#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/
Weird is beautiful
11/15/2025, 1 engagement
🎉🎉🎉
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
This gathering on protocols for publishers (ATProto, MCP, …) in August might be of interest of New York-based media thinkers: https://pfp.unternet.co
7/19/2025, 2 engagements
“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
Original post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:j53elsjlcag3iuran5ezcy32/post/3lowquqlups2b https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/7832536563a2f56ab8b46fb72287b1f98a18aac2ff6852545f3d1512fdc4d59a.webp
5/12/2025, 1 engagement
Lighthearted pope humor of different flavors before the model training kicks in https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/96e8d2c864b61c9ae3edae37ec9ef4d4d70554fa10a945fb16eb43b98bb43036.webp https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/04a94faef8701bb18af195450d564d8015ea2c1601d7211183c3180fbf17fede.webp https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/cd1407b0dc3b779c9383396c54056ca2edf4920bd5c6f16960edb3be60b17245.webp https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/6b2cbd7af999b032fbbd0e6cc55bd38bfc698225b1f2485c416e64327456e87b.webp
5/8/2025, 1 engagement
Global Censorship Trends: Insights from Network Measurement, Circumvention, and Advocacy https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/global-censorship-trends-insights-network-measurement-circumvention-and-advocacy
5/6/2025, 1 engagement
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: https://lu.ma/gxdhtufs?tk=FMBVM5
5/5/2025, 1 engagement
⤵️
Original post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xqroftjlkjq74wa6x4bqw6gf/post/3lobwekgptc2e https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/0eb4225f28249d34b35a6116ea8b97f9758b2d4d6c23dde372d6e143df4a17d3.webp
5/3/2025, 1 engagement
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. https://www.pboehler.net/16-needs-paradox/
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
Which types of people aren’t big fans of “impartial” news? People who don’t have power https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/04/which-types-of-people-arent-big-fans-of-impartial-news-people-who-dont-have-power/
Worth noting that when journalists first championed impartiality, they too lacked power. It was both marketing and a shield allowing them to critique the powerful who owned or bankrolled their publications
Testing crossposting through @openvibe.social
Original post: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:k3bynly7ikhpx43zkf5h2iue/post/3lllx54k3622g https://cdn.nostrcheck.me/99d0c998eaf2dbfaead9abf50919eba6495d8d615f0ded6b320948a4a4f8c478/4567fe70e8273c7d0f760eb3da49a0881148f22b80b441df27d3cbc11e7b0bfd.webp
True editorial independence isn't the freedom to publish whatever we deem important—it's the unburdened expression of new information that improves someone's ability to navigate their life better. https://www.pboehler.net/15-independence/
Sadly, the best way of getting funding in media research is telling people what they want to hear and make them feel good about it too https://on.ft.com/3YbtDSP
This month's newsletter is out a bit early (amid a busy week in Taiwan) and it's a longer one: a conversation with Candice Fortman that gets into the heart of journalism. It's on idealism, the business side of things, and real-world utility. https://www.pboehler.net/candice-fortman-journalism/
“In Munich, the Czechoslovak delegation were kept in an adjoining room to await details of when and how they would surrender the Sudetenland to Hitler. On Tuesday, the Ukrainians were not even in the same country.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/18/ukraine-and-europe-made-to-sit-outside-as-us-and-russia-sharpen-their-carving-knives
In Taipei until the end of the month for RightsCon, and separate workshops and discussions on media strategy, research, and funding. I'll be sharing some takeaways and resources in my early March newsletter. If you're in Taipei and these topics are of interest, I'd be happy to connect.
Important reminder: Voters rejected the status quo -- they didn’t embrace fascism. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o1gSdFWIUpw41O5zbaxedVsr6Xik5XpPd9FwqvXYu40/edit
2/8/2025, 1 engagement
I know many in this space are hopeful about what’s happening but let me tell you as someone who has seen and rallied against the rot, you are just getting new rot and so many people will suffer more and longer because of this spineless, entitled, deeply pathological behavior.
2/8/2025, 1 engagement
Few things are more dystopian than the dancing robots at China‘s national Spring Festival Year gala https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFX7XVbSSHy/?igsh=b2syeWk4MTNhaDJo directed by Zhang Yimou, of course.
1/29/2025, 3 engagements
The US media dev funding freeze is hitting newsrooms globally directly or indirectly; thousands of journalists won't be able to do their jobs. Check-in slots for affected colleagues in my newsletter: https://www.pboehler.net/13-sharing-motivations/ Remember that you're more than your job.
Your 'creator economy' runs on oligarch whims. They harvest your data and let algorithms dictate your reach - amplified or buried at their profit-driven whim. The fediverse isn't just an alternative, it's escape from digital feudalism. No billionaires parsing your data or controlling your reach.
1/19/2025, 2 engagements
I’m not mourning TikTok. The creator economy needs sustainable foundations, not walled gardens. We should be exploring decentralized alternatives that put creator autonomy, community ownership first. Sustainability means building systems that can't be bought, banned, or controlled. 🌱
In writing my next newsletter came across this compelling definition of "news value" as a compound of social significance & audience relevance = “related to meaningful events that can prompt communication among users.” https://informationr.net/ir/25-4/paper882.html
Watch Duty is often called an "app" not "journalism," yet they exemplify journalism's best: identifying vital need (real-time wildfire info) & serving it through verification, clear writing & context.
1/15/2025, 1 engagement
The media execs we need: Equal parts digital strategist & institutional leader. Too rare? Yes. Impossible? No. Some thoughts on overcoming that dichotomy and survey results among peers: https://www.pboehler.net/12-kafka-newsroom-2/
The App Freedom Index is a much-needed initiative aimed at promoting transparency within the global app ecosystem. Virtual launch, Dec. 19: https://applecensorship.com/news/join-us-for-the-launch-of-the-app-freedom-index-afi-advancing-transparency-in-the-app-ecosystem
1-question survey on leadership if you work/worked in media (totally anonymous unless you want to me quoted in the newsletter) Describe your ideal media leader - what qualities and vision would inspire you to do your best work?
If you want to connect, don't have a human assistant coordinate. It's almost 2025 - abusing someone’s time for your scheduling either shows you're digitally out of touch or think you're above managing your calendar. It’s not that hard and will increase the likelihood you get a meeting.
12/6/2024, 1 engagement
Exile media donors: stop looking at social following, engagement, page views when assessing newsrooms you fund. There is so much fraud I don't know where to begin, making such ecosystem analysis and impact reports meaningless; eg: I just bought 13k real pv in a really closed region for 37 USD.
Check out the Nostr tracking token remover bot: https://github.com/f321x/nostr-tracking-token-remover It automatically replies to your posts with tracking-free versions, stripping out tracking from the url. Great idea.
11/29/2024, 1 engagement
两年后，我们如何看待白纸运动 https://www.youtube.com/live/vBfXFARTbmM?si=7gXZ9tgpI-ExotXS
11/29/2024, 3 engagements
11/28/2024, 2 engagements
Exiled media: Using/managing mirror services to distribute blocked sites? Kaleidoscope is researching creation, monitoring & usage pain points. Leave email in survey for results. Anonymous participation. Not using mirrors but interested? Let me know.
- English: https://forms.gle/12qTtqB3kBLtGNf68
- Russian: https://forms.gle/6c3kg1541YvPs2Cz5
Journalism awards should go to journalists who actually excelled in revealing information that was of service to real people. If awards keep going to people who have perfected the performative donor narratives and not actually been of service, not only the award committees get discredited but the entire profession. There is a long term cost to hypocrisy.
11/23/2024, 1 engagement
Interesting solution to deal with link rot perma.cc could be interesting also for newsrooms linking to harmful content/platforms like X if the snapshot mirroring removes the traffic from the source
Journalists: Hush Line is a refreshingly straightforward and simple setup for anonymous tips and messages, and it runs on @torproject.
If you want to give it a try, message me here: https://tips.hushline.app/to/gazzetta
11/15/2024, 1 engagement
11/14/2024, 1 engagement
感謝《 #田間 》電子報編輯簡恒宇的訪問。我們上週在台北談到新聞界可以如何重新思考業界獎項： https://tianjiancmp.substack.com/p/20241105
新聞獎制度尤其是評判標準和評選過程上需要改革，以確保它們對新聞業和社會所提供的價值。
《田間》為理解全球華文媒體產業變遷與挑戰的重要資源，若您對這個議題有興趣的話請訂閲。
Heading to Taipei and Chiang Mai soon, interested in meeting folks working on internet freedom and media research/strategy. We are working on a few projects that may be of interest. Grateful for introductions and happy to just reconnect over coffee .
10/22/2024, 4 engagements
The Tor project has a new job opening for a User Support Specialist in Farsi
https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs/user-support-farsi-specialist/
10/21/2024, 2 engagements
New York friends: the very talented Yusuf Omar will be in town in a few weeks for a screening of Ahmad Alive, a first-person documentary of a young Palestinian in Gaza, Regal Battery Park, Nov. 4.
Trailer and tickets:
10/17/2024, 1 engagement
Becky Pallack and I shared some inspiration on lean audience research yesterday at the #NPASummit in a session called "empathy without exhaustion."
Becky had some fantastic insights on how to get a newsroom excited about research. We settled on the credo: research can only be lean if it is intentional.
Chinese Universities Install Software to Identify and Punish Students Who Circumvent the Great Firewall https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2024/09/translation-chinese-universities-install-software-to-identify-and-punish-students-who-circumvent-the-great-firewall/
9/20/2024, 1 engagement
I'll be facilitating a conversation "circle" at the Global Gathering in Estoril, Portugal next Friday, Sep 27. This three-day event is all about collaboration building and knowledge sharing among digital rights activists.
The conversation theme is "supporting disrupted media" and brings together journalists, technologists, and digital rights activists to brainstorm how to keep independent media relevant and resilient.
From the gradual fragmentation of the internet to shutdowns to donor fatigue, the current challenges require massive rethinking in how journalism is practiced. I'll share some ideas, and I'm really curious to learn about others.
If you're attending, I'd love to see you there. If you're hosting a related conversation there, count me in.
9/18/2024, 1 engagement
“But we argue that it's time to stop conflating the flailing response of news and information providers to those fundamental market shifts with a loss of faith in the key role of independent journalism to functioning democracy. Indeed, we should stop scolding audiences as uninterested in democracy just because they may no longer choose to pay for news products that they don’t find relevant to their lives or easy to access.
Those market shifts, along with powerful technology, have provided people more power to choose what information they get and how they get it. The choices remain overwhelming, and the news industry’s struggle to invest in user experience and monetize its content has diminished its standing. But that didn’t alter this essential truth: High quality journalism that informs and helps people make choices for better lives is as crucially important today as ever — and is finding business success. So, that side of the story deserves a greater share of the airtime.”
Any recommendations on good write ups of the #FediForum? Sad to have missed it. Thank you
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: https://www.pboehler.net/vpn-russia-white-house/
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/
9/13/2024, 4 engagements
Pakistan is building a China-style firewall. Internet speeds have dropped by up to 40% due to the government's efforts to monitor internet traffic, according to service providers
9/11/2024, 2 engagements
How China’s Internet Police Went from Targeting Bloggers to their Followers
In recent months, followers of influential bloggers have been interviewed by police as China widens its net of online surveillance.
9/6/2024, 2 engagements
The Data Workers’ Inquiry is a community-based research project in which data workers lead their own inquiry in their respective workplaces. It adapts Marx’s 1880 Workers’ Inquiry to the phenomenon of data workers who are essential for contemporary AI applications yet precariously employed—if at all—and politically dispersed.
9/6/2024, 2 engagements
re:filtered is my monthly newsletter, this month with some new audience research learnings, hacking news, and upcoming conferences: https://www.pboehler.net/8-information-myths/
9/4/2024, 2 engagements
September 24 - Books Unbanned: Ensuring Access to Books for Everyone, Everywhere featuring Cory Doctorow, Leah Johnson, and Kelly Brotzman (Boston, MA and on Zoom)
https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/66cf2d8bf520192f005fcc50
9/4/2024, 4 engagements
Heading to DC for a day, beautiful train journey
9/4/2024, 3 engagements
New project launch: http://GoogleCensorship.org This platform by GreatFire will monitor censorship practices in Google Play Stores worldwide
9/3/2024, 3 engagements
Agreeing here: “Durov and Telegram might yet be exonerated from the charges they face—and we should indeed reserve judgment as the case unfolds. But nothing about his arrest to date suggests that it has anything to do with ‘free speech.’ The narrative that global authoritarian censors are persecuting a free speech hero is pure myth-making in this case.”
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/platforms-like-telegram-accused-of
9/1/2024, 2 engagements
Any follow recommendations on internet freedom?
8/30/2024, 4 engagements
My favorite #Riga scene: this Putin portrait is the view the Russian ambassador wakes up to. Latvian know right from wrong.
On 29 August, Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) hosts a webinar on the pressing issue of harassment and violence targeting women journalists, particularly in high-risk and politically sensitive environments: https://www.mfrr.eu/protecting-women-journalists/
Delon est un homme devenu acteur par accident, qui a appris film par film, en avançant. Lui dira qu’il n’interprète pas mais « vit » ses rôles. https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2024/08/18/alain-delon-mort-d-un-acteur-de-legende-ses-films-cultes-en-six-episodes_6285260_3246.html
Forwarding: Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations. https://www.surveillancewatch.io/
8/15/2024, 2 engagements
Funny to see Sweden described as tiny https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/13/business/sweden-economy-europe-competitiveness.html only in America…
8/13/2024, 1 engagement
Venezuela: VEsinFiltro documented 12 new cases of blocking against media outlets, human rights organizations and a VPN https://vesinfiltro.org/noticias/2024-08-01-venezuela_elections_censorship/ also Wikipedia and WSJ
8/2/2024, 3 engagements
Turkey blocks Instagram https://explorer.ooni.org/chart/mat?probe_cc=TR&since=2024-07-30&until=2024-08-03&time_grain=day&axis_x=measurement_start_day&test_name=web_connectivity&domain=www.instagram.com
8/2/2024, 3 engagements
A media project I consulted with is looking for a UX frontend designer with native Chinese skills to work full time on a new b2b media venture, remotely from anywhere ideally US, (just not Chinese mainland.)
7/30/2024, 1 engagement
Great opportunity for media folks to work with OTF. They are looking for experts in editorial services, and graphic design to support the adoption of censorship and surveillance resilient technologies. Check out the RFP for more details: https://www.opentech.fund/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Impact_and_Engagement_Lab_RFP.pdf
7/30/2024, 1 engagement
From scissors to scraping: a good read on the evolution of content sharing: https://www.techdirt.com/2024/07/29/sharing-material-used-to-be-the-norm-for-newspapers-and-should-be-for-llms/ packaged content has very little inherent value, information or relationships have
A federal judge in New York ruled that Customs and Border Protection can’t search travelers’ phones without a warrant. The ruling theoretically applies to land borders, seaports, and airports — but in practice, it only applies to New York’s Eastern District. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/29/24209130/customs-border-protection-unlock-phone-warrant-new-york-jfk
7/30/2024, 1 engagement
Curious if in browser cached models could work as an alternative for on-premise hosting for simple republished tasks in terms of security or if that doesn’t make sense https://xenova.github.io/transformers.js/
“The democratization of publishing has had lots of good effects for the growth of media around the world, the biggest being the proliferation of previously under-represented groups to have a voice. But amongst the worst effects of it has been the perception that it is easy to be in media, have a career in media, raise money in media, build a company in media. “ http://rafat.org/post/180621846031
Flipboard onboarded 64 U.S.-based local and regional publications to the fediverse https://about.flipboard.com/fediverse/flipboard-brings-local-news-to-the-fediverse/
7/27/2024, 3 engagements
Civic media can set standards if they want to. Now would be a good moment again.
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7/26/2024, 1 engagement
🤯 this is great!
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Why critique decentralized social media protocols on platforms that harvest your data and where you have no ownership of your relationships, no say in your algorithmic discovery, and your data gets harvested?
It's pointless to bash alternative protocols while comfortably nestled in the walled gardens of Big Tech.
If you're genuinely concerned about the future of social media, direct your efforts: Invest time, thought, or resources into developing alternatives. Don't just complain—create.
7/25/2024, 5 engagements
The web scraper bot for Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude hit iFixit’s website nearly a million times in a single day, despite the repair database having terms of service provisions that state “reproducing, copying or distributing any Content, materials or design elements on the Site for any other purpose, including training a machine learning or AI model, is strictly prohibited without the express prior written permission of iFixit.” https://www.404media.co/anthropic-ai-scraper-hits-ifixits-website-a-million-times-in-a-day/
7/25/2024, 1 engagement
CrowdStrike sent Uber Eats $10 apology gift cards to say sorry for outage. Several people who received it found that the cards didn't work.
https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/24/crowdstrike-offers-a-10-apology-gift-card-to-say-sorry-for-outage/
7/24/2024, 1 engagement
“The Chinese internet today is unrecognizable from the internet we all know.” https://www.opentech.fund/news/otfs-nat-kretchun-testifies-on-the-great-firewall-and-the-ccps-export-of-its-techno-authoritarian-surveillance-state/
7/24/2024, 9 engagements
Smol is super interesting as a content aggregator for insights on public debate on social. is anyone working on something like this for fediverse/nostr? https://smol.fly.dev/sign-in