Promising start to a new relationship between EU & big tech. Consumers and businesses would definitely be worse off if big tech platforms get in on financial data. Banks have dragged their feet on creating open banking/finance ecosystems but it is happening and regulation and standards have helped.

I wrote how eurostack advocacy efforts should take a decolonisation approach and one of the strategies i proposed was to form alliances to support former european colonies to avoid bigtech neocolonialism like what is happening in Indonesia (platformable.beehiiv.com/p/the-eurost...)

One of my all time favourite songs: tidal.com/browse/track.... If that link does work try this: youtu.be/AAwUZLhAvIY?...

🌍 What does digital sovereignty mean for our rights, freedoms, and infrastructures? Join the 4D Conference, a full-day exchange on democratic digitalisation, public infrastructures, and civil rights in the digital age: 4d.cat/en/home/ @xnet-x.net ‪@puntcat.bsky.sociall

We compiled our vids and overviews on interoperability into one post: platformable.com/blog/Interop... Interoperability is an essential component of open digital ecosystems that makes it easier to collaborate and for all orgs to participate

I have been thinking about this pretty much nonstop since i saw it this morning. Presuming it is real cos it is shared by @ketanjoshi.co Key argument for digital sovereignty. Its an absolute disgrace, cant wait to get off all their products.

Hey is anyone here using @onlyoffice.bsky.social ? Im thinking of making the switch: www.onlyoffice.com

We have a health policy dashboard coming out soon to help stakeholders understand the digital health ecosystem in each country: main players, regulations & opportunities. France gets it. They are already doing something similar to support healthetch go to market gnius.esante.gouv.fr/en/decode-eh...

Advocacy works! Just ask @mariafarrell.bsky.social and @ianbrown.tech

The Norwegian Government has made a new tourism ad, and it's surprsingly honest and informative! 🇳🇴

Good example of digital public infrastructure in a high-income country. Created by the gutted 18F from what i understand. Without this there are only commercial digital products and services for this…

“They will also “exchange on a report” about how much of a market there is for companies who want to use European cloud providers as back-up to US hyperscalers.” “The duo are also planning to hold a digital sovereignty summit on 18 November with the Commission and other EU countries.”

@mirya.bsky.social's relevant question on changes in #dataaccess regimes in the "post API, emerging DSA era" yielded some really good responses! Check the replies ⬇️ #commsky

One of my favorite tracks of all time has a new remix Listen to In da 9IGHT Time on your streaming service tidal.com/browse/track...

Google forcing gemini into workspace is no different from them forcing their search engine into chrome which they were just called out on as anti-competitive. Even if you dont want gemini now that you are paying for it you are less likely to use alternative AI tools in your biz/collab software, no?

This is also why we need a new approach to tech policy that does not seek to separate tech implementation from societal impacts. For eg., #EuroStack needs to incorporate a decolonialist agenda or risk creating new tech policies that recreate current power systems: platformable.beehiiv.com

It is Tuesday 19 august 2025 and today i wish ill on JK Rowling. I recommend listening to GERM by Kate Nash and watching Jinx Monsoon’s interview with Jiwe.

Further along these lines, just read this piece looking at digital colonialism in Kenya, published last week on @techpolicypress.bsky.social www.techpolicy.press/how-digital-... Some solutions align with the recomms from my newsletter…

"I am the lawyer for a multinational group active in the energy sector that intends to displace a small Amazonian indigenous community from their territories in order to build a dam and a hydroelectric plant … How can we get the lowest possible price in negotiations with these indigenous people?"

So proud of this piece which took me awhile to get all my thoughts in order. Why framing #EuroStack goals as a fight against “digital colonialism” makes me cringe and what we can all really do about it: platformable.beehiiv.com/p/the-eurost...

There are a some tech policy newsletters on substack that i would like to read but if you are so good at tech policy why are you still there? PS I have made decisions my whole life based on reducing the support i give orgs that dont align with my values. im poor & dont have much reach but im happy

Something for @kinlane.bsky.social !

I created my business (platformable.com) five years ago to support the development of open digital ecosystems in which everyone can co-create their own value. Great to hear that echoed here: “a genuinely democratic digital ecosystem where users control their own experiences, data, and tools.”

Great to see the thought provoking writer and advocate @audreywatters.bsky.social getting recognised for her leadership. This was also reposted by @alexhanna.bsky.social !

Good morning, folks. The sky says trans rights are human rights.

Great piece that shows why Europe should be building global alliances instead of claiming unique risks of “digital colonisation”. In areas like digital taxation, europe is too quick to throw other countries under the bus for its own tariff appeasements (which dont work anyway).

Jinkx Monsoon mocks J.K. Rowling’s transphobia in a recent interview with Ziwe

318,000 Black women were pushed out of the US workforce in last 3 months resulting in a $37 billion decrease in GDP. Much of this is related to the federal administration’s job cuts which have disproportionately impacted Black women as Black women are more likely to work in the public sector.

This is the bit that is missed when Europe brings out data to suggest EU has to “catch up” to US or lose out on some fabled competitiveness agenda.

🛠️ Platform Engineering is evolving fast! Explore trends with Mark Boyd, covering #CICD, developer portals, #APIgovernance, #AI, and productivity metrics. 🔗 https://apiconference.net/api-plattforms-business/platform-engineering-trends-challenges/?loc=ber

Our article from 2021 on OnlyFans and its implications for open banking and open finance ecosystems is now super relevant again with the issues with #itchio platformable.com/blog/what-th... We describe what regulators and others should be doing to protect content creators and ensure financial access

We packaged up our interoperability videos and created a deck for easy viewing: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

This was one of the things that was so refreshing about hearing @mariafarrell.bsky.social on Ripe Labs podcast (labs.ripe.net/author/alun_...): hearing her call bigtech out as partners in authoritarianism. Its disheartening to hear the strong advocate @abeba.bsky.social being censored like this

Oh its #pornfolio day? Ok, lets do this! Here’s the first in my Pr0n series of fetish comedy pop fiction: each set in a different porn studio around the world. What happens when producer Stan Kashola finds out about a plan to make money off his movies without him?! akamarkboyd.com/the-dildo-si...

Just published my latest piece on global digital health policy indicators. Over the last few years i have had to create assessment models for clients cos there arent any you can readily use to compare. Here’s the research on building our indicator dataset: platformable.com/blog/global-...

Worth a watch: Head of Signal, Meredith Whittaker, on so-called "agentic AI" and the difference between how it's described in the marketing and what access and control it would actually require to work as advertised.

An interesting example of how history doesn’t repeat but it may rhyme: timely reading after the latest AI copyright judgements in the US this week

At Platformable, we’ve already done a ton of work this year to support open digital ecosystems. Over the next couple of weeks i hope to get better at sharing all of our 2025 efforts so far, like this:

I had a thing pencilled in which is now not happening, so I've got some capacity coming up for new projects - research, policy, writing on all things tech & society, future(s) of work, digital welfare and public services etc. www.abdconsultancy.co.uk Drop me a line & please repost!

Amazing track! UK Supreme Court and the labour party TERF defenders could use a listen. Listen to GERM on your streaming service tidal.com/browse/track...

🚨 NEW TOOL ALERT: Meet NudgeDetect 🚨 Ever felt nudged into clicking "Buy Now", unknowingly subscribing, or paying hidden fees? NudgeDetect is a Chrome extension I’ve built to reveal ‘manipulative’ website tricks: and help you fight back. chromewebstore.google.com/detail/aodlb... 1/5

'Questions for Anthropic (or any other LLM-pusher)'. Sharing the questions I prepared for a panel about Claude in education, in case they're useful to anyone else resisting the narrative of AI inevitability danmcquillan.org/questions_fo...

Australia following Canada’s lead and rejecting the US model: looks like the rightwing leader is gonna lose his seat too. Major gains for the centre-left and virtually no rightwing party representatives in any capital city across the country. Greens votes are up but spread across seats so no gains.

So will duolingo be lowering their subscription fees since they are saving so much from being ai-first? Did klarna drop their fees when they replaced customer care staff with ai?

If you don't feel like scouring my skyline for all the places I've talked about why encouraging profligate & uncritical use of "AI" in education & public life is is so so so very bad, you can read more on what makes this situation so dangerous & problematic here: afutureworththinkingabout.com?p=5899

The guy who helped protect and shield francis pell has died

Great piece that describes what EU risks losing in any efforts that confuse “simplification” with “deregulation”: “By mistaking transparency and openness for an obstacle, not a driver, of innovation, it would shoot itself in the foot.”

One of the few things i can do to maintain hope is to contribute to building out open digital ecosystems so we all have future non-authoritarian, diverse, non-monopolised structures available to support society, local economies and the environment. Here’s my latest: platformable.com/blog/open-di...

This story is fucking crazy. There is no way i would feel safe trying to enter US now. And i have family, friends, fellows, clients, and work colleagues there.