Dana McKay
@danachatter.bsky.social
Academic, in the nexus of HCI and information science. Feminist, Reader, Thinker. Opinions vociferously my own. Loves cats, crafting, music, books and exercise.
Fascinating take on the spectrum of AI use from Carlo Iacono at #rails25: Augmentation vs abdication. The test? If AI failed tomorrow could you defend your decision?
November 2, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Fascinating take on the spectrum of AI use from Carlo Iacono at #rails25: Augmentation vs abdication. The test? If AI failed tomorrow could you defend your decision?
Reposted by Dana McKay
<bangs 💥 head 💥 on 💥 desk 💥 in 💥 German>
Once more for the hard of thinking: social media bans do not and cannot work. All they do is hurt the most vulnerable.
Once more for the hard of thinking: social media bans do not and cannot work. All they do is hurt the most vulnerable.
Union erwägt Altersgrenze für Social Media
Instagram und TikTok erst für Jugendliche ab 16 Jahren? Diese Frage wird laut Fraktionschef Spahn in der Union "intensiv diskutiert". Er sieht Handlungsbedarf. Doch nicht alle in der Union sind für eine Altersgrenze.
www.tagesschau.de
September 29, 2025 at 6:08 PM
<bangs 💥 head 💥 on 💥 desk 💥 in 💥 German>
Once more for the hard of thinking: social media bans do not and cannot work. All they do is hurt the most vulnerable.
Once more for the hard of thinking: social media bans do not and cannot work. All they do is hurt the most vulnerable.
In your daily reminder that academia isn't a neutral space, and that racism, lip service to reconciliation, and misogyny are still prevalent: this looks like a great add to your reading list
This is a must-read for anyone in academia. While it focuses on administrative positions in certain parts, it's such an excellent resource with stats and critiques of all the indigenization/reconciliation rhetoric that it's got something for everyone. Highly recommend.
September 30, 2025 at 6:39 AM
In your daily reminder that academia isn't a neutral space, and that racism, lip service to reconciliation, and misogyny are still prevalent: this looks like a great add to your reading list
Career goal unlocked today: I was quoted in the Guardian! This made my morning over riisipirakka for breakfast
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
Australia may have to choose between a Chinese TikTok and one owned by Trump’s billionaire backers
Expert raises concerns about what US TikTok deal could mean for News Corp’s ‘worrying dominance’ in Australian media
www.theguardian.com
September 24, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Career goal unlocked today: I was quoted in the Guardian! This made my morning over riisipirakka for breakfast
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
...and for a moment I forget to worry
September 19, 2025 at 2:55 PM
...and for a moment I forget to worry
Oh Glasgow, you are lovely
June 6, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Oh Glasgow, you are lovely
Please note, the US isn't the whole world.
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com
“Across the world, we’ve seen democracy in retreat,” writes A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times. “This anti-press playbook is now being used here in this country — and it could not come at a more difficult time for the American press.”
“Across the world, we’ve seen democracy in retreat,” writes A.G. Sulzberger, the publisher of The New York Times. “This anti-press playbook is now being used here in this country — and it could not come at a more difficult time for the American press.”
Opinion | A.G. Sulzberger: A Free People Need a Free Press
www.nytimes.com
May 13, 2025 at 11:26 PM
Please note, the US isn't the whole world.
Reposted by Dana McKay
i keep saying it but if you think that scientists given the means to work will slack off, you haven't met a scientist
This is a great post about the magic mixture that made Bell labs work. I especially like this bit because it accords very strongly with something I've always believed.
"Why would you expect information theory from someone who needs a babysitter?"
"Why would you expect information theory from someone who needs a babysitter?"
May 13, 2025 at 5:31 AM
i keep saying it but if you think that scientists given the means to work will slack off, you haven't met a scientist
Love studying how people use, abuse, find and manage information? Want to visit Montreal in the summer? The call for papers for Information Seeking In Context is out: www.mcgill.ca/isic2026/cal.... Please don't make your paper too good, though, because I want to go!
Call for Papers
ISIC: The Information Behaviour Conference 1-4 June 2026, Montréal, Canada As ISIC 2026 is the sixteenth ISIC conference and the conference’s 30th anniversary, we especially encourage authors to refle...
www.mcgill.ca
May 8, 2025 at 3:24 AM
Love studying how people use, abuse, find and manage information? Want to visit Montreal in the summer? The call for papers for Information Seeking In Context is out: www.mcgill.ca/isic2026/cal.... Please don't make your paper too good, though, because I want to go!
At #thewebcobf25 hearing a range of great talks about how we can make the Web safer for women
April 28, 2025 at 12:35 AM
At #thewebcobf25 hearing a range of great talks about how we can make the Web safer for women
Australia, watch and learn. The solution to a broken health system IS NOT to privatise it #auspol. See also: New Zealand
April 1, 2025 at 12:23 AM
Australia, watch and learn. The solution to a broken health system IS NOT to privatise it #auspol. See also: New Zealand
The LibGen database contains 35 of my publications. At a conservative estimate that is 3500 hours of my work allowing for data collection, but accounting for co-authorship. Two years of work. That they just took "because it was there". 1/2
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Search LibGen, the Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI
Millions of books and scientific papers are captured in the collection’s current iteration.
www.theatlantic.com
March 28, 2025 at 6:26 AM
The LibGen database contains 35 of my publications. At a conservative estimate that is 3500 hours of my work allowing for data collection, but accounting for co-authorship. Two years of work. That they just took "because it was there". 1/2
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Australia is missing. Maybe after the election. Bot the countries of which I am a citizen are on this list.
Countries that have issued a travel advisory this year warning their citizens about visiting the United States:
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Netherlands
New Zealand
United Kingdom
Canada
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Netherlands
New Zealand
United Kingdom
March 28, 2025 at 6:19 AM
Australia is missing. Maybe after the election. Bot the countries of which I am a citizen are on this list.
Great opening keynote at #chiir25 from @antmandan.bsky.social. What does data donation mean for the future of studying humans, and how do we respect and protect donors?
March 24, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Great opening keynote at #chiir25 from @antmandan.bsky.social. What does data donation mean for the future of studying humans, and how do we respect and protect donors?
Right academia, it's time to think about your travel plans. An academic was just detained at the US border, charged with terrorism, and sent back for having personal opinions on Trump in their email. This might seem like one trip gone wrong, but.... 1/2 www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
French researcher denied entry to US for 'expressing personal opinion' on Trump policies
France's research minister expressed 'concern' on Wednesday at this decision by the US authorities. The researcher underwent a random check on arrival, before his computer and phone were searched, a s...
www.lemonde.fr
March 21, 2025 at 7:46 AM
Right academia, it's time to think about your travel plans. An academic was just detained at the US border, charged with terrorism, and sent back for having personal opinions on Trump in their email. This might seem like one trip gone wrong, but.... 1/2 www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...
We're not Amsterdam because we choose not to be.
Brisbane folks will recognise this picture as Stanley St or Coronation Dve. It's going to be embarrassing when the world sees how choked up with cars we are when 2032 rolls around.
Remember this picture, & others like it, every time you hear someone in your city say "we're not Amsterdam."
This was #Amsterdam in the 1970s.
Many of the cities we admire made better choices regarding cars in the past. and are still making better choices today.
Better choices instead of excuses.
This was #Amsterdam in the 1970s.
Many of the cities we admire made better choices regarding cars in the past. and are still making better choices today.
Better choices instead of excuses.
March 21, 2025 at 7:33 AM
We're not Amsterdam because we choose not to be.
This should have the whole world on notice, but it is also eerie how much Trump's treatment of the US echoes an abusive partner's slow erosion of boundaries
March 17, 2025 at 8:27 AM
This should have the whole world on notice, but it is also eerie how much Trump's treatment of the US echoes an abusive partner's slow erosion of boundaries
Once again, I want to point out that entering career interruption data often requires those of us doing it to think about the worst times in our careers. This response to losing it is therefore doubly callous.
Update:
ARC just sent this email to applicants confirming that all previously-entered career interruption info is gone. Has to be re-entered.
This can only be entered by each individual CI & PI.
Such an ARC response. "Gotta problem? Shoulda thought-a that when you entered info in da first place!"
ARC just sent this email to applicants confirming that all previously-entered career interruption info is gone. Has to be re-entered.
This can only be entered by each individual CI & PI.
Such an ARC response. "Gotta problem? Shoulda thought-a that when you entered info in da first place!"
March 17, 2025 at 8:22 AM
Once again, I want to point out that entering career interruption data often requires those of us doing it to think about the worst times in our careers. This response to losing it is therefore doubly callous.
Many of you will know I am a bit of an AI skeptic, but this is a use I can really get behind. Esafety does important but emotionally gruelling work. Limiting exposure is a really, really good thing.
The underlying horror though? They had to have enough images to train the models.
The underlying horror though? They had to have enough images to train the models.
Interesting in esafety's AI transparency statement, they're using AI to give staff a heads up about what the images they're about to review are. Makes sense. Would be intense.
www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/cor...
www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/cor...
March 14, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Many of you will know I am a bit of an AI skeptic, but this is a use I can really get behind. Esafety does important but emotionally gruelling work. Limiting exposure is a really, really good thing.
The underlying horror though? They had to have enough images to train the models.
The underlying horror though? They had to have enough images to train the models.
We KNOW that people in their own homes is a good thing for society in many ways. So why isn't anyone standing up for the next generation?
My column on the impossibility saving for a deposit that keeps getting bigger the longer you save.
www.theguardian.com/business/gro...
www.theguardian.com/business/gro...
Gone are the days when a ‘good job’ gets you a house – and now we have the data to prove it | Greg Jericho
Remember Joe Hockey’s claim 10 years ago? We put it to the test and guess what: even after a decade of saving, you still wouldn’t have enough for a deposit
www.theguardian.com
March 13, 2025 at 4:54 AM
We KNOW that people in their own homes is a good thing for society in many ways. So why isn't anyone standing up for the next generation?
I cried with laughter reading this thread. I also learned a lot, that one day in some pub quiz somewhere, will be useful
This whole thread has been the highlight of my day so far.
So that means that any attempt to neuter a hippo is:
A) Exploratory Surgery
B) Done under "best guess" conditions
C) Where the drugs are *going* to wear off
D) On an animal that weighs more than a Ford F150
E) All of which is muscle
F) On testicles that are hiding from you
G) And it is mad about it
A) Exploratory Surgery
B) Done under "best guess" conditions
C) Where the drugs are *going* to wear off
D) On an animal that weighs more than a Ford F150
E) All of which is muscle
F) On testicles that are hiding from you
G) And it is mad about it
March 13, 2025 at 4:50 AM
I cried with laughter reading this thread. I also learned a lot, that one day in some pub quiz somewhere, will be useful
I've always maintained that bad times are a good way of figuring out who's who.
I'm aware my character is under scrutiny, it should be! I have a lot of privilege. If you do, too, use it for good. Speak up. Reach out. Write to your representatives. Organise in the community. Vote with your money.
I'm aware my character is under scrutiny, it should be! I have a lot of privilege. If you do, too, use it for good. Speak up. Reach out. Write to your representatives. Organise in the community. Vote with your money.
One of the few upsides to living in the current moment is that people's character is very much on display. You can actually see who has principles and who doesn't.
People can't hide who they are now -- not like when times are good and people never face the test of standing by their words.
People can't hide who they are now -- not like when times are good and people never face the test of standing by their words.
March 12, 2025 at 4:09 AM
I've always maintained that bad times are a good way of figuring out who's who.
I'm aware my character is under scrutiny, it should be! I have a lot of privilege. If you do, too, use it for good. Speak up. Reach out. Write to your representatives. Organise in the community. Vote with your money.
I'm aware my character is under scrutiny, it should be! I have a lot of privilege. If you do, too, use it for good. Speak up. Reach out. Write to your representatives. Organise in the community. Vote with your money.
When private companies are key infrastructure for disaster information, private interests will almost certainly come before human life some of the time. Facebook are one example of many companies that could do this--I suspect they are the first rather than the only. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
Facebook blocked Cyclone Alfred searches and hasn't explained why
Despite hundreds of thousands of accounts talking about Cyclone Alfred on Facebook, social media giant Meta was blocking or hiding search results about the impending storm before being contacted by AB...
www.abc.net.au
March 5, 2025 at 9:50 AM
When private companies are key infrastructure for disaster information, private interests will almost certainly come before human life some of the time. Facebook are one example of many companies that could do this--I suspect they are the first rather than the only. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03...
In news that will surprise no-one, in jobs where you do not have to be in the office, giving employees flexibility improves productivity. COVID changed the way we work, regardless of the rent paid on high rise office blocks.
On the topic of the Coalition’s return to office mandate for the APS…
Lots of talk about WFH & productivity in the Australian Public Service, handily UNSW did a 2024 report on it
It found APS productivity isn't impacted by hybrid work & giving employees more autonomy w/ flexibility led to sustained productivity + employee engagement
apo.org.au/node/326334
#auspol
It found APS productivity isn't impacted by hybrid work & giving employees more autonomy w/ flexibility led to sustained productivity + employee engagement
apo.org.au/node/326334
#auspol
March 4, 2025 at 9:15 AM
In news that will surprise no-one, in jobs where you do not have to be in the office, giving employees flexibility improves productivity. COVID changed the way we work, regardless of the rent paid on high rise office blocks.