Notes on Feednet: the algorithm suggests ‘leftist hyperbole’

Feednet is a quarterly-ish news roundup on technology, community organizing, and this month, YouTube. Read old versions here.

Feednet Vol 9: YouTube Says So

Happy winter,  It’s cold now, we can’t ignore it: put on your sweater and try to avoid thinking about winter, which is coming (or if you're in Chicago, here already).  I‘m doing everything I can to not make a Game of Thrones joke about winter because that’s tired, but my favorite Chicago fact to share is that George RR Martin based the Night’s Watch on HOW HE FELT LIVING IN UPTOWN, IN JANUARY).  Damn, forget it — & now my Watch begins:

Here’s the roundup:

+ EdTech is the future, baby. Waiting on the AR gameified civil engineering degree. I would settle for a data analysis focused Car Talk.   + Nationalize Facebook.   + If you follow me on social media, I talked a lot about a conference I went to recently called “Please Don’t Include Us: AI + Social Inequity.”  + Finally had the bandwidth/knowledge to start a longer term process exploring the ReDirect Method, a way of experimenting with YouTube playlists to stop the creepy radicalization enabled by its algorithm. More on this soon — please let me know if you done anything similar.   + Been thinking a lot about email in the *modern era* of information technology. What tools best let people opt in to what they want to see, while making sure you have real control over your content (and it’s not getting scooped from the internet upon controversy)? I have no idea, but here are some pretty emails that got sent this year:   + This article is meant for advertisers in a corporate setting but it's still my new doctrine: "your decision makers will second-guess your judgement, undermine your decisions and kill your best ideas—often without even thinking that much about it. And you know whose fault it is? Yours."   + Oh hey, remember 5 Minute Speech Coach? After doing my research, it seems like it doesn't solve the major 3 problems I hear over and over again when it comes to technology, communications, and social change. So now what? 5MSC is still coming (before end of 2019!), but as part of a larger project. A longer update is here.   + I've been messing with Patreon. I'm not proud. Looking at different methods of training + workshops that address how boring but crucial channel building is, potentially something like . Also, why does every man who teaches guitar on Patreon look the same? Are they all the same man?!  — Have a good week, please go outside (before it’s too late). - H