---
# System prepended metadata

title: Podcast narration
tags: [waag]

---

---
title: Podcast narration
tags: waag
---
# About this project
AA-meeting is a podcast for [Waag's Public Stack project](https://waag.org/en/project/public-stack-alternative-internet) about the struggles even experts have when trying to reach the ideal of the public stack. Meanwhile the podcast questions to what extend individuals or organisations should accept impairment of their abilities and daily activities to reach this greater good.
---
## Target audience
This podcast is in the first place meant for people who have desicion making power for IT/technical infrastructure in public and private organisations. In second place it's meant for a general audience.

# AA-meeting intro monologue
## Version 2: 15-05-2020

### My Ideal world

I thought I was pretty well off. [elaborate this more??] I use it a lot. I'd love to see technology as a means of expression. A building block, clay that one can use to sculpt the world to their hand, for themselves. Not to exploit others, but to empower everybody to be inventive. To be a maker. 

*[show examples of Michael Reeves]*    

A really good example of this are the videos of Michael Reeves. A Youtuber that executes absurd ideas using code and robotics. Ideas that are often useless and absurd. But that doesn't matter, it's merely inspiring to see that he can execute such ideas freely from his mind. Something I would like to see others do.

### Hypocrisy 

I though I was pretty well off. I pride myself with my awareness of data extractivism, switching to alternatives like Protonmail, learning to program and filling up my harddrive with privacy plugins. So when I started at Waag to help communicate the Public Stack it was nice to think about this and spread the word. 

Because often we see just the pretty interface of technology. The app on your phone, or the buttons on your smart toaster. But technology is just like an iceberg. There is so much more under the surface that you can't see. Operating systems, drivers, hardware. All developed, optimised and controlled in the interests, values and business models of their creators. Which might not be in your intrest. The ideal of the public stack is to make the whole stack of technology, including the values and business models, in this ice berg based on our values. Public values, like privacy, being environmentally friendly and having ethical business models.

But when look at my own iceberg I have to admit that I am still greatly dependant on big, closed tech companies. I make films. Podcast. Designs. Therefore I have to use Premiere. I have to use Logic. I have to use Photoshop. This not only gives Adobe a monopoly on my creative workflow. It also locks me into Apple ecosystem and, as a consequence, their non-repairable hardware. 

### Cold Feet

I feel that if I would have followed my principles I would have switched away from it all, even if I would not be able to do, for example, photo manipulation properly anymore. But I'm no Richard Stallman. I'm Richard van't Hof and I still want to make stuff in my life and not walk around with a bulky 2005 Thinkpad laptop that looks like it came straight from the 90s because I was not able to tolerate any piece of closed code in my BIOS *[ This joke might be way too geeky for a general audience :/ ]*. 

If I wanted to adhere to my ideals I would also have to change the way I make my work. But even the thought of it sends shiver down my spine. A state of panic emerges in which a hurricane of questions rages through my head. What else should I use? Maybe I'll miss features? I don't want to waste all my time figuring out workarounds! Will I be able to collaborate with others? And what if I want to access old files? 

It almost feels wasteful. I  spent so many years learning all this. So many years building up a workflow with this stuff until a point that I can work at lightning speed. I feel so invested. It's like I'm at the side of a lake preparing myself to jump in. But just before I am about to jump a flash of thoughts goes through your head. What if it's really cold? What is I hit the bottom? A part of me is scared. At that moment another part of me starts having an argument to do jump. Meanwhile in this mind game I remain as a frozen bystander. 

### Not alone

I have cold feet. But I'm not the only one. I'm part of a whole industry of creative people, of organisations who have painstakingly tried to build a way of work that works for them but are now, in essence, forced to throw it all away. Hell, at Waag we don't even always get it right. Everybody walks around with MacBooks with Office and Photoshop and Zoom!

Everybody has cold feet. I'm not the only one. But the bigger question is: will we ever dare to jump into the water?

### Introduction

This is the Alternative Applications Meeting. Also known as the AA-meeting with me, Richard van 't Hof. 

---
# Version 1

Alternative Applications Meeting V1: The Cultural and Media Sector

---

![](https://i.imgur.com/rAYBNDd.jpg)

### Introduction

> Maybe I should write it like a play between a psychiatrist and his patient. Don't know how/if this will fit the format.

[ I am Richard. student audiovisual design. (Future) part of the cultural sector.]

### My Ideal World

I would like to see technology as a way of expression. A building block, clay that one can use to sculpt the world to their hand, for themselves. Not to exploite others, but to empower everybody to be inventive. To be a maker. 

![Technology as a building block](https://i.imgur.com/Tde9N35.png)

> Show examples of video's [Michael Reeves](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtHaxi4GTYDpJgMSGy7AeSw?pbjreload=10) / Simone Grietz / other makers Youtube.

A really good example of this are the videos of Michael Reeves. A Youtuber that executes absurd ideas using code and robotics. Ideas that are often useless and absurd. But that doesn't matter, it's merely inspiring to see that he can execute such ideas freely from his mind. Something I would like to see others do.

### Cold feet

Of course, this is an ideal. And  ideals are often hard to accomplish. Still, I'd like to strive for them. I can be quite principled. I became a vegetarian in a day and also in my digital life I deleted almost all of my social media and switched over to al lot of alternatives. But I still feel like a hypocrite. 

While I pride myself with my awareness of data extracitvism and switching from Outlook with Protonmail and filling up my harddrive with privacy plugins and VPNs and preaching it all to the world. I am still reliant on closed systems. I still use Photoshop. I still use Premiere and the rest of Adobe's suite, as a matter of fact. On top of that I also use Logic. Which completely locks me into Apple's and Adobe's ecosystem. 

And I know that being locked into Adobe's eventually make me a milk cow for their profits (aka. their subscription model) and that by using Logic I'll be locked into Apple's ecosystem which will force me to buy their limited selection of non-repairable hardware.

But just the thought that I won't be able to use my usual programs that I've spent years mastering, that I have relied upun to express my creativity, sends shivers down my spine. It's like I have to hack off an extension of myself. I have to leave my elaborate castle, which I've spent years building, and start over in the wild insecure if it will be ever the same as before.

I don't dare to dive in completely. I have cold feet. But I'm not the only one. Currently I am an art student part of a large group of people who will soon belong to 'the cultural sector.' Illustrators, filmmakers, sculptors. Just like the whole industry they are all building their digital castles. But will we ever be able to get out?

<!-- Digital workflow that is flexible, fast and especially reliable. Because you often have more to worry about than equipment not working.  -->

> Maybe anecdote from someone audiovisual design student how reliablility is important. (equipment failing etc.)

> Example: [Youtube: Linus Tech Tips - WHY do I pay Adobe $10K a YEAR!?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9VysWRHPdI&t=0s)

[Waag can't even get it right]

### Introduction

I am Richard van 't Hof and this is the AA-meeting. A podcast about the challanges and opportunities of basing all technology on public values.

---



<!-- # Sections to add

[what is the public stack?]

[ alternatives can never be the same to industry standards, we have to jump into the deep. But how far should we dive?]

[this problem scales to big groups of people]

[ I still use the easier/more reliable option when I have to work with people and when I have to recommend software/a workflow techilliterate people]

[ switching to alternatives/getting up to speed with those alternatives takes a lot of time. Thus productivity. Thus money]

[ Isn't it just arrogant that we expect everybody to have a deep understanding of tehcnology? ]
 -->


<!-- # Questions for experts

- How would your ideal (technological) world look like?

- Alternatives can never be the same to industry standards, To what extend should my work (aka. my creative practice) be impaired by my principle to strive for technology based on public values?
  - (Is this even the right question?)
  - Where does my (or others in the field of culture and media) experience of dependance come from? 
  - Is this feeling justified? 
- What are your 'cold feet' when implementing when implementing the public stach within the following two categories:
  - Your own life
  - Your organisation
    - Can you name an example of solving this issue?
- Isn't it just arrogant that we expect everybody to have a deep understanding of technology? To what extend should people understand the technology they use?
- What does it mean for the autenticity of my creativity when what i can make is so dependant on the software instructions of someone else?

# Verhaallijen
- Richard => ik wil afkomen van adobe
- Stefano => Jitsi
- Tom => ???
- Marleen ???

# To-Do / planning

**Deadline**: eind mei


- [ ] Planning maken
- [ ] Feedback opzet verwerken
- [ ]  Opnemen intro bovenaan
- [ ]  Eerste test editen
- [ ]  Hoe delen we de podcast in? Meerdere episodes: één per sector? één per vraag?
- [ ] Experts vragen
- [ ]  Vooronderzoek: expers bevragen
  - Is er tijd voor dit via videocall te doen? Moet ik hiervoor een andere vorm verzinnen
  - Wie zouden hier geschikt voor zijn?
- [ ]  Uitindelijke vragen opstellen
- [ ]  Moet ik een experiment met mijzelf doen? Compleet volgens de public stack mijn podcast opstellen? Zo ja, hoe zouden we dit kunnen doen
- [ ]  Interviews inplannen
- [ ]  Interviews opnemen
- [ ]  Editen
- [ ] Hoe podcast verspreiden?

> [name=Stefano] -->





