˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
I'm off to what in the past has been my favourite event - the Thinking Digital Conference
It's got it all - spectacular venue, great speakers, and local to me (15 miles away)
It hasn't been on for the last couple of years due to the pandemic, so I'm hoping it's as good as I remember. I've changed a lot (as has the world!) since 2019, and I hope it's not just a big apology for capitalism. I'm sure it won't be 😅
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
First break after four speakers:
1. A professor talking about AI face recognition and its uses
2. A fashion technologists showing how people can remote hug
3. A financial historian arguing for the value of Venture Capital
4. A VR storyteller taking about the immersive potential of the tech
Guess which one I didn't clap for 😂
Noam Preil
@dajbelshaw Trick question: all four.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
Great presentation by Taha Yasseri about the difference between Wikipedia and social media in terms of community and collaboration.
Fundamental insight based on data analysis and models is that co-creatijg stuff brings people together in ways that rating systems do not.
Fitheach
@dajbelshaw
Nah, bollocks. Everyone's favourite chutney. 🙄
Fitheach
@dajbelshaw
They are only good when made into chutney.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@fitheach NFTs?! 😉
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
I feel very sorry (not really) for this next person taking about the value of crypto currencies and web3 in the middle of the biggest crash (since the last one)
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
Such bollocks. For some reason, they started talking about mangos and making them traceable via NFTs 🙄
Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅
Downes 🍁
Downes 🍁
@mackiwg @dajbelshaw Web3 will be just fine. Cryptocurrency is just gambling with web3 technology, which means you win some, you lose some. But what matters for web3 isn't the wins or losses, it's the vig.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
Wayne Mackintosh 🇳🇿🐧
@dajbelshaw Brave presenter. With the crash, does that mean we are transitioning into a buyer's market 🤔
Downes 🍁
A lot follows from that. One is that it's better to be the house than to be a gambler - ie., to sell platforms, services, or pickaxes - and collect the vig. Another is that the only way to keep winning is to entice other people to start gambling (hence the whole mythology of 'growth') creating, in effect, a ponzi scheme.
The ethics of all that are, of course, very questionable, since we're literally gambling with people's lives and livelihoods.
Downes 🍁
@clacke @mackiwg @dajbelshaw
@dajbelshaw
I find it really enhances my understanding of economics generally to simply think of it as being based in legalized gambling. No more, no less. Sure, people will always come up with justifications for betting on this or that, or will have a 'system', but it is essentially a game of chance.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
Sugata Mitra is up next. I think he's a bit of a charlatan TBH but he does mix things up a bit, which is good.
This time, he's talking about allowing the use of internet in exams. He's not really talking about the problem behind the problem (as usual)
I do agree that we should allow people to learn what they want, though.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
I've bailed on the conference before the last session. Too much capitalism is triggering my migraines. I think the sycophantic session on the PayPal founders tipped me over the edge 🙄
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
The other competitor is Dress Circle,the IMDB for theatre run by a guy and his wife. I'm rooting for this one.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
Next person is Jon Carmichael who has shared the fascinating story behind his story of photographing the lunar eclipse https://joncarmichael.com
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
Post-lunch start-up competition includes all-white company (and board) pitching for a proprietary(?) 3D-printed projector(!) + resource hub for schools in Africa. Mad.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
I bought the ticket for this conference in 2019 and, as I said in the first post in this thread, I've changed a lot and so has the world since then.
I'm not sure I'll buy a ticket for next year. For me, there were such huge problems with what was being celebrated in most of the sessions.
Perhaps my worldview has completely flipped. Perhaps I've been radicalised by the Fediverse 😂
Miguel Guhlin
@dajbelshaw So, in 980 characters or less, what do you think is the chief WRONG focus of conferences and what is the RIGHT focus of conferences that would make you attend them and enjoy? 🙂
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@mguhlin Oh wow, there's a blog post in that!
But off the top of my head:
1. Participatory sessions. They don't all have to be workshops, but some method for audience Q&A
2. Explicitly state what's in and out of scope for the conference. Bonus points for articulating the assumptions that conference organisers are making (e.g. Venture Capital is a good thing)
3. Ensure a visibly-diverse range of speakers so that people feel represented. White middle-aged guys don't have more ideas.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@humanetech Yeah, I'm saying it facetiously and it's not just the Fediverse (I set up a co-op in 2016!)
It's more like I've found my people. And they're not funded by VCs 😂
Humane Tech Now
Yeah, isn't that great. We say it jokingly but seriously.. some proper study into this effect might likely show a real positive influence.
Btw, did you consider you were de-radicalized instead? Some quite radical dogma's we took for granted eradicated, blinders removed, looking at the world with new eyes..
👁️ 👁️
👄
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@basil But completely unproblematised, even though the speaker was relatively dark-skinned and of Asian heritage.
I guess there's only so much you can get across in a short space of time, and the event was quite celebratory of tech (esp. Silicon Valley-style) but still...
Basil
@dajbelshaw ai/law enforcement chat always makes me think of this scene
https://youtu.be/hriunIvgEto
Basil
@dajbelshaw that does sound great.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@basil Of course not! Just how great it is to be able to track down Nazi war criminals.
Basil
@dajbelshaw did #1 touch on anything about race issues.
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@mguhlin I may well do! Thanks for your list 😄
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@mguhlin I wrote this: https://dougbelshaw.com/blog/2022/05/20/running-event/
Miguel Guhlin
@dajbelshaw All valid points...With your list as a starting point, mine might look like this at minimum (minimalist here):
1) Diversity, both from presenters and content, that makes you think different;
2) Time to reflect and try (if participant wants to)
3) Shorter sessions (30 mins) because brains like that with option to access more detailed content
And, like you, I like space for people to catch up and share ideas/insights.
Yes, Doug, are you going to blog this? 🙂
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@mguhlin cont...
4. Present the audience with radically different ideas, including ones that they might not like (I feel that previous iterations of this conference did this better)
5. Have a theme for days or, even better, chunks of the day so people can use their time wisely.
6. Provide space for people who want to duck out of sessions and just chat.
7. Recognise the wisdom and talent in the audience rather just who happens to be on the stage.
(I could keep going...)
Santa Claes 🇸🇪🇭🇰🎅
˗ˏˋ Doug Belshaw ˎˊ˗ 💥☠️✊:
@clacke @mguhlin Like I said, there's not many. From what I see, things like FOSDEM? In my area, I guess ALT.
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