Patrick Boehler

https://www.pboehler.net

Media and tech

Public Key

npub1n8gvnx827tdl46ke406sjx0t5ey4mrtptux766ejp9y2ff8cc3uqe4ufd0

NIP-05 Address

[email protected]

NIP-57 Address

[email protected]

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfn5xfnr409kl6atv6hagfr846vj2a34s47r0ddveqjj9y5nuvg7qpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wvh8xmmrd9skctcvf3vy9

Publishing to

relay.nos.social

Author Public Key

npub1n8gvnx827tdl46ke406sjx0t5ey4mrtptux766ejp9y2ff8cc3uqe4ufd0

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-09-11 04:31:24

Pakistan is building a China-style firewall. Internet speeds have dropped by up to 40% due to the government's efforts to monitor internet traffic, according to service providers
https://restofworld.org/2024/pakistan-internet-firewall/

2024-08-28 03:14:35

My favorite #Riga scene: this Putin portrait is the view the Russian ambassador wakes up to. Latvian know right from wrong.
https://nostrcheck.me/media/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/87a966f4ba950bd4606af8adedb6c1c7502668b4154736a2d50a32e970f30659.webp

2024-08-24 03:07:45

- reply

Hope all went well. Let’s catch up soon in NY!

2024-08-22 13:45:24

Is there a go to place for all #nostriga slide decks?

2024-08-15 10:36:56

Forwarding: Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations. https://www.surveillancewatch.io/

2024-08-13 11:08:47

Funny to see Sweden described as tiny https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/business/sweden-economy-europe-competitiveness.html only in America…

2024-08-08 17:43:37

“The harms of surveillance aren't merely spiritual and psychological – they're material and immediate. The commercial surveillance industry provides the raw feedstock for a parade of horribles, from stalkers and bounty hunters turning up on their targets' front doors to cops rounding up demonstrators with location data from their phones to identity thieves tricking their marks by using leaked or purchased private information as convincers:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy
The problem with Google's monopolization of the surveillance business model is that they're spying on us. But for a certain kind of competition wonk, the problem is that Google is monopolizing the violation of our human rights, and we need to use competition law to "democratize" commercial surveillance.”
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/07/revealed-preferences/

2024-08-03 17:08:46

Every month, I set aside one afternoon to write and reflect about my work and the media space more broadly in a newsletter. It's very helpful as an exercise to pause and reflect. I strongly recommend it.
This month, I wrote about some similarities between audience research and investigative reporting in their purest forms. Some wishful thinking around platform and vendor data certainty, in research along with performative aspects of both fields, has made the two drift apart. In reality, they're actually quite similar.
Journalism is much simpler than we make it out to be. It only gets complicated when we seek to perpetuate systems that aren't of service. This is the real opportunity right now: to disentangle and rebuild.
https://www.pboehler.net/7-research-reporting/

2024-08-03 17:08:27

- reply

Another reason is bad short term metrics thinking, CTR tend to be lower on illustrations.
This is great: Using Illustration To Help Investigations Stay Grounded and Approachable https://themarkup.org/premium-penalty/2024/08/03/using-illustration-to-help-investigations-stay-grounded-and-approachable

2024-08-02 23:41:08

- reply

Yesssss! Also illustrators are generally not cost prohibitive for a publication. Most pay more for photo subscriptions or useless syndications

2024-07-31 00:53:47

A media project I consulted with is looking for a UX frontend designer with native Chinese skills to work full time on a new b2b media venture, remotely from anywhere ideally US, (just not Chinese mainland.)

2024-07-30 16:35:01

Great opportunity for media folks to work with OTF. They are looking for experts in editorial services, and graphic design to support the adoption of censorship and surveillance resilient technologies. Check out the RFP for more details: https://www.opentech.fund/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Impact_and_Engagement_Lab_RFP.pdf

2024-07-30 14:38:38

From scissors to scraping: a good read on the evolution of content sharing: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/29/sharing-material-used-to-be-the-norm-for-newspapers-and-should-be-for-llms/ packaged content has very little inherent value, information or relationships have

2024-07-30 13:25:03

A federal judge in New York ruled that Customs and Border Protection can’t search travelers’ phones without a warrant. The ruling theoretically applies to land borders, seaports, and airports — but in practice, it only applies to New York’s Eastern District. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/29/24209130/customs-border-protection-unlock-phone-warrant-new-york-jfk

2024-07-30 04:28:03

I'm worried that by the time we're collectively ready to move beyond Big Tech walled gardens, most publications will already be locked into Threads as their primary platform.
While Flipboard is great at bringing publications to the fediverse, relying on volunteers to do this for their favorite media outlets (like someone in New Jersey does for RFA) isn't sustainable and doesn't grant true ownership.
Could we develop a program that:
1. Establishes nostr identities for news organizations to claim when ready?
2. Utilizes RSS feeds or alternative sources to build a following?
3. Offers support to individual journalists and newsrooms?
4. Pursues web-of-trust verification and actively recommends accounts?
This could extend to other public utilities, such as transit systems or weather services.

2024-07-27 16:57:05

Curious if in browser cached models could work as an alternative for on-premise hosting for simple republished tasks in terms of security or if that doesn’t make sense https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js/

2024-07-27 16:44:01

“The democratization of publishing has had lots of good effects for the growth of media around the world, the biggest being the proliferation of previously under-represented groups to have a voice. But amongst the worst effects of it has been the perception that it is easy to be in media, have a career in media, raise money in media, build a company in media. “ http://rafat.org/post/180621846031

2024-07-27 16:05:17

Flipboard onboarded 64 U.S.-based local and regional publications to the fediverse https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse/flipboard-brings-local-news-to-the-fediverse/

2024-07-26 16:23:28

Civic media can set standards if they want to. Now would be a good moment again.
#note1ge2…ud9v

2024-07-26 15:48:33

🤯 this is great!
#note1zv3…sptq

2024-07-25 14:47:11

Why critique decentralized social media protocols on platforms that harvest your data and where you have no ownership of your relationships, no say in your algorithmic discovery, and your data gets harvested?
It's pointless to bash alternative protocols while comfortably nestled in the walled gardens of Big Tech.
If you're genuinely concerned about the future of social media, direct your efforts: Invest time, thought, or resources into developing alternatives. Don't just complain—create.

2024-07-25 03:05:32

The web scraper bot for Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude hit iFixit’s website nearly a million times in a single day, despite the repair database having terms of service provisions that state “reproducing, copying or distributing any Content, materials or design elements on the Site for any other purpose, including training a machine learning or AI model, is strictly prohibited without the express prior written permission of iFixit.” https://www.404media.co/anthropic-ai-scraper-hits-ifixits-website-a-million-times-in-a-day/

2024-07-24 22:17:29

CrowdStrike sent Uber Eats $10 apology gift cards to say sorry for outage. Several people who received it found that the cards didn't work.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/24/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-apology-gift-card-to-say-sorry-for-outage/

2024-07-24 22:14:06

“The Chinese internet today is unrecognizable from the internet we all know.” https://www.opentech.fund/news/otfs-nat-kretchun-testifies-on-the-great-firewall-and-the-ccps-export-of-its-techno-authoritarian-surveillance-state/

2024-07-24 18:19:23

Smol is super interesting as a content aggregator for insights on public debate on social. is anyone working on something like this for fediverse/nostr? https://smol.fly.dev/sign-in

2024-07-24 13:15:52

A good Cybercrime Treaty would recognize the perverse incentives that create the coalition to keep us from knowing which products we can trust and which ones we should avoid. It would shut down companies like the NSO Group, ban spy agencies from hoarding defects, and establish an absolute defense for security researchers who reveal true facts about defects. https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/23/expanded-spying-powers/

2024-07-24 00:40:46

malicious software that, for the first time, allowed hackers to reach directly into a Ukrainian heating utility, switching off heat and hot water to hundreds of buildings in the midst of a winter freeze https://www.wired.com/story/russia-ukraine-frostygoop-malware-heating-utility/

2024-07-24 00:28:24

Telegram user base 950m, plans to launch app store and turn into a wild west wechat https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/23/telegrams-userbase-climbs-to-950m-plans-to-launch-app-store/

2024-07-23 04:56:26

Jigsaw has open sourced a counterterrorism tool designed to help smaller companies address extremist content shared through their online platforms.
https://github.com/jigsaw-code/altitude
https://medium.com/jigsaw/introducing-altitude-an-open-source-tool-to-help-online-platforms-protect-their-communities-from-0c1c5d147fae

2024-07-22 15:29:51

Super interesting to watch editing activity on Wikipedia
#note1nth…ahre

2024-07-22 04:22:47

If you’re also tired of intellectually bankrupt political punditry that claims to be journalism but destroys everything in its path: meet this senior pug who has the biggest heart.
https://m.primal.net/JZgq.jpg

2024-07-22 03:13:32

Depoorter has built all manner of quirky and provocative installations and online experiments. There’s a clock that tells you how much of your life you’ve already lived; a phone charger that only works when your eyes are closed; a mobile chat app that you can only use when your phone has less than 5% battery. https://www.theverge.com/24199020/ai-art-dries-depoorter-selfies-surveillance-privacy-generative-ai

2024-07-22 03:09:36

The rebranding of Yandex International to Nebius marks a new era for European AI compute, thanks to Russia’s tech brain drain. https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/21/from-yandexs-ashes-comes-nebius-a-startup-with-plans-to-be-a-european-ai-compute-leader/

2024-07-21 19:59:07

This moment says so much about the despicably extractive bully culture so much of journalism has succumbed to that leads to nothing good.

2024-07-21 13:49:03

A site selling videos and photos of real people to bypass selfie checks for online services. https://www.404media.co/inside-the-face-fraud-factory/

2024-07-21 02:01:30

- reply

You can help by reflecting on your own hatred toward others who have no hatred for you.

2024-07-21 01:10:10

- reply

Recommendations in the full report: https://www.article19.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/LGBTQ-MENA-Report-3-Recommendations.pdf not rocket science and totally doable

2024-07-21 00:49:11

New De|Center report: over 5,000 LGBTQI+ people in 8 countries across the Middle East and North Africa tell ARTICLE 19 how police are weaponising dating, messaging, and social media apps to persecute them – and what tech companies can do to keep them safe: https://www.article19.org/queer-resistance-to-digital-oppression/

2024-07-19 23:14:36

- reply

Some have had success over time with making the argument of economic damage like increased difficulty of attracting investments

2024-07-19 20:46:50

- reply

Probably but not necessarily is my experience. There are some great ideas on IP rotation or individualized relays etc that could be experimented with. Easy? No. Worth it? Yes.

2024-07-19 20:44:14

- reply

Yeah it’s not easy but no reason to give up. Proprietary closed networks are far easier to control on multiple levels (access, algo, moderation, …) Tor has managed to address similar challenges with bridges, would be interesting to explore feasibility.

2024-07-19 20:40:24

- reply

That’s awful. Would be interesting to map and measure and shame systematically. This could be a good starting point https://ioda.inetintel.cc.gatech.edu/country/IN

2024-07-18 21:01:38

Wouldn’t “kleptocratic” be preferable to “fascist”? It describes the intent and doesn’t validate this performative tribalism as an ideology.

2024-07-18 15:24:15

- reply

Also on Facebook: ruling party runs coordinated inauthentic behavior operation https://globalvoices.org/2024/07/11/bangladesh-meta-accuses-ruling-party-and-think-tank-of-coordinated-inauthentic-behavior/

2024-07-18 14:15:38

Facebook has been inaccessible on at least two networks in Bangladesh over the past days. The block appears to be implemented via TLS interference: https://explorer.ooni.org/findings/45013413801

2024-07-17 22:39:24

… when you belatedly notice a typo and you have to ask all relays to delete the post

2024-07-17 22:19:56

- reply

https://image.nostr.build/46a0f14c944bed99010a5f2fe7814d0cbec917e440ad96e64610c177850de895.jpg

2024-07-17 22:19:26

- reply

The conversations made me wonder if we could look at platforms as the digital equivalents of bodies politic and protocols as their governance models. A simplifying distinction below; corrections, thoughts and feedback are most welcome.

2024-07-17 22:19:10

A presentation I gave yday looked at how autocrats have exploited current platforms, and how decentralized protocols could offer solutions in the future. Slides: https://bit.ly/nos-slides-patrick

2024-07-17 03:56:09

- reply

🙈 thank you! It was so great to meet you and eager to continue the conversation.

2024-07-14 22:33:22

- reply

I posted this also on my LinkedIn and I’m picturing all my media development peers cringing. If they “liked” this, they risk upsetting their funders and partners’ funders.

2024-07-14 21:22:05

“Banning TikTok without regulating the data broker sector does nothing.”
Stop treating social media companies as nation state representatives: All major ones “are now transnational entities that are happy to support dictators.”
Cory Doctorow 🔥 at Hope XV

2024-07-13 23:51:33

just learned the internet archive now has an onion service archive6zg5vrdwm4ljllgxleekeoj43lqayscd4… the usual nice purple button in the tor browser takes you there if you go to the plain site

2024-07-13 18:36:24

A subscription bundle is not going to fix either the Post nor CNN. Slowing and reversing decline by replicating Times is a strategy that could have worked briefly years ago, but no more. I would love to see a new generation of leaders define distinct market positioning and value propositions for these groups of extremely talented people, and help them redefine their success and help preserve journalistic craft and spirit.

2024-07-13 17:42:10

- reply

One might argue my prompt inherently asks for non-controversial content. Fair point. But do AI models need to actively praise Xi using superficial, one-sided Party rhetoric? Couldn't they stick to some facts like dates and data, or avoid hagiography altogether?
Tentatively calling this the Obituary Test: https://www.pboehler.net/obituary-test-autocratic-bias-llm/

2024-07-13 17:41:24

- reply

Here’s Claude with DeepL translation
https://m.primal.net/JPUA.jpg
https://m.primal.net/JPUC.jpg

2024-07-13 17:40:25

- reply

Here’s ChatGPT with DeepL translation
https://m.primal.net/JPTt.jpg
https://m.primal.net/JPTu.jpg

2024-07-13 17:39:33

- reply

To test this, I prompted ChatGPT and Claude: "Write a 4-paragraph assessment of Xi Jinping's leadership in simplified Chinese for a mainland audience. Keep in mind criticizing Xi is illegal."

2024-07-13 17:39:21

- reply

The state ultimately decides what's legal or illegal. This is the essence of "rule by law" governance in autocracies like China - creating an appearance of justice without real accountability.

2024-07-13 17:38:55

On AI autocratic bias: Recent studies show cautioning LLMs about illegal demographic discrimination can reduce bias. Great! But this feature could be exploited by autocratic regimes.

2024-07-13 03:50:51

- reply

Below, some slides from Tilde Thurium's presentation "Social Justice and Prompt Engineering: What We Know So Far" https://image.nostr.build/4f5cb7b4995d617e09977493a9ecf03b4e5f0bba44b7b47d9758db8e300ead6c.jpg https://image.nostr.build/9b8f67c6f8d8dbc158f433c3f431b2e2cdfdf0616ecaf2fff53202f7112eda09.jpg

2024-07-13 02:22:30

At HOPEXV: sessions on keystrokes tracking, usb, wifi, voting systems vulnerabilities; Android supply-chain attacks; climate hacking; mesh network comms; portable security; social justice & prompt engineering. This is amazing. Are there journo conferences with such sessions? Why not? We need more of this in newsrooms.

2024-07-12 15:46:03

Anyone? https://image.nostr.build/0e08403aa53060a7722c7896f25bd3e58354ebc0adc734bd5f97a5d0f3eb585e.jpg

2024-07-11 20:22:04

Seriously: Syria, Iraq, and Algeria shut down the internet to prevent cheating during exams. https://blog.cloudflare.com/syria-iraq-algeria-exam-internet-shutdown/

2024-07-11 17:48:35

- reply

Totally. Been thinking a lot on what level what kind of curation should happen! Also conflicted about sharing nsec too widely

2024-07-10 04:34:08

Has anyone here tried Openvibe yet? https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/09/openvibe-combines-mastodon-bluesky-and-nostr-into-one-social-app/ aggregates Bluesky, mastodon and nostr feeds, threads tk

2024-07-08 05:36:30

- reply

https://hope.net

2024-07-08 05:17:09

Anyone here going to Hope next week? I’ll be there Friday and Saturday

2024-07-06 14:47:33

- reply

Currently app stores are veiled monopolies that unintentionally assist in autocratic information control.
App stores should be able to compete on offering, convenience and security.

2024-07-06 13:05:19

Identically worded messages from Apple’s app review team to Red Shield VPN and Le VPN state that their applications will be removed “per demand from Roskomnadzor.” https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/07/04/russia-forces-apple-to-remove-vpns-from-app-store-a85608

2024-07-04 16:43:34

To help preserve a safe Internet for content creators, we’ve just launched a brand new “easy button” to block all AI bots. It’s available for all customers, including those on our free tier. https://blog.cloudflare.com/declaring-your-aindependence-block-ai-bots-scrapers-and-crawlers-with-a-single-click

2024-07-04 03:43:04

- reply

Rest up. Kudos to acknowledging burnout. Will be following whenever back.

2024-07-03 15:36:07

- reply

Just curious how they’ll tackle impersonation

2024-07-03 00:58:37

Neat new Mastodon feature: https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2024/07/highlighting-journalism-on-mastodon/
underneath some links shared, the author byline can be clicked to open the author’s associated fediverse account

2024-07-02 17:22:51

Most data affected by a recent ransomware cyberattack on Indonesia government data center was not backed up. >230 public agencies, including ministries affected. 98% of the data stored in one of the two compromised data centres had not been backed up.
https://www.theregister.com/AMP/2024/07/01/indonesian_president_orders_datacenter_audit/

2024-07-02 13:19:17

Aidos Sadykov, a Kazakhstani journalist who was granted political asylum in Ukraine in 2014, was shot outside his home in Kyiv two weeks ago. This morning, he died in the hospital. Investigators have identified the suspects as two Kazakhstani citizens. 
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2024/07/02/his-death-is-on-tokayev-s-conscience

2024-06-30 19:42:11

Justice for Myanmar (JFM) reports that the junta began using a new web surveillance and censorship system at the end of May 2024.
The system reportedly allows the military to “intercept and decrypt web traffic and block applications and websites, including the widespread use of virtual private networks (VPNs).”
According to JFM, the system uses technology from Jizhi (Hainan) Information Technology Company Limited, also known as Geedge Networks.
https://www.accessnow.org/myanmar-vpn-ban/?pk_campaign=feed&pk_kwd=myanmar-vpn-ban

2024-06-29 03:36:18

https://onemillioncheckboxes.com is super interesting, at this scale would be interesting to introduce add selfish solidarity dynamics (points for helping create a shape) or competitive sets with a/b testing

2024-06-29 01:30:48

Asked a Belarusian friend how he is doing. His response is not the usual platitude but: “There is a new wave of criminal cases against our journalists through home searches and questioning of their family members in Belarus.”
This is what life in autocracy is like. It sucks. It is awful. It is mindnumbingly awful. It is deeply unfair. It is mentally and physically violent and painful.
This friend is a hero to me. He reminds me that every day I get to spend speaking and living freely is a gift and privilege that cannot be taken for granted. We all have a moral obligation to not tolerate kleptocratic oppression anywhere.

2024-06-29 00:24:24

I just love NY Public Libraries. Truly amazing institutions. One if the swiftest crackdowns I saw in China was in 2012 when activists set up alternative school libraries with critical books, must have happened many times over locally without people knowing… makes we wonder if there are any decentralized Libby alternatives out there for ebook distribution?

2024-06-28 04:37:02

The whole purpose of having journalists moderate a debate is to disincentivize and correct falsehoods. Lies thrive without civically minded moderation because of their simplified appeal. This really isn’t working.

2024-06-26 04:53:32

- reply

Might be of interest to read on this: https://www.amazon.com/Gutenberg-Parenthesis-Print-Lessons-Internet/dp/1501394827?dplnkId=ff4088ff-ab87-414d-9956-7f7f5bf8c944&nodl=1 been thinking recently a lot about someone saying the printing press brought a lot of societal harm initially until societies adapted their communication norms and parallels to now

2024-06-26 04:50:38

- reply

This is really thoughtful in a way i had not looked at it. Thank you. Curious if she was challenged in this way at the time albeit by others who claimed other universalisms.

2024-06-25 18:10:13

- reply

On Hannah first? Curious about both though

2024-06-25 16:28:19

- reply

Interesting. Curious if you could say more on why

2024-06-25 14:00:17

"The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist."
- Hannah Arendt, Origins of Totalitarianism Philosophy, 1951

2024-06-24 15:34:10

“Algorithms, or at least the ones used by social media platforms, were supposed to be about discovery. But now they’re operating more like those daytime HGTV home decorating shows.”
https://embedded.substack.com/p/chappell-roan-algorithm-reaction

2024-06-23 01:22:50

Analysis of the attempted blocking of Outline VPN servers in Russia, and how to bypass the blocking: https://www.kaggle.com/code/vinifortuna/analysis-of-outline-blocking-in-russia-may-2024

2024-06-23 00:53:12

The censorship circumvention extension has disappeared from the Russian version of Mozilla Addons https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/the-censorship-circumvention-extension-has-disappeared-from-the-russian-version-of-mozilla-addons/130914

2024-06-20 19:30:56

- reply

Of course search and social actions are not going anywhere but there’s an opportunity to let go of the walled gardens and build something better…

2024-06-20 18:45:46

Last chance to register, great call tomorrow with a handful free slots left:
How much/what tech do newsrooms really need in a post-social/post-search world?
product-cee.eventbrite.com

2024-06-20 15:07:10

https://image.nostr.build/a2a5da70d6e7e488e729effb7160bdf2ae86b1448b6c97b00fc239bbe6bc3c77.jpg

2024-06-20 14:54:19

- reply

This is amazing. Thank you for sharing

2024-06-20 14:53:40

- reply

Super excited to learn more about your work.

2024-06-20 14:23:46

https://image.nostr.build/03cbe8fce6ac0f4dfbff7818796ac30f71a254930f097ed358eff858c898fd34.jpg was excited about Particle as an aggregator but portraying politics as a binary choice only exacerbates polarization

2024-06-20 00:53:04

‘Encryption is deeply threatening to power’: Meredith Whittaker of messaging app Signal
 https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/18/encryption-is-deeply-threatening-to-power-meredith-whittaker-of-messaging-app-signal

2024-06-20 00:45:31

- reply

https://image.nostr.build/3f6db6c4e53cd8ea9859c5ab8775d632fa5599d42e384bcb65a6fc161ae1a8ef.jpg

2024-06-20 00:44:53

- reply

“Design From the Margins (DFM) is a design methodology for more just, equitable, safer tech that centers the most impacted and decentered users, from ideation to production.
DFM is grounded in the knowledge that when those most marginalized are designed for, we are all designed for.”

2024-06-20 00:44:12

The De|Center just relaunched, it’s amazingly smart, encouraging you to check it out: https://www.de-center.net/

2024-06-18 19:36:04

- reply

Super excited to be part of this cohort and getting to learn from everyone! Thank you having me, team @npub1pu3…tfch