Cyberlyra

Sociology & Design Prof @PrincetonU; Science, Technology & Society; NASA teams; critical design; remote work. Co-editor MIT Infrastructures.
Longtime data economy resistor incl. #mobileLinux; data sovereignty; reproductive privacy. #Bettertech is possible if we build it!
Progenitor of the #optout Experiments, the #cybercleanse - www.optoutproject.net - and co-Founder of #reclaimtech movement - www.reclaimcontrol.tech
#nobot
Cishet #ally #noTERF
Unpinned posts delete after 2 weeks.

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npub1ywc6hh02z504ddhu8355g8mqves6n8tp5w9gw9flgm7akta3fn6qnefz0s

NIP-05 Address

cyberlyra@hachyderm-io.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsz8vdtmh4p286kkm7rc62yrasxvcdfn4s68z58z5l5dlwm97c5eaqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qmtrx4s

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relay.ditto.pub

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npub1ywc6hh02z504ddhu8355g8mqves6n8tp5w9gw9flgm7akta3fn6qnefz0s

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Last Notes

2026-04-10 02:09:55 UTC

Colleagues in London are hiring a Post Doctoral Research Fellow (Federated Data Commons for Creative Communities) at University of the Arts London that flips the script on creativity and AI through collectivist, commons-based approaches:
"We are seeking a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow to join the UKRI AHRC-funded project "Federated Data Commons for Creative Communities"
This 15-month, part-time (0.44 FTE) role will contribute to pioneering research on creator-centred data governance and federated AI systems for the creative industries. You will conduct qualitative research, develop open digital repositories, facilitate participatory co-design workshops with creative practitioners, and contribute to internationally significant research outputs. Come make a difference in Creative AI.
https://ual.tal.net/vx/lang-en-GB/mobile-0/appcentre-1/brand-1/xf-921dd24bc9ab/candidate/so/pm/6/pl/1/opp/12341-Post-Doctoral-Research-Fellow-Federated-Data-Commons-for-Creative-Communities/en-GB
Join Nick Bryan-Kinns, R. Luke DuBois, Tega Brain, Rebecca Fiebrink, Yasmine Boudiaf, Lizzie Wilson and Phoenix Perry as we build a federated, collectively governed AI data commons."
#getfedihired #academicjobs #hci #sts

2026-04-09 00:09:38 UTC

Last month I visited Berkeley to speak about the Opt Out project and the video has just been posted online! Check it out!!
How to Opt Out: Lessons from 14 Years of Evading Surveillance Capitalism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilXLiH6Rdx0
#optout #reclaimtech

2026-04-08 13:22:34 UTC

#Samsung is shutting down its text messenging app and forcing people onto #Google for SMS and MMS. At #techreclaimers we have been discussing alternatives to avoid Google. Several Reclaimers recommend Fossify Messages and Fossify Contacts as a good alternative, others have used Textra, and we'd all love to know about more options that keep your data private and sovereign.
If you're stuck, check these out and let us all know how you found the switch.
If you're a super user already, share the knowledge! What do you use?
https://www.fossify.org/apps/
https://www.reclaimcontrol.tech
@nprofile…hxul

2026-04-06 18:59:40 UTC

Mood: Remember when the #Boeing capsule failed so the #NASA #astronauts stayed up a few extra months at the #ISS?
When they left in June '24, Biden hadn't debated Trump yet.
When they returned in Feb '25, DOGE was already in full force...
It's only a 10-day mission but let's hope #Artemis II crew recognizes the Earth they return to...
https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/116/359/294/493/696/498/original/369e68eae685801f.png

2026-04-03 19:02:23 UTC

If you're following along on the #optout #cybercleanse with #techreclaimers , this weekend we are onto Day 2--Switch up your browser!
If you are on Chrome, Safari, or Edge - time to get off.
If you already use a privacy centric browser, try another one out for fun.
There are SO many great browsers out there and switching costs are exceptionally low.
https://www.optoutproject.net/better-browsing/

2026-04-01 14:40:18 UTC

If you've never met an #astronaut they are incredible humans. Generous, kind, whip smart, 360 thinkers, both brilliant in a team and terrific in leadership, exceptionally skilled, and genuinely good, big-hearted people to boot. Thanks to my time working with #NASA I am convinced they actually do represent the best of us.
All four of the #Artemis astronauts flying on this lunar mission are extraordinary human beings. Godspeed to them, whenever they launch.

2026-03-30 19:18:27 UTC

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@nprofile…rutc
Seriously. Everyone at NASA I worked with loved Star Trek and was working towards that kind of future. They recognized the problems and challenges, but they really believed that future.
Although people in the commercial tech industry love to trot out sci fi references as if it's some kind of credential, they consistently get it wrong, making the dystopian stuff come true instead.
You just cannot get to The Federation by building SkyNet. It's not possible.

2026-03-25 05:34:02 UTC

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@nprofile…jlkz
vfx industry is going thru some shit right now. It may be they either used too much ai to get thru the work too quickly and cheaply, or offshored too much to freshouts, or everyone underbidded....

2026-03-09 01:05:26 UTC

Today is Install A New Browser Day with Tech Reclaimers! Join us to #reclaimtech #optout
If you are still on Chrome, take baby steps by installing Firefox and moving your bookmarks and passwords over. You will be amazed how quick and easy it is to reclaim control and experience some freedom of choice! Then follow these steps to secure your new browser https://www.optoutproject.net/day-seven/#mcetoc_1ih1ustidcrr and https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
If you are on Firefox or already far beyond Firefox-- great! Why not try out a new browser? I have about 14 of them lying around, earmarked for various activities. I use different ones to keep my online activities separate, or to choose the right one for the job (more privacy locked down? more eco-friendly? more optimized for tabs? only works on Chrome or Safari or Edge?). If you've already got Opera or Vivaldi or DuckDuckGo, may I recommend lesser-known ones like Avast, Colibri, Ecosia, Floop or Orion?
On this machine I have:
Firefox
DuckDuckGo
Safari
Tor
Opera
Orion
LibreWolf
Floorp
Colibri
Brave
Ungoogled Chromium
Avast
Edge (booo, but just in case)
Er, that may be overkill, but I do like giving options a try. It looks like I'm missing Ecosia (I have Vivaldi on another machine ofc) so that's on my list for today!

2026-03-01 19:32:17 UTC

If you're at or near Berkeley, mark your calendar -- I'm speaking about my Opt Out Projects this Wednesday from 4-5:30. Register here:
https://besi.berkeley.edu/event/how-to-opt-out-lessons-from-14-years-of-evading-surveillance-capitalism/

2026-02-22 17:30:05 UTC

Looking for #datasovereign #video #editing tools to make smartphone video shorts available for online "content" about #optout and #reclaimtech including captioning.
The workflow looks tremendous and like there are few options without feeding a company's servers/AI/databanks/facial-recognition-learning-systems so I will just say up front what I'd prefer:
- FOSS or other ethical tech (small EU-based businesses under GDPR ok)
- Smartphone if at all possible: .APK or SFOS preferred, iOS is doable
- If necessary, PC tools using Debian flavors of Linux (ubuntu, raspbian), or MacOS
- #noai unless running STT or caption burning models locally, on the box
( i.e. @nprofile…5876 and @nprofile…uyw0 what do you use? )

2025-11-15 18:44:43 UTC

I have officially been a harpist for 29 years. It still brings me joy even if I should probably play more/better to show for it lol.

2025-10-23 18:00:18 UTC

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@nprofile…0v3d @nprofile…6wdt @nprofile…998y Have fun in Vancity, Cory!

2025-10-18 15:37:13 UTC

Did you know that #ICE uses heat and utility records to find and deport people?
Maybe you think that's okay because it's not YOUR data.
A reminder: they can't detect patterns like these at scale without everyone's data in the pile. Every drip you give them is used to sort people into bins, distinguish you from others, and more perfectly identify outliers, especially those at risk.
Yes, YOUR data is being used to track and detain OTHER people.
#optout #reclaimtech NOW
https://americandragnet.org/finding3

2025-10-14 04:18:50 UTC

Another 550 experts cut. On top of 650 last year and more. JPL is not a big place, typically around 5000 employees. At least a quarter of the expert workforce -- who alone on this planet have landed nine times on Mars.
it's not going to end, either, until the govt bleeds Nasa dry.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-workforce--update/

2025-10-03 03:02:45 UTC

Well played, Merriam-Webster, well played.
#fuckai #optout
https://bsky.app/profile/merriam-webster.com/post/3m25bdagve22f

2025-10-02 03:22:06 UTC

Apparently not having a claimed Google Scholar page is the kiss of death for academic careers these days. So today I logged into an email address using Gsuite I haven't touched in 8+ years so I could "claim" my Google Scholar page.
I didn't realize the enormity of this erasure until recently (because of course I don't use Google Scholar, at all, for anything) but several moments in the past few months have made it blindly apparent that not using a Google product is compromising my career.
So I downloaded a clean alternative browser, figured out how to log into this ancient address (thanks to my brother, the webmaster), 'claimed" the page and GTFO'd.
I deeply resent that a corporate infrastructure that is hastening the doom of our humanity and leaving our democracy in tatters is now the relied upon crutch in my knowledge community. And you should too.
However, I hope this small moment of personal sacrifice of my ethics and values will not go unnoticed by my peers, who have apparently not noticed my scholarship over the past decade when I did not have such a page.
I encourage us all to do better. In the meanwhile, I at least tried to make it interesting: https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=PVWEijYAAAAJ

2025-09-30 00:20:46 UTC

#stopthescroll is coming up on October 1! What will you to to interrupt your Big Tech habits that day?
https://www.optoutproject.net/stop-the-scroll/
https://www.reclaimcontrol.tech/stopthescroll.html

2025-08-25 06:00:23 UTC

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@nprofile…4y4j
So eloquently written. And I love how we come to the same.conclusions about this stuff-- the only way forward is working together.
it sounds like you have developed a new appreciation for hardware too? Yayyyy! I looooove opening boxes.

2025-08-20 18:28:48 UTC

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@nprofile…90wk Stop this future, I want to get off.

2025-08-15 18:56:02 UTC

Truly an amazing time at #DEFCON33 as we launched #TechReclaimers ! Thanks to the incomparable @nprofile…6k0x and the entire family at #HackersTown , friends at #EFF and #CdC for the extra magic! Video of our presentation hopefully up soon enough ...
And now, to work!
You can sign up for notices from Tech Reclaimers as we gear up for sociotechnical change at: @nprofile…tvga
#optout #chuckzuck #ReclaimTech
https://www.reclaimcontrol.tech

2025-08-14 23:33:58 UTC

I became a US citizen last week.
It is an interesting time to study for the civics test. I read the study guide, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and comments, and several of the Federalist Papers too. I aced the test--which most Americans born in the States would not do, else they would be aghast at what is currently happening in their country. Er, our country. The experience was a near-real-time masterclass in the catastrophic illegality of this administration's activities.
I also now hold a US passport, thanks to same-day service in central Philadelphia. While waiting I wandered around Independence Hall and the Constitution Center a few blocks away to round off my education. I learned a lot more about the histories of slavery and emancipation, of suffrage, and of the governance particulars of getting a bunch of Protestant Western European descended men debated carefully whether, when, and how to grant rights to others they considered various degrees of unworthy. It was expertly, brilliantly presented, especially fascinating and rich for someone who studies the complexities of group consensus processes. Apparently I got in under the wire as I hear the current administration wants to change these displays.
I have lived in the United States for over 20 years, a fiercely proud Canadian weaving my way among a people I gradually came to realize are dramatically different from my own, despite the many similarities on the surface. It's like glancing at a lake and an ocean from a distance and assuming that because they look the same from the top, that they are made of the same stuff beneath--they're not, at all. The threat of separation from my family without recourse made taking the plunge an obvious and necessary choice. I wonder how many others who took the oath to uphold the Constitution with me nurtured the same fears.
I have many feelings about becoming a citizen, and about doing so now. I am at least grateful that I have this privilege, recognizing that others do not. As for the rest, I'm focusing on the important things. I have kept quiet for many years, for fear of reprisal. Now, I have rights. I also have a lot of ideas. And I am no longer afraid to express them.

2025-08-08 16:28:54 UTC

So excited to be at #DEFCON33 this weekend with the terrific folks at Hackers.town! Come by and say hi! And catch me and @nprofile…4a0e speaking about the #reclaimtech movement Saturday at 230 on the Community Stage :)
@nprofile…tvga #optout #reclaimcontrol #chuckzuck

2025-08-03 05:50:27 UTC

Duckduckgo image search can now hide AI generated images:
https://duckduckgo.com/settings#aifeatures

2025-03-27 14:40:30 UTC

How to check out if a new product from a company you don't know is about to enshittify or not?
You have to evaluate its underlying technosocioeconomics. That means, which economic social networks is it plugged into? To whom is it beholden, to do what? They will build tech to satisfy their networks -- what in social construction of technology we call Relevant Social Groups. For many tech teams, especially startups, nothing is more relevant than moolah, from the right people. And investors -- Angel, Venture, etc -- expect you to meet specific growth targets.
So. Start with Crunchbase. What do they say about this company? What stage of their funding cycle are they in? Series A? Pre series A? Series B?
Most startups are aiming to get investment interest with an interesting or compelling product idea that seems lucrative and scalable. Then they either a) scale to go IPO (and make millions) or b) build enough to get acquired (and make millions).
If you get in early, you'll need to monitor the product's funding as it develops. You can use them but give them only dummy PII and be prepared to walk as soon as you see changes like a) we have a new CEO! or b) we killed it in Series B! Or, c) we are no longer doing x,y,z which was part of our product before, now we're just doing x, and y and z will outsource to our partners, we still value you as a customer and think this will be cheaper!
Startups are beholden to a Board, including the CEO. The Board is comprised of early stage investors. If a VC fund invests, they get a seat at the Board. Decisions are made to satisfy the Board, which is all investors.
The best book about this is Ben Shestakofsky's Behind The Startup. It's eye opening for anyone who thinks a tech firm is just about the technology.
If your product is built by a Foundation, they don't have to scale. They have to be mission driven. They need to take donations. They must be non-profit. They have a Board too, whose job is to be sure a) the mission is always upheld and b) the non profit follows all the nonprofit financial rules and stays solvent. Their job is not to scale. Their job is to stay on mission. As long as you donate to the Foundation, it can keep its mission and mission-oriented tech alive.
/1

2025-03-27 03:14:14 UTC

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@nprofile…uhjq oh hey that is fascinating! I know someone who is dyscalculic too. How did you fare in math classes and was there any support for you or your style of learning? Are there other tricks you use with numbers or operations to remember them?

2025-03-27 02:13:44 UTC

Apparently airline travel bookings from Canada to the US for summer travel are down 75% over this time last year.
You read that right. Seventy-five percent. That's just shy of a million bookings:
March 2024: 1,218,570 bookings
March 2025: 295,982 bookings
https://onemileatatime.com/news/airline-demand-canada-united-states-collapses/
https://www.oag.com/blog/canada-us-airline-capacity-aviation-market

2025-03-23 18:55:47 UTC

A question for my friends who are #trans and/or #menopausal and/or anyone dealing with hormones, #hrt and related supplements. I’m preparing an opt out post on data sovereign period trackers for those who menstruate and would like to include ideas for hormone tracking too. Which apps or systems do you use? What is needed in this space?
Comments or DMs welcome. This post will be deleted in a few days to ensure safety.

2025-03-18 01:22:58 UTC

Funding for the @nprofile…5mmt is cut with the axe to the US Agency for Global Media. Tor helps me keep my children hidden from data brokers and is an essential anti-censorship tool for people living under oppressive regimes in countries worldwide.
https://archive.is/lKFCu
hey #tor , how can we help?

2025-03-10 19:17:03 UTC

It's #harriettubmanday !!!!!
ICYMI Harriet Tubman is my all-time favorite hero in American history.
I call her the original American Superhero both because what she did is utterly superhero tier, and they basically had to invent white men in tights with laser eyes jumping over buildings to eclipse her real-life amazing deeds.
Escaping slavery herself, alone. Then going back into the south NINETEEN TIMES to rescue people and take them on the perilous journey north to freedom. A key "conductor" on the underground railroad who, as she said, "never went off the track and I never lost a passenger."
As if that wasn't enough, she was general in command of a unit of soldiers at Combahee River where she defeated Southerners in the Civil War. And was also a nurse in the war. And fought for the rights of escaped slaves in the North and got many dozens of them to safety too.
She saved, on one count, a thousand people. A THOUSAND PEOPLE saved by ONE WOMAN. And those are just the ones we know about.
If you are EVER in doubt looking at the happenings in the world around you and wonder, what can one person do against ::gestures-wildly-about:: just ask yourself WHAT WOULD HARRIET TUBMAN DO?
And then be even half as brave as she was, and do it.
Happy Harriet Tubman Day to EVERYONE. May we live up to her freedom-fighting legacy.

2025-03-10 16:28:14 UTC

Today #NASA is closing their Office of the Chief Scientist and Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy.
And of course, their Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility branch.
These layoffs are under the Executive Order for DOGE's Workforce Optimization Initiative. All associated staff are laid off under a phased Reduction in Force.
If you are a US citizen and you have ever once oohed and aahed at the beautiful images from James Webb or the Mars Rovers or Pluto's heart, or appreciated the work NASA does to track and understand climate, or even just dressed your kid in an astronaut costume, CALL your congressional representatives and demand an end to these shortsighted cuts.

2025-03-08 14:00:14 UTC

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/a-well-funded-moscow-based-global
#fuckAI
A well-funded Moscow-based global ‘news’ network has infected Western artificial intelligence tools worldwide with Russian propaganda
> An audit found that the 10 leading generative AI tools advanced Moscow’s disinformation goals by repeating false claims from the pro-Kremlin Pravda network 33 percent of the time.

2025-03-04 18:29:45 UTC

Knowledge is not a product of individuals but of teams. Gutting #NASA and its incredible groups of people that have achieved the impossible in favor of a “on a wing and a prayer” approach of believing billionaires who have never made it out of low earth orbit can just will their way to Mars is the fastest way imaginable to lose the next Space Race, and a surefire way to destroy instead of expand American excellence and know-how in science and engineering across all sectors of the economy—New Space included.
https://www.techpolicy.press/invigorating-the-american-space-sector-requires-working-with-nasa-not-against-it/

2025-02-26 02:23:22 UTC

SSH into your bed! Or anyone's bed for that matter! Cos public keys are included! Woo, it's the future!! ::smh::
https://trufflesecurity.com/blog/removing-jeff-bezos-from-my-bed

2025-02-24 12:57:33 UTC

Looks like basically the entire former DDR voted AfD. I am curious about the context for this: #German friends, how do you make sense of that stark electoral map?

2025-02-16 16:47:45 UTC

Just putting this here for no particular reason.
https://fixthegulf.com/

2025-02-15 19:49:04 UTC

Does anyone know what Proton docs is under the hood? Did they develop the product in-house or is it an implementation of something #FOSS or otherwise available?

2025-02-15 05:23:11 UTC

Just sayin’ those astronauts who’ve been stranded on ISS since June of last year are going to have the surprise of their lives when they return.

2025-02-15 02:31:57 UTC

I'm delighted to announce that I have officially been appointed the Associate Director of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education at Princeton University.
The Keller Center is the place in the Princeton community where engineers get to engage with broader societal issues, where technology and society come together in rich ways, where we foster links through design, innovation, and entrepreneurship to real-world impacts.
My role will focus on developing a world class program in societally-responsible design, by building on our strengths in engineering, the social sciences and humanistic inquiry.
I couldn't be more excited to continue my strong teaching links to Keller and bring our approach to critical, engaged design to a broader stage!
https://kellercenter.princeton.edu/

2025-02-06 19:27:15 UTC

We need, like, data cleaning parties to collectively #optout and leave #toxictech As in, hangouts where friends get together and migrate off systems en masse, onto other systems. Preferably with cookies or beer or martinis or something.
Like "knitting circles" or "LAN parties" or tupperware parties ... but for data stuff.
I have long maintained that Opting Out isnt' a personal journal but one that requires community (I get dinged for this all the time and I have to insist, it is only by joining forces around #bettertech that we make change possible at all).
How to get this started? What do your crafting circles/hackathons/WoW raids get going?

2024-11-06 11:55:10 UTC

Just in case anyone you know is wondering how to disappear online or adopt radically different digital habits so as to be less transparent or traceable to oligarchical infrastructures, may I humbly recommend
https://www.optoutproject.net
and signing up for my mailing list while you are at it.
It’s never too late to #optout
Stay safe, everyone!

2023-11-07 19:30:35 UTC

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@npub173h…gmq5 I mean obviously I am a devoted Sailfish user. And also was on the list for a tablet back in the day (no hard feelings). But I dunno, @npub1w5z…rl8t, could we port SailfishOS to a touchscreen laptop? Not convinced I need a laptop to behave like my (beloved) fine…

2023-11-07 13:40:02 UTC

Recommendations for the best Linux distros for touchscreen--go!
(looking for ease of: pop up keyboard, tappable icons, general interaction as tablet-like device)

2023-10-25 20:56:23 UTC

Super excited to have @npub1ynl…873s at Princeton this afternoon for a live conversation with @npub1ssf…h20n on LLMs, society and culture, sponsored by our fabulous Digital Humanities center. It's so meaningful to bring these exchanges off the page and the screen and into the room!

2023-09-05 12:26:09 UTC

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@npub1zdp…vqv8 this is hilarious. I was trying to explain to a child what Labor Day is all about and ended up with, “Well, that’s what it is about in the 𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 of the world anyway, I don’t know what it means in the United States.”

2023-08-29 12:20:47 UTC

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@npub15nn…sdr0 Ordered— a perfect project for kids (under 10) to get a sense of how handheld systems work in general, instead of just the “magic” of the corporation-made controller. Also getting them hooked on classic games and learning how to load their own.

2023-08-28 21:23:19 UTC

"What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida," Mr DeSantis said. "We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race."
To the contrary, it is clearly acceptable in the state that acquitted George Zimmerman, a farcical version of Black history is enforced, LGBTQ rights are dismantled, no gun reforms followed Parkland, and stand your ground is upheld.
What do they think they’re incentivizing?

2023-08-20 04:28:22 UTC

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@npub189n…satx @npub1ldy…unws just wanna put in a plug for saving the biodiversity of the earth too.

2023-08-17 17:20:01 UTC

I love how this new paper about #OpenAI says the quiet part loud-- repeatedly.
Thanks to @npub1ynl…873s and @npub1qle…pqjq and #SarahMyersWest
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4543807

2023-08-17 17:03:15 UTC

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@npub1ynl…873s @npub1qle…pqjq Love it!!!

2023-08-17 16:48:07 UTC

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@npub1g57…y839 I also recognize that I'm an outlier in the FOSS space by insisting that not all information/data "wants" to be free--along with Dourish and others I've worked with, I'd say that information wants to be *responsible*-- but that's a politics and personal practice based on my research and I recognize it doesn't apply in all cases (i.e. whistleblowing, for one).