It’s been quite some time since I sat down to write. Not for lack of love; I just had to prioritise other things. And I am hopeful about projects that have been in the works.
Let’s start with one of those.
Clinical Trial Alerts
For the past 5 years, I have been tracking Multiple Sclerosis (MS) research. It was a journey towards understanding the process and which are the main registries for trials. Everyone with MS can subscribe for free to the same email alerts I get by subscribing at Gregory-MS.com/trials.
But I want to take things further.
I am testing a way for everyone to receive alerts about their disease, condition, or area of research. If this interests you or someone you know, can I ask you a few questions?
The service is ready and I am looking for beta testers.
Is 2025 the year of the conflict?
This will sound negative, but I can’t find a way around it. And the first step to a solution is to acknowledge the problem, right?
It seems there’s a fight everywhere. Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and across other fields.
On social media, the US invented the Great TikTok Wars, which drove its citizens to Chinese apps like REDnote. Exactly what they were trying to avoid in the first place1.
This is getting worse now that Mark Zuckerberg decided Meta doesn’t need fact-checkers2; while at the same time leaning towards Donald Trump who can decide what happens to Meta’s biggest competitor. Donald Trump has power over two of the country’s biggest communication channels. @Neville Hobson has a good take on this: Meta’s Moderation and An Uncomfortable Truth About Social Networks.
On tech, there’s drama going on between WordPress and its community after Automattic’s CEO and Founder decided to cut back on how much the company contributes to the open-source version. It’s a long story but The Verge has a good summary3.
On the sidelines of the WordPress drama, its main competitor, Ghost, has been gaining attention and moving towards the open communication standards of the fediverse.
I tried Ghost for a quick setup and can only say good things. It’s straightforward to use, and it can integrate with other services and tools. In my case, content on Ghost would be published to both Mastodon and BlueSky.
Ghost also comes with integrated community features and payments, making it a nice midway between WordPress and Substack.
Interestingly, the founder is John O’Nolan who previously worked for WordPress.
On protocols, there are developments around ActivityPub and the AT Protocol. The first comes from the open-source community and powers Mastodon. The second comes from BlueSky, initially kicked off by Jack Dorsey
Both protocols promise a more open web that empowers users and is safe from the grasp of billionaires.
In what could be a Marvel plot-line, Fortune reported about the “Free Our Feeds”4 campaign where top technologists and Hollywood stars are backing up the AT Protocol. Even the Hulk joined the fight against the enshittified tech giants! (Mark Ruffalo)
Jokes aside, this conflict should not be about the best protocols or the biggest funding; it shouldn’t even be about the social media app with the most users. This should be about us breaking free from the algorithms that take advantage of our fears and desires to turn us into mere interfaces to be controlled. 5
So what?
When we change the way we communicate, we change society.
— Clay Shirky
In a sense, technology never had so much influence on society and it can only keep growing. Everything ripples to society whether WordPress or Ghost, ActivityPub or AT Protocol, TikTok or Instagram.
Would there be such a big speculative market without Blockchain and crypto coins? Would so many people get scammed online if not for the lack of foresight of social media platforms?
Right now we are letting the new robber barons automate their manipulation through algorithms that drive us further apart. For them, it’s about power, for us is about survival and community.
If we turn away from the technology trends and how different channels are being built and controlled, we will lose our sense of community and shared goals.
We are just monkeys drifting through the bleakness of space, trying to survive and live good lives. I believe we can all agree with this and roll up our sleeves to work towards that goal.
https://www.reuters.com/technology/china-gives-wary-welcome-influx-tiktok-refugees-rednote-2025-01-15/ ↩︎
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/10/24340717/automattic-wordpress-contribution-hours-cut-wp-engine ↩︎
https://fortune.com/2025/01/13/mark-ruffalo-jimmy-wales-free-our-feeds-x-musk-facebook-meta-zuckerberg/ ↩︎
Luciano Floridi published an article titled “Marketing as Control of Human Interfaces and Its Political Exploitation”. I think that, what applies to Marketing can apply to social media and its algorithms. ↩︎
