Robin Berjon
@robin
Political technologist, bringing democracy to the internet. Brussels, 🇪🇺. tech, governance, science, politics, philosophy, infrastructure, cats, terrible puns DASL, Eurosky/Mu, Modal ex W3C, NYT he/him/Ishmael Signal robin.77
I don't know if people outside the field understand what computer conferences are like these days...
But most importantly, it has another major effect on ad funding (which, like it or not, is by far the thing that pays for most of the web). Because Google is in a monopoly position, they can charge much higher prices for search ads — and search ads are necessary. This has an impact on the web…
But as Google began capturing search, the pattern shifted. The more it monopolised search, the less it had to care about publishers. AI is only the most recent step in a trajectory that has been constant for almost twenty years. How did Google break competition in search?
How did we get here? Things used to be mutualistic: search got free content and sites got free traffic. This was enforced by competition. Misbehaving site? De-index. Misbehaving search? Cut off crawler. But this only works if there are enough search engines that sites can afford to do it.
"Things That Make Us Smart" by Donald Norman Interesting tidbits, but not what I was looking for.
"The Rational Use of Cognitive Resources" by Falk Lieder, Frederick Callaway, & Thomas Griffiths A very interesting update to rationality, finding optimality not in some impossible abstract but within resources. They don't quite go there but it's a notion of rationality that can include energy.
I thought of it but his modelling schedule is intense. Also his sister isn't on Mu either.
If you have a job or internship this coming August for a bright and independent 17yo (depicted on the right), let me know!
Punting to CNECT is weird. I believe that the behaviour pointed to in @leafplaza.eu's complaint is the one that EU Observer reported on in euobserver.com/223831/eu-pr.... (Link in screenshot goes to www.linkedin.com/posts/rentzh...)
"Venomous Lumpsuckers" by @nedbeauman.bsky.social Dark, in fact pretty fucking grim, and just as hilarious.
Give me whatever amount of funding the Commission is burning on "Web 4.0" and I will bring tech sovereignty to an entire sector of the digital sphere.
Has the risk assessment been published? Also, is their sense of hype and audience based on W's doctored engagement numbers? (Sent to me by another party.)
At the Villa Boghossian this late afternoon for the opening of "Shape of Absence", Hrair Sarkissian's exhibition showing a graveyard of Syrian artwork destroyed or looted from the Raqqa museum. Very moving.
"Les milliardaires ne paient pas d'impôt sur le revenu et nous allons y mettre fin" by @gabrielzucman.bsky.social Short, inescapable, well-documented, and to the point. A future to look forward to. (Available in English as "We Need To Tax Billionaires".)
"What We Can Know" by Ian McEwan Enjoyed the structure that keeps you guessing.
Tout le monde pense que je m'amuse à déterrer des bambous, mais la vérité est que je rhizome.
Opening the Eurostack exhibit at DG-CONNECT, @eurosky.social mentioned on stage — sovereignty through infrastructure 🇪🇺💖 I'm also delighted to hear Roberto Viola pushing for the European sovereign tech fund.
And another great Mu feature: native support for embedded events. RSVP without leaving your social app!
The only thing you need to know about "The European vision of technological sovereignty" that's developed in the Commission's tech sovereignty package is that it includes support for "Web 4.0". That's how serious, visionary, and strategic it is. Web 4.0.
Zuckerberg's cultural pasteurisation machine, as presented by @blaine.bsky.social.
#infomocracy mentioned! (Great talk from @r-emrys.bsky.social at the Rewilding the Web workshop.) Cc @older.bsky.social
Sometimes I imagine a world in which European leaders like @president.europarl.europa.eu spent as much time supporting the European model of tech as they do cosying up to foreign oligarchs with openly anti-democratic projects and anti-European foreign interference activities. 🧵
"Evolution of the Social Contract" by Brian Skyrms Very interesting, on evolutionary game theory and the evolution of justice, meaning, etc.