McFilter

Interesting Things on the Internet: February 9th 2015

• Why I’ve found that online communities on media sites always seem doomed to fail. Interesting insight into running, changing, and closing online communities and messageboards.
• The Internet's Own Boy. An important documentary about the Internet. If you're in the UK, watch it over the next few weeks while it's available on iPlayer.
• Notes (Rants) from Berlin: On Art and Engineering. Interesting thoughts on critical inspection of technology. I particularly liked "Dan Williams succinctly reminded me that we should always be replacing the word ‘algorithms’ with ‘a set of instructions written by someone.’"
• Silence isn’t Sexy — It Is Actually Very Reactionary.
• The Upsetting Reality Of Modern Day Poverty.. This does a much better job than I can of explaining part of why this Government needs to change. Part two is also worth a read.
• Arts Emergency: An interview. Josie Long and Neil Griffith on the benefits of the liberal arts.
• The Art of Management. An in-depth look at the history of some of management theory, with lots of good detail on Cybersyn and Stafford Beer.
• A Tale of Two Zippers. A delightful look at the factory automation that lets zips be made, and a valid rant about how tiny design decisions can result in huge amounts of mindless labour.