David Hughes

Notes From Afar

Tag: Internet (page 1 of 10)

18 November 2022

RIP Twitter?

RIP Twitter Tombstone

I took a break from Twitter when Musk took over and quickly laid off thousands of staff via email.

I didn’t think that even he could do so much damage so quickly.

I was one of the very early users of Twitter as it took off in the web design community.

I’ve made friends through Twitter that have become friends IRL.

Twitter was key to early success of Milton Keynes Geek Night, with our Twitter friends becoming a little black book of fabulous speakers.

I’ve watched as many of those friends have ebbed away from Twitter, some to other platforms and some away from social media completely.

It was a quieter place, but it was a place that still held a special place in my heart.

Which is why seeing it brought to its knees by Elon Musk has been difficult to watch.

Yes it’s just a website, but it’s more than that, it’s more than just the code and the pixels it’s a worldwide community I loved being part of.

I hope that if or when Musk finally breaks Twitter somebody better buys that code and brings back the community.

30 January 2019

New Adventures In 2019

After a six year hiatus the fabulous New Adventures conference made a welcome return to Nottingham’s beautiful Albert Hall.

Six years, felt so much longer whilst we waited for a new adventure, but melted away as we arrived in Nottingham to meet with friends and faces from adventures past.

New Adventures has always been more about concepts than code, and 2019 was another perfectly curated collection of thought provoking talks. Highlights for me were Jeremy Keith’s opening talk which called on us to examine the building blocks and layers within the experiences we create. Helen Joy brought to life the importance of user and customer research, and I hope encouraged the audience to seriously and deeply consider and understand the end-users of their products and services. Ethan Marcotte closed the event with a rousing call to arms for web workers.

New Adventures 2019 felt like conferences used to feel – significant.

An occasion, a gathering, a happening where new ideas, big ideas, important ideas are shared.

Ideas that invigorate, enthuse and inspire us to new adventures – wherever they may take us.

27 September 2016

Distraction Sickness

Just look around you — at the people crouched over their phones as they walk the streets, or drive their cars, or walk their dogs, or play with their children. Observe yourself in line for coffee, or in a quick work break, or driving, or even just going to the bathroom. Visit an airport and see the sea of craned necks and dead eyes. We have gone from looking up and around to constantly looking down.

– Andrew Sullivan – My Distraction Sickness and Yours

10 January 2014

Other People’s Moments

You’re fucking swimming in everyone else’s moments, likes, and tweets and during these moments of consumption you are coming to believe that their brief interestingness to others makes it somehow relevant to you and worth your time.

— Michael Lopp

11 November 2013

Ten Years

October marked the tenth anniversary of this blog, and of the many iterations and designs it has been through.

I remember being excited when I heard about new blogging platforms such as Blogger, as they felt like a move back to the web as it had been envisaged by Tim-Berners Lee, and that entranced me so much in the early days: a read write web.

The web is now even more read write due to the rise of social media, and yet at the same time is arguably more closed and restrictive as those same social networks try to control and ‘monetize’ their users.

With the recent revelations of the extent of the NSA’s spying on all internet users I fear we will see the openness of the web eroded even further as nations and users attempt to protect themselves and their data.

The next ten years will be a time of profound change for the web and its users.

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