1996: The Year of the Content Creator
For the year of content creators 1996, I found 234 items. It’s actually one of the biggest amounts per year until the late 2000s. That’s gotta be due to the web, right?
FOSS Academic
First, one goal is to explore life as a “FOSS Academic” – someone who uses Free and Open Source technologies to do academic work. I’m hoping that my discussions of FOSS technologies in an academic setting help others – students, professors, university administrators – understand the benefits and values of FOSS in the academy. I’m not a developer, but I am a professor who’s been using FOSS to do his job for over a decade. I call this goal of exploring FOSS tools in the academy Goal 1. Second,…
Latest posts
Contentification, Pulpification: From Books to Content
[Head's up... this one's an angry post that's probably not totally coherent. But it's from the heart, at least...]
1995: The Year of the Content Creator
I’ve collected 113 items for the year 1995.
1994: The Year of the Content Creator
I’m glad I’m doing these public posts about “years of the content creators.” I started doing the research for my current book about a year ago, and it’s good to go back to my Zotero notes, refine tags, and review items to see what I’ve missed.
1957 to 1993: The Year(s) of the Content Creator
My research for my next book, The Age of Content , has been in full swing for at least a year now. That book is going to be a short one (Polity wants me to keep it to 30K words). In order to show my work, I am creating a regular series on this blog, "_____: The Year of the Content Creator," where I discuss key texts.
Reading the Digital Safety Act with My Mastodon Admin Hat On
Back in 2024, I published a reading of the Online Harms Act from my perspective as an admin of a Mastodon instance. The Online Harms Act was a proposed Canadian bill meant to regulate social media to prevent "harmful content," particularly hate speech and child abuse materials. While the Online Harms Act ultimately did not come to pass (due the proroguing of Parliament later that year), the Carney…
Generative AI policy for students, part 1
As much as I want all LLM-based generative AI to be ejected into the sun , it's probably not going to happen any time soon. And since I'm a professor at a university, I have to deal with the role of generative AI in education.
The Age of Content (Goal 3 Initiate!)
With my latest book, Move Slowly and Build Bridge , complete, Goal 2 of this blog is completed, as well. Goal 2 was a big reason I started this blog. I wanted to write a book about FOSS in an open way, and I think I achieved that with my book about Mastodon and the fediverse. But now I need a new goal.
Against Interpreting Prompts: Susan Sontag on Generative AI
Readers of this blog probably know I have a very low opinion of generative AI -- a low opinion that seems to be shared by many many other folks . At least it's good to not be alone, even if every interaction we have with tech companies is meant to think this whole thing is inevitable.
Zotero 9? I barely used Zotero 8
Wait, what? Just a couple months ago, I did an early review of Zotero 8 . I updated my computer today and see Zotero 9 is out?
Zotero 8 Early Review
Zotero 8 is out. It includes a new Add Citation system and tab-based notes that might -- might -- make me stop using Zettlr.
New Nextcloud with Possible Digital Sovereignty
If implementing a redesign of this blog wasn't enough, and if redoing its static generation code wasn't enough, in the past few days I've migrated from my original Nextcloud server to a brand new one.
Fresh New Look, Same Great Taste
Toronto, like a major part of Turtle Island, got a fresh coat of snow. In between shoveling our sidewalk and admiring it all, I've been doing some behind-the-scenes modification to my Python-based static blog generator . Hopefully it's obvious why -- the site now has a new look! Like a fresh coat of winter snow, the site looks and feels a bit different.
Oops! All Microslop: Or, Trying to Write With Microsoft
In my last post I looked back at 2025, considering how FOSS continues to be central to how I do my work as a university professor. I probably had hoped 2026 would be better overall, but new horrors from Trump undermined that. But I'm going to ignore all that to focus on a different horror: Microsoft, particularly at York University. Even more particularly, the horror of trying to use Microsoft to…
The FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream 2025 Review
Happy solstice! The shortest day of the year is a fine day to think back on another time 'round the sun. What's gone on with me and the FOSS Academic dream this past year?
You Can't Contain Me, You Can Only Hope to Stop Me
Installing a new flavor of Linux used to be fun.
A Guide for #AOIR2025 and Social Media
The annual conference of the Association of Internet Researchers is fast approaching! Scheduled for mid-October in Brazil, hundreds of Internet scholars (like me!) will convene to do what we do: share cat pictures.
Reimplemented and It Feels So Good
It may not look different (yet -- more on this below!) but this blog is now powered by Python instead of Jekyll.
What Does This Z Key Do?: Thoughts on Zotero versus Zettlr
Geordi gets it right Ever since I came across Gnome Do , a quick launcher application for Linux that brings up whatever files or applications I want if I simply start typing, I've used such launchers on every computer I've owned. Currently, since I use KDE, that means I use KRunner , which works similarly.
The Plight of the Reviewer: Lessons from AI Generation and Software
On the latest Late Night Linux podcast , the gang discussed a recent blog post by Daniel Stenberg about the plight of reviewers -- specifically, open source bug bounty program reviewers, who are facing a rising tide of AI slop. I think this has implications for my profession, particularly the task of conducting academic peer reviews.
Sharing my book, one random bit at a time
No one will accuse me of being a Python expert, but I have increasingly been using it to take care of tasks. For example, if I build a website, I now often use Markdown or CSV files to store the data for the site, process it with Python, and then push it to whatever server its hosted on. This time, however, I made something that certainly was a challenge for me: a bot to post random bits of my new…
Move Slowly and Build Bridges Cover Reveal
The cover for Move Slowly and Build Bridge: Mastodon, the Fediverse, and the Struggle for Democratic Social Media has been revealed!
I Ain't Gonna Work on ChatGPT's Farm No More
I think I'm going to get a reputation -- if I don't have it already -- of being one of those people. Those people who really don't like generative AI.
Copyediting: The Bane of the FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream
Photo by Noito Love I'm starting this post with a specific passage from my upcoming book. It's important for context.
FOSS Academic Workflow, 2025 Edition
It's been a while since I blogged about how I do all my academic work using free and open source software -- otherwise known as the "FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream." In fact, the last time I wrote about this was 2020 !
Standards War?
While I was not surprised by the announcement, it was still sad to read the news that IFTAS is shutting down several of its services for lack of funding. It is hard for me not to see this as another aspect of a potential "standards war" between ActivityPub and ATProto.
The ASM Bibliography is Going Home
This is a minor update: the ASM Bibliography is returning to its original home on the social media alternatives project page.
You Can Post Your Way Out of Fascism if You Own the Means of Posting
I've been mulling over Janus Rose's recent 404 Media article, "You Can't Post Your Way Out of Fascism." . In many ways, she's not wrong. But once again people are ignoring an entirely other way of doing social media that can, in fact, fight fascism.
Introducing: the Network of Alternative Social Media Researchers
For years, researching alternative social media has been a bit lonely. But not anymore!
Making Alternative Social Media in a Corporate Social Media World
In this week's Alternative Social Media Update , I want to share two things that happened this week and have a fundamental connection: they both indicate the challenges alternative social media developers face when they make ASM in a corporate social media world.
Watching Threads, Bluesky and Decentralization, and ActivityPub Trust and Safety
This weekly Alternative Social Media update -- the first of 2025! -- is about getting caught back up with some things that have happened in the past month. First up, I'll relate the latest changes at Meta to a specific interest of mine, Threads's fediverse blocklist. Then, I'll point you to a very fascinating back-and-forth discussion about Bluesky's ATProto and ActivityPub (as well as OCapN).…
Threads and the Failure of Global Content Moderation
This week's Alternative Social Media Update turned out to be more of a critique of corporate social media, specifically Meta's Threads.
Marp + BeautifulSoup
The FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream just got a bit dreamier.
ASM Update: Can this platform survive?
It's been a pretty packed week, between the end of the semester, my participation in a small conference, and a sick kiddo at home. So this week's ASM update is a short one.
Marp!
As avid readers of my blog know, I am livin' the FOSS Academic Lifestyle Dream : I use FOSS tools to do my academic work. I use Nextcloud to manage files and handle appointments , Zotero and Zettlr to take notes, and LibreOffice Writer to write books and articles. This blog runs on Jekyll. I love it all!
ASM update: libraries, libraries everywhere
It's a simple, yet deep ASM update for this week. Last week, I posted about some recent research in the realm of alternative social media. I also drew attention to the bibliography I maintain here on this blog . In response to that post, folks on the fediverse alerted me to other bibliographic projects collecting research in related ideas. Here I want to highlight two of them.
ASM Update: New Research Edition
Bluesky continues to blow up. I hear about it everywhere. It's so backed up the Brid.gy system has slowed to a crawl .
ASM Updates: Bluesky growth continues
Here's what caught my eye (and ear) this week in the world of alternative social media. I didn't plan this, but it turns out a lot of this is coming from 404 Media -- shout out to them! If you aren't reading their articles... do it now!
ASM Update for November 8, 2024
ASM updates are back! Now that I'm done drafting my book , I want to get back to doing this regularly.
Hey, Journalists: X is Now Truth Social
Hey, journalists, it's time to get off X. Today. And switch to the fediverse.
York Circle Lecture: Fleeing Facebook and Exiting X
Yesterday, I gave a presentation at York University in Toronto as part of their York Circle program. The audience was comprised of York alumni.
From reverse engineering to building bridges: adventures in alternative social media
I recently gave a presentation to the Cultural Studies PhD program at George Mason University . That's the program where I earned my PhD, so it was an honor to come back and talk to my professors as well as some of the new students currently in the program.
Goodbye, Firefox?
I think I'm going to stop using Firefox altogether. It was a tiny little weather app that did it.
ASM Update: Mastodon Research Ethics and the Ethical Quandaries of Tech Advocacy
In this ASM update, I'll write at length about a new research study on Mastodon that gets the ethics of research right -- even though they pulled data from my home Mastodon instance. I'll also discuss a recent podcast episode that talks about the ethics of using and promoting FOSS.
Zotero 7 Early Review
I took a family vacation, so I was away from my work laptop when I learned Zotero has launched version 7, a major upgrade . While I enjoyed my vacation, I was naturally eager to get home to try it out!
Hitting a Nerve and Presenting at IETF
Nothing major this month, but I do want to note two things. First, I wrote a post on the fediverse that must have hit a nerve. It's about corporations selling off academic work to AI companies. Second, I presented research to a panel at the IETF, talking about the development of ActivityPub by the W3C's Social Web Working Group. The presentation is based on my forthcoming book .
On Threads's Blocklist
Meta's Threads, which is slowly enabling ActivityPub capabilities, has just posted a list of servers it is blocking . The list (as of this writng) has over 660 entries. Since I am finalizing a chapter on Threads for my forthcoming book , I will definitely have to consider this list in detail. For now, I wanted to offer a few comments on this development, since it's a decidedly important moment in…
Maven Ain't So Mavenly
The ever-alert Liaizon Wakest has informed the rest of us on the ActivityPub-based fediverse of a new social media site, Maven , which has ingested millions of posts from fediverse accounts , including mine.
Thinking of Switching to Linux, Fellow Academics?
Ok, so Microsoft did a thing, a potentially privacy-violating thing, called Recall . Microsoft has been doing lots of other things . Apparently these things have led to people not wanting to use Windows 11, the latest Windows -- or even stop using Windows altogether.
Decentralization or Noncentralization, Bluesky or the Fediverse?
I'm nearing wrapping up drafting Move Slowly and Build Bridges , my book about the fediverse . I do several things in the book: provide some history, show the struggles of instance admins, talk about the politics of blocklists.