Reporters Without Borders reports today that Chinese authorities have stepped up Internet censorship to include blogging, closing two sites hosting blogs, Blogbus.com and and Blogcn.com.

Canada becomes the first national government to roll out an integrated RSS-syndicated eNewsroom.

Summary: People aren't digitally embodied. As a result, their online relationships are anemic. As we think about the kinds of digital identity systems that will help people live authentic online lives, we must build identity systems that give people tools to operationalize rich digital relationships.

Identity is the ability to recognize, remember, and react to people, organizations, systems, and things. In the current web, companies employ many ponderous technological systems to perform those functions. In these systems, we are like ghosts in the machines. We have "accounts" in companies' systems, but no good way to recognize, remember, and react to them or anyone else. We are not digital embodied.

One of the great benefits of embodiment is the ability to form and operationalize rich digital relationships. I've written a lot about the nature of digital relationships.

• Relationships and Identity
• Authentic Digital Relationships
• Ephemeral Relationships
• Operationalizing Digital Relationships
• Relationships in the Self-Sovereign Internet of Things
• The Architecture of Identity Systems
• Are Transactional Relationships Enough?
• Fluid Multi-Pseudonymity

One of the discussions at VRM Day caused me to think about a feature of digital relationships I hadn't considered before. Someone said that if you think about a graph with people (or things, organizations, and so on) as the nodes, the relationships are the edges, like so¹:

In this figure Alice and Bob have a bi-directional relationship. This is how I've normally thought about it and how I'd have drawn it. But in today's discussion, someone said that the relationship is shared and that Alice and Bob both control it. But I realized that viewpoint is too simple. Specifically, Alice and Bob each have a different perspective of that relationship and will use it separately.

For example, imagine that Alice is the cashier at a grocery store and Bob is a customer. Alice gives great service, so Bob seeks her out when he shops. Alice on the other hand has no particular recollection of Bob from encounter to encounter. For Alice, the relationship is ephemeral, but for Bob, it's longer term. The nature of each relationship is different. So, we might look at it like this:

But after discussing it some more, I realized that these relationships aren't independent. They're entangled like this:

In the example I gave above, as Bob seeks out Alice more and more, Alice might come to recognize him and call him by name, changing the nature of her relationship with Bob. And that may influence the nature of Bob's relationship with Alice. Over time, these interactions influence both relationships. So, while Alice and Bob both have control over their relationship with the other, actions by one influence the other.

I frequently say that we don't build identity systems to manage identities, but rather to manage relationships. The problem with contemporary identity systems is that they are all one sided, controlled by one party—almost always a company. As I've said before, people are not digitally embodied and thus have no good way to manage their online relationships. As we strive to build better digital identity systems, I think it's paramount that we build systems that provide people with tools that embody them and provide them with the ability to operationalize their online relationships. These are more than decentralized; they are self-sovereign.

Notes

1. Peer decentralized identifiers (DIDs) are a great technology for creating bi-directional relationships.

Tags: identity relationships

Michael Franco, New Atlas, Nov 13, 2024

The depth and detail in this paper (8 page PDF) are daunting, but the gist, as summarized in this post, is straightforward: provided only with observations of a human cleaning (" using a so-called instrumented tool, which is a standard tool equipped with additional sensors") the front of an ordinary sink, a robot arm learn to clean entire sinks with varying surface topology. "The model implicitly learned the correct
tool orientation and position w.r.t. the freeform 3D surface." Michael Franco speculates, "a fleet of robots could learn the basic moves from each other through what's known as 'federated learning' and then they could apply those moves to their individual, specified tasks."

Roberto J. Rodriguez, et al., Office of Educational Technology, Nov 13, 2024

This is a longish (79 page PDF) resource from the U.S. government's Office of Educational Technology. "The Department heard educators say that AI is here to stay, AI will keep changing, and safely integrating AI in educational settings will require informed leadership at multiple levels across the education system." The toolkit is divided into three sections: migitating risks, strategy for AI integration, and guiding its use. The risks considered include privacy and data security, student civil rights, accessibility, and digital equity. The second section is weaker, focusing on the 'instructional core' (credited to Elmore, but basically Moore (1989)), with a corresponding focus on instruction. The third section begins with a discussion of AI literacy (limited to "includes the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to engage with AI safely") and promotion of "responsible use". 

Sean Goedecke, Nov 13, 2024

I remember a phrase from some technical conference a number of years ago: "quality ships." If you ever wondered what this means, this article is for you. It describes what it is to 'shop' a software product, and the sorts of concerns the person responsible has in order to ensure the project ships. After all, the default status for any project is 'not shipped'. There will always be something that could be added, something improved. The idea is to get it in front of as many ideas as possible, deal with the issues, earn the confidence of management, and deliver the result. Via Ben Werdmuller.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has released their Request for Proposal (RFP) for its Electronic Records Archive project. The eight-year performance-based ERA contract could be worth about $122 million.

The Utah State Archives has moved to its newly completed building next to the Rio Grande. Dedication is planned for October in conjunction with Utah Archives Month.

Michael Taft and Marcia Segal from the American Folk Life Center, Library of Congress will be in Utah on October 13, 2004 to discuss the The Save Our Sounds project and related digital issues. This Fall Caucus program will be from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in room 3211 Wilkinson Center on the campus of Brigham Young University and is sponsored by CIMA, the Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists. There will be no charge to the event and lunch will be on your own from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m.

Almost every Web site has a what's new section or page. The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio shows us that RSS syndication is a great way to allow your customers to monitor what's new on your agency's website.

Those monitoring U.S. eGovernment progress and news should take a look at Multimedia Victoria, the Victorian Government's Repository of eGovernment Resources. Of particular note is its archives of State Government websites and egovernment reports. To find such a great resource...

In an unprecedented move some months ago, Ethiopia became effectively the first country in the world to ban the import of internal combustion engine vehicles. That ban was not some futuristic target for 2030 or 2035. It was an immediate ban on the import of ICE cars, with no exceptions. ... [continued]

The post Inchcape & BYD Partner In New Distribution Agreement For Ethiopia! appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Over the past three weeks, I’ve been assessing various aspects of the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium’s (CUTRIC) positions, research, and publications on transit bus decarbonization. I’ve published ten articles directly about CUTRIC’s material and reports, or closely related and with serious implications for their claims that both ... [continued]

The post Canadian Transit Think Tank CUTRIC Chooses Inaccuracy, Irrelevancy, & Attack appeared first on CleanTechnica.

On one hand, 2024 is likely to be the year of global peak energy emissions. “It is a historic moment,” cheers the World Economic Forum (WEF) in this year’s edition of DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook. On the other hand, we have so much more work to do before we can ... [continued]

The post Is This The Year Of Peak Energy Emissions? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

By Kyle Julian, Regional Director, Commercial & Industrial Sales, U.S. West Without data centers, life as we know it would collapse. That may sound like hyperbole, but our entire digital economy relies on data centers. But it turns out that data centers use a lot of electricity. In fact, the ... [continued]

The post Behind the Curtain: Power Grid Resilience for Data Centers appeared first on CleanTechnica.

This Luckeep X2 Stormtrooper E-Bike is Awesome We’ve tested a lot of electric bikes. I like some for certain reasons, others for other reasons, and some I really don’t care for much at all. I have to say that one thing I’ve found over the years is that e-bikes seem ... [continued]

The post Exploring the Luckeep X2: A High-Performance Urban E-Bike for All Terrains appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Toyota is already complaining about the state of California and CARB as it seems an opportunity to shove its point of view down our throats.

The post Toyota Exec Says California ZEV Goal Is Impossible To Achieve appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Today, CleanTechnica’s Tesla Ethicist columnist answers a question about the tensions among being true to one’s morals, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s absolutist tendencies, and personal Tesla stock portfolios increases. Dear Tesla Ethicist: I’ve always prided myself on my personal wherewithal. I self-financed my own college education by working and extending ... [continued]

The post The Tesla Ethicist: How Can I Reconcile My Tesla Stock Gains With Musk’s Skewed Self-Interest? appeared first on CleanTechnica.

BYD is surging in production, sales, and profits as it challenges most of the world's major automakers in more than 70 countries.

The post BYD May Soon Be Selling More Vehicles Than Ford appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Weird things are happening in the Australian auto market at the moment. In recent weeks, we have seen the launch of several new electric vehicles: the BYD Shark EREV ute (see here), the fully electric Jeep Avenger, and the Deepal SO7 SUV made by Changan from China. Not only that, ... [continued]

The post Something Weird in the Neighbourhood — Australian & New Zealand EV Market October Update appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Stellantis is the latest US electric vehicle stakeholder to firm up its EV supply chain with synthetic graphite produced in Tennessee.

The post The Domestic EV Supply Chain Is Getting A Big Dose Of Synthetic Graphite appeared first on CleanTechnica.

San Francisco, CA — Ever, a premier retailer specializing in high-quality electric vehicles (EVs), is thrilled to announce an exciting new partnership with CleanTechnica, aimed at making EV ownership even more accessible and affordable. This partnership brings CleanTechnica readers a unique, limited-time offer: a $500 discount on any Ever Certified ... [continued]

The post Ever Launches CleanTechnica Partnership: $500 Off Quality, Certified EVs appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Steve Hanley wrote a great article about some nonsense lobbying Toyota is already engaged in following the results of the US election. I found Toyota’s complaining to be insidious, ridiculous, and laughable, so I decided I’d follow up on Steve’s piece with a quick op-ed of my own. For some ... [continued]

The post People Have A Hard Time With Change — But Electric Vehicles Will Dominate By 2030 appeared first on CleanTechnica.

After some recent contributions from Larry Evans and big news coming from BYD itself, I started digging into BYD’s monthly production and sales reports. The big business is the passenger vehicle business. However, BYD also reports production and sales of its buses (electric) and production and sales of its other ... [continued]

The post BYD Commercial Vehicle Sales Up 49% appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Government is already rife with chiefs, why not one more? HighBeam Research, Inc. has set the pace by announcing today the appointment of Christopher Locke as Chief Blogging Officer (CBO). Looks like the role of CBO is a pace setter who creates a buzz about the company products and enlists others to blog the cause. Ironically, the announcement came in the form of a (oh, so 20th century) press release.

HighBeam is looking for bloggers interested in exclusive use of its new "blog this document" tools and free access to the company's premium archives of over 3,000 print publications for adding depth and historical background to virtually any subject. HighBeam, under the direction of Chairman and CEO Patrick Spain, is the recent amalgamation two paid content sites (eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com) and a meta-search site, Researchville.com.

Locke says, "The HighBeam database of 33 million articles going back almost 25 years is the best resource I've found for adding historical depth of focus to the sort of stuff I write about. Any blogger who wants to get at the trends and issues underlying today's headlines will immediately see the same benefit I did. And their readers will too. I'm turned on at the prospect of making the HighBeam Research content and tools more accessible to the blogging world."

I don't think Highbeam will need to look too far for volunteers. Chris' own Chief Blogging Officer blog, offers a preview of how you can turn your own ordinary blog musings into a Blogipedia.

According to ClickZ News, HighBeam plans to begin offering its new blog content tool in late January or early February for $19.95 a month or $99 a year.

While the government may not be enthusiastic over offering RSS news feeds, the Chinese people themselves are embracing Internet communications with gusto and particularly RSS news syndication in the form of blogging.

According to China's biggest blogging service provider blogcn.com, the number of subscribers has soared from 10,000 in June last year, to more than 500,000 now.

A couple of years ago technology writer Fang Xingdong at his site blogchina.com coined the Chinese term bo ke to mean blogger. He encouraged his readers to try blogging by registering on blogger.com. “Blogging is a true revolution,” he wrote. “One needs zero technology training, zero institution and zero cost to become a blogger.”

The number of Chinese online has quintupled over the past four years. Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China, a telecommunications and technology consulting firm based in Beijing, said in an email message to the to Tom Zeller, Jr. of the New York Times, "China's rulers are bent on putting communications, mobile phones, Internet access and the new growth area, broadband, into as many hands as possible."

"China is already the largest mobile communications subscriber market in the world," reports the Internet Herald Tribune, "with more than 320 million subscribers." Internet users, who numbered fewer than 17 million in 2000, are now estimated to be somewhere near 90 million, according to the China Internet Network Information Centre, the government's clearinghouse for Internet statistics. China is second only to the United States in the number of people online."

Beijing has an uneven record of late in allowing citizens access to Google English News headlines giving Chinese searchers access to uncensored news from all over the world. According to Reporters Without Borders, China is censoring Google News to force Internet users to use the Chinese version of the site which has been purged of the most critical news reports.

Similarly, the government is also ambivalent about how allowing its citizens to freely blog. Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project at the University of California at Berkeley runs the China Digital News blog and is monitoring the pulse of blogging in China.

Qiang reports that by January 2003, China had about 2000 bloggers when, without warning, the Chinese government blocked all access to blogspot.com, the server that hosts all blogs registered on blogger.com. According to Qiang:

[The] crackdown in 2003 closed websites and internet cafes and saw the arrest of dozens of online commentators.

Yet this is not proving enough to stifle the pluck and ingenuity of China’s bloggers. The rise of the blog phenomenon was made possible by blog-hosting services. Just as companies like Yahoo host email accounts, sites like blogger.com, based in the United States, host blogs.....

Blog services are now sprouting all over China. By the end of October 2004, China had more than 45 large blog-hosting services. A Google search for bo ke will return more than two million results, from blogs for football fans to blogs for Christians.

Sources:

• Zeller, T. Jr. Beijing embraces the Internet while it clamps down on online dissent, International Herald Tribune, December 6, 2004.


• China View. "Blog" the word of the year, December 5, 2004.


• NewScientist.com. Special report: The "blog" revolution sweeps across China, November 24, 2004.


• Interfax-China. China censors Google News, (November 30 2004, updated December 1).

A trench coat is one of those timeless fashion staples that are never going out of style, and we’ll be seeing them everywhere this fall. If you’re in the mood to buy one, here are five factors worth considering when looking for a trench coat that perfectly suits your figure and style. Versatile Color Classic […]

If you like your home to have a different feel each season, you’re probably thinking about switching things up and redecorating this fall. There are many home décor trends worth trying this season, and these three made it to Pinterest’s lists of trend predictions for fall 2024. Peaceful Colors Fall is often seen as a […]

Six-hundred-twenty in a series. Welcome to this week's overview of the best apps, games and extensions released for Windows 10 and 11 on the Microsoft Store and elsewhere in the past seven days. The core Windows apps Notepad and Paint are getting more AI features. Some of them are reserved for Copilot+ PCs, others are available for all Windows 11 devices. As always, if I've missed an app or game that has been released this week that you believe is particularly good, let me know in the comments below or notify me via email. Discounts this week The following list is… [Continue Reading]

As third-party risk continues to be a critical concern for enterprises, the need for effective risk management strategies has never been more pressing. We spoke with Bob Maley, CISO of third-party risk management specialist Black Kite, to get his insights into effective strategies for managing this challenge along with the nuanced risks and necessary tactics to secure enterprise environments against sophisticated threats. BN: How can organizations assess and manage risks associated with emerging technologies? BM: Organizations need a proactive approach that begins with detailed assessments to identify potential risks. These assessments should focus on the technology’s architecture, possible attack vectors,… [Continue Reading]

Apple has launched a beta feature called Share Item Location in iOS 18.2, allowing users to share the location of an AirTag or Find My network accessory with third parties. This update is designed to simplify the process of locating misplaced items, particularly when traveling. Users can generate a secure link in the Find My app on their iPhone, iPad, or Mac, which can then be shared. The recipient can access an interactive map that shows the item’s location and updates automatically. The shared link expires after seven days or when the item is recovered, maintaining privacy and security. “Find… [Continue Reading]

Fully updated to reflect modern developments in the field, the Fifth Edition of An Introduction to Optimization fills the need for an accessible, yet rigorous, introduction to optimization theory and methods, featuring innovative coverage and a straightforward approach. The book begins with a review of basic definitions and notations while also providing the related fundamental background of linear algebra, geometry, and calculus. With this foundation, the authors explore the essential topics of unconstrained optimization problems, linear programming problems, and nonlinear constrained optimization. In addition, the book includes an introduction to artificial neural networks, convex optimization, multi-objective optimization, and applications of optimization in… [Continue Reading]

How many counties, cities, police departments, transportation systems, and animal shelters operate lost and found services? An English company has partnered with the police to create an "eBay-like" service using dynamic RSS syndication for auctioning unclaimed property.

The new influencer marketing – memes and GIFs: There is increasing popularity for memes and GIFs on social media. Every brand is making its story simple with memes and Gifs for attracting distracted audiences. Creating brand awareness between millennials and Gen Z is not an easy task as brands need to satisfy both the generations. […]

The post Memes and GIFS: Is This…the Future of Your Brand? appeared first on The Design Inspiration.