New posts from thoughtshrapnel.com
Thought Shrapnel
Life-ready signals
To be a professional, a knowledge worker in the 21st century, means keeping up with jargon, acronyms, and shifts in terminology. Some of this is necessary, as I've explained in my work on ambiguity, some isn't.
This article by Kristine Chompff on the Edalex blog introduces a term new to me: "life-ready signals". It doesn't seem to me destined to catch-on, any more than 'durable skills' has or will, but is nevertheless a worthy attempt to recognise the behaviours that go around hard skills and knowledge.
I also think that we need to do something about the acronym soup: while I might understand someone saying that we use RSDs to build a VC as part of a learner's PER within an LER ecosystem, it's gobbledegook to everyone else.
For anyone interested in this kind of thing, we have a community of practice called Open Recognition is for Everybody (ORE) which you can discover and join at badges.community)
For us to understand life-ready signals, we must for a second talk about semiotics and the definition of terms. Because the term “life-ready skills” has evolved, so has the term “life-ready signals.”
Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, of which language is a part. It depends partly on the object being described, but also on the way the person reading that description interprets it. For these terms to be meaningful, we all need to interpret them in the same way.
Life-ready skills are the thing being described. Life-ready signals are those “signs” being used to describe them. For a learner to tell their own story, they need to be equipped not only with the skills themselves, but the proper “signs” to share them with others in a meaningful way.
It’s also important to note here that with the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) there will always be skills that machines will never master, and those are the life-ready skills we are discussing here.
Source: Edalex blog
Image: Giulia May
Fediverse governance models
Erin Kissane and Darius Kazemi have published a report on Fediverse governance which is the kind of thing I would have read with relish when I was Product Manager of MoodleNet. And even before then when I was presenting on decentralisation and censorship in the midst of the 'illegal' Catalan independence referendum.
These days, while still interested in this kind of stuff, and in particular in [how misinformation might be countered in decentralised networks]9bonfirenetworks.org/posts/zap...) I'm not going to be reading 40,000 words on the subject (PDF). Instead point others to it, and in particular to six-page 'quick start' guide for those who might be new to the idea of federated governance.
I wouldn’t have guessed, going in, that we’d end up with the major structural categories we landed on—moderation, server leadership, and federated diplomacy—but after spending so much time eyeball-deep in interview transcripts, I think it’s a pretty reasonable structure for discussing the big picture of governance. (The real gold is of course in the excerpts and summaries from our participants, who continuously challenged and surprised us.)
There are no manifestos to be found here, except in that our participants often eloquently and sometimes passionately express their hopes for the fediverse. There are a lot of assumptions, most of which we’ve tried to be pretty scrupulous about calling out in the text, but anything this chunky contains plentiful grist for both principled disagreement and the other kind. Our aim is to describe and convey the knowledge inherent in fediverse server teams, so we’ve really stuck close to the kinds of problems, risks, needs, and challenges those folks expressed.
Source: Erin Kissane
Image: Google Deepmind
A typology of meme-sharing
I don't know about you, but responding to a family member, friend, or professional contact using a meme has been a daily event for a long time now. It's now over 12 years since I gave my meme-laden talk at TEDx Warwick based on my doctoral thesis. A year later, I gave a presentation (in the midst of growing a beard for charity) which used nothing but gifs. But I digress.
This article from New Public gives a typology of meme-sharing, which is useful. One of the things I wish I had realised, because looking back with hindsight it's so obvious, is the way that memes can be weaponised to create in-groups and out-groups, and to perpetuate hate. Not that I could have done much about it.
There are at least three types of connections that can be forged through meme-sharing: bonding over a shared interest such as movies, sports, and more; bonding over an experience or circumstance; or bonding over a feeling or personal sentiment.
[...]
Sharing memes to connect over common interests is perhaps the most surface-level form of meme-sharing. It hinges exclusively on having shared cultural references rather than shared personal commonalities. These exchanges are more likely to occur in established relationships, such as among family and friends that have shared lived experiences and therefore are exposed to the same cultural references and social cues.
[...]
Connecting over a shared interest can be like connecting over a single data point. But people are so much more complicated. That is why connecting over experiences, which are often inherently more rich and embedded with memories and emotion, can yield a more powerful connection.
[...]
Connecting over shared feelings can be even more moving. There is something particularly intimate about connecting over emotions, and at the same time, universal. As humans, we are rarely self-aware of all of our internal thoughts and feelings, so a meme that can connect with them unexpectedly, like the one below (sound on!), can be powerful.
[...]
These three ways of forming connection through meme-sharing are of course not mutually exclusive, and they are far from being collectively exhaustive. There are definitely instances of meme-sharing which accomplish all of these...
And there can also be situations in which people share memes for reasons outside of connecting over identity, experience, or feelings. Rather, what this typology illustrates is the ways that we can (and do!) cultivate belonging with others online through the sharing of comedic imagery.
Source: New Public
Image: Know Your Meme
Quite posting done right?
Although there are some positive use cases, one of the most toxic things about X/Twitter has been the 'dogpiling' that happens as a result of someone quote-posting something to their followers.
So much so, in fact, that Mastodon has long-resisted implementing them at all, although there are some workarounds in various Fediverse apps.
It's fantastic to see, therefore, that Bluesky, a federated social network that runs on a different protocol to Mastodon, seems to have found a way to allow for non-toxic quote-posting.
(Since Elon Musk refused to comply with Brazilian law leading to X being blocked there, half a million new accounts have been created on Bluesky. Also, lots of people who I recognise from OG Twitter have started following me this week, which would suggest some form of tipping point...)
As of the latest app version, released today (version 1.90), users can view all the quote posts on a given post. Paired with that, you can detach your original post from someone’s quote post.
This helps you maintain control over a thread you started, ideally limiting dog-piling and other forms of harassment. On the other hand, quote posts are often used to correct misinformation too. To address this, we’re leaning into labeling services and hoping to integrate a Community Notes-like feature in the future.
Source: Bluesky blog
The importance of context
I haven't actually finished listening to the whole episode yet, but I can already highly recommend this conversation between Adam Grant and Trevor Noah.
The conversation they have about context towards the start is so important that I wish everyone I know would listen to it.
Trevor Noah is widely admired for his quick wit. He's hosted The Daily Show and the Grammy Awards, sold out huge arenas around the world, had numerous hit comedy specials on Netflix, and published a bestselling memoir, Born a Crime. One of the keys to his success is his ability to read people and communicate clearly. In a lively discussion with Adam, Trevor dives into the importance of context in everything from personal relationships to global politics. The two also debate the best way to improve American politics — and Trevor does a few impromptu impressions, including one of Adam.
Source: WorkLife with Adam Grant
Your name in LandSat
We have satellite imagery of pretty much every area of land on Earth. This is known as 'LandSat' and this website allows you to spell out your name, or any other word, using rivers and other geographical features!
Source: Camp LandSat