I think a lot about how I use things like twitter – I want to make sure that I’m providing useful, or at least interesting information to people. I would like to think I’m making the world a tiny bit better not a tiny bit worse.
This post has two objectives:
- There are a lot of people who sensibly avoid social media because it takes a lot of time. Those people might find it interesting to look at a list of ‘the cool things Joe has found on social media for the last two weeks’.
- Equally, I’d like to make sure that I am providing value, so it’s worth it for me to review every link (not including stuff to this blog) I’ve retweeted or posted. It may well be that I think twice about some things in the future. I’d like to be in a position where I was providing a clear narrative.
So let’s begin. Over the last few weeks I’ve been interested in:
- Job openings in Disability – this one in Scotland, and this one in Sheffield.
- Technology and disability at conferences: “Scaling Web Accessibility at Facebook”
- This beautiful photo for World Down Syndrome Awareness Day.
My bro and I 30 years ago. @Sibs_uk Proud to support #WDSD2014, socks ready! @DSAInfo #lotsofsocks pic.twitter.com/T5v73PVn7h
— Kate McCallum (@KateMcCallumuk) March 20, 2014
- Someone making the point that the new £1 was useful for blind people.
- The computer system that automatically wrote the earthquake story for the LA Times.
- Samsung putting ultrasonic echolocation covers on a smartphone for the blind
- I found it interesting that On 14th March 2014, the Guardian published 361,346 words.
- This sensible point from FOIman:
https://twitter.com/FoIManUK/status/444201318077718528
- This from the Guardian: “Creative writing, under fire from professor Hanif Kureshi as a playground for future bestseller writers, is in fact a demanding academic discipline that is transforming the study of English“
- I plugged a couple of apps that I really like: Unroll.me for email, and http://spectacleapp.com/, which is a nice window manager for Macs.
- Also I’m interested in answers to these Stack Exchange questions: “Have the Paralympics been the target of specific boycotts?” and “Performing user studies on blind and other disabled users” (I’m a big fan of Stack Exchange in general).
- I tweeted about this: “Meet the new breed of fat cat: the university vice-chancellor” because it’s how I found out that my Principal is under fire for how he is paid.
- …and finally I re-tweeted this because I had been getting irritated with the Daily Mail’s bizarrely convoluted attacks on Harriet Harman.
Cameron aide arrested 'potential offence relating to child abuse imagery'http://t.co/IWjQQyyO24
via @guardian < will DM go full Harman?— Erica Packington (@Erica_Jane_MP) March 4, 2014
So that’s my catalog of interesting things for the last couple of weeks. It’s better than I expected in that it is relatively focused, broad, and I’ve managed to avoid preachy or political. If people find the collection of links useful do let me know and I’ll do one of these every so often. It helps me keep focused and it would be good if it helped other people to.