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#speaking

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Its strange, i listen to a #song that has lyrics by a #rap artist and it says "i hear voices" yet in reality i enjoy this fucking song and my neighbours who must be deluded as fuck use this as ammunition against me for things that i dont experience personally. I dont hear fucking voices other than my own #dialogues meaning my own fucking voice and memories of other #people in my life #speaking. People are fucking stupid!

Had my talk on Small Web accepted at #why2025 but I hadn’t realised (my bad) that not only do you have to cover your own travel and accommodation but you also have to buy a ticket to speak. I’m sorry, as part of a tiny two-person not-for-profit working for the common good, I can’t afford to pay to speak at events. I’m not Deloitte. So I sadly had to withdraw my talk.

If any conferences do want to hear about the Small Web and are willing to support our work by paying us to speak about it, please feel free to get in touch:

small-tech.org/contact-us/

small-tech.orgSmall Technology Foundation: Contact UsWe’re available for speaking engagements, media interviews about our work, and to chat to VPS hosts about working together.

I’ve worked in tech for many years, and one of the events that has been a constant part of the calendar is SXSW. I remember signing up for Twitter back in 2007 just after I heard about it while chatting in Roo Reynolds’ office at IBM, from a visitor who had been at SXSW where it first took off (referenced in a post back over here).

That was nearly 20 years ago now – and in all of that time, I never had the opportunity to go to SXSW for the tech part1 of the festival…

This year, our friends at Flipboard created a side event they called Fediverse House, as a eye-catching label for a series of talks and sessions around the open social web

[yes, it was broader than the Fediverse; some other platforms and topics were represented, too. It was great to be able to talk about the Fediverse]

Image credit: Brooks Lawson @brooks

I was excited to be able to join the event2, and even more so, I was honoured to be asked to join a panel moderated by the wonderful Mia Quagliarello all about building communities on the new social web. I briefly mentioned this trip on the most recent Mastodon blog post update for our updates during March, but I’m now able to include more about the content here.

Here’s the video of our panel discussion, available on Flipboard’s PeerTube – or, on YouTube for those of you that are not yet Fediverse-enabled, or who want to watch on your TV or something 🙂 I hope I did an OK job, representing the good people of the different communities on the Fediverse. I know that my own experience and perspective is not a universal one and I do my best to reflect that when I talk about our spaces.

As well as this panel, the event included some fantastic talks from folks such as Molly White and Cory Doctorow (clips are on PeerTube); it gave me an opportunity to learn more about the ATProto ecosystem from chatting with the nice folks from Bluesky; I was able to meet writers from one of the best publications on the web today, 404 Media; and, it also provided a chance to spend time IRL with friends from the Fediverse – including the excellent Jeff Sikes, and also people I greatly respect and appreciate from WeDistribute, Sean and Damon.

Guitar sculpture titled ‘Vibrancy’ by Craig Hein, located in downtown Austin

Anyway… I still haven’t actually been to SXSW 😄

This year, I did something better than that. Thank you to the Flipboard team for all your work in putting Fediverse House together!

  1. I was in Austin one year during the music festival, and managed to get to a couple of sessions, but I wasn’t in town specifically for the event, that was a surprise bonus. ↩︎
  2. Thank you to the Social Web Foundation for making my trip to Austin possible. ↩︎
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https://andypiper.co.uk/2025/05/01/fediverse-house-at-sxsw-2025/

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Day 30 cont 🚫🗳️🥔🤓

#PeterDutton (Liberal) has dodged questions about his labelling of some organisations “hate media”.

At a press conference in #MossVale, a reporter referred to Dutton saying twice that some organisations, including the #ABC and #TheGuardian, were “#HateMedia” and that #journalists were #activists, asking what #questions the opposition leader had #disliked.

“I think what Australians are concentrating on only days out from the election is not the feelings of, you know, with respect, anyone [from the media],” the opposition leader replied.

The journalist interrupted: “You’re the one that’s taken issue”.

Dutton continued his answer, saying families were interested in what’s better for them and #promoted his #FuelExcise reduction and #TaxRebate. Another reporter asked: “Isn’t #blaming the #media just a convenient excuse at this point of the campaign?”

Dutton continued #speaking over #questions, saying the prime minister had no interest in stopping gangs. “I want to keep our country safe and that’s exactly what we’ll do,” Dutton said before walking away. Another journalist yelled about #integrity as Dutton walked off.”

The media has picked up the Opposition leader candidate in the last couple of weeks. Also a reminder that yesterday #ABC #4Corners shown last night, investigated Dutton for misconduct of business Interest declarations while he was a Minister in government.

#AusPol / #media / #questions / #character / #Liberal / #LNP / #coalition / #Nationals <smh.com.au/politics/federal/fe>

The Sydney Morning Herald · Federal election 2025 LIVE updates: Dutton denies recruiting Brethren church members after Queensland office vandalised; Welcome to Country debate dominates campaignBy Nick Newling, Olivia Ireland, Alex Crowe

What are your best suggestions for helping someone get rid of "um's" and "uh's" in their public speaking?

Someone asked me to help them... and I remember spending considerable time training myself to not say those things... but that was **20 years ago** when I was getting started with podcasting! 🤯 I have *no idea* what I did all those years ago. 🤦‍♂️

What have you found worked? For yourself or others?

Alright scumbags. Guess who thought of a legit use for LLM / gen AI / regurgitative AI / whichever, in specific cases?

Mandatory condition: middle managers and C Suite or SMT dumbasses use the garbage multiplier on their own.

They need to learn how shit they are at communicating when the stolen vomit static mash-up program can't give them precisely what they want.

yes backfires possible and likely.
But jfc, if it means people who know "creative" just means "someone who tries something" get a tiny possible break from the hierarchical bullshit, that's a positive.

#art#genAI#AI