Planning another road trip for next month, here to Nevada, California, and points in between, then back through Utah. The key is having enough downtime so I can work and not be on the road all day. My notes just have dates, reservations, nearby coffee, things to see, driving time. Works for me. šŗļø
David Pierce at The Verge: The posterās guide to the internet of the future:
The idea is that you, the poster, should post on a website that you own. Not an app that can go away and take all your posts with it, not a platform with ever-shifting rules and algorithms. Your website.
The podcast episode in The Vergecast has even more quotes from me, Tantek Ćelik, Cory Doctorow, Mike McCue, and Matt Mullenweg. I love how well this captures the foundation for POSSE and where the web is headed.
Watching the courtroom statement and apology from former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, on CNN video here. Some of these lawyers and supporters were caught up in something much bigger, lost their good judgement for a while. Contrast with Trump who will never admit he lied, will never apologize. šŗšø
Pebble is shutting down
This one ended a little more quickly than I expected:
Our goal was to build a kinder, safer, public square. We grew from 6 users on the first day (Dec 9, 2022) to a community of 20k by October 2023. But we weren't growing fast enough justify additional investment, and we also underestimated the number of new competitors with a similar vision who would enter the field.
I liked the name Pebble. From their about page:
From our early days as T2 to our evolution into Pebble, our ethos is consistent: creating an inviting space for genuine dialogue. The name āPebbleā signifies that even small interactions can leave profound impacts.
The company was founded as Twitter started to implode under Elon Musk's leadership. The Pebble folks seemed to have good intentions and they started building a nice product, with maybe more polish than the usual Twitter competition.
But when I signed up several months ago it struck me that they had built another data silo without either a client API or integration with other platforms via ActivityPub. Without any changes to embrace the open web, Pebble was probably always going to fail, it was just a matter of when. This is a lesson we should have learned years ago, going back to App.net's rise and fall.
In 2023, no one wants a centralized, closed microblogging service. We already have Mastodon, Micro.blog, Bluesky, and Nostr, and even Threads will be embracing a more open approach. This is also part of my criticism with Glass.
It also might be a story about the erratic success of VC-backed companies. Pebble received $1.1 million in funding earlier this year. That seems like a lot of money to me, but I guess it provides too short a runway for a company that needed to get very big before turning a profit. I believe the future is smaller, more open platforms, and that means we can't lean on ad-supported models. That strategy has served us well with Micro.blog and blog hosting.
Most small businesses fail and most Twitter clones fail. It has always been this way. Hopefully we can learn from Pebble, and I wish the founders good luck on the next thing.
Doesnāt take much to make me happy. Walking to pick up coffee is one of those simple things. āļø
I saw a couple Cybertrucks on the road today, in northeast Austin, presumably Tesla testing things out. Such a bizarre vehicle. I donāt get the appeal but I like that they tried something weird.
Spurs throw away the game in the last couple minutes but still a lot to like, despite the turnovers and foul trouble. Going to be a fun season. š
Testing out SupportAgent.ai which uses AI to draft answers to support email. It is blowing my mind. However, human replies are always better, so not sure I can actually use it. Also, it replies to spam! š¤£ Here's a screenshot to give an idea of how powerful it is but also how potentially wrong.
Biden should focus his 2024 campaign around banning assault weapons. Keep it simple, nothing else except guns and some basics about the economy. I think most people across parties are ready for it. šŗšø
Strongly agree with everything in @gruber's post about pushing for gun legislation:
The aftermath of a massacre is the time to demand sane gun control measures. Thatās when the issue is clarified.
There are already so many assault weapons out there, we won't fully see the impact of new laws for years. Why are we okay with waiting even longer to start? Now is the time. It's beyond frustrating to wait.
Super Mario Wonder is so good. And yeah, I did end up getting a new Switch Lite to play it. š¹ļø
Watching the news at lunch. I want to blog about the war in Israel but itās too divisive and terrible. Not interested in inviting a debate right now. Strong feelings mean everyone is quick to hit reply. Iām okay writing about American politics but this is much harder to get right in a short post.
We've just posted a new episode of Core Int. This week we talk about The Verge article on POSSE and the potential for AI in customer support email.
Spurs win in OT. That was a good one. Canāt wait to see Wembanyama in person sometime this season. š
Back at the old house (still hasnāt sold) to mow the yard in between the rain. Mushrooms popping up.
Looks like some great session topics at IndieWebCamp Nuremberg. I wasnāt organized enough to attend remotely because of the time zone differenceā¦ Catching up on the notes and chat now.
