diff --git a/drafts/About 2.0.md b/drafts/About 2.0.md index 3319e948..8fa40cb2 100644 --- a/drafts/About 2.0.md +++ b/drafts/About 2.0.md @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ * [*Platformer*'s About page](https://www.notion.so/About-Platformer-22cd48a5514d404b9c2dd130d7724b93) * [Current About page](https://bilge.world/about) +* “[Why I Write About Technology](https://gist.github.com/extratone/91ebe16b0c620f309e70b40f5d4dcd9e)” --- @@ -15,14 +16,34 @@ Less abstractly, its beat is **wholly digital**, namely in **tools** (software, services, and methodologies) and **culture** (music, film, podcasts, and media) from a distinct lens established at good distance from California. -It is entirely [written in public](https://tomcritchlow.com/2020/07/23/thinking-in-public/) largely via [**this GitHub Repository**](https://github.com/extratone/bilge), supplemented by experiments on a variety of [other platforms](https://www.notion.so/rotund/9fdc8e9610b34b8f991ebc148b760055?v=c170b58650c04fbdb7adc551a73d16a7), including (arguably) [my Twitter account](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel). +It is [unlicensed](https://gist.github.com/extratone/140a11428b5dd1dda500b3928e0438b1) and entirely [written in public](https://tomcritchlow.com/2020/07/23/thinking-in-public/) largely via [**this GitHub Repository**](https://github.com/extratone/bilge), supplemented by experiments on a variety of [other platforms](https://www.notion.so/rotund/9fdc8e9610b34b8f991ebc148b760055?v=c170b58650c04fbdb7adc551a73d16a7), including (arguably) [my Twitter account](https://twitter.com/NeoYokel). + +For better or worse, my voice as represented in _The Psalms_ has continued to be saturated with self-referential and occasionally self-disparaging/deprecating qualification. If I am indeed an authority on myself, I would suggest that these are essential tools rather than crutches, and note that I have made some progress in excusing myself for them out of the (perhaps cliché) realization that “life” - and especially _truth_ - can be infinitely complicated, and therefore worthwhile thought on just about anything is inevitably going to be (sometimes aggravatingly) tedious in its complexity. + +**I am not a paid journalist** and **I don’t break stories**. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t if an opportunity happened upon me, but it is not where I’m at my best. ### What does *The Psalms* cover? -Primarily, this blog exists to amplify [undercovered](http://bit.ly/undercovered) developers, musicians, writers, curators, +Primarily, this blog exists to amplify [undercovered](http://bit.ly/undercovered) developers, musicians, writers, curators, and media professionals, most often through the process of **analyzing their work**. + +Some recent examples include [my interview with Brad Varol](https://anchor.fm/davidblue/episodes/Brad-Varol--Father-of-Whyp-es12ge), who’s creating a handy web tool for sharing audio (replacing Clyp) and [my guide to music apps on iPhone](https://bilge.world/iphone-ios-music-apps). + +Two more _significant_ examples: [my interview with Mastodon creator Eugen Rochko](https://bilge.world/eugen-rochko-interview) and [my huge case for Bandcamp](https://bilge.world/bandcamp-streaming-music) as the streaming service we’ve all been asking for. ### How do you see the world? +Anyone _truly_ curious about the answer to this question, for whatever reason, should read my very-autobiographical essay “[Why I Write About Technology](https://bilge.world/why)” from 2018, though my perspective has changed quite significantly in the time, since. + +I’m going to take further queue from Casey Newton’s about page format and list a few important assumptions of mine about consumer technology in bullet point form: +* The delivery of technology media to the mainstream has lessened its ability to truly write critically about the big tech companies it now shares office buildings with. +* The Open Source/Open Web community continues to struggle with their _brand image_ (if you will) in both old and new ways that needlessly alienate (and sometimes obfuscate) some of their most important contributions from the average user. Technology media has failed in their responsibility to address this issue. +* Women have had a more than equal share in building the digital age and have yet to be recognized for it. +* Black people have important contributions of all sorts to technology that have yet to be recognized. +* The software development community is a source of insights in many aspects of life _other than technology_. It is also often hopelessly blind to others. +* Technology media has failed to discuss consumer technology’s presence in the lives of working class people, to their own detriment. +* The narrative surrounding consumer technology has been allowed by technology media to shift from products toward organizations and figureheads, perhaps inevitably. +* The power dynamics found in the stories of Software History have thus far been underutilized in technology media’s critical eye on the same elements in today’s narratives. + ### How do you get your information? ### How can I interact with *The Psalms*?