Watch this space

Hello. I’m this guy, and this is my blog. It's an ever changing online experiment of sorts. The usual caveats apply: Anything here represents my own views and not those of anyone else, employer or otherwise. I currently self identify as a technologist, and for a day job I operate some digital safety, information security and censorship circumvention projects with various media outfits, civil society organisations, human rights groups, environmental journalists, and suchlike. My general customer base is the edge cases. The ones for whom the platforms haven’t been designed, or for whom the various Software as a Service models don’t serve very well, the people for whom ‘Real Names’ polices can pose risks to their freedom and on occasion their life. And so on. You get the drift.

That aside, I’m interested in the car crash at the intersection of digital, social and political spaces: where the online can have in some parts of the world very real — sometimes dire — offline consequences. In other incarnations of the blog I've tried and failed to stay in my lane, so to speak. This iteration takes a pretty wide lens approach. I’m still interested in the both the unintended and/or unspoken consequences of each new technological wonder: Their uses, misuses, duel-purpose uses or how are they just weapons. Technology is wonderful, majestic even. Sort of like the sea: you can get a real sense of awe, but — much like the sea — don’t turn your back on it.

But I'm also a news junkie and general interest doom scroller. I’ve let whatever web pages can be found at this domain (and previous ones) take many shapes over the years. I don't keep backups, I leave that to the Internet Archive. The web is a series of sand mandalas, and I tend to embrace the ephemeral. It’s been articles, rants, lists, just an online calling card and various other things at different times. It's been on various kinds of platforms and domains, I think I migrate it more than I post to it, but this time around I’m going to see about fashioning it into a more often-updating blog, though most likely one with a good amount of irregularity. Wish me luck.

This page will update as the situation develops. Watch this space!