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Image credit: bryan mathers

hello twenty-four

• 4 min read

Hello twenty-four. I last blogged in tenty-one during the heady days of the green borough's hyperlocal scene which was a fun self-organised online network of local blogs.

…as a public servant running a public-service website for the neighbourhoods i was discussing online, it was recommended to separate business and friendship, lower the potential for any conflicts of interest, and keep my own counsel online. Having already witnessed a few people getting into difficulties online beginning with friends reunited; this seemed like sage advice. From then on, maintaining an interest in local matters meant frequenting analog networks such as the pub, the school, the community centre, the temple.

…this was fine in an off-grid sort of way, but it did start to feel a bit small, and of course the networks were making great progress with the three opens which were becoming increasingly useful at work. the foss scene in particular seemed to be making great progress, so I began attending meetups and conferences as ways of learning more. I also wondered about getting involved in online worlds again, and whether it might be possible to uphold the seven principles of public life at the same time. It seemed that by focussing on a reflective practitioner perspective, this might be possible.

Whilst wondering how best to return to the fray, it was interesting to observe that thanks to Mastodon, the open standard activitypub protocol was becoming a success in late 2022 during the mass exodus from twitter to the fediverse.

…the next step was to join an openstreetmap mastodon server frequented by a few of the fun folks from fosdem, geomob, and osmlondon. mostly it’s been fun getting re-acquainted with online discourse, but sometimes it’s been quite hard: there’s been spells where i’ve zoned out for a while; sometimes i’ve said things that didn’t work and received the correction of strangers; and had an encounter with an internet troll, which was instructive.

…despite occasional setbacks, for the most part the fediverse has been really useful as a way of learning.

Following a year of microblogging, 500 characters has started to feel a bit short at times, so this blog is going to be a place where things can get figured out over a longer form.

…to cut a long story short, there’s going to be some longish posts about data practice.

Footnotes

  1. tenty-one is a logical way of saying eleven…one of my professors once mentioned that if english expressions for numbers followed decimal numerals it would be easier to learn computer science; 2011 would be called "twenty tenty-one", or "tenty-one" for short - still, this blog is built with eleventy... so let's just accept that counting on one's toes is still fine! ↩
  2. Greenwich is the green borough ↩
  3. The once mighty hyperlocal blogging scene in the green borough is much diminished, only really murky is left since 853 went pro; besides them, most of the other hyperlocals disappeared. ↩

  4. The Seven principles of public life

    Selflessness
    Holders of public office should act solely in terms of the public interest.
    Integrity
    Holders of public office must avoid placing themselves under any obligation to people or organisations that might try inappropriately to influence them in their work. They should not act or take decisions to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves, their family, or their friends. They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.
    Objectivity
    Holders of public office must act and take decisions impartially, fairly and on merit, using the best evidence and without discrimination or bias.
    Accountability
    Holders of public office are accountable to the public for their decisions and actions and must submit themselves to the scrutiny necessary to ensure this.
    Openness
    Holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Information should not be withheld from the public unless there are clear and lawful reasons for so doing.
    Honesty
    Holders of public office should be truthful
    Leadership
    Holders of public office should exhibit these principles in their own behaviour and treat others with respect. They should actively promote and robustly support the principles and challenge poor behaviour wherever it occurs.
    ↩
  5. 500 characters is the limit on https://en.osm.town, some fedi instance allow more ↩

Originally published on by joeldn

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