I’ve been thinking that AoIR should launch its own Mastodon instance, open to all members. Something like aoir[dot]social. Glad to discuss in Dublin.
On Oct 23, 2022, at 4:42 PM, Richard Forno via Air-L <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> wrote:
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Hi Stu -
Like many, I'm hoping for the best, but expecting the worst for Twitter. I find Twitter a fantastic tool for staying in-touch and updated on colleagues' research/ideas/musings, sharing ideas of my own and perhaps soliciting feedback/contributions, following conference hashtags (hello #AOIR2022!), some current events and socialization...and the odd dog or nature photo I'd hate quit it, but I've not ruled it out ... but I could live w/o Twitter, even after 13 years.
Without getting too deeply into politics here (which can be hard given the broader issues raised) -- as to your last paragraph Stu, I'm with you. Since 2001 I've been increasingly concerned about the future of America's lttle-d democracy, view 2016 as a populist accident/experiment, saw 2020--1/6 as a test run. feel 2022 will be a good indicator of where things are heading having learned from 2020, and firmly believe that 2024 likely will be *the* pivotal point for our country one way or the other. (Though politically, I think this political decline started in the mid-90s when one party decided to treat the other as the 'enemy' and embraced a scorched-earth brand of politics that considered compromise akin to treason, which got cranked to 11 thanks to silo'd cable news and SM platforms in ensuing years.) And that's all I will prognosticate about here politically -- other than to conclude by saying I'm worried not just about now, but that we will not be able to fix things and get "back on track for the future" anytime soon. :/.
I do admit that despite being an old-school geek/hacker, in recent years I've wrestled with the warm-and-fuzzy nostalgic notion from the '90s that "information wants to be free". In some ways, it's been great for individuals and society -- in other ways, as Borat might say, "not so much." Of course, that change in thinking also could be a function of midlife as well as current events. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But one of the world's dominant modern comms mediums transitioning into an unaccountable private entity run by a person .... however you view Musk .... definitely is concerning on *many* levels.[1]. By contrast, at least FB is a regulated public company and has the appearance of some 'objective' review of controversial things via its Oversight Board.
As for aca-Twitter? As I said, I'm still in wait-and-see, but it wouldn't surprise me to see many tweeps both from academia and elsewhere posting their final tweets either due to protest or for professional reasons / protection by year-end or early next year, depending on what 'innovations' are introduced to the platform post-acquisition.
Stay tuned, I guess...
-- rick
[1] WaPo reported Friday that DOD/DOJ 'might' be investigating the Twitter deal and SpaceX-DOD contracts due to national security concerns with Musk's public views and his foreign investors. Could be something there, could be a flash of desperation to block the sale ... but again, the question of accountability comes up.
On 21 Oct 2022, at 7:43, Shulman, Stu via Air-L wrote:
Will academic Twitter exist under Elon Musk? Will there be more or less data? More or less urgent issues to study? Will the "Fail Whale" show up again after 75% of the staff is gone? Who will do content moderation? Is this a FastTrack to the next violent uprising in the US?
I am curious what people on this particular list think is about to happen. After 12 years featuring the formal study of Twitter data I am completely burned out. Not on the challenges, nor the art and science of the tasks. I still love talking to students and faculty who have chosen Twitter as the object of their research. The data has never been more widely available and the positive uses of it can be inspiring.
It's the voluminous amounts of hate I see in my own research. Also the systemic weaponization of Twitter against democratic systems of government globally. As an original Board Member and the Treasurer of a 501 (c)(6) called "The Big Boulder Initiative" I was working as a liaison to academia with a group of industry people on the "long term preservation of the social data industry." The industry survived, but the ideals aspired to have not. We offered this 2-minute Lawrence Lessig-inspired vision of the challenges about 7 years ago:
"Why Texifter Joined the Big Boulder Initiative" https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://vimeo.com/129423037__;!!IaT_gp1N!0Ghlkf1...
Lessig was right. On the Internet, architecture is the most powerful regulator. The architecture of Twitter, with corporate ads featured on insurrectionist and other problematic timelines, is now a persistent threat to democratic systems of government without a single day of Musk governance. The insurrection January 6, 2021 was planned in the open on Twitter. There were advertisements from familiar brands in every seditious timeline. Evolving tactics using Twitter trains (tagging 30 like-minded users), notification-rich replies, the ReTweet functionality, gamification, domestic and foreign meme warfare, the idolatry of influence via misinformation, bots and trolls, as well as paid amplifiers of all manner and variety. The "digital soldiers" we found in the Canadian election of 2019 (fake Americans who hated Trudeau but liked RT, Russia Today and Southfront) were openly planning a QAnon-inspired "storm" which ultimately was the first coup attempt in two centuries of American democracy. I briefed the US/UK Intelligence Community (staff from the Joint Chiefs, JSOC, etc.) February 12, 2020 via the Strategic Multilayer Assessment using open source information from Twitter. Things have since gotten much worse, not better, since that briefing. These were the slides in early February 2020:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://tinyurl.com/huntingbotsandtrolls__;!!IaT...
Looking at the current threat-relevant data, I have a sick-to-my-stomach feeling about the next 60 days in U.S. history. We may be late to notice the end of small "d" democracy is imminent or inevitable because of the Internet effects we cannot fully see, capture, measure, or control.
-- Dr. Stuart W. Shulman Founder and CEO, Texifter Editor Emeritus, *Journal of Information Technology & Politics* _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://aoir.org__;!!IaT_gp1N!0Ghlkf1rWCTGT5MfqPF... Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir...
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