In this episode, Elaine tries to turn Kelly into a subsea cables stan with the help of Jane Ruffino, a PhD candidate who recently visited a ship in the midst of (literally) winding up TAT-8, the world’s first transatlantic fibre-optic cable. Jane enthusiastically shares what we can learn from the subsea cable industry’s ‘minimum necessary technology’ mindset, and why it’s important that the infrastructure and labour that keeps us connected is made visible.

Find Jane on LinkedIn and at CharacterWorks.co.

*** Good things we recommend ***

>> Jane’s superb article in Wired

>> Our podcast episode, The internet under the sea

>> The Undersea Network, a book by Nicole Starosielski

>> Atlantic-Cable.com

>> Derek Cassidy, communication archaeologist

>> Irish artist Fiona Marron

>> Ye Olde Hurdy-Gurdy Museum of Vintage Radio in Howth, Co. Dublin

*** More from us ***

Kelly’s Substack: kellysrubbish.substack.com

FTS blog: for-techs-sake.ghost.io

FTS TikTok: fortechssakepod

FTS Instagram: fortechssakepod

FTS Bluesky: fortechssakepod.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Kelly and Elaine are talking about AT, assistive technology, and how we can all have nicer digital experiences because of it. Our expert guides to AT in this episode are Patrick Fitzgerald, an AT user and DigiCoach for others, and Sarah Boland, an AT facilitator and mentor. We find out some fundamentals for designers and developers to make the web more accessible, as well as some tips for ourselves to be more inclusive with what we post online. Will you take on our anti-Lent alt text challenge?

*** Good things we recommend ***

>> St John of God Liffey Services

>> FreedomTech.ie

>> AccessDesign: An inclusive co-design toolkit

>> Osmo

>> For Tech’s Sake Live!

*** More from us ***

Kelly’s Substack: kellysrubbish.substack.com

FTS blog: for-techs-sake.ghost.io

FTS TikTok: fortechssakepod

FTS Instagram: fortechssakepod

FTS Bluesky: fortechssakepod.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pokémon Go collected 30 billion street-level image scans from its players, and now its creators are using that data to help train delivery robots. This prompted Kelly and Elaine to discuss the many ways human labour contributes to AI training, whether we are aware of it or not.

*** Good things we recommend ***

>> Humanitix ticketing

>> Gravity Climbing Centre

>> For Tech’s Sake Live!

>> Svenska Dagbladet’s investigation into Meta’s AI training

*** More from us ***

Kelly’s Substack: kellysrubbish.substack.com

FTS blog: for-techs-sake.ghost.io

FTS TikTok: fortechssakepod

FTS Instagram: fortechssakepod

FTS Bluesky: fortechssakepod.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.