Stephen Downes

Web bloat is something I take seriously because it impacts both cost and performance. If the reader is using a slower or less powerful device, accessing online services can be difficult or at times impossible (think about how unresponsive some shopping or airline sites are, for no good reason). This article looks not only at page size but also at how much of a load the page imposes on your computer once it has downloaded. For comparison with the web sites on the chart, my own home page comes in at about 140 kilobytes (0.14 mB). There's no Javascript on it and it doesn't have cookies. It should load easily just about everywhere (in my office it loads at 640 ms). The same can't be said of everything I build, though. But I don't stop trying. Via Molly White.

I probably wouldn't use the cute philosophical trick as in this post, but I nonetheless agree with the outcome: that respect for human life is not a form of value. The way you can show this (with cute tricks) is to tie yourself in knots arguing about what form of sacrifice of human life is 'worth' more than another in various circumstances. My observation is that in today's society the concepts of 'worth' and 'value' are so tied into our everyday thinking we can scarcely conceive of a world without them. But that, surely, is an error. The ideas of 'worth' and 'value' are not so fundamental as all that. All of the efforts devoted to (say) pedagogies of care, equity, social justice, etc., are attempts to show this. Image: 'Dignity', originally from the Simpsons.

Would Immanuel Kant - a world-famous philosopher who lived in 18th century Prussia - be as popular as an influencer today? The early evidence suggests he would. Created using an AI is "Manu, a 23-year-old influencer who, as @manumanukant, lives a typical young life in 2024. With an Instagram bio that describes himself as 'Spreading good vibes and deep thoughts' he's a handsome young guy who shares images, selfies (himself looking soulful in bookstores for example), stories, and reels and comments." The image is based on actual photos of Kant in his youth, while the content is drawn from his work (rewritten to be more accessible to a 21st century audience). "Since quietly launching on Instagram and Threads in January, the account, which was designed to peak on April 22, Kant's 300th birthday, has achieved over 384.8 thousand impressions, reached 82.4 thousand accounts, and has an engagement rate of 51.2%."

Creative Commons makes the following statement: "access to cultural heritage is a fundamental right. And preservation, access, sharing, use, and reuse of cultural heritage are all some of the essential functions that libraries, archives and museums fulfill to enable everyone to enjoy that fundamental right." That's similar to what the British Museum says as it stores half of Egypt's cultural heritage within its walls. Maybe Creative Commons should rephrase: 'access to our own cultural heritage is a fundamental right'. That would allow me to reproduce, say, Group of Seven paintings - which are part of my cultural heritage - while preventing me from converting Indigenous traditional artwork into cash commodities if that's not something they want to allow me to do. Image: A.Y. Jackson, Red Maple, from Wikipedia (had this as a poster as a child).

"AI-generated avatars that look and sound like deceased relatives are increasingly popular to console those in mourning, or to hide the deaths of loved ones from the elderly and young children," Viola Zhou reports. What's interesting is the variety of reasons people want the avatars - not just for remembrance, but also to hide the death of relatives from young children. Also: "Lin hopes the bot will become his immortal doppelgänger, speaking on his behalf after his death. 'If my descendants ask 'What was Grandpa Lin Zhi like?' they could just talk to the AI version of myself to find out.'" It's not immortality, exactly; it's more like publishing an interactive autobiography. I need to get around to setting my own up.

This post references some good conference coverage by Phil Hill and considers the question of whether institutions are ready for the collapse of online program management (OPM) services. "Leaders in the sector, including 2U, Coursera and Keypath, never made a profit on the activity, and Pearson and Wiley sold off their OPM offshoots in recent months." The revenue-sharing model was never profitable, according to the articles. Moreover, as colleges acquired the relevant skills (especially during the pandemic) the need to outsource abated. The tech is complex enough that, if you're large enough, you want to do it in-house, if only to stay on top of features and costs.