Jitsi is a free, secure, open-sourced video conferencing tool you can use right away on their website or download it and install an instance on your own server to be even more in control of your privacy.

Space looks like a great all-in-one project management and team collaboration platform, optimised for (but not exclusive to) software developers. The long list of features includes blogs, live chat, issue tracking, code review, meeting organiser, and a lot more.

Calendars is a great-looking, more powerful alternative to the iOS’ built-in calendar app, giving you different ways to view and plan your schedule.

Still in closed beta, Readng promises to be a community for book lovers that’s free of ads and algorithms. I think there is a real opportunity to create a smaller, less metrics-driven alternative to Goodreads. Kind of like what VSCO is to Instagram. (Just added my name to the waitlist.)

Net Privacy →

Freedom in an age of surveillance

With the pandemic shifting even more of our lives online, it’s crucial to form a better understanding of what privacy is and how/why we need to protect it. “Have we built ourselves a digital Panopticon? Are we the guards or the prisoners, captive or free? Can we be both? When Kim Kardashian makes the minutiae of her life available online, which is she? With great rigour, this important book draws on a Kantian philosophy of ethics and legal frameworks to examine where we are and to suggest steps – conceptual and practical – to ensure the future is not dystopian.”

Talk Matters →

Cards to inspire conversation

Yet another deck of cards (coming to you from my hometown of Melbourne) designed to stimulate conversations about topics that matter. “Inspired by a mix of uncertainty and hope about the future, we populated these cards with important questions and divisive tidbits of conversation.” (Temporarily sold out, pre-order available)

Just when the world seemed to have come to terms with its addiction to plastic and started to make progress on pushing for less toxic alternatives, the material is making a huge comeback – thanks to the pandemic. Looking at these photos, the notion of a planet ‘choking on plastic’ has never been more apt.

Yawo Brown with a cogent piece on the language of ‘polite white supremacy’ which he describes as “the notion that whites should remain the ruling class while denying that they are the ruling class, politely.” At the foundation of this white denialism are the three C’s: comfort, control, and confidentiality. “The ruling class has begun to employ a particularly clever passive tactic to remain in power while denying this power. They pretended this was the natural way for society to function and influenced perception by using double standards in language as a starting point.”

A list of practical advice on how to deal with conspiracy theorists – because we all know at least one. It also highlights that conspiracies are appealing to all of us: “It’s very human and normal to believe in conspiracy theories. ... It’s a defense mechanism: we’re primed to be suspicious and afraid of things that can’t be explained.” (possible paywall)