for W3c validation

Friday Faves is our weekly blog series highlighting a few select pieces from the REG team’s reading lists. You can catch up on past Friday Faves on the archive. 

Cartoon of the week

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Jakkii says: Not so much about drawing for me, but this is definitely relatable when it comes to creativity and when inspiration most seems to strike.

What comes after Zoom fatigue

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Jakkii says: Ah, Zoom fatigue. We’ve talked about it before, and let’s face it: we’ve all been there. And, to be clear, it’s not just Zoom – that’s simply shorthand for video chat, video calls, video conferences, video meetings, video networking, video socialising, video video video.

The piece first takes a quick piece at the history of how we got here and why we feel ‘Zoom fatigue’. It then moves on:

What comes after Zoom fatigue is what I’d call Zoom acquiescence. It’s an inevitability.

The discussion of how we’ve been forced to use video is an interesting one, particularly when we reflect on what is or would seem to many of us to be very novel use cases – it’s not just about staying in touch with loved ones or meeting with colleagues, but for all sorts of tasks we previously did in person, like buying or selling a house. Even having a wedding or holding a funeral service went online to let people come together as they need to, whether during lockdown and through restrictions. And, while there’s no doubt we’ll certainly be meeting in person when we can in the future, it seems likely that video will continue to play an increased role in our daily work, home and social lives.

The article goes on to consider the future, imagining that it might be holographic, and/or some other way of making video more like “real-life” – more like in-person interaction, in other words. This holds importance in all kinds of contexts, from personal and social through to the workplace, and how we might best enable and support some of the benefits of the physical workplace – like bumping into colleagues, serendipitous innovation, and ‘watercooler’ chat – in the virtual workplace as well.

As so many of us seem to keep saying during this pandemic, these sure are interesting times. Perhaps the author is right:

Much like those who were gobsmacked by telephones a century ago, we’re likely witnessing a transformation in communication — a leap forward with no return

I guess we’ll find out – probably via Zoom.

Read: https://www.vox.com/recode/21314793/zoom-fatigue-video-chat-facebook-google-meet-microsoft-teams

Every decision is a risk. Every risk is a decision

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We can’t live like we did before coronavirus. We won’t live like we did immediately after it appeared, either. Instead, we’re in the muddy middle, faced with choices that seem at once crucial and impossible, simple and massively complicated. These choices are an everyday occurrence, but they also carry a moral weight that makes them feel different than picking a pasta sauce or a pair of shoes. In a pandemic that’s been filled with unanswerable questions and unwinnable wars, this is our daily Kobayashi Maru. And no one can tell us exactly what we ought to do.

Jakkii says: The article heading and this quote really resonated with me. Oddly the muddy middle seems somehow more complex and fraught than being in lockdown – the uncertainty, the unknown, the what ifs. The spikes and re-emergence (or perception of it) of coronavirus in various places, with tougher restrictions and lockdowns implemented once again, while others continue the march towards “normal” – if we can ever be “normal” again. And what we’re left with in that muddy middle is a constant barrage of choices that force us to assess risk and make decisions, to assign morality and make the choices we think are right, right for us, and – hopefully – right for those around us.

We are faced with too many choices — not just what to do, but how to do it and when and where. The stakes are high, 140,000 people are dead in the U.S. and death rates are starting to climb again. And because of those stakes, we’ve assigned a morality to all these choices — something that psychology researchers have shown leads us to frame things as “all good” or “all bad” and lose sight of the gray areas all around us. We’re all bogged down and floundering, questioning our own goodness while we arch our eyebrows at our friends and argue over whose patch of muck is really solid ground.

Is it any wonder that stress, anxiety, fear and sadness are all a bigger part of what it means to live in muddy middle than it was before? There aren’t quick answers here, and beyond trying to keep sight of the grey, it’s not easy to stop framing things in terms of all right or all wrong. We can only try, and we can only keep trying to hold empathy and compassion for those around us who are all just doing the best they can. Just like you are, and just like I am.

Read: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/every-decision-is-a-risk-every-risk-is-a-decision/

Around the house

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Another week, another round-up. Enjoy your weekend at home – stay safe, wash your hands, and wear your mask.

• Take a read about Poker and the Limits of AI
• Climate change: Why the US heat wave will be so long and persistent
• Find out more about the terrible consequences of Australia’s uber-bushfires
• Need to ramp up your productivity? Check out one of these 25 new apps
• View Vermont from above with these stunning drone images
• Get some food-spiration with ‘Chefs at Home’ on Pinterest
• Meditate with HeadSpace’s new in-app Snapchat meditation tool
• Go loony for the moon with these 20 essential tracks for lunar-ticks
• Learn how to teach sustainable habits to kids
• Dreaming about travel? Check out these 5 trends Conde Nast say will change the way we travel, post-pandemic

Friday Funnies

HAS THIS HAPPENED TO YOU? Rojo the cat’s bushy tail made an appearance during a UK Parliament virtual meeting Tuesday.https://t.co/bHFSwnbIEP pic.twitter.com/pieXwwND32

— CBS4 Miami (@CBSMiami) July 15, 2020

Normal dogs: *Doggy paddle*

My dog: pic.twitter.com/0EpUFf3DTD

— Dong Copter (@AdamantAnarchy) July 16, 2020

5-year-old: *walks up behind me when I’m on the computer* What game are you playing?

Me: Pay the bills.

5: Are you winning?

Me: No.

— James Breakwell, Exploding Unicorn (@XplodingUnicorn) June 17, 2017

coworker used “anyway” as an email sign-off instead of “best” or “warmly” or w/e and honestly that’s the only work mood left

— sasha jones (@tartikovsky) July 14, 2020

This is lovely

pic.twitter.com/IJqcB69tQo

— Robert Speker (@robertspeker) July 10, 2020

Misinformation Friday Five

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• The conspiracy singularity has arrived
• A med-school staffer dived into online groups to debunk coronavirus conspiracy theories. Would anyone listen?
• I lost my boyfriend to cancer ‘conspiracy theories’
• Elizabeth Warren wants answers on Facebook’s fact-checking loophole, while Twitter cracks down on QAnon
• Here’s how scientists know the coronavirus came from bats and wasn’t made in a lab

COVID-19 Friday Five

• How coronavirus affects the brain
• Inside the making of the world’s first socially distanced venue
• Nature is the biggest winner from COVID-19 lockdowns
• The career cost of COVID-19 to female researchers, and how science should respond
• Psychedelic Suburbia: why people are taking magic mushrooms during the lockdown

Work Friday Five

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• How to start decolonising your business
• Microsoft opens Teams’ doors to third-party apps during meetings, and the ‘new’ Yammer becomes generally available
• When it comes to culture, does your company walk the talk?
• Seven truths about listening that can improve employee engagement and workplace culture
• Employers are reconsidering workplace benefits for newly remote workers

Tech Friday Five

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• Everything you need to know about Palantir, the secretive company coming for all your data
• Attackers used Slack to breach Twitter, according to report
• Big Tech has a big climate problem. Now, it’s being forced to clean up.
• Facebook will study whether its algorithms are racially biased
• Weird AI illustrates why algorithms still need people

Social Media Friday Five

• It’s time to defund social media
• How feds used a YouTube livestream to arrest a Portland protester
• Zuckerberg says there’s ‘no deal of any kind’ between Facebook and Trump
• Facebook, white nationalists and becoming the target of a hate campaign
• Twitter says hackers downloaded private account data; and how the hack exposes a broader threat to democracy and society

Communities and Community Management Friday Five

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• How to design better communities
• The best podcasts for community managers
• The power and pitfalls of enterprise communities
• Why your ‘weak-tie’ friendships may mean more than you think
• The online community of mourners who listen to hear, not to fix

Corona Business Insights Podcast

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Labour migration: how COVID-19 has increased vulnerably, changed patterns of migration and the road to economic recovery.

As COVID-19 sets out to change the world forever, join Sandra Peter and Kai Riemer as they think about what’s to come in the future of business.

Shownotes

Without safe migration, economic recovery will be limited

Migration and COVID-19 via the Sydney Policy Lab

Protection of temporary migrants is now a ‘public health issue’

Big cities in India are dependent on migrant labour

COVID response leaves India’s migrant workers hanging

Australia temporarily suspends skilled migration program

Working holidaymakers can now extend their stay for up to 12 months

Corona Business Insights thanks Dr Stephen Clibborn, Associate Professor Chris F Wright, Dr Madhan Balasubramanian, Associate Professor Anna Boucher, Professor Stephanie Short, Professor Marc Stears, Professor Tim Soutphommasane, Professor Desmond King.

Listen: https://sbi.sydney.edu.au/migration-on-corona-business-insights/