Leadership, community, and how I got Hacker News’s second-highest average karma

on October 17, 2013 in Blog, Freedom

Leadership creates community. I’m writing today on leadership and creating community in a specific context for clarity, but it applies to anyone’s participation in any community, online or off. I expect you can translate everything below to your world easily enough. If not, comment below and I’ll clarify. An effective measure of your leadership skills is how much community you create. Another is how much your community appreciates you. Online[…] Keep reading →

Edward Snowden — Whistleblower

on June 10, 2013 in Blog, Freedom

[My previous post is my second-to-the-last on my series on daily and weekly beliefs that improve my life and may improve yours, in no particular order. See the introduction to the series and the value of flexibility in beliefs for background. The last one will be an introduction to the whole series, to come soon.] I haven’t written about freedom and the Freedombox project in a while. If you’ve followed[…] Keep reading →

Your online tools spy on you. There is a way out.

on April 2, 2012 in Blog, Freedom

I saw a snippet of a talk pointing out that Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and others design software from the ground up to spy on you. Sometimes a blatant statement of a problem reminds you of it. People are learning about the problems with large corporations and governments having so much information on you, though they don’t know what to do about it because they have no alternatives. Gmail benefits[…] Keep reading →

Leaving Facebook is easy and fun

on March 26, 2012 in Blog, Tips

I expect to log into Facebook once more — to message my connections there that they won’t be able to find me there, why, and where to find me instead — then I’ll leave for good. Why leave? I knew I wanted to leave after Facebook made its privacy policy too intrusive for my tastes. I felt they had too much control over my personal data. Facebook is creepy, getting[…] Keep reading →

Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” reveals more than you’d think

on January 25, 2012 in Freedom

I just read a post, “Google is FUBAR,” (for non-geeks, fubar means “f‘ed up beyond all recognition) suggesting the company is on a slippery slope leading not to its demise but to move its practices from what people like to what will lock them in and to risk more forays into anti-trust and privacy territories. Why is Google FUBAR, then? … It must irreparably alter its fleet of successful web[…] Keep reading →

An offer to the Freedombox community

on November 13, 2011 in Blog, Freedom, Leadership

My post on how Freedombox’s pursuit of perfection is undermining its goals prompted some discussion. Hearing how people the Freedombox community wants to help end up supporting products we see as non-Free jolted my system. I believe constructive criticism helps, but my desire to contribute more led to the offer below. One person’s response got me thinking about how I, as someone who doesn’t write much software, can help. Diaspora[…] Keep reading →

Freedombox’s pursuit of perfection undermines its goals

on October 22, 2011 in Blog, Freedom

A journalist covering Iran I saw speak last night that got me thinking critically about the Freedombox in a way the Freedombox community would benefit from, in my opinion. Someone asked the journalist what people working for freedom in Iran did about governments having access to data on Facebook and similar tools. Being in the Freedombox community, I anticipated her saying something like it was a big problem and people[…] Keep reading →

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