Calendly has become the quasi-default for scheduling meetings. Calendso is an open source, white-label alternative. Install it on your own server for free or pay for the hosted version.

Serious or friendly? Loud or Discreet? A different way to explore typography: play with a range of character attributes to find typefaces that suit your project’s ‘feel’.

This project feels very ‘meta’ but it’s a shame that it exists at all: ‘Terms of Service; Didn’t Read’ is an openly edited directory and rating platform that analyses the terms of services that users need to agree to when signing up to websites. ToS;DR simplifies these stupendous legal documents, then rates them in regards to their user friendliness. They also offer a browser extension that notifies you when the service you’re visiting is covered by ToS;DR.

How did I miss this wonderful treasure trove of musical exploration! “Pick a country on the map of the world, pick a decade from the 1900s to today and just let yourself get carried away by the most beautiful musical collection on the planet, selected with love, by humans for humans.”

Sand Talk →

Indigenous thinking to save the world

Another addition to my out-of-control reading list: researcher Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from an Indigenous perspective. His book “provides a template for living. It’s about how lines and symbols and shapes can help us make sense of the world. It’s about how we learn and how we remember. It’s about talking to everybody and listening carefully. It’s about finding different ways to look at things.”

Power to the Public →

A case for Public Interest Technology

Our interview with Bruce Schneier in Offscreen #23 opened my eyes to the urgent need for a new technology sector called Public Interest Technology. This new book outlines many of the same themes from our interview: “A powerful new blueprint for how governments and nonprofits can harness the power of digital technology to help solve the most serious problems of the twenty-first century.” (Also love the cover design!)

If my intro from last week made you think more deeply about individualism, this is a great supplementary read about the downsides of our anti-communal existence in the West. “The single family home, and the standards of living that accompanied it, were once rare – but because they incentivized more consumption, they became aspirational. The dream was to escape reliance on or proximity to other people. Now the single family home is ubiquitous, but the dream that accompanied it has soured. We unnecessarily duplicate so much labor: every household makes dinner, does dishes, does laundry. We struggle to find affordable childcare, or find coverage for each other in the case of catastrophe or illness. Our safety nets are tattered because, at least in the United States, our government has neglected them – but we, as individuals, have as well.”

I grew up in a German country town and remember how bragging about your meat consumption was one of the many repulsive ways to assert your masculinity. I’m so glad Emily Atkin gives it a name and calls it out. “In America, we’re taught from a young age that the coolest thing in the world is to be a big man with a big car who eats big meat. This is part of our deeply embedded culture of petromasculinity. It’s why people still get weirdly furious when you suggest eating carrot hot dogs instead of regular hot dogs on the Fourth of July.”

Lauren Goode prepared for a wedding but then decided to cancel it. She is happy with her decision. The internet, however, insists on her getting hitched. A great piece about the flawed logic of algorithmic advertising and recommendation engines. “If we already are part cyborg, as some technologists believe, there is a cyborg version of me, a digital ghost, that is still getting married. The real me would really like to move on now.”