S07E08 of Connection Problem: Such a pretty triangle

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“I (…) love reading what people recommend me to read because then you learn something about a) that thing, b) that friend, and c) how you relate to that thing and that friend. Such a pretty triangle.”

— Steve Bryant

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Hello hello,

I love this quote up there from a month-old or so issue of Why is this interesting? enough to open with it — and to jump straight from here to the content without further ado.

Enjoy.

— Peter

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If you'd like to work with me or bounce ideas, let's have a chat.

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Project updates

Mostly quiet behind-the-scenes work at the moment. That said, over at ThingsCon, we’re wrapping up the Trustable Technology Mark, the trustmark licensing program for consumer IoT. This prototype concludes, and thus makes room for new initiatives under the ThingsCon and Trustable Technology labels. Over in the blog post linked above I wrote up some of our learnings.

Also, the first round of evaluations and reporting for the NGI Atlantic program are done and done. NGI Atlantic is an EU funding project aimed to foster EU-US collaboration on next generation internet research, and with a strong focus on privacy, data protection, resilience. It’s a good program. Apply if this is in your ball park.

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Newsletter memberships

Oh, before I forget: For the last year and a half or so, some readers have very kindly and graciously supported this newsletter with a paid subscription. This support — with cold, hard money and warm, friendly words alike — has meant the world to me. Thank you! That said, I’m canceling those paid subscriptions to release everyone from their commitments.

We’re living in a pandemic with a lot of uncertainty, and it seems a good time for a blank slate. I don’t want anyone to have to think about canceling or renewing; everyone’s opted out, with gratitude and on the best of notes. I’ll keep writing this newsletter, and I’ll keep being grateful for the kind support; but happily without inflicting it on anyone’s credit card. Once more, thank you!

Once things settle down or once I get too curious to resist some new impulse or another, who knows. Maybe it’ll be Substack time. For now, though, be free…

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The Four Internets

Ben Thompson of the excellent Stratechery newsletter — which also happens to be pretty much the OG paid subscription newsletter — wrote a pretty interesting piece on the splintering of the internet.

Instead of the original World Wide Web, increasingly we’re seeing the US-led web, the Chinese firewalled web, the European web, and — Thompson argues — a new Indian web.

First of all, he provides a good overview of those models. And why I come away with the feeling that he’s so mentally stuck in the US model and his lived experience of the Chinese model gives him great insight into that, he seems to judge the situation in Europe through those lenses rather than one on its own merit.

But be that as it may, what he describes as the Indian model I found super interesting, especially the Jio platforms, which I’m embarrassed to admit I wasn’t aware of at all. A data-first (as opposed to voice-first) alternative network infrastructure that offers super cheap internet across India. (Investors include all the big names from around the world.) This is interesting because it completely turns Facebook’s crappy “Free Basics” argument on its head by offering real access to the real internet rather than having Facebook as the gatekeeper to a restricted subset of the internet.

There’s a ton in there about Jio if you want to dig deeper.

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The Right on the Rise

Reading the news these days is always somewhat disturbing — but the picture that’s been emerging over the last few years of the rise of right-wing extremists in Germany is particularly worrying. (For simplicity’s sake, all the following links go to ZEIT ONLINE and are in German.)

Germany has been at leading the stats (in absolute and per capita numbers) for right-wing terror across all of Western Europe. There appear to be strong networks of the extreme right across the police. Politicians have been receiving a surge of threats, and in many cases police computers were used to find out addresses for sending those threats. Just now, it turned out that (current and ex) soldiers have been plotting right-wing terrorism in Telegram chats

Even though it’s widely seen as direly necessary, so far the Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer has been blocking a study into right-wing extremism among public service, especially police. He has however announced a study into violence against police, which really doesn’t help his case.

I’m glad that after a decade or more of warnings by NGOs, researchers and activists of the dangers of the rise of right-wing extremism, at least this is now recognized by the German government. But it’s so far also so, so, so much too little that’s happening. After all, this hasn’t even gotten the nasty boost of coordination through organizations like Q*non and others that we’ve seen in the US. And still, already there are these rotten networks, active and apparently strong enough that the other, legitimate and democratic colleagues in those forces cannot or will not expose them. So either they’re so undermined as to be completely lost; or there’s leadership that provides cover. Most likely, it’s both.

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Miscellanea

• Active noise-cancelling for the house? Man that sounds great especially for offices. Here’s an ugly early prototype.
• Real-time tracking of carbon emissions is kinda cool even though I’d argue that climate change isn’t an information problem but a political one. We know what to do, real time info or not. (I wish the EU hadn’t just wasted an unprecedented and unique opportunity to restructure the European economy to be sustainable during the largest-ever stimulus package. Lobby influence still ties everything to the past.)

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Currently reading: A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine

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If you’d like to work with me or have a chat to explore collaborations, let’s chat! 

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Who writes here? Peter Bihr explores how emerging technologies can have a positive social impact. At the core of his work is the mission to align emerging technologies and citizen empowerment. To do this, he works at the intersection of technology, governance, policy and social impact — with foundations, public and private sector. He is the founder of The Waving Cat, a boutique research and strategic advisory firm. He co-founded ThingsCon, a non-profit that explores fair, responsible, and human-centric technologies for IoT and beyond. Peter was a Mozilla Fellow (2018-19) and an Edgeryders Fellow (2019). He tweets at @peterbihr and blogs at thewavingcat.com. Interested in working together? Let’s have a chat.

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