dsearls
@dsearls.bsky.social
Journalist, author, blogger, podcaster, photographer, farting-arounder
I'm giving a talk on Tuesday about a new standard that flips the script on cookie notices, surveillance, and the adtech fecosystem. Its IEEE P7012, better known as #MyTerms. It'll be on Zoom. More at doc.searls.com/2025/11/14/m...
MyTerms are Your Terms
That’s the case I’ll be making next Tuesday in a talk at Indiana University. The subject is big—maybe the biggest in your online life. That’s because MyTerms is the only way you&#…
doc.searls.com
November 17, 2025 at 3:29 AM
I'm giving a talk on Tuesday about a new standard that flips the script on cookie notices, surveillance, and the adtech fecosystem. Its IEEE P7012, better known as #MyTerms. It'll be on Zoom. More at doc.searls.com/2025/11/14/m...
Why I'd rather book the Death Star than use Tripadvisor for anything again: doc.searls.com/2025/11/14/l...
Life after SeatGuru
As a devout window-sitter on planes, SeatGuru was a must-have for avoiding misaligned or absent windows on booked flights. But now it’s gone, because its owner, Tripadvisor, failed to keep it…
doc.searls.com
November 14, 2025 at 1:25 PM
Why I'd rather book the Death Star than use Tripadvisor for anything again: doc.searls.com/2025/11/14/l...
Big aurora going on: doc.searls.com/2025/11/11/l...
Look Up!
Surf’s up. North. Here is the auroral oval, right now: And here is the K Index, also via NOAA: Remember that the aurora’s curtains of light stand up to 800 miles above their base, about…
doc.searls.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:36 AM
Big aurora going on: doc.searls.com/2025/11/11/l...
A question, plus another at the end: doc.searls.com/2025/11/06/w...
Who’s your agent?
M.G. Siegler says AI is Breaking the Browser's Back. His problem starts with OpenAI's GPT Atlas, which some publishers won't let view their contents on the Web. For example, if you a…
doc.searls.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:14 AM
A question, plus another at the end: doc.searls.com/2025/11/06/w...
My latest: doc.searls.com/2025/10/20/t...
This is a Test. Or a Taste. Or both.
What see ye? I shot the photo above last night on approach to SFO. My window seat was on the left side of the plane. Tell me where this is, what the two most standout features are, and what was hap…
doc.searls.com
October 21, 2025 at 4:48 AM
My latest: doc.searls.com/2025/10/20/t...
I've disliked the Dodgers since they divorced New York and married Los Angeles (which I do love, but not for its baseball). But Shohei Ohtani is possibly the greatest baseball player of all time, and he is playing in ours, now. Alas, for the Dodgers.
October 18, 2025 at 5:28 PM
I've disliked the Dodgers since they divorced New York and married Los Angeles (which I do love, but not for its baseball). But Shohei Ohtani is possibly the greatest baseball player of all time, and he is playing in ours, now. Alas, for the Dodgers.
Is Facebook down? Every other site/service seems to be working, but Facebook is a spinning wheel right now.
October 17, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Is Facebook down? Every other site/service seems to be working, but Facebook is a spinning wheel right now.
Amazon's music on hold is the same as Rackspace's was before it failed in an attack and cost me years of email. Hope that's not a bad sign.
October 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Amazon's music on hold is the same as Rackspace's was before it failed in an attack and cost me years of email. Hope that's not a bad sign.
Do partisan statements atop US .gov websites violate the Hatch Act? See doc.searls.com/2025/10/03/q... My idea here is mainly to help reporters follow what's going on by visiting links to every federal branch and agency I could find. See what they're saying during the shutdown.
Questions of Law, not Just Politics
Go to HUD.gov, and you’ll get this: Go to USDA.gov, and you’ll get this: Seems to me these violate the Hatch Act, aka “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities.” I…
doc.searls.com
October 4, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Do partisan statements atop US .gov websites violate the Hatch Act? See doc.searls.com/2025/10/03/q... My idea here is mainly to help reporters follow what's going on by visiting links to every federal branch and agency I could find. See what they're saying during the shutdown.
Laws won't get us privacy online. Contract will. I explain why: doc.searls.com/2025/09/11/p...
Privacy is a Contract
In the natural world, privacy is a social contract: a tacit agreement that we respect others’ private spaces. We guard those spaces with the privacy tech we call clothing and shelter. We also…
doc.searls.com
September 11, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Laws won't get us privacy online. Contract will. I explain why: doc.searls.com/2025/09/11/p...
A long-belated obituary of sorts, with a bunch of bonus facts: doc.searls.com/2025/09/09/r...
Remembering R.C. Ward
The first thing R.C. Ward taught in our biology class at Guilford College was his eponymous Law: “If it works, it’s good.” He frequently mentioned Ward’s Law by name and req…
doc.searls.com
September 10, 2025 at 2:43 AM
A long-belated obituary of sorts, with a bunch of bonus facts: doc.searls.com/2025/09/09/r...
One irony is that I'm pointing to this on a social medium and not putting it on my own Lovable Expert page: www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
Cartoon: Web's end
To support this work and receive my weekly newsletter with background on each cartoon, please consider joining the Sorensen Subscription Service! Also on Patreon .
Follow me on Bluesky ...
www.dailykos.com
August 28, 2025 at 6:07 PM
One irony is that I'm pointing to this on a social medium and not putting it on my own Lovable Expert page: www.dailykos.com/stories/2025...
Want to blow up cookie notices, and overturn the whole surveillance fecosystem? MyTerms is the way. I make the case here: doc.searls.com/2025/08/14/t...
The Case for MyTerms
We know more than we can tell. That was how Michael Polanyi distinguished between tacit and explicit knowing. We may know tacitly how we form speech, ride a bike, or sense when to shake hands with …
doc.searls.com
August 14, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Want to blow up cookie notices, and overturn the whole surveillance fecosystem? MyTerms is the way. I make the case here: doc.searls.com/2025/08/14/t...
Try seeing "mainframe" every time you see "AI." Because giant mainframes are what we're getting AI from, so far. "Personalized" is nice, but you don't drive. You're a passenger in a Waymo. We need truly personal AI. I've been writing about that here: doc.searls.com/personal-ai/
Personal AI
Having personal AI is like having a personal computer. It’s yours. It’s not AIaaS (AI as a Service), which is what we get from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, Perplexity, Meta, an…
doc.searls.com
August 4, 2025 at 3:20 AM
Try seeing "mainframe" every time you see "AI." Because giant mainframes are what we're getting AI from, so far. "Personalized" is nice, but you don't drive. You're a passenger in a Waymo. We need truly personal AI. I've been writing about that here: doc.searls.com/personal-ai/
Just posted this: doc.searls.com/2025/08/02/g...
Getting Real With AI.
When I read that some conversations with ChatGPT had appeared in Google searches, I did a search for “Doc Searls” ChatGPT and got a long and not-bad but not entirely accurate AI summary…
doc.searls.com
August 2, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Just posted this: doc.searls.com/2025/08/02/g...
This post is about how both The Cluetrain Manifesto and The Intention Economy will finally come true. It's what many of us have been working toward since the last millennium: projectvrm.org/2025/07/15/t...
The Cluetrain Will Run from Customers to Companies – ProjectVRM
For the good of both. Customers need privacy, respect, and the ability to provide good and helpful information to the companies they deal with. The good clues customers bring can include far more than...
projectvrm.org
July 16, 2025 at 12:47 AM
This post is about how both The Cluetrain Manifesto and The Intention Economy will finally come true. It's what many of us have been working toward since the last millennium: projectvrm.org/2025/07/15/t...
This is among the saddest things I've ever read: www.facebook.com/hammaduh/pos...
Hammad Ul Hassan
Pratik Joshi had been living in London for six years. A software professional, he’d long dreamed of building a life abroad for his wife and three young children, who stayed back in India.
After...
www.facebook.com
June 12, 2025 at 7:02 PM
This is among the saddest things I've ever read: www.facebook.com/hammaduh/pos...
I make a bet (more like a wish) at the end of doc.searls.com/2025/05/21/online-sports-betting-is-for-losers/
Online Sports Betting is for Losers
A few decades back my teenage son and I approached Las Vegas at night while traveling south on Interstate 15. When the skyline of the city began sparkling into view, the kid said, “Wow. Think…
doc.searls.com
May 22, 2025 at 12:45 AM
I make a bet (more like a wish) at the end of doc.searls.com/2025/05/21/online-sports-betting-is-for-losers/
Motherings: doc.searls.com/2025/05/11/t...
Motherings
Trump will be flying Qatar One instead of (or as) Air Force One: Aaaand,,,, Call your mother, if she’s still around. If she’s not, remember her anyway. I did that here. I’m pointi…
doc.searls.com
May 11, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Motherings: doc.searls.com/2025/05/11/t...
How "What's on?" is now mostly off. doc.searls.com/2025/05/05/t... HTs to @jeffjarvis.bsky.social and Clay Shirky.
The Offing of What’s On
For the final seven decades of the last millennium, most people in the developed world scheduled their evenings by answering a simple question: What’s on? For the first two of those decades, …
doc.searls.com
May 5, 2025 at 8:33 PM
How "What's on?" is now mostly off. doc.searls.com/2025/05/05/t... HTs to @jeffjarvis.bsky.social and Clay Shirky.
Want privacy on your terms online? Come help us make that happen: projectvrm.org/2025/04/06/m...
MyTerms – ProjectVRM
IEEE P7012, nicknamed MyTerms—much as IEEE 802.11 is nicknamed Wi-Fi—is a standard we expect to go from draft to done later this year. But that should not stop us from developing for it. Because what ...
projectvrm.org
April 7, 2025 at 12:03 AM
Want privacy on your terms online? Come help us make that happen: projectvrm.org/2025/04/06/m...
Cory Doctorow, of @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy and much else, will be speaking at noon (Eastern) tomorrow here at Indiana University and on zoom. Cory is always brilliant, and I can guarantee an hour well spent. See you there. events.iu.edu/ostromworksh...
HLS Beyond the Web: Cory Doctorow
Please join us in welcoming author Cory Doctorow as he presents his talk: To Make Big Tech Less Harmful, Make it Less Important.
events.iu.edu
April 3, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Cory Doctorow, of @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy and much else, will be speaking at noon (Eastern) tomorrow here at Indiana University and on zoom. Cory is always brilliant, and I can guarantee an hour well spent. See you there. events.iu.edu/ostromworksh...
The word "agency" is hot now, but it wasn't when I wrote a chapter about it 13 years ago. In the meantime, some of us (#projectvrm, #CustomerCommons, #IEEE P7012) have been working on a standard that can give our agency a giant lever in the digital world: doc.searls.com/2025/03/23/real-agency/
Real Agency
I nominate agency as Word of the Year for 2025. I don’t nominate agentic, which is suddenly hot shit: See, agency is a noun, and agentic is an adjective. And, as Strunk and White taught us, W…
doc.searls.com
March 23, 2025 at 4:13 PM
The word "agency" is hot now, but it wasn't when I wrote a chapter about it 13 years ago. In the meantime, some of us (#projectvrm, #CustomerCommons, #IEEE P7012) have been working on a standard that can give our agency a giant lever in the digital world: doc.searls.com/2025/03/23/real-agency/
After reading www.npr.org/2025/03/15/n... I am wondering if the VOA is still on the air. Anyone know?
'Bloody Saturday' at Voice of America and other U.S.-funded networks
Federal officials placed 1,300 employees at Voice of America on indefinite paid leave, while severing contracts with Radio Free Asia and other U.S.-funded networks.
www.npr.org
March 16, 2025 at 4:22 PM
After reading www.npr.org/2025/03/15/n... I am wondering if the VOA is still on the air. Anyone know?
Some guidance on tonight's full #LunarEclipse: doc.searls.com/2025/03/13/t...
Tonight’s Lunar Eclipse
Right now, for those on Earth who see it when they look up, the Moon is as full as it can get without moving into the shadow of the Earth . Which it will. Shortly. Here is where Earth’s shado…
doc.searls.com
March 14, 2025 at 2:28 AM
Some guidance on tonight's full #LunarEclipse: doc.searls.com/2025/03/13/t...