A browser extension that lets you track (and block) tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook as you browse the web. With so much of the web being hosted by or somehow connected to Big Tech, this tool aims to educate users about how data flows to and from the largest tech companies, revealing how integral those companies have become to the everyday experience of the internet.

A web app that wants to make meetings more productive and outcome-focused through things like meeting templates and task assignments.

There isn’t all that much info on how exactly this tool works, but I like the idea of a framework companies can use to more easily create environmentally friendly policies that encourage behaviour change internally. I would be interest in seeing some examples of this tool in action (without having to sit through a sales pitch).

Okay folks, buckle up! This collection of point-of-view bike rides will make your heart race! Best experienced on a desktop and with the sound on. (It may take a while to load but it’s worth it, trust me!) The homepage is a bit confusing so I linked directly to one of the rides, but don’t miss the other ones through the menu on the top left.

Mission Economy →

The moonshot moment for changing capitalism

I first mentioned economist Mariana Mazzucato in issue 68 with an article about her bold ideas to put public purpose first and solve the problems that matter to people, giving government a new role. Her book seems really interesting: “A powerful intervention, challenging governments to apply the same determination and co-ordination to the problems of society and economy as were once applied to putting men on the moon.”

Offscreen #24 →

From algorithmic injustice to inclusive design

We cover a lot of very timely, meaty issues in the latest edition of Offscreen: AI ethicist Ali Alkhatib talks about the inherent injustices of Big Tech’s algorithms, Inclusive Design trailblazer and professor Jutta Treviranus highlights the flaws of majority-based design (and truth-finding), writer and artist Xiaowei Wang explains the tech-driven interdependence between China and the West, and author and activist Jillian C. York describes how censorship works under surveillance capitalism.

I’m not entirely on board with his views about humans needing to generate economic value, but this interview with Austen Allred, a founder of a pretty unique coding school, provides a great outside perspective on the flawed hiring process of the tech industry, and how it often affects marginalised groups the most. “The hiring process is not just a filter for skills, it’s also a filter for class. And people don’t talk about or acknowledge that. ... I didn’t know how to use Google Calendar until I showed up in my first job. Someone tells me, ‘I am gonna put some time on your calendar.’ And I think: Oh, I guess I have a calendar. That’s not obvious if you don’t come from, frankly, a certain class.”

A short interview with author and activist Naomi Klein on how she thinks about bringing kids into a world of climate breakdown. “One of the things COVID has shown is that the nuclear family is a terrible technology. It’s a relatively new one, and it’s a really bad division of labor. We need to have different simulations of family so that people can get the things they need without it being all about getting a bigger house with a bigger yard.”

I don’t know that much about Andrew Yang or his mayoral campaign for NYC, but I agree with this piece about how Yang and Elon Musk are both in that group of ‘techno-populists’ with really bland and sterile ideas about the future. “It just makes me think, ‘Yeah, this guy [Andrew Yang] doesn’t understand anything beautiful, anything good’, like Musk and his little army of online acolytes, he just wants to make the world a meme.”