibrant riffs on kebab-house fare, and you can’t help but acknowledge that you’re eating the future. A future where the quality of the ingredients and the care taken in their preparation run up against the trashily enjoyable dishes they appear in, erasing forever the distinction between high and low. A future where the food is just a part of the noisy fun you’re having, but remains of paramount importance. A future rooted in London but content to range promiscuously across most of the world map. A future that’s bright, but that’s also dicks and vaginas.

NobleRot Magazine- Sex & Drugs & Pinot Noir - issue 14

*btw, that’s a Lamb Offal Flatbread: it looks harmless, doesn’t it? It’s not.

Bad time to be on Facebook

Sun, 16 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Two things I read last weekend via Hacker Newsletter about Facebook manners and limits (and our manners and limits).

Blake Watson: Why I left Facebook:

Over time, we’ve become hooked on the social validation Facebook (and other services) provide. Before I hit the delete button on my account, one of the last things that kept me on Facebook—after I had largely stopped posting and reading the News Feed—was simply checking my notifications. I unconsciously craved that little hit of happiness one gets when they see, So-and-so liked your post. But that’s not real happiness. It’s an unhealthy addiction.

Chris Aldrich: The Facebook Algorithm Mom Problem, or How I temporarily cut my mom out of my social media life to reach a larger audience:

mom-autolike (n.) When a mother automatically clicks “like” on a piece of content posted to social media by one of their children, not because it has any inherent value, but simply because the content came from their child.

PS: This post is also a webmention test. Feedback appreciated.

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possed → @leibniz

Let's Save Net Neutrality

Wed, 12 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet providers should not control what we see and do online. The rules prohibit Internet providers from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization—”fast lanes” - for sites that pay, and slow lanes for everyone else.

Battle for the web

Let’s Save Net Neutrality

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possed → @leibniz

The new electric spring of the News River

Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

One week ago in Perugia, during the annual Journalism Festival, Dave Winer talked about journos taking back their online distribution system, now firmly in silos’ hands (blue silos, big F, you got it). He called that Plan B.

First step, he said, forget your readers for a moment and start your own News River. It is something he’s been working on for years, basically a feed aggregator with no fancy stuff. It is radical because, when you use it, you just see what your sources publish when they do it: no algorithms, no distracting images, no ads. It’s like newsrooms in the old times, with the AP feed on your monitor.

Now I’m simplifying but the old News River needed a server, a bit of programming and a few bucks to let everything run. Why bother if you have amazing free products like Feedly? So now Dave shipped Electric River, a Mac app easily customizable - well, you can enjoy more if you know some coding - you can run on your desktop with no cost at all.

I did it.

But I’d be naive if I thought Electric River was that easy. I still think it has a steep learning curve for the average journalist (at least here in Italy).

Basically you have to:

Run a Mac.
Know what rss feeds are.
Be able to get them from your favorite sources.
Have some favorite sources.
Mix your sources so you don’t have too much information, aka too much noise.
Be happy with the super basic OPML editor Dave provided, or tweak your rivers building a few tabs (which I did)
Be happy with no images, no embedded videos, no automagical hierarchy, no likes, comments, retweets.

All considered I’m good with all the stuff above. But I’d really like some improvements to make Electric River not just a techie smart app but an app a journalist could use more at work.

ACTUAL IMPROVEMENTS

some kind of pagination: because if you’ve been away for a while, you lose too much news.
search: I’d start with some cmd + F for searching the page, but a search box would be amazing.
stars/readitlater: some kind of selecting items so you can work them later or just remember.
synch: Electric River is totally desktop, but our lives are mobile and multi-device. Some kind of feed memory would help.
sharing: Dave offers his awesome Radio3 for tweeting and posting on Facebook. I’d love some more customization for sharing directly in Instapaper, Pinboard, Slack etc…
All of the above functions are already available from Feedly, Feedbin, etc…

UI STUFF

I’d really could use a “Return to Top” arrow.
I’d love to change the default font, text size, and background (like you can on Kindle or Instapaper).

That is my feedback after one week. Electric River is only 0.40e, so it has still to grow.