The Download
#006
I hope this newsletter finds you, Reader, and that it finds you well.
This week has flown by, though I managed to spend some time working on the porch with my 18-year-old cat, Dante as my office buddy. Despite constantly having to chase him away from eating the grass. In true remote working fashion, I’m finishing this week’s from the waiting room of the dentist, while my kids have their teeth cleaned.
A word to the wise, always use oven gloves when picking up black cats from a sunny snooze. Ouch.
In this week’s edition of The Download, thoughts on content ownership, BlueSky, critical thinking, voice cloning and more.
Let’s get to it.
🤔 What’s really yours on other platforms?
“Don’t call it a Substack” by Anil Dash this week raises awareness of how much brand power we give away when we superimpose someone else’s brand upon our own work. He argues that creators should avoid referring to their newsletters as “Substacks” to maintain ownership and control over their content. Dash contends that platforms like Substack aim to dominate audience distribution and content ownership by encouraging creators to associate their work with the platform’s brand.
Substack, Medium, Facebook etc. all give users a chance to have their voice heard, but much of that is in the hands of someone else’s algorithm, distribution mechanism, and in Substack’s case, association with their content moderation and extremist tolerance positioning.
Readers will know that I’ve been writing solely on Medium with some regularity, but I’ve now begun to move content back to my own blog. Posting on Medium does have advantages for “findability”, but ultimately if something were to go awry with that platform…well, eggs, basket - you get the idea.
I think the wider message here is to avoid lock-in if you can. Own your own presence, distribute accordingly, but don’t put your content solely on someone else’s platform - ‘cause ya never know*.
(*But you do know the person to get in touch with for creating or enhancing your online presence. 😉)
🚶🏼♂️Leaving from Twitter for Bluesky
Rhymes with ‘brewski’.
Speaking of getting off of problematic platforms, I’ve finally pulled the plug and moved away from X / Twitter to BlueSky. BlueSky, established in 2019 as a Twitter project, aimed to create a new, decentralized social media protocol (called the AT - or Authenticated Transfer - Protocol), and a new open standard for social media, which would then allow different platforms to interoperate while giving more users controls over their own data and content.
The ambition, simply put, would be for users to be able to choose whatever platform they wish to be on, like X, Threads, Mastodon etc. and also be able to view and interact with users on other platforms.
BlueSky might be getting there. Support is growing for the AT Protocol, with SkyBridge for instance, which allows both Mastodon and BlueSky users to use both networks seamlessly.
I’m old enough to remember the initial idea of the web and how it was envisioned to operate around open, not siloed (nor managed by the real-life equivalent of Bond movie villain) data.
If you’re on BlueSky, you can find me on https://bsky.app/profile/jimchristian.net
Related reading
The Rise of Bluesky: A Privacy-Focused Alternative in the Social Media Landscape
📘 Critical thinking skills - How to Think Like a Coder
In time for the holiday season, I’ve breathed new life into the website for my book, “How to Think Like a Coder: Without Even Trying!”. For the code-curious people in your life, this is a perfect primer to introduce the key concepts of coding, such as loops, data types and calculations without having to learn a single line of code!
Shameless plug incoming!
I’m biased, but now more than ever, we need to be preparing the next generation for a tech-based future. Getting the base skills on logic and critical thinking is essential from a young age. Think Like a Coder was shortlisted for the Educational Writer’s Award in 2018 and was Book Aid International’s “Book of the Month” in September 2019. Read reviews and purchase here.
🗣️ Implementing ElevenLabs voice cloning
In addition to tidying up the Think Like a Coder site, I’ve implemented my voice clone from ElevenLabs onto the blogs of both my personal and my book site.
Readers can now listen to long-form blogs as well.
This means that anyone visiting the blogs can additionally have them read out in an uncannily close approximation of my voice, bringing a little more personalised accessibility to the blogs.
If you’re interested in creating a voice clone for your content, get in touch for a consultation.
🔗 Quick links
GPT Powerpoint Creation Assistant Link
I’ve used this GPT in the past to create a fully formatted PowerPoint deck, after feeding it an outline of the presentation I wanted to deliver. It saved tons of time not having to click around and build my initial deck.
Squoosh Link
This is one of my favourite tools for shrinking images down to an agreeable file size, before using them on websites, social media or newsletters. The result? Much faster loading times.
Music Lounge Strut Link
(Hiphop explicit language warning) As a YouTube Premium user (we have kids, I don’t want ads - don’t hate), I’ve been using YouTube Music as a “discovery service” of sorts for live DJ sets around the world. “Japanese cafe DJ” are keywords I’ve been using for background office music this week.
Until next week, stay safe and stay informed!
Jim
Made with ❤️ in Valencia by Jim Christian. For feedback, please reach out to [email protected]. For custom GPTs, prompt libraries, general AI consulting and development, please visit Informatic AI.
