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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

No week note this week. I’m taking a well-earned rest and enjoying the beautiful island that I live on. I’ll be back in a week or two.

Have a great week.

It was another one of those weeks that seemed to come and pass without much particularly standing out, but when I looked back, I found that I had completed a lot of things that I hadn’t registered.

I finally got around to roasting the coffee beans I had prepared from the fruit to the bean. It was something I really wanted to do, and I really appreciated the effort involved. For the first coffee of Sunday morning, I made an espresso from those beans and thoroughly enjoyed it. Such fresh coffee has a much fruitier flavour and a strong and layered texture.

I have a particular difficulty writing this part of the blog as I don’t seem to recall any details of what I have been doing this past week. Luckily, I write a small note in a journal every morning (-ish) to help remind me and also to help me process what I have actually achieved each week.

I did a lot of admin-type work last week, tying up loose ends and planning the next set of projects in the pipeline. I finished the slides I had prepared for a teaching session scheduled for Thursday afternoon. I had devised a fun activity for the students around the topic of Project Management and was looking forward to the class activity and seeing how they would go about the task. Sadly, the session was moved online at the last minute, and I had to improvise a little. The theory section was fine, although teaching online is really difficult as you don’t get immediate feedback as most people shut off their cameras for privacy reasons, which I can totally relate to. The exercise was possible but had to be completed during a collaborative online meeting through Teams. I split the class into groups and assigned breakout rooms and then spent the time moving between the rooms to offer assistance and advice. It was okay, but I would have much preferred to have done this in the class.

I had one of those in-between weeks. I would probably be better describing it as a transition week. Some things came to an end, and others started up.

I had some marking to do for the students I teach, I had a bit of admin work to tie up some loose ends, and then I spent a lot of time researching and continuing the course on Internet governance. As a little context, this course spans over ten weeks and at the end of every module, there is a quick knowledge check test. What takes most of the time is the amount of reading to be done, as well as the supplementary videos and talks to listen to. You really need to enjoy the subject and have the fortitude to put in the required hours. I love reading and read fast, so I don’t mind that part. However, I wouldn’t say I like video as a format for learning, and I am aware that I’m going against the grain of how online learning is headed. Thankfully, I have a simple solution that gives me what I need in the format I like. I use various transcript tools to export and then read the text. What I can also do with that is store it in my DEVONthink database for searching and note-taking at a later date. This is much more useful than a link to a YouTube video.