Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist’s Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person “must see”.
Check out these six links that we’re recommending to one another:
- All Prior Art. “If you can’t beat ’em, join em. If you can beat ’em, do it with an algorithm. This software generates pretty much anything you can invent, then publishes it, establishing prior art. ‘The pull tab is attached inside the bag between the two perforated lines and has at least has one loose end extending outside the bag. In certain example embodiments of this invention, the lateral position of the rear drive wheels may be selectively adjusted as desired by the operator.’ I literally can’t tell if this is satire, art, or brilliant obfuscation that makes patent research grind to a halt.” (Alistair for Hugh).
- The Post-Productive Economy – The Technium. “The extraordinary Kevin Kelly has come up in our Six Links series four times over the last six years (#44, #64, #100, and #110) and he’s one of my favorite thinkers about technology and society. I checked, because I was sure I’d mentioned his latest book, The Inevitable, already. It’s just so damned good. And it holds hope for those who worry robots will take our jobs: ‘In short, productivity is for robots. Humans excel at wasting time, experimenting, playing, creating, and exploring. None of these fare well under the scrutiny of productivity. That is why science and art are so hard to fund. But they are also the foundation of long-term growth.’ A sobering read that bursts filter bubbles.” (Alistair for Mitch).
- Inside The Assassination Complex – The Intercept. “Edward Snowden talks about whistleblowing as political resistance.” (Hugh for Alistair).
- Men try to read the most disturbing comments women get online back to them - Upworthy. “In 10 years+ of writing on the web, I can’t recall once when negative comments towards me or my work veered beyond ‘that’s a bit unpleasant/unnecessary.’ I’m lucky. I happen to be male. Women face a whole different universe when they put stuff out on the web… and it ain’t pleasant. This video is pretty hard to watch, but you should.” (Hugh for Mitch).
- Unbundled – Chris Saad – Medium. “Everything is coming apart. We’re taking a major piece of software and – literally – unbundling it into several types of services and products and apps. Think about the apps that are out just for writing… or a dictionary… or a thesaurus… or whatever. Features of a word processing software are now a standalone. We’re taking things and breaking them up… unbundling them. This is only happening more and more, in a world of 3D printing and the gig economy. There’s a lot of wisdom in this article. Funny, it smells like both opportunity and sadness in the same long piece.” (Mitch for Alistair).
- Creatives Turn Smartphones Into Interactive Books During Facebook Hackathon – AdWeek. “Facebook is rounding up agency talent and showing them what a strong Hackathon can look like (and do). The results from a recent one created a bunch of interesting interactive books for kids.” (Mitch for Hugh).
Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.