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TLDR 88

Too Long; Didn't Read Issue 88

Published: 2017-03-10 • 📧 Newsletter

Welcome to TL;DR Newsletter #88. Each week I identify the things you need to know about what happened in education, technology, and in-between.

This week's issue is about power holders & middlemen.

This week I shared the following:

Feel free to share this with someone that you believe would benefit. Please subscribe to this newsletter if you haven't already. Thanks!!! :)

Send me feedback or questions at hello@wiobyrne.com. You can review archives of the newsletter or on Medium. I also share the quotes at the bottom of the newsletter on Instagram.

🔖 Key Takeaways

📺 Watch

Motivating advice from Casey Neistat for all of the bloggers and content creators out there. If you've been thinking about starting up that business, blogging, or (insert dream here)...do it.

Please note that they use the F-word twice in the video.

📚 Read

This week WikiLeaks dumped another huge cache of documents. This pile of content is labeled as "Vault 7" and is said to include "C.I.A. hacking tools."

There are enormous questions that should be asked about the motivations of WikiLeaks and their connections to other government and corporate entities. It will be interesting to see what future news and leaks come out about WikiLeaks and their role in spreading this information.

Of more interest to me at this point is identifying potential flaws and threats to our everyday use of tech. In previous issues of TL;DR I've discussed privacy and security techniques you should start to understand and employ. As an example of this, I've started to use Signal for messaging, and I think you should as well.

As soon as news of this leak was made public, numerous reports immediately spread fear to users of these technologies. I did not immediately jump into the fray by tweeting and sharing some of this insight. I've been waiting for a thoughtful examination by a seasoned professional to let me know what is really happening. This piece by Zeynep Tufekci is just what I needed.

Tufekci indicates that we are still safe in using Signal and WhatsApp as they connect between devices. Of course, if someone gets your device, then they often can get your data. Tufekci also continues the line of questioning about WikiLeaks and their motivations. More to come...

George Monbiot in The Guardian discussing the ramifications of big data and the ubiquity of technology in our lives. Monbiot discusses the implications of online information as it is used to manipulate us. The groups behind these initiatives are often hidden from view, and may represent big money and shadow institutions. Before these groups seize the digital commons, we need to organize and hack the system.

Monbiot closes with the following:

Either we own political technologies, or they will own us. The great potential of big data, big analysis and online forums will be used by us or against us. We must move fast to beat the billionaires.

Post from Vinay Gupta in the Harvard Business Review. This post describes an possible alternative future if we understand and utilize blockchain and distributed ledger technologies as part of the architecture of the Internet.

If you don't know anything about blockchain technologies, take a peek at my primer on the subject, or this earlier post from Gupta.

I think the real power in these technologies is to make sure we don't have one centralized locus of power on the Internet. This means that one individual, group, or country cannot change their mind and immediately change "truth" in online spaces.

This past week I was interviewed for a blog post on the skills needed to critically evaluate online information. I read this post by Mike Caulfield right before the interview and referenced several of the points from the post.

Specifically, I think there is a need for educators and students to recognize that the Internet is a web of information. As such, individuals need to read laterally as they consume information. It's not good enough to look at one source or page from a website and consider purpose, audience, and bias. There is a need to look across the web at other posts from the same site. There is also a need to research the author and see what other information they have shared in the past.

There are several other pieces that make a lot of sense from what Caulfield has shared. Keep in mind that I love this stuff as my dissertation was solely focused on critical evaluation of online information. As the post indicates, there is a need to think as a journalist as you read online. You may also have to "fact-check the mailman" as you do so.

Twitter's new order

Twitter is still in a precarious situation as they lose money while still looking for potential buyers. One of the challenges is that they can provide a voice for people to get their story out to the world...while still holding a spot for trolls and fear mongers. Twitter seems like they're finally taking one step to control the troll population by automatically mute eggs and other sketchy accounts.

In this post, Will Oremus in Slate details another big recent change as they've included an algorithmic timeline as they share posts. Previously, you would get a stream of tweets from everyone on your feed all lined up according to the time stamp. The new algorithmic feed will sort your incoming tweets in a manner to make it easier for you to find what Twitter and the algorithm think you'll like to see. As Oremus indicates, this will definitely reshape civil discourse online. We also need to be cautious/aware about how this affects the information we consume in digital spaces.

🔨 Do

I love to cook. This past week we celebrated my Wife's birthday and I cooked up a couple of BBQ chicken pot pies that she requested for dinner. The recipe that I use is one I've been honing over a couple of years, but it is close to the one shared above.

I cooked up some pulled BBQ chicken earlier in the week. I then caramelized some onions and mixed in our choice of vegetables with the onions and more BBQ sauce. Finally, we put all of this in a frozen pie crust and use a second frozen pie crust for the covering. I usually put some cooked sweet potatoes in the pie as well. This time we went all out for her birthday and I added a layer of tater tots. Add in a couple layers of shredded cheese in the middle if needed.

🤔 Consider

"Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family." — Kofi Annan

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Part of the 📧 Newsletter archive documenting digital literacy and technology.