External Links
ICICTE
An influential paper from 2019 calling for a renewed educational drive toward digital literacy. It coins the phrase and establishes the importance of "Civic Cybersecurity", a term since recognised by parliamentary members.
THE Articles
Links to articles for the Times Higher. Older articles are freely viewable on the Times Online, but newer ones may need a sign-up.
On the negative effects of intrusive and chilling technologies in schools and universities.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/we-cant-teach-technological-dystopia
Celebrating the universal accessibility and resilience of plain text technologies in education.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/joy-text-world-tech-zealotry
A call to restore ludic pedagogy - a sense of play and fun - in university courses on programming and hacking.
A criticism of assessment methods that turn higher education into degree mills and a racket that traps students in a sunk-cost scam.
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/fear-zombie-student-apocalypse
A fictional piece imagining a world where rent-seeking publishers are dead and the origignal promise of The Internet as a universal open library are realised.
Summary of digital harms presented by university ICT and Admin systems.
Simply the thesis that women don't avoid tech because it is "male dominated", but because it's dominated by "insecure dicks who want to take over the world".
What happens when Big-Tech takes over education and your ambitions and vision of a better world is "not supported".
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/your-teaching-and-learning-not-supported
"Ethical hacking" is a marketing term. Why might teaching millions of students how to hack systems be a bad idea?
A mixture of debt, anxiety, and intense psychological pressure to "succeed" (without any clear understanding of what that even means in 2023) has ruined students' lives. Meaningless over-assessment, combined with "AI" like Grammarly, ChatGPT, Turnitin, and online essay mills has forged an ugly technological arms race between students and their tutors. I am done with that. Here's why:
Videos
Cashtastrophe: A short documentary film about the grave dangers of a "cashless society"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtM6tud8n1I
Ethics for hackers: A talk given at Southampton Solent University in 2022
Educasts
Exploring the word "technofascism"
- Part 1 https://youtu.be/OyNbEc9VgsQ
- Part 2 https://youtu.be/MlPlaSD_-j8
Editorial
Relevant works I have edited, supported or contributed to, but not authored.
In support of a student's struggle to graduate in a university hostile to software freedom
https://www.gnu.org/education/how-i-fought-to-graduate-without-using-non-free-software.html
In support of Richard Stallman, founder of GNU and a target of organised character attacks.
https://stallmansupport.org/testimonies-letters-writings-and-more.html
Blogs guest articles
Notable writings that appear in other blogs and online publications.
Cheapskates Guide
A blog with focus on self-sufficieny in digital tech, DIY, repair and maintenance of older computing tech.
Why the idea of a "war on general purpose computing" is an insane attack on the economic security of our nations.
https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/war-on-gp-computing-farnell.html
Digital hoarding: When tech consumption gets out of control.
https://cheapskatesguide.org/articles/techno-clutter-farnell.html
Why do so few charity/thrift stores resell technology? Rights to repair and the second-hand market in digital devices.
Techrights
A popular online discussion forum about the power of Big Tech versus individual digital rights.
Dishonesty and fake motives in the digital security industry
http://techrights.org/2021/11/29/teaching-cybersecurity/
Review of 2021 as a Digital Vegan (eight parts)
http://techrights.org/2021/12/26/2021-in-review-digital-vegan/
http://techrights.org/2021/12/27/article-on-digital-rights-in-2021-part-2/
http://techrights.org/2021/12/27/article-on-digital-rights-in-2021-part-3/
http://techrights.org/2021/12/28/article-on-digital-rights-in-2021-part-4/
http://techrights.org/2021/12/29/article-on-digital-rights-in-2021-part-5/
http://techrights.org/2021/12/30/tech-language-and-linguistics/
http://techrights.org/2021/12/31/article-on-digital-rights-in-2021-part-7/
http://techrights.org/2022/01/01/article-on-digital-rights-in-2021-part-8/
Code Wars: A fiction piece inspired by an exchange with Cory Doctorow (published in four parts)
http://techrights.org/2022/01/21/peak-code-before-the-wars/
http://techrights.org/2022/01/22/lost-source/
http://techrights.org/2022/01/23/after-code/
http://techrights.org/2022/12/28/andy-farnell-on-british-universities/
Reviews
Reviews of books and articles
Buy/support
My short book from 2020 on "digital health", introducing the analogy of bad diet and poor exercise as ways to understand toxic technology.
https://www.thegreatbritishbookshop.co.uk/products/digital-vegan
Websites
A few resources by colleagues or others whose work seems aligned with digital self-defence
The Slow Web
For a more thoughtful, ecological, self-determined and authentic digital lifestyle. Federated and self-hosted tech, gemini, neo-gopher, other simpler technologies.
https://readsomethinginteresting.com/about
https://github.com/Lissy93/personal-security-checklist/blob/master/5_Privacy_Respecting_Software.md
Links of current interest
https://report.opensustain.tech/chapters/index.html
Assistance in your right to be forgotten: https://yourdigitalrights.org/
The "Leger of Digital Harms" maintained by Humanetech.org https://ledger.humanetech.com/