#tbd/con is a free virtual conference for people who have more questions than answers about AI. Sept 23-24, 2026.
5 circles: thought, information, security, practice, garage.
Attend, pitch, or review: www.gazzetta.xyz/tbd-con/
Patrick Boehler
patrick@nos.social
npub1n8gv...ufd0
Media and tech
Weird is beautiful
🎉🎉🎉
What a bs Bari Weiss profile by the Journal https://www.wsj.com/business/media/bari-weiss-free-press-cbs-news-7e18f95e?st=ABPhpk&reflink=article_copyURL_share intellectual dishonesty shouldn’t be that easily camouflaged
Original post: https://kolektiva.social/@Mungencakes/115277336650337955 
Social media's rage-bait engagement-based business model has been horrific for societies globally, but what if AI chatbots suck-up-bait is even worse?
It's less trackable, has a huge impact on how we see ourselves and the world, and on our ability to challenge our thinking.
This gathering on protocols for publishers (ATProto, MCP, …) in August might be of interest of New York-based media thinkers: 
Protocols for Publishers
Protocols for Publishers
A series bringing together publishers, developers, and researchers to explore open protocols for a sustainable agentic web.
This gathering on protocols for publishers (ATProto, MCP, …) in August might be of interest of New York-based media thinkers:
Protocols for Publishers
Protocols for Publishers
A series bringing together publishers, developers, and researchers to explore open protocols for a sustainable agentic web.
“Darum verabscheue ich das trübe Amalgam, das sich ‚Nationalsozialismus‘ nennt, dieses Falsifikat der Erneuerung, das, hirn- und ziellose Verwirrung in sich selber, nie etwas anderes als eben Verwirrung und Unglück wird stiften können, diese Elendsmischung aus vermufften Seelentümern und Massenklamauk.”
Thomas Mann, „Sieg deutscher Besonnenheit“, 1932
Lighthearted pope humor of different flavors before the model training kicks in 
Global Censorship Trends: Insights from Network Measurement, Circumvention, and Advocacy https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/global-censorship-trends-insights-network-measurement-circumvention-and-advocacy
Joining the Hacks/Hackers AI x Journalism Summit in Baltimore this Wednesday to share how AI transformed our audience research workflows. I'll showcase work with North Korean fishermen, Chinese migrants & Iranian youth - proving research repositories with confidence ratings help avoid false certainties. Last tickets: 
Hacks/Hackers AI x Journalism Summit 2025 · Luma
Join pioneering journalists, technologists and innovators for two transformative days exploring how AI can enhance journalism and information. Thro...
Data vs intuition in media is a false binary. Research improves odds but doesn't guarantee success, while emotional resonance remains undervalued. Understanding both might help us build media that actually connects with people. 
Gazzetta
Re:filtered #16: The limits of both data and intuition
On embracing nuance, and uncertainty.
Why should every peso that a Mexican iPhone owner pays to a Mexican app creator make a round trip through California and come home 30 centavos lighter? Why accept that for every 1,000 rupees someone pays in-app to India’s Dainik Bhaskar newspaper, the paper only gets 700 rupees? https://on.ft.com/3GBYqT1
For less than a dollar a year, we can provide free and secure internet access via VPN to someone living under digital oppression.
Last week, the U.S. National Security Council and the State Department convened a meeting with civil society and representatives from tech giants like Amazon, Cloudflare, Google, and Microsoft to build momentum for greater coordination and investment in countering internet censorship and fragmentation globally.
Laura Cunningham, President of the Open Technology Fund, shared the cost estimate at the gathering. It's approx. 7 cents per user per month. Through OTF, the U.S. currently supports more than 45 million monthly users in Iran, China, Russia, Myanmar and elsewhere, enabling their access to the open internet.
VPNs allow people to communicate securely, inform and express themselves freely, and contribute to global progress.
At the meeting, I shared how VPNs are an essential tool for journalists, both for reporting and for distribution and my worries about about a possible full blocking of YouTube in Russia: 
Funding is just the beginning. There needs to be training people to use VPNs effectively, helping them identify trustworthy services, and building momentum to share and distribute access.
A Reuters report on the initiative and the surge in usage of publicly-funded VPNs: https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-calls-big-tech-help-evade-online-censors-russia-iran-2024-09-05/
Gazzetta
VPNs: A lifeline of free information in closed societies
How VPNs protect information access in Russia and other censorship-prone areas.
Is there a go to place for all #nostriga slide decks?