Uncategorized Archives - Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure

Freq: A Platform Tuned for Music Community

Freq is an experimental platform for social music discovery from the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure at UMass Amherst.

We Mapped Reddit: Introducing RedditMap.social

By Ethan Zuckerman “Accents are just mouth fonts.” That brilliant observation is just one of the gems I found today on r/BrandNewSentence, an online community dedicated to collecting “sentences never before written, found in the wild”. Fans of these strange sentences also enjoy r/NatureIsMetal, which features images of animals being savage or brutal, and r/InstantKarma,… Continue reading We Mapped Reddit: Introducing RedditMap.social

Keyword: Decentralization

Map of United States postal service routes west of the Mississippi in 1867, depicting an early distributed communication network. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

This is an entry in our Keyword series, where we try to define the terms you’ll often hear when people talk about building a better Internet and put those keywords in their current context. The term decentralization gets thrown around a lot today, often referring to a paradigm shift in Internet technologies that’s just around… Continue reading Keyword: Decentralization

Trust: A Reimagining Miniseries

In March 2023, we ran a four-part miniseries called “trust,” where we talked about how trust works online from a bunch of different angles: free speech and platforms, gamer guilds, crypto and DAOs, justice, and more. These episodes are pretty unique in their feed, with each one covering a different topic through interview segments and… Continue reading Trust: A Reimagining Miniseries

New_Public: A Social Network Taxonomy

Ethan writes about his 2×2 model of social media.

Prospect (UK): How to stop the internet becoming a junk heap

Ethan on enshitification.

Creating PublicSpaces by Geert-Jan Bogaerts, José Van Dijck, and Ethan Zuckerman

In Digital Government: Research and Practice. Abstract: Institutions like public broadcasters and universities face conflicts of values when using surveillant digital tools: organizations bound to protect the privacy and respect their autonomy of their constituents – which we term “values-led organizations” – find those values undermined by tools they must use to conduct business online.… Continue reading Creating PublicSpaces by Geert-Jan Bogaerts, José Van Dijck, and Ethan Zuckerman

Keyword: Accidental Infrastructure

An IRL example of accidental infrastructure: at the height of the COVID pandemic, parking spaces on city streets were converted into outdoor restaurant seating. Image via Wikimedia Commons user Eden, Janine and Jim.

This is an entry in our Keyword series, where we try to define the terms you’ll often hear when people talk about building a better Internet and put those keywords in their current context. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, people and organizations needed a new virtual space to host all kinds of… Continue reading Keyword: Accidental Infrastructure

Prospect (UK): Tech has an innate problem with bullshitters. But we don’t need to let them win

Ethan on bullshit.

How social media could teach us to be better citizens by Ethan Zuckerman

In Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society – Special Issue on “Digital Citizenship.” Abstract: In 1995, social scientist Robert Putnam suggested that American civic life was weakening because people were retreating from public spaces. Local organizations from bowling leagues to men’s lodges, Putnam believed, helped train citizens in the mechanics of civics. People learn to… Continue reading How social media could teach us to be better citizens by Ethan Zuckerman