Zag To The Zig #20 :: IKEA hacking, job dignity & scary government websites
🙋♂️A special hello to the (ex-)Facebook friends. Since I cut my ties with you last week on the platform of all platforms, a whole lot of you decided to sign up for this newsletter. Amazing! What should I leave next?
This is what triggered my curiosity this week.
In the Tech Basement
Empathy seems something urban planners lack. Otherwise you wouldn’t design a vanishing bike lane like this in 2020.
So bring on technology like Digital Twins, which are basically digital copies of our environments to allow designers and planners more dynamic information to make better decisions. Great tool, but just another tool. Cyclists wouldn’t have needed Digital Twins to flag proposed solutions like the above.
In the Ethics Room
This study finds that the so-called filter bubbles, where social media algorithms select news based on ‘what we would agree with’, may not be that strong after all. One take-away: Facebook is still big, but there’s a shift towards private messaging platforms (read: our friends), also for news.
You may know that I am a fan of the Brave browser (see last week’s ZTTZ recommendation to listen to this podcast) and obviously we should be weary with studies run by a commercial company shoring up their vision. However, this week Brave released a report on how websites from UK councils leak data to commercial companies. Scary stuff. If you visit a webpage about Financial Assistance, that data will help with profiling you as a Budgeter for advertising purposes.
Other little nugget I didn’t know: the AddThis share button (free, obviously) is owned by Oracle, i.e. gathers data every time the plugin loads.
In the Economy Room
Three reasons to spend some time with Identities of the World, a series of portraits of people falling through the cracks in their aim to truly gain financial independence.
1️⃣The content. I particularly liked the story of Sonia, a woman from Sao Paolo, who could rely on community bank Sampaio to get small loans (in community currency Sampaio) - and the butcher attracting 3 times as many customers when he accepted the local currency. We don’t always need blockchain!
Like most community banks, it does not require proof of regular income or assets, just Proof of Residence within the community.
2️⃣It shows the power of story-telling.
3️⃣The Brazilian stories prove that Brazilian Portuguese is the most beautiful language in the world. Tudo bem! 🇧🇷
In the Office
Thoughtful essay by French writer Laetitia Vitaud on the future of work and the role of stability and dignity in the job.
One short quote: Can you have dignity when you’re an employee and you are a “human resource”?One thing that freelancers like me don’t have is stability. Neil Perkin is someone who I respect for delivering quality work while staying independent. And sure enough, he just published a list of advice for people keen on doing their own thing. Simple, but worth coming back to every now and again. Two things that stand out for me. Value your Network and Business Development is Constant.
➡️ Which means that, yes, I rely on you as well. So, if you feel like someone in your network should know about me, my work or even this newsletter, please connect us. However, do take into account a third point from Neil’s list: ‘Don’t Work With Dicks’. 🙏
Random ZTTZ
IKEA collaborated with design studio Teenage Engineering to create a range of party speakers. Now the agency is releasing some free design files, so you can 3D-print your own IKEA speaker accessories. Not included: guidelines to find someone with a 3D printer.
🏁 End note: 1 thing I’ll be doing this week
I’m prepping a talk on Innovation in Government, for the closing summit of a project that explored inter-governmental data sharing and brokering.