@mia@hcommons.social
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

mia

@mia@hcommons.social

Digital Curator, British Library

I do digital, UX and collections stuff in libraries, museums and archives, especially crowdsourcing / digital participation / public history. Formerly @mia_out on twitter. Trying tootfinder to make my posts searchable

Also posting from https://glammr.us/@libcrowds https://zirk.us/@LivingWithMachines https://techhub.social/@BL_DigiSchol

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

'Is AI leading to a reproducibility crisis in science?'

Data leakage 'can be subtle: if a random subset of test data is taken from the same pool as the training data... And if medical data from the same individual (or same scientific instrument) are split between training and test sets, the AI might learn to identify features associated with that individual or that instrument, rather than a specific medical ailment... That’s why it is essential to run ‘control’ trials'

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03817-6

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@oblomov it has, but it's clearly about to get a lot worse! And while most people will use pre-existing models, maybe with a bit of transfer learning, it's also good for people to think about data leakage and other issues that might affect the results they see

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

'Talk to any archivist, curator or worker in libraries and museums, and you'll find out how little money there is, and how little of that goes on making good IT, let alone good security. Outdated and badly maintained software is a big part of why hacking groups find it cost-effective to attack badly funded public service targets.'

https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/27/british_library_opinion_column/

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

It's slightly ironic that an article asking 'why can't all library data be open' also links to an article on a 'shadow library' being sued over copyright...

And also, some British Library catalogue data is open! For example, https://bl.natbib-lod.org/about/about-the-british-national-bibliography

'The British National Bibliography (BNB) consists of descriptions of: books and journal titles published or distributed in the United Kingdom and Ireland since 1950, and electronic publications since 2013; forthcoming books, registered through the Cataloguing-in-Publication (CIP) service'

Or stuff on https://bl.iro.bl.uk

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

Ted Chiang on AI: 'When Silicon Valley tries to imagine superintelligence, what it comes up with is no-holds-barred capitalism.'

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway

joelanman, to random
@joelanman@hachyderm.io avatar

We have a mental health slack channel where you can post anonymously - its a great thing. Unfortunately we sometimes get people posting anonymously to say that other people expressing their pain or distress upsets them. Feels like a misuse of the space

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@joelanman why are they reading it?

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

The latest from the British Library on the cyber attack: https://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/living-knowledge/2023/11/cyber-incident.html

(edited as 'BL' isn't necessarily helpful)

simon, to random
@simon@simonwillison.net avatar

I wrote up some very extensive notes on my exploration of the new GPTs feature of ChatGPT:

Exploring GPTs: ChatGPT in a trench coat?

https://simonwillison.net/2023/Nov/15/gpts/

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@simon thanks for sharing that! GPTs is a terrible name, do you think they'll come up with something more distinctive?

Edent, to SmartHome
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Those of you who have a , what are your use-cases for smart plugs?

Most of my electrical things aren't just on/off.

I've got a light, a fan, and an electric blanket which can be controlled from the plug.

Other things (like TV, kettle, etc) need interaction after the power is turned on.

Have you found any good uses for plugs?

(Not interested in rants about security & privacy, thanks.)

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@Edent turning on the electric blanket from downstairs is the best use of a wifi plug but we also have one on a heater. But it's interesting, I wouldn't think of it as a 'smart home' thing

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

Are you looking for a technology-ish job in the humanities or cultural heritage? Or looking to advertise a job? I've collated the sites I suggest to people, with some notes on applying for #DH #GLAM tech jobs

https://www.openobjects.org.uk/2023/11/finding-digital-heritage-glam-tech-digital-humanities-jobs-staff/

Comments welcome!

aral, to random
@aral@mastodon.ar.al avatar

I’m seriously considering buying a bunch of Bluetooth earphones and gifting them to anyone I see blaring a video or game or music in a quiet public place from their phone.

What do you think, shall we crowdfund it for the sanity of us all?

#firstWorldProblems #earphonesForAll

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@aral sometimes I'm tempted to join in their conversations, or comment on what they're watching in the style of a chatty boring person

mia, to ai
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

Does anyone have experience with GUI-based tools for labelling images to create machine learning models to find similar types of image? e.g. upsidedown manuscript pages and title pages among many, many 'normal' mss pages.

I've found AWS Sagemaker, but are there other options?

#AI #MachineLearning #images

ben, to workersrights
@ben@werd.social avatar

This is a complete misunderstanding of the nature and value of unions: they're not just for low-income workers. Unionization can help all workers and make healthier workplaces for everyone. #Labor https://www.404media.co/bandcamp-editorial-director-fuuuuuck-bandcamp-united/?utm_source=werd.io&utm_campaign=mastodon&utm_channel=mastodon

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@ben wow. (My workplace has 3 recognised unions, one of which is for staff at grades higher than mine)

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

Who think human nature meets computerised decision-making is going to end well?

UK officials use AI '...the processes they use are fair because the final decisions are made by people. Many experts worry, however, that biased algorithms will lead to biased final decisions, because officials can only review the cases flagged to them and often have limited time to do so.'

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/23/uk-officials-use-ai-to-decide-on-issues-from-benefits-to-marriage-licences

Edent, (edited ) to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Couples of Mastodon! How do you handle emails for "joint" things?

Like utility bills, hotel reservations, and other domestic accounts.

Please 🔁 the 📊 for extra reach 🙂

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@Edent we have a joint domain with two shared addresses for general shopping and house stuff. I set them up on her devices but tend to manage them more

mia, to ai
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

'LLMs are being proposed for use in the healthcare setting, with some models already connecting to electronic health record systems. However, this study shows that based on our findings, these LLMs could potentially cause harm by perpetuating debunked, racist ideas.'

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-023-00939-z #AI #ethics

caseynewton, to random
@caseynewton@mastodon.social avatar

It's Hard Fork Friday! This week, three new ways of understanding AI models. THEN: who's the real techno-optimist?? And finally, how we're using AI to read ancient scrolls 👀 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/podcasts/ai-black-box.html

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@caseynewton so nice to learn how an old conversation at work triggered the Herculaneum project among all the doom and gloom this month

mia, to ai
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

I was trying to remember what some of the #AI discourse reminded me of...

'When once a machine has been invented and made known, it is no longer a question whether it is a general advantage to have such a machine or not, but it is necessary to our commerce to employ it, for if we do not, other nations will, and thus we shall inevitably be left behind them.' - Edward Baines, 1826

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

Also this:

'It is the duty of the legislature to protect the weak from being oppressed by the strong; we are the weak, but the power-loom is strong; it takes from us our labour, but it does not contribute its share towards relieving the poverty it creates' - Handloom 'stuff' weavers Edward Sunderland and Michael Mahony's 1835 petition to Parliament.

tommorris, to random
@tommorris@mastodon.social avatar

My mobile operator seems to have decided that 1.9 MB of roaming data (that downloaded in the moment between me turning on my phone and disabling roaming button) cost £9.47.

They've now kindly rescinded it after I pointed out that's a completely silly amount of money.

You could hire a very posh English butler to fly business class with an envelope full of gold-plated SD cards for less per megabyte than the mobile networks still charge for roaming data, for absolute fuckssake.

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@tommorris @joelanman I once had to travel to Paris to review a beta website on-premises

codingconduct, to random
@codingconduct@hci.social avatar

: The cost generative AI providers willingly and needlessly impose on the public by making their tools openly available. E.g., where can schools and unis claim a refund for the x,000,000s of person-hours spent on dealing with anxieties and realities of redoing learning assessment when students have access?

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@codingconduct I was just talking about this! Also the flipside to 'open source AI is transparency and literacy' idea is 'open source AI opens the floodgates and everything is up for grabs'. (Also it's not open source, but that's another issue)

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

I may have about 5 hours in the Hague / Den Haag on Thursday afternoon. Any tips on things to do or see? I was last there c 2001 and will be in town for the #EuropeanaTech2023 conference

mia, to random
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

Do Instagram manually choose Threads posts to try and tempt users over, or is this an AI fail?

On the other hand, they got the right vibe for 'Threads for me' if their aim was to show that Instagram is no place for discussion...

Edent, to maps
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

South Up Equal Earth Projection in R

Yup - I'm still banging on about this! This time, in R

Result

The colours are wrong, and the labels need adjustment - but not bad for a few lines of code!

Code

library(tidyverse)
library(rnaturalearth)
library(rnaturalearthdata)
library(sf)

centre

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/07/south-up-equal-earth-projection-in-r/

#/etc/

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@Edent if it's not too late, we've used Best4Frames for lots of custom frames and mounts

mia,
@mia@hcommons.social avatar

@Edent we had a similar experience with blinds - the online services are so on it, while the local companies are slow and their options are a bit opaque. We've gone with local where we can, but sometimes online is just easier.

That said, there's a framer right near the Museum in Docklands who's really good too

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