TLDR 125
Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 125
Published: 2017-11-24 β’ π§ Newsletter
Welcome to Issue 125. What we need is awareness, we can't get careless.
This issue is chock-full of news and notes from a very busy week. In a normal week, I would focus on the big news about net neutrality. But, I needed to jam it all into the first story as there was soooo much to talk about this week. I hope you'll still click through all of the links, and explore the nuance...especially in the first story.
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This week I posted the following:
- Wisdom is Tolerance of Cognitive Dissonance - A post looking at the subtle art of holding two disparate thoughts in your head at once.
- Information Without Emotion in Rarely Retained - The role of emotion in learning and keeping your brain focused.
Keep in touch by sending me a note at hello@wiobyrne.com or on the socials at wiobyrne.
π Key Takeaways
- Generally Tragedy Occurs: Generally, the tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals neglect the well-being of society in the pursuit of personal gain.
- For Me Best Way: I think the term net neutrality is a horrible term, and that makes it even more challenging to inform general citizens as to why this is a very big issue. For me, the best way to explain/understand net neutrality is this link from The Oatmeal.
- I'm Bit More Progressive: Wu believes the courts will ultimately have to protect this space. I'm a bit more progressive...and I think we need to build our own Internet to be less reliant on others.
- Let's Face It: Let's face it...hacks and data breaches are going to happen. As users of these services, our expectations should be that the companies alert users immediately that we need to change our passwords.
- Perhaps If Our Supersmart: Perhaps if our supersmart tech leaders knew a bit more about history or philosophy we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.
- I'd Like to Unite: I think Mozilla needed to give up on the initiative...and the community to take it over. I'd like to unite the community around the development of an open wiki to document these skills, standards, and potential work products.
πΊ Watch
What is the tragedy of the commons?
This video comes from a TED-Ed lesson from Nicholas Amendolare.
The tragedy of the commons is an economic problem in which every individual tries to reap the greatest benefit from a given resource. As the demand for the resource overwhelms the supply, every individual who consumes an additional unit directly harms others who can no longer enjoy the benefits. Generally, the tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals neglect the well-being of society in the pursuit of personal gain.
π Read
I'm going to explain to you how Net Neutrality actually works
This week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai announced a net neutrality repeal plan, saying he's returning the internet to the "free market consensus" that prevailed for years. Pai defended this move by indicating that this would put the power of innovation back in the hands of "engineers and entrepreneurs, instead of bureaucrats and lawyers.
You may remember that here on TL;DR, I was recently sharing a lot of info/news about the latest comment period for the FCC and their review/repeal of Net Neutrality. Apparently, the FCC either decided to completely ignore many of these 22 million comments, or reject them if they didn't make a "serious" legal argument. There is also evidence that more than a million pro-repeal comments were likely faked. Thankfully, the Attorney General of New York has indicated that his office (in a partnership with other states) has asked the FCC for more information on this, but up to this point, the FCC has not responded, or been transparent in how they're handling these periods for open public comments.
Tim Wu coined the term "network neutrality" and has helped to focus our efforts on fighting for freedom in these spaces. I think the term net neutrality is a horrible term, and that makes it even more challenging to inform general citizens as to why this is a very big issue. For me, the best way to explain/understand net neutrality is this link from The Oatmeal that I used to start this section of the newsletter.
I'm also considerate of my friends overseas that don't have a voice in this, but it has a dramatic impact on the web as a global playing field. Wu believes the courts will ultimately have to protect this space. I'm a bit more progressive...and I think we need to build our own Internet to be less reliant on others.
For now...the net neutrality debate is very important. Here are six easy ways to make your voice heard.
Uber hid 2016 breach, paying hackers to delete stolen data
Friends, Uber was hacked. Your data was stolen. Instead of telling you, they kept it secret for a year & paid a ransom to the hackers to keep it quiet.
Uber has also been in the news a lot lately about their bro culture and their toxic workplace.
Let's face it...hacks and data breaches are going to happen. As users of these services, our expectations should be that the companies alert users immediately that we need to change our passwords. The company should also explain as much as they know (even if they don't know anything). The company should also explain what they're doing to mitigate the circumstances. A lack of transparency, coupled with a desire to ignore the user and hide these events is not acceptable.
For these reasons, delete Uber from your phone and do not use their services.
How a half-educated tech elite delivered us into chaos
Our lives are controlled by a number of digital texts, tools, & platforms that connect our globe. These spaces are developed and directed by super-smart, digitally savvy individuals that "create amazingly sophisticated, computer-driven engines for extracting users' personal information and data trails, refining them for sale to advertisers in high-speed data-trading auctions that are entirely unregulated and opaque to everyone except the companies themselves."
This post by John Naughton in The Guardian asks the question about whether or not a focus on code and algorithms also includes anti-social trends. Perhaps if our supersmart tech leaders knew a bit more about history or philosophy we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.
We're now seeing the tech elite try to come to terms with the darker side of human nature.
OECD Results from PISA 2015
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organization with 35 member countries, founded in 1960 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. The OECD develops and administers the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which examines not just what students know in science, reading and mathematics, but what they can do with what they know. Results from PISA show educators and policy makers the quality and equity of learning outcomes achieved elsewhere, and allow them to learn from the policies and practices applied in other countries.
PISA 2015 Results (Volume V): Collaborative Problem Solving, is one of five volumes that present the results of the PISA 2015 survey, the sixth round of the triennial assessment. It examines students' ability to work with two or more people to try to solve a problem. The volume provides the rationale for assessing this particular skill and describes performance within and across countries. In addition, it highlights the relative strengths and weaknesses of each school system and examines how they are related to individual student characteristics, such as gender, immigrant background and socio-economic status. The volume also explores the role of education in building young people's skills in solving problems collaboratively.
Mozilla Foundation ending its web literacy work
This week an email blast went out to members of the Mozilla education community stating that they were pulling work on the web literacy initiative.
Mozilla Foundation will be ending all staff support for the Mozilla Hive and Mozilla Clubs initiatives by December 31, 2017. While we remain active in web literacy work through fellowships, research, and curriculum, we will no longer directly run local, on-the-ground web literacy programs. These changes will happen over the course of the coming year.
Chris Lawrence has a blog post about this move. I most appreciate the context that Doug Belshaw gives in his post linked above. I have to say that I'm pretty bummed at this news. But, it's something that I called for this past summer. I think Mozilla needed to give up on the initiative...and the community to take it over. I'd like to unite the community around the development of an open wiki to document these skills, standards, and potential work products.
π¨ Do
Three cups of coffee a day "may have health benefits"
Everything in balance...of course.
But, Paul Roderick, and his team released a meta-analysis of research on coffee consumption this week that suggests that "there is a balance of risks in life, and the benefits of moderate consumption of coffee seem to outweigh the risks."
Of course, the results may be different for you based on your present coffee consumption, level of exercise, and other factors. But, for me...I'm going to make another cup of coffee to help finish this week's issue.
π€ Consider
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." β Martin Luther King, Jr.
This week's newsletter is filled with examples of speaking up: 22 million net neutrality comments (largely ignored), Mozilla community members losing institutional support, calls for tech leaders to study history and philosophy. King's words remind us that silence isn't neutralβit's complicity. Whether the FCC ignores comments or Mozilla pulls funding, our responsibility is to keep speaking about things that matter, even when institutions fail to listen.
π Navigation
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π± Connected Concepts:
- Digital Commons β Tragedy of commons economic framework applies to internet: individuals pursuing personal gain (ISPs maximizing profit, users demanding unlimited bandwidth) overwhelm shared resource, harming collective wellbeing, requiring governance mechanisms beyond market fundamentalism to protect open internet as public good rather than privatized commodity.
- Net Neutrality Battle β FCC Chair Ajit Pai's repeal plan ignores 22 million comments (many faked), rejects non-legal arguments, and frames deregulation as "free market" despite evidence of ISP monopolies, with Tim Wu arguing courts must intervene while more progressive voices call for building community-owned internet infrastructure less reliant on corporate gatekeepers.
- Corporate Accountability β Uber hiding year-long breach and paying ransom exemplifies toxic bro culture prioritizing image over users: while hacks will happen, expectation is immediate user notification, transparent explanation, and mitigation stepsβlack of accountability demands user response through boycott and deletion of exploitative services.
- Tech and Liberal Arts β John Naughton argues half-educated tech elite's focus on code without history or philosophy delivered chaos, as supersmart engineers build sophisticated extraction engines without understanding darker sides of human nature, antisocial trends, or ethical frameworks that humanities provide for grappling with power and consequence.
- Web Literacy Movement β Mozilla ending staff support for Hive and Clubs initiatives by Dec 31 creates opportunity for community to take over through open wiki documenting skills, standards, and work products, transitioning from institutional top-down model to grassroots collaborative stewardship of web literacy frameworks and pedagogies.
Part of the π§ Newsletter archive documenting digital literacy and technology.