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J Miller

@JMMaok@mastodon.online

mastodon 4.8.0-nightly.2026-10-06

Retired professor. Mostly here to read about multilingual open science, civic tech, and public policy. #nobots

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29 Posts

Joined April 28, 2022

J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@danyork At a local art and craft fair last year, I saw several signs that photos were not allowed. (Those of you who go to more events like this have probably seen a lot more of these signs...) I assume this was people trying to avoid having cheap copies of their creations mass produced. Not sure how effective that was for them, but Meta glasses can only be making the situation worse.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

This preprint about moving into a post social media era strikes me as really useful for up coming #fediforum conversations https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6nue7_v1

Key points: algorithms shift focus from communities to interests, GenAI content removes dependency on human content creation, and people are moving to smaller semi/private communities.

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/6nue7_v1

H/T @leahmcelrath.bsky.social for sharing this.

mastodon.online

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@ellane I can read your cursive, but not my cursive …

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

I read Schüll's book on gambling, Addiction by Design, years ago. One of my favorites, highly recommend.

I think it subtly prepared me to be wary of some features of social media algorithms. Can’t say that awareness was enough to protect me completely from the excesses of Twitter, though. Also, some of the features she identifies can be present even here on Mastodon.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@moira Definitely something I’ve done, not in my regular rotation, though.Good for those academic subjects with a big textbook and a smaller one.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@f800gecko@mastodon.online @glyph@mastodon.social That phrase, “sociopathic ladder climber,” so perfectly captures my experience of people bringing LLMs into civic tech volunteer spaces. Just expecting to strip mine a prosocial project of community and learning into a resume line. Charitably, perhaps they don’t always realize that’s what they’re doing. Thanks for that phrase, and for drawing attention to that passage. It’s not just relevant in the workplace.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@moira Probably have a book using each of these somewhere at any given time.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 3mo ago

Replying to

@quinn@social.circl.lu This soon to be released book definitely agrees with you https://knittingcultlady.com/pages/culting-of-america?srsltid=AfmBOorauLaLmVVujHK0sEHMT2xwlk7UJbozvYWgTLKlwk7DMiOBMW2Q

knittingcultlady.com

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@cassidy The Open Seeds program https://we-are-ols.org/openseeds/ gives great guidance on this and many of the projects that have been through their program will be good examples https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ztDX91gBoARjCW2CdNgAIw8CLH_tnQEIIPr1HL-2Nj4/edit?slide=id.g7e28a7e96f_0_0#slide=id.g7e28a7e96f_0_0 Also @turingway https://github.com/the-turing-way

Open Seeds | OLS

A mentoring & training program for Open Science ambassadors

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@adamgreenfield@social.coop I'll follow with interest, having recently read this new book, The Psychology of Place. https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/the-psychology-of-place-a-guide-to-psychogeography-for-photographers-photographic-theory-into-practice_dr-graham-wilson/58781064/item/88858171/

thriftbooks.com

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@czarbucks@vmst.io Heartbreaking and enraging 💔

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@Jgbird That really shows off their adaptive coloration!

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 7mo ago

RE: @gutenberg_new@mastodon.social

In case you were unaware of the Project Gutenberg new books account, or this offering in particular.

mastodon.social

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@gvwilson Hiring discrimination, first as tragedy, then as farce. Presumably they played lacrosse together back at the data center, or something.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@smallcircles @johannab @arclight The field of program evaluation has had a lot to say about this for a long time, predating software’s perceived need to reinvent it. They call these effects that go beyond people who use the product “impact.” So you might refer to impacted populations. Usually in program eval we look for impact to be positive, but it can also be negative. My attempts to share this with software audiences have been quite frustrating.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@ifixcoinops One venue with a lot of options to learn about topics like this is RightsCon. There’s an online option and the session list is here https://www.rightscon.org/program/#list There is also a pay what you can option for online attendance.

RightsCon Program

RightsCon Summit Series

RightsCon Program

This page gives an overview of the program for RightsCon, including our formats and highlights of previous editions

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 37mo ago

Replying to

@mike@thecanadian.social @Lainey@mindly.social Elaine didn’t forget them, David did. She’s sharing a quotation.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@violetmadder This is such an important post. I have taught classes like that, way before LLMs, and feel it viscerally. Add the fact that lying on an application is typically a firing offense (in the US anyway) and it's such a problem. It reminds me of a similar-but-different situation recently, on a call for a general audience involved in data management. I was called out for using the confusing acronym LLM (which, fair, I apologized). But I bet they knew the marketing term AI ...

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 6mo ago

Replying to

@Shobeck Four day school weeks are pretty common in the Western U.S. states. This is mostly in rural areas where regular office work hours aren’t the main type of employment. The evidence on impact on learning seems mostly negative. Implementation that keeps the same number of instructional hours seems to help. Here’s a summary https://www.nwea.org/blog/2026/what-the-research-tells-us-about-four-day-school-weeks/

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@adamgreenfield I find myself reflecting that in a way it is giving a name to something that has always existed. Going back decades, beauty contests had a spokesmodel portion. Some athletes and actors were given that role. Who became pundits and talk show hosts? Etc. Seeing it stripped down to its raw essence is jarring, though. But I find it helpful to go back and view Johnny Carson and Jay Leno through that lens,

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@DenisCOVIDinfoguy Additionally, some other nasal sprays for allergies come with warnings that they may result in more severe COVID (for example, Flonase). Another good reason to give this a try if you need allergy meds.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@mattdm@hachyderm.io This should be a billboard in every city and a source of civic pride.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@wynke@mendeddrum.org @quixoticgeek@social.v.st I get your point about it being bad to call a cold the flu. I am going for something more comprehensive, to include both and signal “I probably have something contagious.” We still haven’t reckoned with how the flu might have minimal symptoms if you’ve been vaccinated, for example. Overall we need a better vocabulary for staying home, to include “I feel up to it but might be contagious,” “I need rest to recover,” and “I am too sick to do the thing.”

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JohnCrowden@mstdn.ca @JonChevreau@mstdn.ca Retirees eager to spend their money during their “good years” put a lot of pressure on tourism and service industries to reopen over putting COVID-safe working conditions in place. And some are jerks enough to express entitlement to see workers’ unmasked, smiling faces.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@JonChevreau@mstdn.ca It is a good article, but boy do I wish that it acknowledged COVID. As a risk assessment in terms of shortening the good years, as a societal message about making safer communal spaces, and acknowledging the pressure that retirees with money put on the economy.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@drs1969@mstdn.social This is a great example of emotional labor resulting from others’ LLM use.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@drs1969@mstdn.social Yes, the desk reject was really the bare minimum.

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 4mo ago

Replying to

@quixoticgeek@social.v.st Good point. Maybe “my immune system is suddenly reacting to something.”

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J Miller @JMMaok@mastodon.online

· 5mo ago

Replying to

@kklevine@union.place Would be good to reference this widely cited paper and its retraction https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/nature-retracts-major-chatgpt-education-study-over-analysis-flaws/gm-GM1D9FF9BD

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