Distributed Future

"The future is out there, it just isn't evenly distributed - yet" :- William Gibson

In this podcast we interview interesting people who are doing new things that may give us some insight into the future.



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Will we regret computers as much as we do cars?

Vim and Tim get together to chat about techological regret, paths not taken and the decisions we are taking now.

Guest: Vim and Tim
00:48:46
How should opensource be funded?

Our guest's pilot project is using government money to fund development and maintenance of essential opensource projects.

Guest: Fiona Krakenbürger
00:48:10
Education in large cohorts

We discuss a new style of on-line learning, self paced and voluntary along with other community driven education activities.

Guest: Jessica Rose
00:48:38
Misogyny, pornography and malignant stereotypes in AI

We discuss auditing computational models of human behavior and the large-scale datasets they are trained on. Our guest gives examples of the consequences of a badly curated model.

Guest: Abeba Birhane
00:46:09
Building a community for crowdsourced medical research - EverythingALS.org

How can a networked community contribute to medical advances? We talk to Indu Navar about EverythingALS and the change it brings to treatment of brain disease.

Guest: Indu Navar
00:46:06
Opensource hardware and the Risc-V processor

How will the rise of opensource hardware change society? Does politic impact chip design? We talk about why Risc-V matters an where it is going.

Guest: Chris Williams
00:46:36
New Tech in education, what are the rules?

Who chooses which Edtech students use? Can they protect their privacy? Who owns that school laptop anyway? None of these questions have simple answers, but we do our best to throw some light.

Guest: Jen Persson
00:54:10
New Browser, Who dis ?

Building a new browser. We talk about the browser landscape, why it is important and how to make a new one.

Guest: Patricia Aas
00:49:12
The speed of news media and our ability to respond

We talk about the speed of the news cycle, how little we can change and the rate of change now and in the future.

Guest: Vim and Tim
00:33:36
Saffron: a case for modern farming?

We talk about farming a high value crop in new way - our guests are farming saffron Cheshire.

Guest: Cheshire Saffron
00:51:53
The future of open source software

Who contributes to opensource? What are their motivations? How will cloud computing change the picture? We talked with a creator of a successful open source project to find some answers.

Guest: Lorenzo Miniero - Author of the Janus WebRTC Server
00:52:19
Politics, data and privacy

How is data used in politics? How should it be used?

Guest: Chris Northwood
00:52:18
Intra-African travel,with beer, culture and laughter

What does the future of intra-African tourism look like? "More than the big 5" says our guest, we talk about tech, beer, food, ferries etc. (CW - lots of laughter)

Guest: Katchie Nzama (aka TheSoloWandera)
00:50:23
2020 Roundup

A roundup of the year on the podcast and a look at the future

Guest: Tim and Vim
00:23:13
The future of internet social media platforms

We talk about the past present and future of social media platforms, content moderation vs censorship and the responsibilites of individuals.

Guest: Jillian York
00:56:15
The future of (local) politics.

What will (local) politics look like in the future? We talked to a young politican about how she sees the future of power (both sorts), transport and media. CW: We discuss the law on rape in this episode.

Guest: Lindsay Broadwell
01:06:02
Responsible standards

A discussion about practical tech ethics. Tim describes a potential issue in a draft standard and Vim tells him to act on it.

Guest: Vim and Tim
00:27:46
Internet standards and concensus making

How are internet standards made? Do they define our future? What is the IETF? Our guest answers these questions and more!

Guest: Adam Roach
00:51:49
News and Media trends in New Zeeland.

What's new in Media New Zeeland? Can you run a site ad-free? Our guest answers these questions and more...

Guest: Rebecca Caroe
00:49:49
The future as seen by a Pan-African challenger bank.

We discuss what fintech looks like in Zambia, how to find and educate your market with SMS, the power of radio, the growth of internet in Africa and much much more.

Guest: Perseus Mlambo
00:56:13
The Internet in Malawi

We discuss the current state of the Internet in Africa, concentrationg on Malawi. The future is dependent on a mix of politics, business and tech.

Guest: Brian Munyao Longwe
00:45:25
Art, VR, Fashion and mental health

In a wide ranging chat we talk about how VR can be harnessed for BAME mental health, how haptics can enhance the immersiveness of illusions and much much more.

Guest: Bushra Burge
00:58:03
Black Lives Matter and the future of social change

We take a moment to reflect on the state of the world. The pandemic and technology are causing a huge shift in our way of living and working. We also see huge shifts in social movements and protests. What are our hopes for the future?

Guest: Vim and Tim
00:39:57
Art in lockdown

A discussion about how lockdown impacts interactive fine art

Guest: Dd Davies
00:56:58
Video calls

A short thought about video calls

Guest: No Guest
00:04:30
How crafting intersects with social media and other technologies

Georgia casts a light on how social media platforms and other technologies are used in the world of crafting.

Guest: Georgia Marshall-Brown
00:44:24
The future of standup

What is the future of standup comedy? How does it interact with technology?

Guest: Roo Stelin
00:54:54
Using conflict resolution techniques to de-polarize social media.

How can we start to restore civility to online discourse? Vim chatswith Jabob Lefton about techniques to depolarize social media. "Regardless of how we disagree with our (physical) neighbors, we still share the street."

Guest: Jacob Lefton
00:48:00
Influencers influencing politics and effecting social change.

An uplifting discussion about how influencers are effecting social change and will replace the current established brands.

Guest: Hayel Wartemberg
00:58:10
Long distance overland travel, now and in the future.

The availability of highspeed trains and internet has transformed long distance overland travel. We chat about an overland (and sea) trip from Japan to Munich and beyond.

Guest: Taiichi Fox
00:59:44
Future of the Corporation

We discuss the necessary paradigm shift that redefines business for the 21st century and builds trust between business and society.

Guest: Professor Colin Mayer
00:50:53
Positive action on inclusion in tech.

An optimistic view about how to tackle the challenges.

Guest: Shwetal Shah
00:51:16
Infosec - the skills shortage.

Why is there a skills shortage in information security? We discuss toxic workplaces and an immature industry.

Guest: Saskia Coplans
01:00:36
Taking a break

We are taking a break, normal service will be resumed in January

Guest: No Guest
00:02:17
Intentional communities, tiny houses and artistic creation.

Josh describes how he's intentionally changing his local community with art, tiny houses and by encouraging creativity.

Guest: Josh Johnston
00:53:08
Telemedicine - the future of health care?

Telehealth allows patients to consult experts thousands of km away, we discuss how this works in rural Australia and the benefits it brings.

Guest: Silvia Pfeiffer
00:35:54
Amateur space and open source rocketry

We discuss building your own satellite and sending it to space as well as amateur rocketry along with the communities and organizations that make this possible.

Guest: Jo Hinchliffe
00:47:37
Illustration and the future of adult education

Is the future visual? How much of that is digital media? How should we educate future media creators? A chat with some answers...

Guest: Tash Willcox
00:43:51
The future of voice and voice interfaces

We talk with Allison Smith about the experience of being the voice of many inanimate objects!

Guest: Allison Smith
00:48:49
Shaping the future of farming with apps

How apps can help make farming more ecologically sustainable

Guest: Abby Rose
00:48:47
New organizational structures for crisis and aid.

Willow describes best practice in aid or crisis response: "It was always about finding the people who are already doing the work and showing up and saying here are the resources I have. How can I help you? Or do you want me to go away?"

Guest: Willow Brugh
00:41:16
The Riz test - questioning Muslim representation in Film and TV

The Riz test is a set of 5 questions that help film and TV makers see how they represent Muslim characters, based on crowdsourced feedback from viewers. We chat about how tech helped form and promote the test. We also discuss what impact it has and will have in the future.

Guest: Shaf Choudry
00:48:24
Recycling houses, routers and bandwidth

A chat about how to reuse old houses, routers etc with the help of open source and grain legs.

Guest: Brian Capouch
00:53:50
A virtual year of Distributed Future

We have a virtual year of episodes under our belts, so this is a look at the episodes, why we do the podcast and what's next

Guest: Vim and Tim (no guests)
00:26:32
The benefits of inclusion in the workplace

The workplace is changing, inclusive teams perform better, the old top down management styles are fading. In this chat we learn about how growing companies can benefit from these changes.

Guest: The Northern Value Creators - Amanda and Simon Cookson
00:53:01
Provenance and accountability for automated systems

"We've got all these new artificial intelligent machine learning algorithm systems. How can we make sure that they're accountable and we understand the process that has led to that decision making?"

Guest: Dr Naomi Jacobs
00:43:30
Leaky things

Do you your smart devices share your secrets with anyone? Do you care? What can be done?

Guest: Stella (aka MlleLicious)
00:45:20
A podcast on trends and directions in podcasting

How are podcasts changing? Where and how do people listen to podcasts? How can they be used by charities? Do mics matter?

Guest: Vic Elizabeth Turnbull
00:51:32
Future insights on user behaviour

A converstion about research on user behaviour, the insights it gives us and what the future may hold

Guest: Guy Redwood
00:42:18
Play, playfulness and enchanted objects (AKA IoT)

A chat about Playful Anywhere, the nature of play and how it crosses from offline to online

Guest: Emma Bearman
00:48:42
Hydrogen for green energy?

We discuss Hydrogen production and how it can make renewable energy available when and where we need it.

Guest: Vaitea Cowan of Enapter
00:45:12
VR and wine

How VR can help wine appreciation

Guest: Robert Pierce
00:33:24
The future of education

What sort of education will best prepare our children for the future? We discuss the balance between technology, problem solving and just getting out doors.

Guest: Charlotte Lucas
00:44:53
Software eats the radio.

Learn about how software, specifically software defined radio, is taking over the world. What are the risks, what are the benefits?

Guest: Harvind Samra
00:56:48
Food and work culture

We discuss the role of food in the workplace and how it can improve the culture of a workplace.

Guest: Veronica Fossa
00:50:41
The role of online and offline groups in the future of marketing.

We discuss how women are informed about cannabis in the USA and general lessons about detoxifying a brand.

Guest: Melissa Pierce
00:58:37
A better future through Walking, Wellness, Whisky and work

A conversation about the benefits of getting out from behind our screens everyday

Guest: Penny Lee
00:52:35
The future of transport including personal jetsuits!

We start with the lack of innovation in civic transport, then discuss Gravity Industries jetsuits and finally touch on future business models for cars.

Guest: Dan Lane
00:52:25
The future of AI and how to avoid bias.

AI can produce results that are biased, in this episode we discuss how this happens and how such bias can be avoided in future.

Guest: Gunay Kazimzade
00:46:23
The Ecological future of data centers

Conversation on the ecological future of Server hosting

Guest: Anne Currie
00:46:11
The future of (personal) branding.

What is a brand? How do you build a startup's brand? How does it relate to your personal brand? Where does brand building happen? Get (some) answers here...

Guest: Hermione Way
00:40:26
Privacy and the Quantified Self

We discuss the ethical and privacy problems associated with fitness trackers and other 'Quantified Self' data collection.

Guest: Ian Forrester
00:51:36
Remote working - it it the Future?

Our guest works for Gitlab where all staff are remote. We discuss from both employee and employer points of view.

Guest: Sarah O'Donnell
00:47:09
Makers and individuals

A conversation about personalization and the maker movement

Guest: Dr Lucy Rogers
00:39:24
The future of love and dating

A discussion about the impact technology is having on the future of love and dating

Guest: John Kershaw
00:56:39
Ethics and The Long Night

In which we discuss ethics in tech and how to teach each generation about the Holocaust

Guest: Noemie Lopian
00:40:11
The future of money

In which we discuss the future of money.

Guest: Tyson Appadoo
00:48:29
Quantified self

A conversation about how the future of our well-being is in our own data

Guest: Matt Sandrini
00:30:52
Magic and Blockchain

A conversation about the future impact of blockchain on society

Guest: Fauve Altman
00:26:00