John Bevan

A somewhat famous building purporting to be in a mystery location for the purposes of my "where's this from?" game

Where's this from then? (@bevangelist.bsky.social you are definitely banned from this one)

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Starting principles for the ethical use of AI Part 3 of our series on AI and Activism looks at the seven principles we developed in collaboration with Friends of the Earth for climate…

New on the @weareopen.coop blog, Part 3 of our #AI series accompanying our Friends of the Earth report on Harnessing AI for Environmental Justice. Today we pull out some starting principles for ethical AI

We finished this work before Christmas, so there's plenty we would have had added. Also expecting pushback on some things as it's neither utopian nor dystopian ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#AI #Environment #ClimateEmergency

Understanding Predominant Narratives in AI Over the past months, WAO has been working on a report called Harnessing AI for Environmental Justice for Friends of the Earth. Funded by…

TODAY we've had a report on 'Harnessing AI for Environmental Justice' published by Friends of the Earth

@epilepticrabbit.bsky.social, one of the authors, has created a four-part blog post series, pulling out some of the key themes.

Part 1: blog.weareopen.coop/understandin...

#ukgc25 bound 🚈

Work in a union and got a few minutes to spare as we come towards the end of the day (Europe) or kick the day off (N America)?

Use those minutes productively and fill in our quick survey on AI use in unions —> unions21.fillout.com/2025-ai-survey

Jlo John Cleese

We began the Ethical Web Principles as a W3CTAG doc, to record the ethics behind our architectural decisions & advice.

Today, it’s a W3C statement: it’s been endorsed by W3C as a whole

Thanks to my co-editors @torgo.com & @rhiaro.co.uk; rest of the TAG; & all who helped

www.w3.org/TR/ethical-w...

What is AI Literacy? We Are Open Co-op's approach builds on the Eight Elements of Digital Literacies, a contextual, plural approach to AI literacies.Navigating the human and technological aspects of AI, we help you unders...

Just read the @caseynewton.bsky.social and @garymarcus.bsky.social posts after @ryanhatesthis.bsky.social said he could play "both sides". I am anti-dichotomies. Led w/ this in a new Friends of the Earth piece (coming 2025) and @weareopen.coop spun up a site TODAY b/c nuance, context

ailiteracy.fyi

I’m curious who he’s hoping will acquire the country.

Too few guillotines? I always seem to get rejected for including too many. It’s such a tricky line to walk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

“If I’m guilty of this, every cop in the nation’s going to jail”

Important symbolic step forward even though immediate next steps most likely being frog marched down a dark alley and bundled into the river in the hope everyone forgets about this.

Don’t forget about this. Put PR at the top of your Xmas list 🎅

An illustration of a street lamp shining on the words "kill the lights vs" a person looking at stars next to the words "see the stars"

Oh I love this one on positive activism from Iris Maertens for Dancing Fox. Thanks for sharing @brianfit.bsky.social!

La fameuse fenêtre d’Overton

It’s Always Wrong to “Wait and See” [Ed. Note: This is rushed. Consider it a first draft. Suggestions are welcome.] The Left just experienced a marginal loss with disastrous consequences. Since the election, if you’re anything …

Waiting isn’t neutral—it’s surrender. While we ‘wait and see,’ harms grow, costs escalate, and chances for meaningful action slip away. This post lays out why action—immediate, comprehensive, and imperfect—is the only choice in moments of crisis. intangible.ca/2024/11/29/i...

Rebecca Solnit: When the Hero is the Problem For an embodiment of the word singlehanded you might turn to the heroine of the recent movie Woman at War. It’s about an Icelandic eco-saboteur who blows up rural power lines and hides in scenic sp…

“Positive social change results mostly from connecting more deeply to the people around you than rising above them, from coordinated rather than solo action… Our largest problems won’t be solved by heroes. They’ll be solved, if they are, by movements, coalitions, civil society.”

The right mental model for interacting with an LLM is to treat it like a person being tortured: It will say whatever is most likely to make you stop, the only trustworthy answers are ones that you can instantly validate.

So at least some of the rapid growth here is numpties like me building their bridges a bit wonky

Minifon P55 Protona wire recorder

HELP.
This is a a Minifon P55 Protona wire recorder. Released in 1955 it was often used for covert recordings. A broken one of these has come my way, complete with a recording - which I cannot play. Has anyone come across one of these, or know who might have a working one (UK based)?
THANKS!

Wow - I am so glad I saw this.

I would not expect Bluesky to work this way, and I figure others might not either. Thanks Henry!

Deffo setting up a backup alt account to protect my original bsky.social handle if I ever set up a proper custom domain name.

UK government failing to list use of AI on mandatory register Technology secretary admits government departments are not being transparent over way they use AI and algorithms

At the risk of upsetting some civil society friends by criticising the focus on the ATRS yet again:

a) no records have been updated either, are the 9 published algorithms static? unlikely...

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Have seen you mention @localgovdrupal.bsky.social before so assuming multi stakeholder co-op already on your list localgovdrupal.org/news/2022/ne...

Gov might even help given “aim to double the size of the UK’s co-operative and mutuals sector” made it into the manifesto.

With apologies to Bill S, “Some are born with followers, some earn followers, and some have followers thrust upon them”.

a row of wind turbines on top of a hill in front of the ocean Alt: a row of wind turbines on top of a hill

Anybody got a #windturbine at home and if so, how does it perform? #Windpower

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a tweet from the Premier League saying that a football match is operating without VAR, video-assisted referees, due to a fire alarm going off at the place where VAR decisions are made

I know some people think the [Butlerian Jihad / neoLuddite revolution] against the machines will start because of fears of war/job losses, but - hear me out - what if it's because English football fans really *really* don't like semi-automated decision making made by unaccountable organisations

This is a great Supreme Court win for PCS, after a cynical government campaign to kill off the union with a bureacratic change. The Tories unilaterally cancelled payroll deduction for union dues in 2014, giving the union too little notice to find replacement ways to bill members. ...

Remember seeing them being interviewed while flicking through used cds by some music journo on Berwick St mumble mumble years ago