If you’ve been following along with what I get up to over the last couple of years, you will have noticed a change in focus. Particularly during the last few months you may have detected a certain amount of ambivalence to the tech industry as it stands today. Some of you might even go as far to say that I have become a little hostile to big tech recently, and, if im being brutally honest, I’d say that you’re just about right regarding that. I think big tech has become a force for bad for the majority of us, something that is diametrically opposed to the original ideas behind tech during its development and rise to everyday use during the 70s and 80s. Big tech is no longer about progressing the world, it is about progressing the net worth of an elite few. That’s not to say that I am totally off tech and what it can do, quite the opposite, I’m actually quite optimistic about the capabilities and the force for good that it could be. But to achieve that it needs to have a crisis that will fundamentally change the way technology is conceived, developed and deployed in society at scale. I don’t think we’re there yet, but I suspect we will get there a little sooner rather than later.

If I had to point the finger of blame at big tech, it would be in two areas. The first is the obvious one and an area that I have written about a lot over the years, Social Media. I’m not against it per se, but its current implementation is a massive global-scale experiment that hasn’t and isn’t going too well. I think society will have to decide whether the type of mass social media is a net good for society or not. But to decide that society needs to understand what social media really is, and I don’t think we are there yet. There are signs of frustration and rebellion, but they are contained and small in nature and based on a misunderstanding of the what and who of the “product”. It’s more subtle than “If you’re paying for it, you’re the product”.

The second area is that of advertising. For the vigilant, this area is intrinsically linked to the first area, as the last sentence of the previous paragraph hints. For the record, I am not against advertising as such. I understand the use of it, and I understand how it can drive awareness and eventually sales, and is vital for businesses that are breaking into new markets or new territories. I’m railing against unfettered, uncontrolled and rabid Surveillance Capitalism.¹ Highly targeted and highly privacy-invading advertising is nothing but a scam, where the advertiser and the person being targeted are at opposite ends of a process where the middleman screws everyone. Don’t believe me? Come on, you should know by now. I’ve cited this EU paper several times because it details just how invasive highly targeted ads are, how they are not as effective as the advertising platforms would have you believe (surprise, surprise), and they are privacy destroying on many levels and will eventually provide a means for you to be targeted in a cybersecurity dragnet.² This type of advertising is a cancer, and it is destroying the internet, and we should all do something to help stop it.

I thought I’d republish a blog post I wrote for the Virtual School of Internet Governance after completing the course earlier this year.^{3 4} If Internet Governance is something you are interested in, or you’d just like to learn a little more about the Internet, its origins, how it’s governed and much more, you should check it out.

See you in the next newsletter.

Blog post:

The internet as we know it is under attack. It is under attack on several fronts, including, most notably, attacks on its openness from various countries out of fear. Governments of many nations are implementing regulations and imposing operating rules on the Internet’s infrastructure, or imposing rules to ensure the Internet fits into their particular point of view. For many years, China has been implementing and enhancing its “Great Firewall of China” with some success ⁵. The United States of America is in the process of trying to ban TikTok over its alleged proximity to the Chinese regime.⁶ It has also, like the United Kingdom, implemented rules to decommission any telecommunications equipment from companies like Huawei and ZTE from being deployed in their respective territories, again from alleged state security fears.^{7 8} Any time there is unrest in some countries, like India, Iran, Iraq, or Venezuela, to name only a few, Internet shutdowns occur to stifle communication, organisation, and dissent.⁹ Even the once liberal governments like the United Kingdom are showing signs of lurching towards the setup and operation of Internet controls that go above and beyond all reason.¹⁰ Some of it is dressed up in the name of being “to save the kids”, but mostly, it is born out of pure fear of lack of control of the unknown.

But whether you think these rules, regulations and operational controls are justified or not, you can’t deny that the Internet as we once knew it is in a state of being manipulated and changed, and not necessarily for good. I suspect the outcome will be a worse Internet than the one we have, and I suspect our freedoms will be further eroded in this new Internet. But despite that, why are we at such a critical point with the Internet? I wish I had a simple answer to that question, and to be fair, I’m not sure if I know or understand why. And I suspect many of us don’t either. The Internet in ten years will be a different animal from what it is today, in the same way the Internet of ten years ago was a different animal.

The Internet, for many, is Social Media. Closed-off, filtered and algorithmically distilled database views on a set of freely offered and surreptitiously extracted data on something like a third to a half of the world. Many users content themselves with this watered-down and safe-feeling view of the Internet, not realising or caring that the “real” Internet is out there. We’ve done a fantastic job in scaring people away from the real Internet by talking about the Dark Web and all the bad things that will indeed happen to you if you ever venture into those neighbourhoods, in precisely the same way that we have ruined the possibility for young people to go out and venture around the surrounding communities for fear of immediate death.

The truth is, as always, somewhere in between and not quite as extreme as portrayed.

As individuals, what can we do about this? How can we be better citizens of the Internet and help others become better citizens of this shared space that promised so much and delivered as much, if not more, good and bad? And how can we participate in making a better Internet for the world and not just for the privileged tech bros that are systematically destroying it while extracting all the wealth from the rest of us?

I’d say that education is at least half the battle. As we become more educated on a topic and more open to understanding, empathy and nuanced discourse follow. I’m an old-timer on the Internet, and I have used it for many years, from the early days when the Internet of the World Wide Web didn’t exist. I saw the birth, use, and mass adoption of many of the systems and protocols we use daily. These are technical elements and something we, as early adopters, were comfortable with without really thinking of the consequences that would eventually and inevitably come with the generalisation of the Internet. Many of us, both young and old, lacked or lack the necessary understanding of the elements other than the technology to truly understand how the Internet has and is affecting the world. We are still in a global experiment that hasn’t been designed with a hypothesis in mind. The Internet just is.

I recently completed the Virtual School of Internet Governance course and obtained the offered certificate to broaden my understanding and take me out of my comfort zone. This online-only self-paced training course is designed to open your eyes to aspects you might not have previously considered. You might even find yourself questioning your knowledge and beliefs, as I did in some topic areas. What you absolutely will do, though, is learn and have access to an absolute ton of information about the origins, the mechanisms, the politics, the social and legal aspects and many other areas that you might not have thought are linked to the Internet. As a free course, the quality, and quantity of information is staggering and staggeringly good. You get to meet and debate with experts in the topics covered, and should you wish to go further, the contacts and exchanges made over the course of the ten weeks will help you develop in the Internet Governance space.

I have made Internet Governance a central part of my work, and it was an excellent follow-up from the ARIN Fellowship.

If we want a better Internet, we owe it to each other to invest in its governance and development.

With gratitude to Glenn McKnight and Alfredo Calderon.

The Future is Digital Newsletter is an ongoing discussion about tech, the world, and my place in it. You are welcome to share it with others who may be interested.

Thanks for being a supporter. I wish you a splendid day.

/committedtodisk

When you have a decent routine it shows. When that routine is broken, for whatever reason, if you’re able to get back into the swing of things easily enough, then its a sign that the routine is Ok. I need these routines to be able to function efficiently. I’ve talked about why before, so I’m not going to go over that again here. But I’m glad that I could get back into those routines relatively quickly.

My week was dominated by nearly fours days of conferences. Monday to Wednesday was taken up by the ARIN 53 Public Policy and Members Meeting. It was held in Barbados, although I attended remotely as it was too complicated for me to get there easily and cost effectively. Attending remotely was the next best thing as ARIN takes great care to ensure that remote participants can contribute effectively and not feel out of step. I asked a number of questions over the few days and all were read out and answered as though I was there. I wish other online meetings would take the same care! After ARIN 53, it was CaribNOG 27. A two and a half-day conference that I was connected to for two days solid, again participating where I could.

I wrote a quick blog post —that I’m turning into a newsletter over the coming days— over on the Virtual School for Internet Governance. Have a read a let me know what you think.

I spent quite a bit of time working on a PoC for a client, based on basic SharePoint tools. For many small and micro-sized businesses, it can provide the kind of functionality typically found in specialised business software for a fraction of the price. It requires a bit of effort to understand the business logic and configure accordingly, which is not as easy as it sounds. From my experience, most clients don’t know or fully understand the business logic of the procedures and processes they have in place and they miss steps or misunderstand what those steps are doing in logical terms. That’s why consultants exist, I guess.

Reading

I did a lot of reading this week, but not very much progress in the book list.

In keeping with my current obsession, I read a lot of blogs from people working, studying and participating in the Internet Governance space. Once such blog is the Internet Exchange. A recent post discussed the relationship between encryption backdoors and government hacking, specifically how they can enable disastrous consequences, even genocide. Project Lavender was a cited example.

I read a truly frightening vision of the authoritarian future of major US cities in a blog post entitled Cool Grey City of Tech Authoritarians. I would recommend you read this as it discusses a lot of what is happening in big tech at the moment, to the detriment of everyone except the privileged few.

In the same vein, I’ve been feeling particularly unhappy with the way the Internet has turned (walled-garden, performative posting, surveillance capitalism run amok, etc.). This article goes a long way to explain why the Internet is currently broken for most people and how it is ruining art, music and many other creative talents. Definitely worth your time.

France is trying to block children under 15 years old using Social Networks. 1) Good luck with that. 2) I despise the likes of Facebook’s shitty product, but I don’t think banning its use for youngsters is the right response. Something much more effective is the EU decision to smash down the egregious posture of Facebook requiring you pay to not be spied upon. FU Facebook. Oh, and before you moan about them not being able to have a business model because targeted advertising is basically banned (or highly restricted at least), then you are only showing us you don’t understand the situation.

You may have heard about LLMs… I’ll just leave this here for you to read

You might have heard about the Internet Reviewer war of 2024 that recently started. An (Internet) famous reviewer called MKBHD trashed the Humaine AI Pin in one of his videos, and it started an online that didn’t quite go the way the person intended in their criticism of MKBHD. It might actually produce a net positive in the online reviewing scam, I mean, game. Take any online review as a shill or product placement unless you can verify it is an authentic “review”. Much like the rest of the Internet, sadly (see above). Read this blog post for more context.

If there is anything you should read out of this list, it is They’re Looting The Internet by Ed Zitron. Modern-day robber Barons are destroying the internet on the backs of you and me. We need to do something to stop it!

One last thing, I’ve been printing some of these articles and documents on paper to read and take notes on. I wish there was a digital application that was as useful as good old pen and paper. I used to use MarginNote but I haven’t used it in ages. I couldn’t get it to stick. I might give it another shot.

Of note

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I was again on the Innovation, Agilité et Excellence podcast with my friend Jean-François Nantel. I had a blast, as always and we discussed a number of topics I enjoy researching, learning about and sharing.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week.

You can find the podcast and other links here: https://www.intelliaconsulting.com/survol-des-technologies-emergentes-avec-matthew-cowen/

Podcast Notes:

• Les Chiplets sont une évolution dans la fabrication des processeurs, permettant de combiner plusieurs fonctionnalités sur un même processeur.
• L’informatique Exascale permet d’effectuer un nombre de calculs encore plus important.
• Les plateformes de médias sociaux décentralisées offrent une alternative aux réseaux sociaux centralisés comme Facebook, permettant une plus grande liberté et un contrôle démocratisé.
• L’informatique Exascale et l’informatique quantique sont deux technologies différentes, avec des philosophies de calcul distinctes.
• L’intelligence artificielle générative peut être utilisée à la fois pour le bien et le mal, et il est important de faire attention à son utilisation.
• Le casque VR d’Apple est encore au stade expérimental et ne résout pas encore de problème spécifique.
• La gouvernance de l’Internet est un enjeu majeur, avec le risque d’une fragmentation de l’Internet en différentes parties.
• Il est important de protéger les droits humains dans un monde de plus en plus connecté.

As always, a big thank you to Jean-François Nantel and Éric L’Heureux for the invitation and interesting discussion. 🙏

The week was, again, one of those weeks that was stop-and-start. My guests were still on the island, and I had a couple of obligations to look after them during the week.

I ran another LLM training course for managers, making a total of around 60 or so managers on the island that I have personally trained in the use of these tools. My course focuses on using them sensibly and identifying where the law and the real responsibility lie. TLDR: You, the manager and enduser.

Newt week should be more of a normal week, although I have a conference (online) I’m attending for a couple of days. I’ll write about that next week.

I wrote a blog post for the Virtual School of Internet Governance entitled “Why I’m making Internet Governance central to my work, and why you should too.” You can read it on their site here. Without getting too bogged down in the politics and technologies, I wanted to make the main point that the Internet is changing, and not necessarily for the better. I’m going to rewrite it a little and issue it as a newsletter soon.

I’ll be working on a short talk about AI in the workplace at the end of the month, so I’ll be focusing on developing that over the coming week.

I recorded another episode of the Innovation, Agilité et Excellence podcast hosted by my friend Jean-François Nantel. We talked about Chiplets, Exascale computing, the Apple Vision Pro and a few other topics, notably Internet Governance. I’ll note here when it is published.

Jean-François kindly presented an hour-long masterclass for my Project Management students. I’m really grateful for his kind gesture.

Reading

I’ve spent a lot of time reading some of the VSIG supplemental documentation and read a few pages of the books on the reading list, but not much.

This week, I’ll get back to reading on a more regular schedule.

Of note

I’ve tried to stay away from too much media these last couple of weeks. I’m only starting to catch up on the list of articles and newsletters that have built up during these last couple of weeks of time off.

Not much else to say this time. Have a great week.

The week has really broken my routines but for a good reason. As I mentioned in the last update, I had decided to take a week off. That week turned out to be as packed as any other week but with activities other than reading papers, writing, thinking or consulting with clients.

In short, I had friends from the UK over, and I took some time to show them around and experience a few things that are not necessarily on the tourist trail… some of them.

We walked (or ran) in a rainforest on Easter Monday in preparation for a family lunch, which, like most big get-togethers, took the entire afternoon up with food, drinks and laughs. We walked up the volcano, and despite the rough weather and almost zero visibility, it was a nice walk. I love being in the forest and in the mountains. There is something really pleasing about being there on your own or with just a couple of people. I took them to see a waterfall that is well known, easy to get to and much fun to be rained on by cold fresh water. We took a sailing boat trip and had a quick swim and a glass of bubbles before heading back to the marina. The photo is from the journey back, sailing with both sails at around 6 knots. Wonderful.

Next week, it’s back to the grind, with a little time off to help out my friends.

The proposal I had put together with Michelle Marius wasn’t accepted, but we’re not done yet and looking at other funding opportunities. I’ll keep you posted. Remember, you can read about the project here.

Of note

The sentencing of Sam Bankman-Fried continues to impact. A letter posted to the court from his parents—as documented in Fortune—paints a less-than-savoury picture of the boy. This story has not ended, and I am sure that much more will come out.

On a note about Fortune, don’t forget how they were one of the “duped”, promoting his bullshit and the crypto “industry” as a whole. They should be ashamed of themselves and start putting more effort into due diligence, just like virtually every organisation that has anything to do with crypto. Some estimates put the industry at having only approximately half of its assets as legal. WTAF? Any other industry that was such a scam would have been closed a long time ago.

The latest scumbag criminal has also just been convicted of billions of dollars of fraud. When is the world going to wake up? Crypto has only a couple of use cases, crime and more crime. The “democratisation” or “banking the unbanked” is all a mirage and a lie to extract even more wealth out of those that can least afford it, making those that can richer and richer. It is obscene and makes me sick to my stomach. Use the morals your parents taught you FFS!

Have a great week.