Local Democracy and Algo-Free Living

What A Lot Of Things: Tech talk from a human perspective

In this episode of "What A Lot Of Things", Ian and Ash celebrate their podcast's return to a regular cadence, with episodes now coming out every two weeks.

The duo cover two main topics - local democracy and the backlash against social media algorithms. On local democracy, Ian discusses his experience running for town council, the arcane rules and challenges involved, and his belief that more ordinary citizens should get involved to make local councils less political and more pragmatic.

The conversation then shifts to the pros and cons of social media algorithms. Ash and Ian examine how platforms like TikTok and YouTube quickly learn user preferences, sometimes recommending questionable content, and debate whether such algorithms ultimately benefit users or simply enable more effective advertising and "shitification". They also discuss some emerging alternatives that aim to provide more transparent, human-curated social media experiences.

Ian and Ash conclude by sharing the best way for listeners to get in touch with their thoughts and feedback. Another thought-provoking installment of "What A Lot Of Things"!

Links

• Leeds Testing Atelier
• Manifesting Agency and Days, Ian’s other podcasts.
• The famous meeting of Handsforth Parish Council at which it turns out that Jackie Weaver did in fact have the authority.
• Flatpack Democracy
• Ian’s website made for Ilkley Community Alliance
• Play Rock Paper Scissors with CGP Grey
• Wired: The Latest Online Culture War is Humans vs Algorithms
• pi.fyi, Spread Social and the Prosocial Ranking Challenge.
• Ian's Ilkley Community Alliance website (and, through the magic of Vercel, here is the version from the time of the election)
• WSJ: How TikTok's Algorithm Figures You Out (Youtube)