kdriscoll

kdriscoll, 3 days ago to random

Something very cool happening in my corner of the fedi: The WELL opened an official, members-only Mastodon server!

Creating a public-facing server is a major change for The WELL which is principally a private conferencing system. And it did not happen over night. The new server builds on more than a year of work by one volunteer running an unofficial server for members.

Read more:
https://www.well.com/mastodon/

Find me there too: @driscoll

kdriscoll, 16 days ago to random

Fantastic piece recalling BlackPlanet:

>> "Despite skepticism within the tech industry that a social-networking site geared toward African Americans could be successful, about 1 million users joined BlackPlanet within a year of its launch. By 2008, it had about 15 million members."

Hannah Giorgis, “The Homepage of the Black Internet.” The Atlantic, April 12, 2024
🔗 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/05/blackplanet-social-media-history/677839/.

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to random

Listening to venture capitalists from a16z spinning a truly bizarro revisionist history of the internet in which "no one cared...except for computer scientists" until we got broadband??? Bros, you worked at NETSCAPE and AOL and EBAY!! 😂😵‍💫

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to retrocomputing

Can anyone help @rwg ID Suzy Thunder's modems? Two late 70s acoustic couplers.

Read more: “The Electronic Delinquents,” ABC 20/20, April 22, 1982, https://hackcur.io/trashing-the-phone-company-with-suzy-thunder/

#retrocomputing #hacking #phreaking #bbs #history

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to academia

Call for papers about "AI and Resilience" for a special issue of Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. This is an interdisciplinary call for a range of perspectives. Critical, humanistic, cultural, historical perspectives are all welcome =>
https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/62761/ai-and-resilience

#academia #cfp #AI #dh #commodon #sts

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to usenet

In July 1999, someone stole a trailer jammed with Sonic Youth gear out of a Ramada Inn parking lot. Lee Ranaldo immediately sent an email that was reposted to alt.music.sonic-youth:

> Please no pranks, all, this is really serious--
> all the gear we've used to write our last few LPs
> worth of stuff, instruments used for songs old
> and new which if truly lost will mean those songs
> will be lost forever.

https://usenetarchives.com/view.php?id=alt.music.sonic-youth&mid=PDM3ODIyOTJhLjU3OTY3MDhAbmV3cy5kbGMuZmk%2B

#usenet #sonicyouth #rock #guitar #crime

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to bbs

💾⚡☎⚡📠⚡🥳

**>> DIALED IN **
>> THE PREHISTORY OF SOCIAL MEDIA

📅 April 25, 2024
🕖 7:00 PM PT (10 PM ET)
🎤 @kdriscoll, @zephoria, Marc Weber

🏛 Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA

📹 Live and streaming online!

🎟 https://computerhistory.org/events/dialed-in/

#bbs #fidonet #history #internethistory #dh #socialmedia

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to random

The persistence of news (and politics) on Threads is a nice example of the stubborn power of users within these platforms. The platform owners can discourage political talk but they still need people to post. So, the news and politics remain.

As with so many aspects of a control society, infrastructural power is real power but it's not limitless.

via @caseynewton
https://www.platformer.news/threads-news-politics-gas-leak-network/

kdriscoll, 1 month ago to academia

The East Asia Center and Miller Center at U of Virginia are hiring a Global China Post-doctoral Research Associate.

This position is open to applicants from a range of backgrounds including global studies, history, media studies, politics, science and technology studies, and sociology. Language proficiency in Chinese is preferred.

The salary is 50K USD per year plus benefits.

https://uva.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/UVAJobs/job/Charlottesville-VA/East-Asia-Center-and-Miller-Center-Global-China-Post-doctoral-Research-Associate_R0057781

#academia #job #commodon

kdriscoll, 2 months ago to ai

Proof that Google Gemini 1.5 Pro is actually Gen X

#AI #genx #genai #c64 #retrocomputing

inquiline, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to mastodon

Friends, strangers, haters: I have... made hay. Let no one say I haven't committed to the bit.

(Wrote a paper about Asstodon, everyone be kind)

https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/13367/11436

#STS #Mastodon #Commodon #autoethnography #DareIUseTheHashtag #Donkeygate #FirstMonday

kdriscoll, 2 months ago to history

🎺 Nominations are now open for the 2024 Mahoney Prize!

📃 Send your outstanding articles in the #history of computing and information technology.

💰📅 The prize consists of $500 and a certificate. Articles published in 2021, 2022, and 2023 are eligible. Self-nominations are encouraged and do not require a cover letter.

📧 Send your submission to the committee by April 15, 2024.

🔗 For committee email addresses and a list of prior winners, see:
https://www.sigcis.org/mahoneyprize

#histodons #academia #dh

ai6yr, 3 months ago to Plumbing

Something this old and everything else attached of similar era makes plumbers grumpy! Lesson so far on this disaster is to plan on refreshing plumbing more frequently. That was not in the "becoming a homeowner" brochures, LOL. #plumbing #plumbingdisaster #homeownership

kdriscoll, 3 months ago to Emulation

The original WWW proposal is a Word for Macintosh 4.0 file from 1990. Recovering the text, diagrams, and formatting was not impossible but it was hard. A great example of the use of #emulation for historical research and digital preservation.

https://blog.jgc.org/2024/02/the-original-www-proposal-is-word-for.html

kdriscoll, 3 months ago to fediverse

This comment by @Gargron reflects a tension I see often see in my research: Most people have no memory of the pre-platform era!

🗣️ "What we’re doing is not new in the sense that it's returning to the roots of the internet [...] but also most people haven't experienced that early version of the internet. So it's new to them."

From this thoughtful interview with @zoeschiffer >>
https://www.platformer.news/mastodon-interview-eugen-rochko-meta-bluesky-threads-federation/

#fediverse #internet #socialmedia #history

luis_in_brief, 3 months ago to random

I keep meaning to write a review of my Boox e-ink Android tablet, but I appear to have left it on the plane and want to immediately buy a new one, so I guess that's as good a review as any.

bkeegan, 3 months ago to superbowl

2022: Databases for JPEGs are gonna transform everything.

2024: Stolen autocompletes are gonna transform everything.

2026: Uber-for-militias are gonna transform everything.

2028: Autojammers for drones are gonna transform everything.

2030: Off-grid solar batteries are gonna transform everything.

#superbowl

loriemerson, 3 months ago to random

#othernetworks pals, are there any other examples of hybrid communication nets that used the postal system for "last mile" delivery? I mean other examples like Western Union's Mailgram, FedEx's Zapmail, or USPS's E-COM. I'd love to add a few more to this list if I can...and thank you!

kdriscoll, 3 months ago to mastodon

Has anyone implemented local trends on #mastodon? Is this a #hometown feature? I'd love to see local-only trends or at least some mechanism for positively weighting the contributions of local #AoIR users.

kdriscoll, 4 months ago to random

Oh no, the Anatomy of AI domain (anatomyof dot ai) got snagged and squatted (don't click). I've used this on syllabi in the past and I'm sure some of you have as well.

Wayback has a snapshot from earlier this month so hopefully they will find a new home. Unfortunately, I doubt they'll recover the original domain.

http://web.archive.org/web/20240103124839/https://anatomyof.ai/

kdriscoll, 4 months ago to random

💾 🤗 Call for Participation for the Critical Code Studies Working Group (CCSWG 24) #critcode #dh

(The deadline is today but the application requirements are minimal!)

Topics for this year include:
☑ Queering Code
☑ CCS and AI
☑ The DHQ Special issues
☑ Teaching Code and Code Studies

https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1TVYqLOIbYYs6qsMd5ah-DQEaQCEhe5GEQCk7ITdDvoI/mobilebasic

kdriscoll, 4 months ago to Ohio

📰 Today, a state historical marker will be unveiled at the site of #CompuServe world headquarters in Upper Arlington, #Ohio.

The event marks the 50 year anniversary of the founding of this legendary online service.

🛰 The ceremony will be streaming at 11 AM EST: https://fb.me/e/1xjlBMXVy

#internet #history

inquiline, 4 months ago (edited 4 months ago) to random

Can anyone recommend a good, accessible (to students) reading on tech hype cycles? Not, ideally, a specific case, but a more general treatment of the phenomenon

#STS @sts

kdriscoll, 5 months ago to academia

The Diversity Institute at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is seeking applications for postdocs and junior faculty working on #race and ethnicity for an interdisciplinary summer program. The fellowship covers tuition, lodging, travel, and food. Deadline January 8. Pass it along!

https://casbs.stanford.edu/programs/diversity-institute-why-and-how-difference-makes-difference

#commodon #academia #cfp #socialscience

fheinderyckx, 5 months ago to Netflix

Finally:
“Starting today [Netflix] will publish What We Watched: A Netflix Engagement Report twice a year. This is a comprehensive report of what people watched on Netflix over a six month period1, including:

• Hours viewed for every title — original and licensed — watched for over 50,000 hours2;
• The premiere date3 for any Netflix TV series or film; and
• Whether a title was available globally.”
  https://about.netflix.com/en/news/what-we-watched-a-netflix-engagement-report

#Netflix #audience #streaming @communicationscholars