The return of Kathy Sierra

In 2007 Kathy Sierra essentially stopped speaking in public, writing her blog and generally contributing online. This was due to a campaign of appalling abuse that including death threats and her home address being made public amongst other things. In late July Sierra returned to blogging just as the Twitter misogyny issue has reached critical mass – leading to the #twittersilence protest.

Smarter people than me have contributed to that debate but my belief is that blaming Twitter is like blaming the walls the National Front used to paint racist graffiti on – assholes will find a way to be assholes.

Anyway I am glad Sierra is back – she gave what remains my favourite talk at a conference and I miss her insightful and wonderfully illustrated blogposts.

16 useless infographics

Infographics drive me to distraction. I do not believe I have got through a single work day in three months without some kind of discussion about them and the simple fact is that I find a pretty small percentage of those I come across really achieve their stated goal. This collection is a prime example of that and this post is a prime example of the fact that sometimes a simple chart is all you actually need to get the point across.

Dubious and dare I say pointless 'infographic' from Greenpeace. No idea what this is telling me? pic.twitter.com/Es9LEZdf3h

— James Offer (@joffley) August 2, 2013

Jimmy Wales: David Cameron’s porn filter idea is ridiculous

Despite his role as a Government advisor (on the Gateway to Research project I was previously involved in amongst other things) Jimmy Wales is demonstrating his independence by lambasting the latest internet censorship plans from the Government. I think he is on pretty firm ground here – I have yet to read *anything* that suggests this idea has any validity (or is even possible).

It as spurred me to get around to paying for another years membership to the Open Rights Group though and I recommend anyone who cares around privacy and the freedom of the internet does the same.

Related to this is this terrifying video from Tom Scott – this is or future unless we do something: