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.

This week, we received official notification that our proposal was not successful. There were over 230 proposals to be considered, and I believe ours was a strong candidate, but these things don’t always go your way.

While we are a little disappointed, the idea itself is not dead, and we are starting to think about how we can get some funding elsewhere to conduct the study.

I’ll keep this blog up to date once we have decided on our next move.

On a separate note, I have other ideas for research, and I’d like to keep those published here as a kind of register and reminder to help me move ahead with them. Keep a eye on this blog for further information.