Podcasts about libraries

Libraries provide so much more than books. This episode, get acquainted with the free or discounted resources of your local library, like free museum tickets, SAT tutors, language classes and more. This episode originally published Oct. 16, 2023.Sign up for our newsletter series on credit card debt.Follow us on Instagram: @nprlifekitSign up for our newsletter here.Have an episode idea or feedback you want to share? Email us at lifekit@npr.orgSupport the show and listen to it sponsor-free by signing up for Life Kit+ at plus.npr.org/lifekitLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Watsonville students created short films that will screen at UC Santa Cruz today. A Q&A discussion will follow the free event. And, local libraries are protesting censorship by celebrating Banned Books Week.

This week, RHS Senior Plant Pathologist Dr Jassy Drakulic shares her passion for the mysterious world of fungi, revealing the hidden lives of their fruiting bodies and the ingenious ways they spread their spores. At RHS Garden Rosemoor, horticulturist Alex Paines takes us behind the scenes to explore the art of shaping formal hedges and offers expert tips for keeping them looking their best. And finally, Fiona Davison, RHS Head of Libraries and Exhibitions, delves into the gardens and landscapes that inspired the pages of Jane Austen's beloved novels. Host: Guy Barter Contributors: Dr Jassy Drakulic, Alex Paines, Fiona Davison Links: RHS Fungi For Gardeners book RHS Garden Rosemoor Chawton House

Send us a textSpooky season is upon us! Beth, Brittany, and Stephanie breakdown everything you need to know about the latest trends and tropes in the horror genre. And they share our own local ghost stories with The Library's resident spooky storyteller, Amy from Special Collections! But first, Sarah from the Midwest Writing Center joins us to discuss banned books. Upcoming programs: Adults: Quad Cities Archives Fair - Saturday, October 18th @ Haunted Rock Island Roadhouse Teens/Tweens: Teen Movie - Saturday, October 25th @ EasternKids: Monster Mash @ Main - Thursday, October 23rd @ Main  Helpful links from our discussion:Midwest Writing Center & Sarah Elgatian's contact: sarah.elagtian@mwcqc.orgALA's Banned Books Week 2025QC Libraries' Teentober Contests | Art, Writing & FilmBestsellers ClubLibrary Links:Calendar of Events - Learn more about the events discussed in this episode and about what is coming up at The Library!Library Catalog - Place holds on all of the books discussed today!Beanstack - Sign up to participate in our reading challenges!2025 Online Reading Challenge

Send us a textThis episode is dedicated to YOU and your library card. In a special in-depth interview, our Head of Borrower Services discusses the amazing things you can do with your Hamden library card. TJ also mentions some services we offer at the library, even if you don't have a card.Also includes a quiz show segment all about banned books, in celebration of Banned Books Week, currently in progress (Oct. 5-11). Libraries believe in the freedom to read, and that includes the freedom to listen, learn and discover new things - about the world, about other people, and about yourself. Enjoy!

It's Banned Books Week. Honorary youth chair Iris Mogul and Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, talk about what it is, why it matters so much, and how you can get involved.Visit theallusionist.org/bannedbooks for more information and many links about today's topics, plus a transcript of the episode.Support the show at theallusionist.org/donate and as well as keeping this independent podcast going, you also get behind-the-scenes info about every episode; livestreams with me, Martin and my ever-growing collection of dictionaries, and the charming and nurturing Allusioverse Discord community, where we're watching the current season Great British Bake Off - donors also get a weekly work of flanfic about the show.This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. Thanks to Thanks to Charisse Barnachea, and to Liv for the Judy Blume books circa 1989. Martin Austwick sings and composed the music. Download his own songs at palebirdmusic.com and on Bandcamp, and listen to his podcasts Song By Song and Neutrino Watch.Find the Allusionist at youtube.com/allusionistshow, instagram.com/allusionistshow, facebook.com/allusionistshow, @allusionistshow.bsky.social… If I'm there, I'm there as @allusionistshow. Our ad partner is Multitude. If you want me to talk compellingly about your product, sponsor an episode: contact Multitude at multitude.productions/ads. This episode is sponsored by:• Squarespace, your one-stop shop for building and running your online forever home. Go to squarespace.com/allusionist for a free trial, and get 10 percent off your first purchase of a website or domain with the code allusionist.• Home Chef, meal kits that fit your needs. For a limited time, Home Chef is offering Allusionist listeners fifty per cent off and free shipping on your first box, plus free dessert for life, at HomeChef.com/allusionist.• Rosetta Stone, immersive and effective language learning. Allusionist listeners get 50% off unlimited access to all 25 language courses, for life: go to rosettastone.com/allusionist.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Christopher Smith (aka Yuvi Lightman, aka Ganesha 1024) is the founder of the Quantus network: an mbitious quantum-zk blockchain which he proudly built with his team in just 6 months, with a budget of $500k. In this episode we talk about the threat of quantum computing, how quantum resistant cryptography works, and how Bitcoin can be saved from a potential disaster. Time stamps: 00:01:31 - Introducing Christopher Smith (Yuvi Lightman), known on Soundcloud Music as Ganesha1024 00:02:22 - Quantis: Zero-Knowledge Quantum-Resistant Blockchain 00:02:39 - Christopher's Background, Early Bitcoin Involvement 00:03:41 - Current Views on Bitcoin, All-Time High at $125K 00:04:19 - Discovering Bitcoin in 2012, Contributions to BitcoinJ 00:04:36 - Founding BitMesh: Micropayments via Payment Channels 00:04:42 - Mike Hearn and Payment Channels 00:05:17 - Bitcoin Whitepaper Praise, Satoshi's Genius 00:05:55 - Essence of Money, Overcomplication Critique 00:06:49 - Bitcoin's Corporate Takeover, Cultural Ethos 00:08:38 - SegWit Changes, Big Block Debate 00:09:45 - Bitcoin Cash Sympathy, Shift to Ethereum 00:10:41 - Vitalik Buterin and Gavin Wood as Geniuses 00:10:53 - Lunar Startup: Blockchain Wikipedia with ICO 00:11:08 - Bitcoin Threats: Throughput, Privacy, Quantum Security 00:11:29 - Child Porn Blackmail Tactics in Debates 00:12:18 - Social Bottlenecks in Coordination 00:13:09 - BTC Token vs Network Separation via ETFs 00:14:06 - Proof of Keys Day by Trace Mayer 00:15:23 - No Trusted Third Parties Philosophy 00:16:04 - Cryptography as Military Tech 00:18:04 - Open Source Importance, ERC20 Simplicity 00:19:21 - BlackRock as Central Bank, Cult of Saturn Symbolism 00:20:17 - Bitcoin Threats: Throughput with Shai Reference 00:22:50 - Privacy and Zcash Praise 00:23:32 - Quantus as Bitcoin Fork with Falcon Signatures 00:24:50 - Solana as Big Blocker Inheritor 00:25:04 - Overton Window Constraints 00:26:41 - Quantus Timelines Skepticism, PsiQuantum Investment 00:28:14 - Ethereum Proof of Stake, Stablecoin Control 00:29:27 - Catholic Church Analogy, Satoshi's Time-Buying Quote 00:30:04 - Weaponized Schizophrenia Concept 00:31:09 - Schizophrenia as Catch-All, LSD Benefits 00:32:21 - False Positives/Negatives in Machine Learning 00:33:34 - Arbitrary Thresholds in Science/Medicine/Physics 00:34:46 - Autistic Definitions, Bitcoin Redefinition 00:36:25 - Douglas Hofstadter's Godel Escher Bach Inspiration 00:37:32 - Ads: Bitcoin.com News 00:38:39 - Citrea: ZK Rollup on Bitcoin 00:40:21 - BIP300 Drivechains by Paul Sztorc 00:41:53 - Hacker Ethos, L2 Complexity Critique 00:43:27 - Lightning Network Failures 00:44:22 - Open Source vs Closed Source Thought Experiment 00:47:00 - Check Phrase for Security 01:00:00 - Quantum Mechanics Wave Function Collapse 02:02:17 - Chris Doesn't Sound Like Typical Founder 02:02:50 - Quantus Features: Reversible Transactions 02:05:23 - Check Phrase Innovation 02:07:29 - HD Wallets for Lattice Cryptography, QIPs 02:08:46 - Pro-Social to Industry, Ethereum Ethos 02:09:00 - Ross Ulbricht on Blockchain Decentralization 02:10:00 - Bitcoin Maximalism Critique 02:10:34 - Satoshi on ZK Proofs Efficiency 02:11:01 - Grin Fair Launch, Kaspa DAG Innovation 02:12:16 - Zcash Innovations, ZK Snarks 02:13:25 - Libraries from Zcash, Fluffy Pony Dismissal 02:14:07 - Zcash Made ZK Practical 02:15:36 - Ethereum Net Positive Despite Mess 02:16:04 - Stablecoins as Freezable CBDCs 02:18:19 - Eye-Openers: Iran Banking Struggles, Argentina Tether Use 02:20:40 - COVID Psychology Lessons 02:22:27 - QE Money Printing Realization 02:23:33 - Legal vs Moral, COVID Non-Compliance 02:25:13 - Forgetting COVID Coercion 02:26:36 - Psychedelic Community Enforcement 02:27:47 - Nature's Cruelty 02:28:55 - Vaccine Divisions 02:30:02 - Each Vaccine Unique, Pavlov's Association 02:31:03 - Freedom License Concept 02:32:01 - Agency and Responsibility 02:34:05 - Frustrated Developers, Utility Missed 02:35:07 - User Adoption Challenges 02:36:01 - Funnel for Adoption, Co-Founder Complement 02:37:38 - Check Phrase for Wallets 02:39:04 - Plato on Politics 02:39:46 - Habeas Corpus History 02:40:40 - Optimism: Sunlight, World Complexity 02:41:36 - Manifesting Intentions 02:42:28 - Soundcloud Recommendation, Quantus Docs 02:43:02 - Music Like Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky 02:44:47 - Amir Taaki 7-Hour Record 02:45:43 - Zooko's 6-Hour Interview 02:46:47 - WeaponizedSchizophrenia.com Blog 02:47:00 - Closing Words

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0:00 Housekeeping 3:42 Community News 9:06 State of CircuitPython, Libraries & Blinka 20:05 Hug Reports 22:53 Status Updates 28:33 In the Weeds 28:43 Wrap-up Notes document is available here, with timecodes: https://github.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/blob/main/2025/2025-10-06.md Join here for the chat all week: http://adafru.it/discord The CircuitPython Weekly normally is held at 2pm US ET/11am us PT on Mondays. Check the #circuitpython-dev channel on Discord for notices of change in time and links to past meetings. Meeting times are also available in iCal format using the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical or view it in your browser: https://open-web-calendar.herokuapp.com/calendar.html?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical CircuitPython development is sponsored by Adafruit. Please support them by purchasing hardware from https://adafruit.com. Reminders: Podcast available on most services. Let us know if we're missing some. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

An explosion rocks the El Segundo Chevron refinery. Governor Newsom tells California universities not to sign President Trump's latest funding compact, or else. LA County libraries are ending their digital lending services. Plus more from Morning Edition. Support The L.A. Report by donating at LAist.com/join and by visiting https://laist.comVisit www.preppi.com/LAist to receive a FREE Preppi Emergency Kit (with any purchase over $100) and be prepared for the next wildfire, earthquake or emergency! Support the show: https://laist.com

On this episode, we talk to Mary Anna Evans about her book, The Dark Library.Want to discuss the book in person? Join us at Book Club: The Dark Library on Tuesday, Oct. 21, at 6:30 pm. The first 10 people to register may pick up a free copy of the book at the Customer Service Desk.Reading The Dark Library (or another book set in a library) is one of the prompts on the Summer-Fall Books & Bites Bingo reading challenge. Plus, if you read the book and 1) attend our Book Club discussion of it or 2) listen to the this episode of the Books & Bites podcast, you'll earn a free square of your choice!To download two recipes featured in The Dark Library, visit our website.

The Santa Cruz Public Libraries Youth Poet Laureate Program hosts free poetry sessions and workshops for teens. And, the White House puts pressure on the University of Southern California and eight other universities to sign a compact agreement in line with conservative ideals.

Gardens are more than places of beauty — they're living archives, preserving stories of the past. In this episode, we leaf through the September issue of The Plant Review to uncover what history can teach us about the gardens of today. RHS horticulturist Jack Aldridge recalls the rare purple-leaved Stachyurus—first spotted in a Devon garden in the 1970s, lost for decades, then rediscovered at a Cornish plant fair. Judith Taylor, a 91-year-old retired neurologist and garden historian, explores the legacy of Roy Genders, one of the most prolific gardening voices of the 20th century. And plant taxonomist and collector Jamie Compton joins James to untangle the thorny mysteries of the Banksian roses. Host: James Armitage and Gareth Richards Contributors: Jack Aldridge, Judith Taylor, Jamie Compton Links: The Plant Review

The libraries may belong to Faiz Ahmed Faiz but the streets belong to Habib Jalib.#78years78heroes

Steve chats with Becky Siegel Spratford, editor of Why I Love Horror: Essays on Horror Literature, about her deep involvement and interest in the horror genre, the inspiration and process behind her book, the diversity of voices in horror, how horror can foster empathy and address real-world anxieties, and the dangers of quicksand (it’s everywhere). … Continue reading 298: Why I Love Horror by Becky Siegel Spratford

U.S. officials cover up a “secret cemetery” of 230 Black boys, Trump to attend a gathering of top generals, Solange Knowles launches a free radical library, and the legacy of Assata Shakur takes center stage while Kamala Harris hits the book-tour circuit to mixed reviews. News230 dead Black boys. A 'secret cemetery. Officials knew, and didn't act.Assata Shakur, a fugitive Black militant sought by the U.S. since 1979, dies in CubaTrump to attend gathering of top generals, upending last-minute plansSolange Knowles is launching a free radical library.Follow @PodSaveThePeople on Instagram. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A PBS classic is making its way back to the airwaves (e-waves?) as a YouTube show for a new generation.Read more about the new show and its host here ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The Arch Stanton Quartet (ASQ) will present a series of upcoming free performances of music, readings, and reflections inspired by Paul Bowles' celebrated 1949 novel “The Sheltering Sky.” Performances will be held at libraries throughout Albany County, supported by a community arts grant from the Albany County Arts and Culture program, coordinated by Advance Albany County Alliance.On its surface, Bowles' novel follows an American couple, Port and Kit Moresby, and their friend Tunner on a journey of post-WWII North Africa. Enigmatic and philosophical, the richly layered novel ultimately explores the depths of the human psyche, and its descent into despair and alienation. Less known is Bowles' work as a composer of music.

In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month 2025, Latina Today Podcast and Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA have launched Rooted Leadership / Liderazgo Arraigado, an initiative dedicated to highlighting the narratives that inspire Latino-rooted leadership, accomplishments, legacies, and lived experiences from across the United States. Today, we have Abriljoanna Huerta, a Mexican American artist who works closely within the community through her position at the Fairfield Lane Library and her co-creation of the Fairfield Hispanic Heritage Festival and Expo. Abril, a ten-year employee of the Fairfield Lane Library, reflects on the library's initial limited Hispanic or Latino patrons. She attributes this to the absence of programming specifically tailored to their needs. However, Abril's initiatives, particularly those initiated by Odalis Jimenez's Story time in Espanol and her own programming endeavors, have substantially increased the library's Hispanic clientele. These patrons now not only utilize the library for essential services but also actively participate in programming. This is of utmost importance as Hispanic communities have consistently been an integral component of the community. Abril, a native of the community, acknowledges the substantial Hispanic population. She is delighted to observe the heightened engagement of these individuals in the library's complimentary resources. In response, the library has stocked Spanish and ESL books, meeting the demand for bilingual materials for children. Additionally, programming initiatives have fostered community cohesion, enabling parents to connect and establish friendships. Abril recognizes the positive impact of these improvements on the library. She expresses gratitude for the supportive environment provided by the library over the past years. The library has become an ideal platform for these initiatives due to its accessibility and affordability. Abril emphasized that libraries have transcended their traditional image as quiet, silent spaces for reading. Today, they offer a multifaceted environment that encourages both academic pursuits and social engagement. Libraries host programming events that foster connections and provide opportunities for individuals to share knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, food programs cater to diverse dietary requirements and promote cultural awareness through culinary exploration. Additionally, specialized programming is designed to support individuals with developmental disabilities, ensuring their inclusion and providing a platform for learning, interaction, and socialization. Finally, Abril expressed, “If you feel lacking in self-confidence and believe you have a diminished voice, I encourage you to try speaking up. You may be surprised by the positive impact it can have. Ultimately, your voice matters. I always advocate for everyone, even those who feel awkward about it. I share your feelings, but remember that your voice matters. By speaking up, you will grow, and so will the community.”

What's a good way to enable or disable code paths without redeploying the software? How can you use feature flags to toggle functionality for specific users of your application? Christopher Trudeau is back on the show this week, bringing another batch of PyCoder's Weekly articles and projects.

In 2013 the Scottish writer Val McDermid was cast away by Kirsty Young.Crime fiction is Val's chosen genre, and the millions of novels she sells examine and dissect the darkest recesses of human behaviour. Val spoke to Kirsty about her childhood love of libraries.You can listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds.

Send us a textThe Poet X was Elizabeth Acevedo's breakout novel, winning the Printz and Pura Belpre awards and becoming the target of many challenges and even a lawsuit attempting to keep it off of school shelves. We are standing firmly behind this book, even if it reduced Heather and Darlene to tears and maybe hasn't aged as well as it could have when it comes to Drake. We adore Xiomara's strength and resilience as she confronts family troubles, experiences a crisis of faith, weathers harassment at school, and navigates first love. We're discussing the ubiquity of harassment as a teen girl, the impacts of our parents' baggage, and whether Twin's going to have the kind of happy ending we are optimistic about for Xiomara. We're also taking a pretty strange quiz to find out what kind of poets we'd be, but really, we'd all probably just prefer to be really fab slam poets like Xiomara. These Books Made Me is a podcast about the literary heroines who shaped us and is a product of the Prince George's County Memorial Library System podcast network. Stay in touch with us via Twitter @PGCMLS with #TheseBooksMadeMe, on Instagram @TheseBooksMadeMe or by email at TheseBooksMadeMe@pgcmls.info. For recommended readalikes and deep dives into topics related to each episode, visit our blog at https://pgcmls.medium.com/.

Imagine a place where you can get answers to questions, help filling out a form, legal advice, a safe place for children to learn and grow, learn to play an instrument or hold a meeting. That is what libraries do. And their future is being threatened.  Listen to what one library does for one town. GoodGovernmentShow.com Thanks to our sponsors: The Royal Cousins: How Three Cousins Could Have Stopped A World War by Jim Ludlow Ourco Good News For Lefties (and America!) - Daily News for Democracy (Apple Podcasts | Spotify) How to Really Run a City Executive Producers: David Martin, David Snyder, Jim Ludlow Host/Reporter: David Martin Producers: David Martin, Jason Stershic Editor: Jason Stershic

In this episode, Lauren & Matt want indie authors to see their books on library shelves! Whether you dream of your hardcover on display in your local public library or hope to find your ebook in digital catalogs nationwide, we're here to help make it happen. Dive Deeper

FLATHEAD CO. LIBRARY LUNE AXELSEN TRT: 13:03

Mike and Jared discuss how the Trump Administration and its allies have escalated their efforts to censor and criminalize their opponents in wake of Charlie Kirk's assassination. They also talk about the ways leaders in business and media – even “anti-hate” nonprofits – have been spooked into self-censorship.Then, Jared shares an interview he did with Kelly Jensen. She's a former librarian and writer celebrated for her coverage of movements to ban books from libraries. Their conversation expands beyond books to cover the Right's attacks on public institutions overall and what normal people can do about it. As you'd expect from a former librarian, Kelly put together an incredibly thorough reading list for listeners to check out.​“Charlie Kirk opposed free speech but the media won't tell you that” – Madeline Peltzhttps://www.patreon.com/PostingThroughItLinks for Kelly:​Book Riot newsletter: “Weekly Literary Activism”​Kelly's newsletter, “Well Sourced”​Blueksy: @heykellyjensen.bsky.socialStories Kelly referenced:​Timeline of IMLS Cuts, Impact to Libraries, and More​The Lie of "Local Control," as Texas and Florida Signal What's Next in Book Censorship​Judge Strikes Down Much of Florida Book Ban Bill​What's in the 596 Books Banned by the Department of Defense in their Education Activity Schools?​Politics Can Now Dictate Public Library Collections in Three States, Thanks to Fifth Circuit Ruling​South Carolina Bans 10 More Books Statewide​Utah Bans 18th Book Statewide from Public Schools​The Anti-Book Ban Bills Passed in 2025 and What They Mean​Pride is Disappearing in Libraries​Why Would a County Evict Its Public Library Over $1?​Wyoming Proposes Extreme Anti-Library Bill​Public Libraries On the Chopping Block, 2025 Edition​As local governments struggle with budgets, they discover libraries, museums as new revenue sources​Menomonee Falls diverts $300k from library to police budgetTransition Music: “Portions for Foxes” by Rilo Kiley

Steve chats with Dr. Steve Albrecht, author of The Library Leader’s Guide to Human Resources: Keeping It Real, Legal, and Ethical, about the importance of library leaders learning about human resources, handling performance reviews, onboarding, and why civility is the key to a healthy and effective workplace culture. Read the transcript! The human resources (HR) … Continue reading 297: The Library Leader’s Guide to Human Resources by Steve Albrecht

Notes document is available here, with timecodes: https://github.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/blob/main/2025/2025-09-22.md Join here for the chat all week: http://adafru.it/discord The CircuitPython Weekly normally is held at 2pm US ET/11am us PT on Mondays. Check the #circuitpython-dev channel on Discord for notices of change in time and links to past meetings. Meeting times are also available in iCal format using the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical or view it in your browser: https://open-web-calendar.herokuapp.com/calendar.html?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical 0:00 Housekeeping 2:30 Community News 7:00 State of CircuitPython, Libraries & Blinka 15:40 Hug Reports 18:23 Status Updates 23:11 In the Weeds 23:11 Wrap-up CircuitPython development is sponsored by Adafruit. Please support them by purchasing hardware from https://adafruit.com. Reminders: Podcast available on most services. Let us know if we're missing some. ----------------------------------------- Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show has been pulled off the air following his comments about Charlie Kirk's killer. On this week's On the Media, how threats to free speech have escalated in the wake of the assassination. Plus, a school librarian in Louisiana shares how she's been targeted by book-banning activists.[02:25]  Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Lily Mason, professor of political science at Johns Hopkins and the co-author of the book Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, to discuss what data we have on how Americans think about political violence. [21:07] Micah speaks with Ryan Broderick, author of the Garbage Day newsletter, to examine the evidence around Charlie Kirk's alleged killer, and what radicalization looks like in a digital age.  [35:45] Host Brooke Gladstone talks with Amanda Jones, school librarian in Livingston Parish, Louisiana and former School Librarian of the Year, to discuss being a target of book-banning activists. Plus, why protecting libraries is as crucial as ever. Further reading / listening:Radical American Partisanship: Mapping Violent Hostility, Its Causes, and the Consequences for Democracy, by Lily Mason“Charlie Kirk was killed by a meme,” by Ryan BroderickThat Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, by Amanda Jones On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

From literacy programs to telehealth pods, Maryland's libraries are evolving far beyond bookshelves. Join this week's Conduit Street host, Sarah Sample, as she sits down with Maryland State Librarian Morgan Lehr Miller to explore how local libraries serve as community hubs, connect residents to vital resources, and adapt to funding challenges at the state and federal levels. Hear how Maryland libraries are strengthening communities, expanding access, and shaping the future of education and equity statewide. Show Notes:The Highest Calling: Conversations on the American PresidencyFollow us on Socials!MACo on TwitterMACo on Facebook

Thank you to the folks at Sustain (https://sustainoss.org/) for providing the hosting account for CHAOSSCast! CHAOSScast – Episode 119 In this episode of CHAOSScast, we have a special episode from our friends at Sustain. Host Richard Littauer from Sustain is joined by guests Ben Nickolls and Andrew Nesbitt to discuss the ecosyste.ms project. They explore how ecosyste.ms collects and analyzes metadata from various open-source projects to create a comprehensive database that can help improve funding allocation. The discussion covers the importance of funding the most critical open-source projects, the existing gaps in funding, and the partnership between ecosyste.ms and Open Source Collective to create funding algorithms that support entire ecosystems. They also talk about the challenges of maintaining data, reaching out to project maintainers, and the broader implications for the open-source community. Hit the download button now! [00:03:16] Andrew and Ben explain ecosyste.ms, what it does, and how it compares to Libraries.io. [00:06:17] Ecosyste.ms tracks metadata, not the packages themselves, and enriches data via dependency graphs, committers, issues, SBOMs, and more. [00:08:12] Andrew talks about finding 1,890 Git hosts and how many critical projects live outside GitHub. [00:09:55] There's a conversation on metadata uses and SBOM parsing. [00:14:07] Richard inquires about the ecosystem.ms funds on their website which Andrew explains it's a collaboration between Open Collective and ecosyste.ms. that algorithmically distributes funds to the most used, not most popular packages. [00:17:03] Ben shares how this is different from previous projects and brings up a past project, “Back Your Stack” and explains how ecosyste.ms is doing two things differently. [00:20:17] Ben explains how it supports payouts to other platforms and encourages maintainers to adopt funding YAML files for automation. Andrew touches on efficient outreach, payout management, and API usage (GraphQL). [00:26:54] Ben elaborates on how companies can fund ecosyste.ms (like Django) instead of curating their own lists and being inspired by Sentry's work with the Open Source Pledge. [00:30:50] Andrew speaks about scaling and developer engagement and emphasizes their focus is on high-impact sustainability. [00:34:06] Richard asks, “Why does it matter?” Ben explains that most current funding goes to popular, not most used projects and ecosyste.ms aims to fix the gap with data backed funding, and he suggests use of open standards like 360Giving and Open Contracting Data. [00:37:04] Andrew shares his thoughts on funding the right projects by improving 1% of OSS, you uplift the quality of millions of dependent projects with healthier infrastructure, faster security updates, and more resilient software. [00:39:53] Find out where you can follow ecosyste.ms and the blog on the web. Quotes: [00:12:36] “I call them interesting forks. If a fork is referenced by a package, it'll get indexed.” [00:23:25] We've built a service that now moves like $25 million a year between OSS maintainers on OSC.” [00:34:41] “We don't have enough information to make collective decisions about which projects, communities, maintainers, should receive more funding.” [00:35:41] “The NSF POSE Program has distributed hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to open source communities alone.” [00:37:05] “If you have ten, twenty thousand really critical open source projects, that actually isn't unachievable to make those projects sustainable.” Spotlight: [00:40:53] Ben's spotlight is Jellyfin. [00:41:38]** **Andrew's spotlight is zizmor. [00:43:39] Richard's spotlight is The LaTeX Project. Panelist: Richard Littauer Guests: Ben Nickolls Andrew Nesbitt Links: CHAOSS (https://chaoss.community/) CHAOSS Project Twitter (https://twitter.com/chaossproj?lang=en) CHAOSScast Podcast (https://podcast.chaoss.community/) podcast@chaoss.community (mailto:podcast@chaoss.community) Alice Sowerby LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alice-sowerby-ba692a13/?originalSubdomain=uk) SustainOSS (https://sustainoss.org/) podcast@sustainoss.org (mailto:podcast@sustainoss.org) richard@sustainoss.org (mailto:richard@sustainoss.org) SustainOSS Discourse (https://discourse.sustainoss.org/) SustainOSS Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/tags/sustainoss) SustainOSS Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/sustainoss.bsky.social) SustainOSS LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainoss/) Open Collective-SustainOSS (Contribute) (https://opencollective.com/sustainoss) Richard Littauer Socials (https://www.burntfen.com/2023-05-30/socials) Ben Nickolls LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamuk/) Andrew Nesbitt Website (https://nesbitt.io/) Andrew Nesbitt Mastodon (https://mastodon.social/@andrewnez) Octobox (https://github.com/octobox) ecosyste.ms (https://ecosyste.ms/) ecosyste.ms Blog (https://blog.ecosyste.ms/) Open Source Collective (https://oscollective.org/) Open Source Collective Updates (https://opencollective.com/opensource/updates) Open Source Collective Contributions (https://opencollective.com/opensource) Open Source Collective Contributors (https://opencollective.com/open-source) Open Collective (https://opencollective.com/) 24 Pull Requests (https://24pullrequests.com/) Libraries.io (https://libraries.io/) The penumbra of open source (EPJ Data Science) (https://epjdatascience.springeropen.com/articles/10.1140/epjds/s13688-022-00345-7) FOSDEM '25- Open source funding: you're doing it wrong (Andrew and Ben) (https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/event/fosdem-2025-5576-open-source-funding-you-re-doing-it-wrong/) Vue.js (https://vuejs.org/) thanks.dev (https://thanks.dev/home) StackAid (https://www.stackaid.us/) Back Your Stack (https://backyourstack.com/) NSF POSE (https://www.nsf.gov/funding/initiatives/pathways-enable-open-source-ecosystems) Django (https://www.djangoproject.com/) GitHub Sponsors (https://github.com/sponsors) Sustain Podcast-Episode 80: Emma Irwin and the Foss Fund Program (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/80) Sustain Podcast- 3 Episodes featuring Chad Whitacre (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/guests/chad-whitacre) Sustain Podcast- Episode 218: Karthik Ram & James Howison on Research Software Visibility Infrastructure Priorities (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/218) Sustain Podcast-Episode 247: Chad Whitacre on the Open Source Pledge (https://podcast.sustainoss.org/247) Invest in Open Infrastructure (https://investinopen.org/) 360Giving (https://www.360giving.org/) Open Contracting Data Standard (https://standard.open-contracting.org/latest/en/) Jellyfin (https://opencollective.com/jellyfin) zizmor (https://github.com/zizmorcore/zizmor) The LaTeX Project (https://www.latex-project.org/) Special Guests: Andrew Nesbitt, Benjamin Nickolls, and Richard Littauer.

In this episode, Diosa and Mala reflect on their personal connections to libraries as third spaces, how they used library resources as children (even now as podcasters), and how these experiences tie into larger conversations around achievement gaps. They also discuss the importance of libraries as community spaces and why we need libraries now more than ever! Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/locatora_productionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join host Nick Parker as he sits down with Seth Moses, branch manager at Mid-Continent Public Library's Colburn Road branch, to explore how modern libraries have transformed into vibrant community hubs that go far beyond books. Discover the surprising services available like passport acceptance and notary services, learn about Book Speed Dating events for finding your next great read, and hear how libraries now host gaming nights, D&D sessions, and even serve as co-working spaces with coffee shops. Seth shares insights on everything from the growth of digital collections through the Libby app to the Square One Small Business Center helping local entrepreneurs, plus why half of local households already have library cards and what you're missing if you don't. Perfect timing for National Read a New Book Month and National Sign Up for Your Library Card Month — you'll be amazed at what these modern community centers offer beyond the traditional quiet study spaces of the past.

Francois Daost is a W3C staff member and co-chair of the Web Developer Experience Community Group. We discuss the W3C's role and what it's like to go through the browser standardization process. Related links W3C TC39 Internet Engineering Task Force Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) Horizontal Groups Alliance for Open Media What is MPEG-DASH? | HLS vs. DASH Information about W3C and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) Widevine PlayReady Media Source API Encrypted Media Extensions API requestVideoFrameCallback() Business Benefits of the W3C Patent Policy web.dev Baseline Portable Network Graphics Specification Internet Explorer 6 CSS Vendor Prefix WebRTC Transcript You can help correct transcripts on GitHub. Intro [00:00:00] Jeremy: today I'm talking to Francois Daoust. He's a staff member at the W3C. And we're gonna talk about the W3C and the recommendation process and discuss, Francois's experience with, with how these features end up in our browsers. [00:00:16] Jeremy: So, Francois, welcome [00:00:18] Francois: Thank you Jeremy and uh, many thanks for the invitation. I'm really thrilled to be part of this podcast. What's the W3C? [00:00:26] Jeremy: I think many of our listeners will have heard about the W3C, but they may not actually know what it is. So could you start by explaining what it is? [00:00:37] Francois: Sure. So W3C stands for the Worldwide Web Consortium. It's a standardization organization. I guess that's how people should think about W3C. it was created in 1994. I, by, uh, Tim Berners Lee, who was the inventor of the web. Tim Berners Lee was the, director of W3C for a long, long time. [00:01:00] Francois: He retired not long ago, a few years back. and W3C is, has, uh, a number of, uh. Properties, let's say first the goal is to produce royalty free standards, and that's very important. Uh, we want to make sure that, uh, the standard that get produced can be used and implemented without having to pay, fees to anyone. [00:01:23] Francois: We do web standards. I didn't mention it, but it's from the name. Standards that you find in your web browsers. But not only that, there are a number of other, uh, standards that got developed at W3C including, for example, XML. Data related standards. W3C as an organization is a consortium. [00:01:43] Francois: The, the C stands for consortium. Legally speaking, it's a, it's a 501c3 meaning in, so it's a US based, uh, legal entity not for profit. And the, the little three is important because it means it's public interest. That means we are a consortium, that means we have members, but at the same time, the goal, the mission is to the public. [00:02:05] Francois: So we're not only just, you know, doing what our members want. We are also making sure that what our members want is aligned with what end users in the end, need. and the W3C has a small team. And so I'm part of this, uh, of this team worldwide. Uh, 45 to 55 people, depending on how you count, mostly technical people and some, uh, admin, uh, as well, overseeing the, uh, the work, that we do, uh, at the W3C. Funding through membership fees [00:02:39] Jeremy: So you mentioned there's 45 to 55 people. How is this funded? Is this from governments or commercial companies? [00:02:47] Francois: The main source comes from membership fees. So the W3C has a, so members, uh, roughly 350 members, uh, at the W3C. And, in order to become a member, an organization needs to pay, uh, an annual membership fee. That's pretty common among, uh, standardization, uh, organizations. [00:03:07] Francois: And, we only have, uh, I guess three levels of membership, fees. Uh, well, you may find, uh, additional small levels, but three main ones. the goal is to make sure that, A big player will, not a big player or large company, will not have more rights than, uh, anything, anyone else. So we try to make sure that a member has the, you know, all members have equal, right? [00:03:30] Francois: if it's not perfect, but, uh, uh, that's how things are, are are set. So that's the main source of income for the W3C. And then we try to diversify just a little bit to get, uh, for example, we go to governments. We may go to governments in the u EU. We may, uh, take some, uh, grant for EU research projects that allow us, you know, to, study, explore topics. [00:03:54] Francois: Uh, in the US there, there used to be some, uh, some funding from coming from the government as well. So that, that's, uh, also, uh, a source. But the main one is, uh, membership fees. Relations to TC39, IETF, and WHATWG [00:04:04] Jeremy: And you mentioned that a lot of the W3C'S work is related to web standards. There's other groups like TC 39, which works on the JavaScript spec and the IETF, which I believe worked, with your group on WebRTC, I wonder if you could explain W3C'S connection to other groups like that. [00:04:28] Francois: sure. we try to collaborate with a, a number of, uh, standard other standardization organizations. So in general, everything goes well because you, you have, a clear separation of concerns. So you mentioned TC 39. Indeed. they are the ones who standardize, JavaScript. Proper name of JavaScript is the EcmaScript. [00:04:47] Francois: So that's tc. TC 39 is the technical committee at ecma. and so we have indeed interactions with them because their work directly impact the JavaScript that you're going to find in your, uh, run in your, in your web browser. And we develop a number of JavaScript APIs, uh, actually in W3C. [00:05:05] Francois: So we need to make sure that, the way we develop, uh, you know, these APIs align with the, the language itself. with IETF, the, the, the boundary is, uh, uh, is clear as well. It's a protocol and protocol for our network protocols for our, the IETF and application level. For W3C, that's usually how the distinction is made. [00:05:28] Francois: The boundaries are always a bit fuzzy, but that's how things work. And usually, uh, things work pretty well. Uh, there's also the WHATWG, uh, and the WHATWG is more the, the, the history was more complicated because, uh, t of a fork of the, uh, HTML specification, uh, at the time when it was developed by W3C, a long time ago. [00:05:49] Francois: And there was been some, uh, Well disagreement on the way things should have been done, and the WHATWG took over got created, took, took this the HTML spec and did it a different way. Went in another, another direction, and that other, other direction actually ended up being the direction. [00:06:06] Francois: So, that's a success, uh, from there. And so, W3C no longer works, no longer owns the, uh, HTML spec and the WHATWG has, uh, taken, uh, taken up a number of, uh, of different, core specifications for the web. Uh, doing a lot of work on the, uh, on interopoerability and making sure that, uh, the algorithm specified by the spec, were correct, which, which was something that historically we haven't been very good at at W3C. [00:06:35] Francois: And the way they've been working as a, has a lot of influence on the way we develop now, uh, the APIs, uh, from a W3C perspective. [00:06:44] Jeremy: So, just to make sure I understand correctly, you have TC 39, which is focused on the JavaScript or ECMAScript language itself, and you have APIs that are going to use JavaScript and interact with JavaScript. So you need to coordinate there. The, the have the specification for HTML. then the IATF, they are, I'm not sure if the right term would be, they, they would be one level lower perhaps, than the W3C. [00:07:17] Francois: That's how you, you can formulate it. Yes. The, the one layer, one layer layer in the ISO network in the ISO stack at the network level. How WebRTC spans the IETF and W3C [00:07:30] Jeremy: And so in that case, one place I've heard it mentioned is that webRTC, to, to use it, there is an IETF specification, and then perhaps there's a W3C recommendation and [00:07:43] Francois: Yes. so when we created the webRTC working group, that was in 2011, I think, it was created with a dual head. There was one RTC web, group that got created at IETF and a webRTC group that got created at W3C. And that was done on purpose. Of course, the goal was not to compete on the, on the solution, but actually to, have the two sides of the, uh, solution, be developed in parallel, the API, uh, the application front and the network front. [00:08:15] Francois: And there was a, and there's still a lot of overlap in, uh, participation between both groups, and that's what keep things successful. In the end. It's not, uh, you know, process or organization to organization, uh, relationships, coordination at the organization level. It's really the fact that you have participants that are essentially the same, on both sides of the equation. [00:08:36] Francois: That helps, uh, move things forward. Now, webRTC is, uh, is more complex than just one group at IETF. I mean, web, webRTC is a very complex set of, uh, of technologies, stack of technologies. So when you, when you. Pull a little, uh, protocol from IETFs. Suddenly you have the whole IETF that comes with you with it. [00:08:56] Francois: So you, it's the, you have the feeling that webRTC needs all of the, uh, internet protocols that got, uh, created to work Recommendations [00:09:04] Jeremy: And I think probably a lot of web developers, they may hear words like specification or standard, but I believe the, the official term, at least at the W3C, is this recommendation. And so I wonder if you can explain what that means. [00:09:24] Francois: Well. It means it means standard in the end. and that came from industry. That comes from a time where. As many standardization organizations. W3C was created not to be a standardization organization. It was felt that standard was not the right term because we were not a standardization organization. [00:09:45] Francois: So recommend IETF has the same thing. They call it RFC, request for comment, which, you know, stands for nothing in, and yet it's a standard. So W3C was created with the same kind of, uh thing. We needed some other terminology and we call that recommendation. But in the end, that's standard. It's really, uh, how you should see it. [00:10:08] Francois: And one thing I didn't mention when I, uh, introduced the W3C is there are two types of standards in the end, two main categories. There are, the de jure standards and defacto standards, two families. The de jure standards are the ones that are imposed by some kind of regulation. so it's really usually a standard you see imposed by governments, for example. [00:10:29] Francois: So when you look at your electric plug at home, there's some regulation there that says, this plug needs to have these properties. And that's a standard that gets imposed. It's a de jure standard. and then there are defacto standards which are really, uh, specifications that are out there and people agree to use it to implement it. [00:10:49] Francois: And by virtue of being used and implemented and used by everyone, they become standards. the, W3C really is in the, uh, second part. It's a defacto standard. IETF is the same thing. some of our standards are used in, uh, are referenced in regulations now, but, just a, a minority of them, most of them are defacto standards. [00:11:10] Francois: and that's important because that's in the end, it doesn't matter what the specific specification says, even though it's a bit confusing. What matters is that the, what the specifications says matches what implementations actually implement, and that these implementations are used, and are used interoperably across, you know, across browsers, for example, or across, uh, implementations, across users, across usages. [00:11:36] Francois: So, uh, standardization is a, is a lengthy process. The recommendation is the final stage in that, lengthy process. More and more we don't really reach recommendation anymore. If you look at, uh, at groups, uh, because we have another path, let's say we kind of, uh, we can stop at candidate recommendation, which is in theoretically a step before that. [00:12:02] Francois: But then you, you can stay there and, uh, stay there forever and publish new candidate recommendations. Um, uh, later on. What matters again is that, you know, you get this, virtuous feedback loop, uh, with implementers, and usage. [00:12:18] Jeremy: So if the candidate recommendation ends up being implemented by all the browsers, what's ends up being the distinction between a candidate and one that's a normal recommendation. [00:12:31] Francois: So, today it's mostly a process thing. Some groups actually decide to go to rec Some groups decide to stay at candidate rec and there's no formal difference between the, the two. we've made sure we've adopted, adjusted the process so that the important bits that, applied at the recommendation level now apply at the candidate rec level. Royalty free patent access [00:13:00] Francois: And by important things, I mean the patent commitments typically, uh, the patent policy fully applies at the candidate recommendation level so that you get your, protection, the royalty free patent protection that we, we were aiming at. [00:13:14] Francois: Some people do not care, you know, but most of the world still works with, uh, with patents, uh, for good, uh, or bad reasons. But, uh, uh, that's how things work. So we need to make, we're trying to make sure that we, we secure the right set of, um, of patent commitments from the right set of stakeholders. [00:13:35] Jeremy: Oh, so when someone implements a W3C recommendation or a candidate recommendation, the patent holders related to that recommendation, they basically agree to allow royalty-free use of that patent. [00:13:54] Francois: They do the one that were involved in the working group, of course, I mean, we can't say anything about the companies out there that may have patents and uh, are not part of this standardization process. So there's always, It's a remaining risk. but part of the goal when we create a working group is to make sure that, people understand the scope. [00:14:17] Francois: Lawyers look into it, and the, the legal teams that exist at the all the large companies, basically gave a green light saying, yeah, we, we we're pretty confident that we, we know where the patterns are on this particular, this particular area. And we are fine also, uh, letting go of the, the patterns we own ourselves. Implementations are built in parallel with standardization [00:14:39] Jeremy: And I think you had mentioned. What ends up being the most important is that the browser creators implement these recommendations. So it sounds like maybe the distinction between candidate recommendation and recommendation almost doesn't matter as long as you get the end result you want. [00:15:03] Francois: So, I mean, people will have different opinions, uh, in the, in standardization circles. And I mentioned also W3C is working on other kind of, uh, standards. So, uh, in some other areas, the nuance may be more important when we, but when, when you look at specification, that's target, web browsers. we've switched from a model where, specs were developed first and then implemented to a model where specs and implementing implementations are being, worked in parallel. [00:15:35] Francois: This actually relates to the evolution I was mentioning with the WHATWG taking over the HTML and, uh, focusing on the interoperability issues because the starting point was, yeah, we have an HTML 4.01 spec, uh, but it's not interoperable because it, it's not specified, are number of areas that are gray areas, you can implement them differently. [00:15:59] Francois: And so there are interoperable issues. Back to candidate rec actually, the, the, the, the stage was created, if I remember correctly. uh, if I'm, if I'm not wrong, the stage was created following the, uh, IE problem. In the CSS working group, IE6, uh, shipped with some, version of a CSS that was in the, as specified, you know, the spec was saying, you know, do that for the CSS box model. [00:16:27] Francois: And the IE6 was following that. And then the group decided to change, the box model and suddenly IE6 was no longer compliant. And that created a, a huge mess on the, in the history of, uh, of the web in a way. And so the, we, the, the, the, the candidate recommendation sta uh, stage was introduced following that to try to catch this kind of problems. [00:16:52] Francois: But nowadays, again, we, we switch to another model where it's more live. and so we, you, you'll find a number of specs that are not even at candidate rec level. They are at the, what we call a working draft, and they, they are being implemented, and if all goes well, the standardization process follows the implementation, and then you end up in a situation where you have your candidate rec when the, uh, spec ships. [00:17:18] Francois: a recent example would be a web GPU, for example. It, uh, it has shipped in, uh, in, in Chrome shortly before it transition to a candidate rec. But the, the, the spec was already stable. and now it's shipping uh, in, uh, in different browsers, uh, uh, safari, uh, and uh, and uh, and uh, Firefox. And so that's, uh, and that's a good example of something that follows, uh, things, uh, along pretty well. But then you have other specs such as, uh, in the media space, uh, request video frame back, uh, frame, call back, uh, requestVideoFrameCallback() is a short API that allows you to get, you know, a call back whenever the, the browser renders a video frame, essentially. [00:18:01] Francois: And that spec is implemented across browsers. But from a W3C specific, perspective, it does not even exist. It's not on the standardization track. It's still being incubated in what we call a community group, which is, you know, some something that, uh, usually exists before. we move to the, the standardization process. [00:18:21] Francois: So there, there are examples of things where some things fell through the cracks. All the standardization process, uh, is either too early or too late and things that are in spec are not exactly what what got implemented or implementations are too early in the process. We we're doing a better job, at, Not falling into a trap where someone ships, uh, you know, an implementation and then suddenly everything is frozen. You can no longer, change it because it's too late, it shipped. we've tried, different, path there. Um, mentioned CSS, the, there was this kind of vendor prefixed, uh, properties that used to be, uh, the way, uh, browsers were deploying new features without, you know, taking the final name. [00:19:06] Francois: We are trying also to move away from it because same thing. Then in the end, you end up with, uh, applications that have, uh, to duplicate all the properties, the CSS properties in the style sheets with, uh, the vendor prefixes and nuances in the, in what it does in, in the end. [00:19:23] Jeremy: Yeah, I, I think, is that in CSS where you'll see --mozilla or things like that? Why requestVideoFrameCallback doesn't have a formal specification [00:19:30] Jeremy: The example of the request video frame callback. I, I wonder if you have an opinion or, or, or know why that ended up the way it did, where the browsers all implemented it, even though it was still in the incubation stage. [00:19:49] Francois: On this one, I don't have a particular, uh, insights on whether there was a, you know, a strong reason to implement it,without doing the standardization work. [00:19:58] Francois: I mean, there are, it's not, uh, an IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) issue. It's not, uh, something that, uh, I don't think the, the, the spec triggers, uh, you know, problems that, uh, would be controversial or whatever. [00:20:10] Francois: Uh, so it's just a matter of, uh, there was no one's priority, and in the end, you end up with a, everyone's happy. it's, it has shipped. And so now doing the spec work is a bit,why spend time on something that's already shipped and so on, but the, it may still come back at some point with try to, you know, improve the situation. [00:20:26] Jeremy: Yeah, that's, that's interesting. It's a little counterintuitive because it sounds like you have the, the working group and it, it sounds like perhaps the companies or organizations involved, they maybe agreed on how it should work, and maybe that agreement almost made it so that they felt like they didn't need to move forward with the specification because they came to consensus even before going through that. [00:20:53] Francois: In this particular case, it's probably because it's really, again, it's a small, spec. It's just one function call, you know? I mean, they will definitely want a working group, uh, for larger specifications. by the way, actually now I know re request video frame call back. It's because the, the, the final goal now that it's, uh, shipped, is to merge it into, uh, HTML, uh, the HTML spec. [00:21:17] Francois: So there's a, there's an ongoing issue on the, the WHATWG side to integrate request video frame callback. And it's taking some time but see, it's, it's being, it, it caught up and, uh, someone is doing the, the work to, to do it. I had forgotten about this one. Um, [00:21:33] Jeremy: Tension from specification review (horizontal review) [00:21:33] Francois: so with larger specifications, organizations will want this kind of IPR regime they will want commit commitments from, uh, others, on the scope, on the process, on everything. So they will want, uh, a larger, a, a more formal setting, because that's part of how you ensure that things, uh, will get done properly. [00:21:53] Francois: I didn't mention it, but, uh, something we're really, uh, Pushy on, uh, W3C I mentioned we have principles, we have priorities, and we have, uh, specific several, uh, properties at W3C. And one of them is that we we're very strong on horizontal reviews of our specs. We really want them to be reviewed from an accessibility perspective, from an internationalization perspective, from a privacy and security, uh, perspective, and, and, and a technical architecture perspective as well. [00:22:23] Francois: And that's, these reviews are part of the formal process. So you, all specs need to undergo these reviews. And from time to time, that creates tension. Uh, from time to time. It just works, you know. Goes without problem. a recurring issue is that, privacy and security are hard. I mean, it's not an easy problem, something that can be, uh, solved, uh, easily. [00:22:48] Francois: Uh, so there's a, an ongoing tension and no easy way to resolve it, but there's an ongoing tension between, specifying powerful APIs and preserving privacy without meaning, not exposing too much information to applications in the media space. You can think of the media capabilities, API. So the media space is a complicated space. [00:23:13] Francois: Space because of codecs. codecs are typically not relative free. and so browsers decide which codecs they're going to support, which audio and video codecs they, they're going to support and doing that, that creates additional fragmentation, not in the sense that they're not interoperable, but in the sense that applications need to choose which connect they're going to ship to stream to the end user. [00:23:39] Francois: And, uh, it's all the more complicated that some codecs are going to be hardware supported. So you will have a hardware decoder in your, in your, in your laptop or smartphone. And so that's going to be efficient to decode some, uh, some stream, whereas some code are not, are going to be software, based, supported. [00:23:56] Francois: Uh, and that may consume a lot of CPU and a lot of power and a lot of energy in the end. So you, you want to avoid that if you can, uh, select another thing. Even more complex than, codecs have different profiles, uh, lower end profiles higher end profiles with different capabilities, different features, uh, depending on whether you're going to use this or that color space, for example, this or that resolution, whatever. [00:24:22] Francois: And so you want to surface that to web applications because otherwise, they can't. Select, they can't choose, the right codec and the right, stream that they're going to send to the, uh, client devices. And so they're not going to provide an efficient user experience first, and even a sustainable one in terms of energy because they, they're going to waste energy if they don't send the right stream. [00:24:45] Francois: So you want to surface that to application. That's what the media, media capabilities, APIs, provides. Privacy concerns [00:24:51] Francois: Uh, but at the same time, if you expose that information, you end up with ways to fingerprint the end user's device. And that in turn is often used to track users across, across sites, which is exactly what we don't want to have, uh, for privacy reasons, for obvious privacy reasons. [00:25:09] Francois: So you have to balance that and find ways to, uh, you know, to expose. Capabilities without, without necessarily exposing them too much. Uh, [00:25:21] Jeremy: Can you give an example of how some of those discussions went? Like within the working group? Who are the companies or who are the organizations that are arguing for We shouldn't have this capability because of the privacy concerns, or [00:25:40] Francois: In a way all of the companies, have a vision of, uh, of privacy. I mean, the, you will have a hard time finding, you know, members saying, I don't care about privacy. I just want the feature. Uh, they all have privacy in mind, but they may have a different approach to privacy. [00:25:57] Francois: so if you take, uh, let's say, uh, apple and Google would be the, the, I guess the perfect examples in that, uh, in that space, uh, Google will have a, an approach that is more open-ended thing. The, the user agents has this, uh, should check what the, the, uh, given site is doing. And then if it goes beyond, you know, some kind of threshold, they're going to say, well, okay, well, we'll stop exposing data to that, to that, uh, to that site. [00:26:25] Francois: So that application. So monitor and react in a way. apple has a more, uh, you know, has a stricter view on, uh, on privacy, let's say. And they will say, no, we, the, the, the feature must not exist in the first place. Or, but that's, I mean, I guess, um, it's not always that extreme. And, uh, from time to time it's the opposite. [00:26:45] Francois: You will have, uh, you know, apple arguing in one way, uh, which is more open-ended than the, uh, than, uh, than Google, for example. And they are not the only ones. So in working groups, uh, you will find the, usually the implementers. Uh, so when we talk about APIs that get implemented in browsers, you want the core browsers to be involved. [00:27:04] Francois: Uh, otherwise it's usually not a good sign for, uh, the success of the, uh, of the technology. So in practice, that means Apple, uh, Microsoft, Mozilla which one did I forget? [00:27:15] Jeremy: Google. [00:27:16] Francois: I forgot Google. Of course. Thank you. that's, uh, that the, the core, uh, list of participants you want to have in any, uh, group that develops web standards targeted at web browsers. Who participates in working groups and how much power do they have? [00:27:28] Francois: And then on top of that, you want, organizations and people who are directly going to use it, either because they, well the content providers. So in media, for example, if you look at the media working group, you'll see, uh, so browser vendors, the ones I mentioned, uh, content providers such as the BBC or Netflix. [00:27:46] Francois: Chip set vendors would, uh, would be there as well. Intel, uh, Nvidia again, because you know, there's a hardware decoding in there and encoding. So media is, touches on, on, uh, on hardware, uh, device manufacturer in general. You may, uh, I think, uh, I think Sony is involved in the, in the media working group, for example. [00:28:04] Francois: and these companies are usually less active in the spec development. It depends on the groups, but they're usually less active because the ones developing the specs are usually the browser again, because as I mentioned, we develop the specs in parallel to browsers implementing it. So they have the. [00:28:21] Francois: The feedback on how to formulate the, the algorithms. and so that's this collection of people who are going to discuss first within themselves. W3C pushes for consensual dis decisions. So we hardly take any votes in the working groups, but from time to time, that's not enough. [00:28:41] Francois: And there may be disagreements, but let's say there's agreement in the group, uh, when the spec matches. horizontal review groups will look at the specs. So these are groups I mentioned, accessibility one, uh, privacy, internationalization. And these groups, usually the participants are, it depends. [00:29:00] Francois: It can be anything. It can be, uh, the same companies. It can be, but usually different people from the same companies. But it the, maybe organizations with a that come from very, a very different angle. And that's a good thing because that means the, you know, you enlarge the, the perspectives on your, uh, on the, on the technology. [00:29:19] Francois: and you, that's when you have a discussion between groups, that takes place. And from time to time it goes well from time to time. Again, it can trigger issues that are hard to solve. and the W3C has a, an escalation process in case, uh, you know, in case things degenerate. Uh, starting with, uh, the notion of formal objection. [00:29:42] Jeremy: It makes sense that you would have the, the browser. Vendors and you have all the different companies that would use that browser. All the different horizontal groups like you mentioned, the internationalization, accessibility. I would imagine that you were talking about consensus and there are certain groups or certain companies that maybe have more say or more sway. [00:30:09] Jeremy: For example, if you're a browser, manufacturer, your Google. I'm kind of curious how that works out within the working group. [00:30:15] Francois: Yes, it's, I guess I would be lying if I were saying that, uh, you know, all companies are strictly equal in a, in a, in a group. they are from a process perspective, I mentioned, you know, different membership fees with were design, special specific ethos so that no one could say, I'm, I'm putting in a lot of money, so you, you need to re you need to respect me, uh, and you need to follow what I, what I want to, what I want to do. [00:30:41] Francois: at the same time, if you take a company like, uh, like Google for example, they send, hundreds of engineers to do standardization work. That's absolutely fantastic because that means work progresses and it's, uh, extremely smart people. So that's, uh, that's really a pleasure to work with, uh, with these, uh, people. [00:30:58] Francois: But you need to take a step back and say, well, the problem is. Defacto that gives them more power just by virtue of, uh, injecting more resources into it. So having always someone who can respond to an issue, having always someone, uh, editing a spec defacto that give them more, uh, um, more say on the, on the directions that, get forward. [00:31:22] Francois: And on top of that, of course, they have the, uh, I guess not surprisingly, the, the browser that is, uh, used the most, currently, on the market so there's a little bit of a, the, the, we, we, we, we try very hard to make sure that, uh, things are balanced. it's not a perfect world. [00:31:38] Francois: the the role of the team. I mean, I didn't talk about the role of the team, but part of it is to make sure that. Again, all perspectives are represented and that there's not, such a, such big imbalance that, uh, that something is wrong and that we really need to look into it. so making sure that anyone, if they have something to say, make making sure that they are heard by the rest of the group and not dismissed. [00:32:05] Francois: That usually goes well. There's no problem with that. And again, the escalation process I mentioned here doesn't make any, uh, it doesn't make any difference between, uh, a small player, a large player, a big player, and we have small companies raising formal objections against some of our aspects that happens, uh, all large ones. [00:32:24] Francois: But, uh, that happens too. There's no magical solution, I guess you can tell it by the way. I, uh, I don't know how to formulate the, the process more. It's a human process, and that's very important that it remains a human process as well. [00:32:41] Jeremy: I suppose the role of, of staff and someone in your position, for example, is to try and ensure that these different groups are, are heard and it isn't just one group taking control of it. [00:32:55] Francois: That's part of the role, again, is to make sure that, uh, the, the process is followed. So the, I, I mean, I don't want to give the impression that the process controls everything in the groups. I mean, the, the, the groups are bound by the process, but the process is there to catch problems when they arise. [00:33:14] Francois: most of the time there are no problems. It's just, you know, again, participants talking to each other, talking with the rest of the community. Most of the work happens in public nowadays, in any case. So the groups work in public essentially through asynchronous, uh, discussions on GitHub repositories. [00:33:32] Francois: There are contributions from, you know, non group participants and everything goes well. And so the process doesn't kick in. You just never say, eh, no, you didn't respect the process there. You, you closed the issue. You shouldn't have a, it's pretty rare that you have to do that. Uh, things just proceed naturally because they all, everyone understands where they are, why, what they're doing, and why they're doing it. [00:33:55] Francois: we still have a role, I guess in the, in the sense that from time to time that doesn't work and you have to intervene and you have to make sure that,the, uh, exception is caught and, uh, and processed, uh, in the right way. Discussions are public on github [00:34:10] Jeremy: And you said this process is asynchronous in public, so it sounds like someone, I, I mean, is this in GitHub issues or how, how would somebody go and, and see what the results of [00:34:22] Francois: Yes, there, there are basically a gazillion of, uh, GitHub repositories under the, uh, W3C, uh, organization on GitHub. Most groups are using GitHub. I mean, there's no, it's not mandatory. We don't manage any, uh, any tooling. But the factors that most, we, we've been transitioning to GitHub, uh, for a number of years already. [00:34:45] Francois: Uh, so that's where the work most of the work happens, through issues, through pool requests. Uh, that's where. people can go and raise issues against specifications. Uh, we usually, uh, also some from time to time get feedback from developers and countering, uh, a bug in a particular implementations, which we try to gently redirect to, uh, the actual bug trackers because we're not responsible for the respons implementations of the specs unless the spec is not clear. [00:35:14] Francois: We are responsible for the spec itself, making sure that the spec is clear and that implementers well, understand how they should implement something. Why the W3C doesn't specify a video or audio codec [00:35:25] Jeremy: I can see how people would make that mistake because they, they see it's the feature, but that's not the responsibility of the, the W3C to implement any of the specifications. Something you had mentioned there's the issue of intellectual property rights and how when you have a recommendation, you require the different organizations involved to make their patents available to use freely. [00:35:54] Jeremy: I wonder why there was never any kind of, recommendation for audio or video codecs in browsers since you have certain ones that are considered royalty free. But, I believe that's never been specified. [00:36:11] Francois: At W3C you mean? Yes. we, we've tried, I mean, it's not for lack of trying. Um, uh, we've had a number of discussions with, uh, various stakeholders saying, Hey, we, we really need, an audio or video code for our, for the web. the, uh, png PNG is an example of a, um, an image format which got standardized at W3C and it got standardized at W3C similar reasons. There had to be a royalty free image format for the web, and there was none at the time. of course, nowadays, uh, jpeg, uh, and gif or gif, whatever you call it, are well, you know, no problem with them. But, uh, um, that at the time P PNG was really, uh, meant to address this issue and it worked for PNG for audio and video. [00:37:01] Francois: We haven't managed to secure, commitments by stakeholders. So willingness to do it, so it's not, it's not lack of willingness. We would've loved to, uh, get, uh, a royalty free, uh, audio codec, a royalty free video codec again, audio and video code are extremely complicated because of this. [00:37:20] Francois: not only because of patterns, but also because of the entire business ecosystem that exists around them for good reasons. You, in order for a, a codec to be supported, deployed, effective, it really needs, uh, it needs to mature a lot. It needs to, be, uh, added to at a hardware level, to a number of devices, capturing devices, but also, um, uh, uh, of course players. [00:37:46] Francois: And that takes a hell of a lot of time and that's why you also enter a number of business considerations with business contracts between entities. so I'm personally, on a personal level, I'm, I'm pleased to see, for example, the Alliance for Open Media working on, uh, uh, AV1, uh, which is. At least they, uh, they wanted to be royalty free and they've been adopting actually the W3C patent policy to do this work. [00:38:11] Francois: So, uh, we're pleased to see that, you know, they've been adopting the same process and same thing. AV1 is not yet at the same, support stage, as other, codecs, in the world Yeah, I mean in devices. There's an open question as what, what are we going to do, uh, in the future uh, with that, it's, it's, it's doubtful that, uh, the W3C will be able to work on a, on a royalty free audio, codec or royalty free video codec itself because, uh, probably it's too late now in any case. [00:38:43] Francois: but It's one of these angles in the, in the web platform where we wish we had the, uh, the technology available for, for free. And, uh, it's not exactly, uh, how things work in practice.I mean, the way codecs are developed remains really patent oriented. [00:38:57] Francois: and you will find more codecs being developed. and that's where geopolitics can even enter the, the, uh, the play. Because, uh, if you go to China, you will find new codecs emerging, uh, that get developed within China also, because, the other codecs come mostly from the US so it's a bit of a problem and so on. [00:39:17] Francois: I'm not going to enter details and uh, I would probably say stupid things in any case. Uh, but that, uh, so we continue to see, uh, emerging codecs that are not royalty free, and it's probably going to remain the case for a number of years. unfortunately, unfortunately, from a W3C perspective and my perspective of course. [00:39:38] Jeremy: There's always these new, formats coming out and the, rate at which they get supported in the browser, even on a per browser basis is, is very, there can be a long time between, for example, WebP being released and a browser supporting it. So, seems like maybe we're gonna be in that situation for a while where the codecs will come out and maybe the browsers will support them. Maybe they won't, but the, the timeline is very uncertain. Digital Rights Management (DRM) and Media Source Extensions [00:40:08] Jeremy: Something you had, mentioned, maybe this was in your, email to me earlier, but you had mentioned that some of these specifications, there's, there's business considerations like with, digital rights management and, media source extensions. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about maybe what media source extensions is and encrypted media extensions and, and what the, the considerations or challenges are there. [00:40:33] Francois: I'm going to go very, very quickly over the history of a, video and audio support on the web. Initially it was supported through plugins. you are maybe too young to, remember that. But, uh, we had extensions, added to, uh, a realplayer. [00:40:46] Francois: This kind of things flash as well, uh, supporting, uh, uh, videos, in web pages, but it was not provided by the web browsers themselves. Uh, then HTML5 changed the, the situation. Adding these new tags, audio and video, but that these tags on this, by default, support, uh, you give them a resources, a resource, like an image as it's an audio or a video file. [00:41:10] Francois: They're going to download this, uh, uh, video file or audio file, and they're going to play it. That works well. But as soon as you want to do any kind of real streaming, files are too large and to stream, to, to get, you know, to get just a single fetch on, uh, on them. So you really want to stream them chunk by chunk, and you want to adapt the resolution at which you send the stream based on real time conditions of the user's network. [00:41:37] Francois: If there's plenty of bandwidth you want to send the user, the highest possible resolution. If there's a, some kind of hiccup temporary in the, in the network, you really want to lower the resolution, and that's called adaptive streaming. And to get adaptive streaming on the web, well, there are a number of protocols that exist. [00:41:54] Francois: Same thing. Some many of them are proprietary and actually they remain proprietary, uh, to some extent. and, uh, some of them are over http and they are the ones that are primarily used in, uh, in web contexts. So DASH comes to mind, DASH for Dynamic Adaptive streaming over http. HLS is another one. Uh, initially developed by Apple, I believe, and it's, uh, HTTP live streaming probably. Exactly. And, so there are different protocols that you can, uh, you can use. Uh, so the goal was not to standardize these protocols because again, there were some proprietary aspects to them. And, uh, same thing as with codecs. [00:42:32] Francois: There was no, well, at least people wanted to have the, uh, flexibility to tweak parameters, adaptive streaming parameters the way they wanted for different scenarios. You may want to tweak the parameters differently. So they, they needed to be more flexibility on top of protocols not being truly available for use directly and for implementation directly in browsers. [00:42:53] Francois: It was also about providing applications with, uh, the flexibility they would need to tweak parameters. So media source extensions comes into play for exactly that. Media source extensions is really about you. The application fetches chunks of its audio and video stream the way it wants, and with the parameters it wants, and it adjusts whatever it wants. [00:43:15] Francois: And then it feeds that into the, uh, video or audio tag. and the browser takes care of the rest. So it's really about, doing, you know, the adaptive streaming. let applications do it, and then, uh, let the user agent, uh, the browser takes, take care of the rendering itself. That's media source extensions. [00:43:32] Francois: Initially it was pushed by, uh, Netflix. They were not the only ones of course, but there, there was a, a ma, a major, uh, proponent of this, uh, technical solution, because they wanted, uh, they, uh, they were, expanding all over the world, uh, with, uh, plenty of native, applications on all sorts of, uh, of, uh, devices. [00:43:52] Francois: And they wanted to have a way to stream content on the web as well. both for both, I guess, to expand to, um, a new, um, ecosystem, the web, uh, providing new opportunities, let's say. But at the same time also to have a fallback, in case they, because for native support on different platforms, they sometimes had to enter business agreements with, uh, you know, the hardware manufacturers, the whatever, the, uh, service provider or whatever. [00:44:19] Francois: and so that was a way to have a full back. That kind of work is more open, in case, uh, things take some time and so on. So, and they probably had other reasons. I mean, I'm not, I can't speak on behalf of Netflix, uh, on others, but they were not the only ones of course, uh, supporting this, uh, me, uh, media source extension, uh, uh, specification. [00:44:42] Francois: and that went kind of, well, I think it was creating 2011. I mean, the, the work started in 2011 and the recommendation was published in 2016, which is not too bad from a standardization perspective. It means only five years, you know, it's a very short amount of time. Encrypted Media Extensions [00:44:59] Francois: At the same time, and in parallel and complement to the media source extension specifications, uh, there was work on the encrypted media extensions, and here it was pushed by the same proponent in a way because they wanted to get premium content on the web. [00:45:14] Francois: And by premium content, you think of movies and, uh. These kind of beasts. And the problem with the, I guess the basic issue with, uh, digital asset such as movies, is that they cost hundreds of millions to produce. I mean, some cost less of course. And yet it's super easy to copy them if you have a access to the digital, uh, file. [00:45:35] Francois: You just copy and, uh, and that's it. Piracy uh, is super easy, uh, to achieve. It's illegal of course, but it's super easy to do. And so that's where the different legislations come into play with digital right management. Then the fact is most countries allow system that, can encrypt content and, uh, through what we call DRM systems. [00:45:59] Francois: so content providers, uh, the, the ones that have movies, so the studios here more, more and more, and Netflix is one, uh, one of the studios nowadays. Um, but not only, not only them all major studios will, uh, would, uh, push for, wanted to have something that would allow them to stream encrypted content, encrypted audio and video, uh, mostly video, to, uh, to web applications so that, uh, you. [00:46:25] Francois: Provide the movies, otherwise, they, they are just basically saying, and sorry, but, uh, this premium content will never make it to the web because there's no way we're gonna, uh, send it in clear, to, uh, to the end user. So Encrypting media extensions is, uh, is an API that allows to interface with, uh, what's called the content decryption module, CDM, uh, which itself interacts with, uh, the DR DRM systems that, uh, the browser may, may or may not support. [00:46:52] Francois: And so it provides a way for an application to receive encrypted content, pass it over get the, the, the right keys, the right license keys from a whatever system actually. Pass that logic over to the, and to the user agent, which passes, passes it over to, uh, the CDM system, which is kind of black box in, uh, that does its magic to get the right, uh, decryption key and then the, and to decrypt the content that can be rendered. [00:47:21] Francois: The encrypted media extensions triggered a, a hell of a lot of, uh, controversy. because it's DRM and DRM systems, uh, many people, uh, uh, things should be banned, uh, especially on the web because the, the premise of the web is that the, the user has trusts, a user agent. The, the web browser is called the user agent in all our, all our specifications. [00:47:44] Francois: And that's, uh, that's the trust relationship. And then they interact with a, a content provider. And so whatever they do with the content is their, I guess, actually their problem. And DRM introduces a third party, which is, uh, there's, uh, the, the end user no longer has the control on the content. [00:48:03] Francois: It has to rely on something else that, Restricts what it can achieve with the content. So it's, uh, it's not only a trust relationship with its, uh, user agents, it's also with, uh, with something else, which is the content provider, uh, in the end, the one that has the, uh, the license where provides the license. [00:48:22] Francois: And so that's, that triggers, uh, a hell of a lot of, uh, of discussions in the W3C degenerated, uh, uh, into, uh, formal objections being raised against the specification. and that escalated to, to the, I mean, at all leverage it. It's, it's the, the story in, uh, W3C that, um, really, uh, divided the membership into, opposed camps in a way, if you, that's was not only year, it was not really 50 50 in the sense that not just a huge fights, but the, that's, that triggered a hell of a lot of discussions and a lot of, a lot of, uh, of formal objections at the time. [00:49:00] Francois: Uh, we were still, From a governance perspective, interestingly, um, the W3C used to be a dictatorship. It's not how you should formulate it, of course, and I hope it's not going to be public, this podcast. Uh, but the, uh, it was a benevolent dictatorship. You could see it this way in the sense that, uh, the whole process escalated to one single person was, Tim Burners Lee, who had the final say, on when, when none of the other layers, had managed to catch and to resolve, a conflict. [00:49:32] Francois: Uh, that has hardly ever happened in, uh, the history of the W3C, but that happened to the two for EME, for encrypted media extensions. It had to go to the, uh, director level who, uh, after due consideration, uh, decided to, allow the EME to proceed. and that's why we have a, an EME, uh, uh, standard right now, but still re it remains something on the side. [00:49:56] Francois: EME we're still, uh, it's still in the scope of the media working group, for example. but the scope, if you look at the charter of the working group, we try to scope the, the, the, the, the updates we can make to the specification, uh, to make sure that we don't reopen, reopen, uh, a can of worms, because, well, it's really a, a topic that triggers friction for good and bad reasons again. [00:50:20] Jeremy: And when you talk about the media source extensions, that is the ability to write custom code to stream video in whatever way you want. You mentioned, the MPEG-DASH and http live streaming. So in that case, would that be the developer gets to write that code in JavaScript that's executed by the browser? [00:50:43] Francois: Yep, that's, uh, that would be it. and then typically, I guess the approach nowadays is more and more to develop low level APIs into W3C or web in, in general, I guess. And to let, uh. Libraries emerge that are going to make lives of a, a developer, uh, easier. So for MPEG DASH, we have the DASH.js, which does a fantastic job at, uh, at implementing the complexity of, uh, of adaptive streaming. [00:51:13] Francois: And you just, you just hook it into your, your workflow. And that's, uh, and that's it. Encrypted Media Extensions are closed source [00:51:20] Jeremy: And with the encrypted media extensions I'm trying to picture how those work and how they work differently. [00:51:28] Francois: Well, it's because the, the, the, the key architecture is that the, the stream that you, the stream that you may assemble with a media source extensions, for example. 'cause typically they, they're used in collaboration. When you hook the, hook it into the video tag, you also. Call EME and actually the stream goes to EME. [00:51:49] Francois: And when it goes to EME, actually the user agent hands the encrypted stream. You're still encrypted at this time. Uh, encrypted, uh, stream goes to the CDM content decryption module, and that's a black box well, it has some black, black, uh, black box logic. So it's not, uh, even if you look at the chromium source code, for example, you won't see the implementation of the CDM because it's a, it's a black box, so it's not part of the browser se it's a sand, it's sandboxed, it's execution sandbox. [00:52:17] Francois: That's, uh, the, the EME is kind of unique in, in this way where the, the CDM is not allowed to make network requests, for example, again, for privacy reasons. so anyway, the, the CDM box has the logic to decrypt the content and it hands it over, and then it depends, it depends on the level of protection you. [00:52:37] Francois: You need or that the system supports. It can be against software based protection, in which case actually, a highly motivated, uh, uh, uh, attacker could, uh, actually get access to the decoded stream, or it can be more hardware protected, in which case actually the, it goes to the, uh, to your final screen. [00:52:58] Francois: But it goes, it, it goes through the hardware in a, in a mode that the US supports in a mode that even the user agent doesn't have access to it. So it doesn't, it can't even see the pixels that, uh, gets rendered on the screen. There are, uh, several other, uh, APIs that you could use, for example, to take a screenshot of your, of your application and so on. [00:53:16] Francois: And you cannot apply them to, uh, such content because they're just gonna return a black box. again, because the user agent itself does not see the, uh, the pixels, which is exactly what you want with encrypted content. [00:53:29] Jeremy: And the, the content decryption module, it's, if I understand correctly, it's something that's shipped with the browsers, but you were saying is if you were to look at the public source code of Chromium or of Firefox, you would not see that implementation. Content Decryption Module (Widevine, PlayReady) [00:53:47] Francois: True. I mean, the, the, um, the typical examples are, uh, uh, widevine, so wide Vine. So interestingly, uh, speaking in theory, these, uh, systems could have been provided by anyone in practice. They've been provided by the browser vendors themselves. So Google has Wide Vine. Uh, Microsoft has something called PlayReady. Apple uh, the name, uh, escapes my, uh, sorry. They don't have it on top of my mind. So they, that's basically what they support. So they, they also own that code, but in a way they don't have to. And Firefox actually, uh, they, uh, don't, don't remember which one, they support among these three. but, uh, they, they don't own that code typically. [00:54:29] Francois: They provide a wrapper around, around it. Yeah, that's, that's exactly the, the crux of the, uh, issue that, people have with, uh, with DRMs, right? It's, uh, the fact that, uh, suddenly you have a bit of code running there that is, uh, that, okay, you can send box, but, uh, you cannot inspect and you don't have, uh, access to its, uh, source code. [00:54:52] Jeremy: That's interesting. So the, almost the entire browser is open source, but if you wanna watch a Netflix movie for example, then you, you need to, run this, this CDM, in addition to just the browser code. I, I think, you know, we've kind of covered a lot. Documenting what's available in browsers for developers [00:55:13] Jeremy: I wonder if there's any other examples or anything else you thought would be important to mention in, in the context of the W3C. [00:55:23] Francois: There, there's one thing which, uh, relates to, uh, activities I'm doing also at W3C. Um. Here, we've been talking a lot about, uh, standards and, implementations in browsers, but there's also, uh, adoption of these browser, of these technology standards by developers in general and making sure that developers are aware of what exists, making sure that they understand what exists and one of the, key pain points that people, uh. [00:55:54] Francois: Uh, keep raising on, uh, the web platform is first. Well, the, the, the web platform is unique in the sense that there are different implementations. I mean, if you, [00:56:03] Francois: Uh, anyway, there are different, uh, context, different run times where there, there's just one provided by the company that owns the, uh, the, the, the system. The web platform is implemented by different, uh, organizations. and so you end up the system where no one, there's what's in the specs is not necessarily supported. [00:56:22] Francois: And of course, MDN tries, uh, to document what's what's supported, uh, thoroughly. But for MDN to work, there's a hell of a lot of needs for data that, tracks browser support. And this, uh, this data is typically in a project called the Browser Compat Data, BCD owned by, uh, MDN as well. But, the Open Web Docs collective is a, uh, is, uh, the one, maintaining that, uh, that data under the hoods. [00:56:50] Francois: anyway, all of that to say that, uh, to make sure that, we track things beyond work on technical specifications, because if you look at it from W3C perspective, life ends when the spec reaches standards, uh, you know, candidate rec or rec, you could just say, oh, done with my work. but that's not how things work. [00:57:10] Francois: There's always, you need the feedback loop and, in order to make sure that developers get the information and can provide the, the feedback that standardization can benefit from and browser vendors can benefit from. We've been working on a project called web Features with browser vendors mainly, and, uh, a few of the folks and MDN and can I use and different, uh, different people, to catalog, the web in terms of features that speak to developers and from that catalog. [00:57:40] Francois: So it's a set of, uh, it's a set of, uh, feature IDs with a feature name and feature description that say, you know, this is how developers would, uh, understand, uh, instead of going too fine grained in terms of, uh, there's this one function call that does this because that's where you, the, the kind of support data you may get from browser data and MDN initially, and having some kind of a coarser grained, uh, structure that says these are the, features that make sense. [00:58:09] Francois: They talk to developers. That's what developers talk about, and that's the info. So the, we need to have data on these particular features because that's how developers are going approach the specs. Uh. and from that we've derived the notion of baseline badges that you have, uh, are now, uh, shown on MDN on can I use and integrated in, uh, IDE tool, IDE Tools such as visual, visual studio, and, uh, uh, libraries, uh, linked, some linters have started to, um, to integrate that data. [00:58:41] Francois: Uh, so, the way it works is, uh, we've been mapping these coarser grained features to BCDs finer grained support data, and from there we've been deriving a kind of a, a batch that says, yeah, this, this feature is implemented well, has limited availability because it's only implemented in one or two browsers, for example. [00:59:07] Francois: It's, newly available because. It was implemented. It's been, it's implemented across the main browser vendor, um, across the main browsers that people use. But it's recent, and widely available, which we try to, uh, well, there's been lots of discussion in the, in the group to, uh, come up with a definition which essentially ends up being 30 months after, a feature become, became newly available. [00:59:34] Francois: And that's when, that's the time it takes for the, for the versions of the, the different versions of the browser to propagate. Uh, because you, it's not because there's a new version of a, of a browser that, uh, people just, Ima immediately, uh, get it. So it takes a while, to propagate, uh, across the, uh, the, the user, uh, user base. [00:59:56] Francois: And so the, the goal is to have a, a, a signal that. Developers can rely on saying, okay, well it's widely available so I can really use that feature. And of course, if that doesn't work, then we need to know about it. And so we are also working with, uh, people doing so developer surveys such as state of, uh, CSS, state of HTML, state of JavaScript. [01:00:15] Francois: That's I guess, the main ones. But also we are also running, uh, MDN short surveys with the MDN people to gather feedback on. On the, on these same features, and to feed the loop and to, uh, to complete the loop. and these data is also used by, internally, by browser vendors to inform, prioritization process, their prioritization process, and typically as part of the interop project that they're also running, uh, on the site [01:00:43] Francois: So a, a number of different, I've mentioned, uh, I guess a number of different projects, uh, coming along together. But that's the goal is to create links, across all of these, um, uh, ongoing projects with a view to integrating developers, more, and gathering feedback as early as possible and inform decision. [01:01:04] Francois: We take at the standardization level that can affect the, the lives of the developers and making sure that it's, uh, it affects them in a, in a positive way. [01:01:14] Jeremy: just trying to understand, 'cause you had mentioned that there's the web features and the baseline, and I was, I was trying to picture where developers would actually, um, see these things. And it sounds like from what you're saying is W3C comes up with what stage some of these features are at, and then developers would end up seeing it on MDN or, or some other site. [01:01:37] Francois: So, uh, I'm working on it, but that doesn't mean it's a W3C thing. It's a, it's a, again, it's a, we have different types of group. It's a community group, so it's the Web DX Community group at W3C, which means it's a community owned thing. so that's why I'm mentioning a working with a representative from, and people from MDN people, from open Web docs. [01:02:05] Francois: so that's the first point. The second point is, so it's, indeed this data is now being integrated. If you, and you look, uh, you'll, you'll see it in on top of the MDN pages on most of them. If you look at, uh, any kind of feature, you'll see a, a few logos, uh, a baseline banner. and then can I use, it's the same thing. [01:02:24] Francois: You're going to get a baseline, banner. It's more on, can I use, and it's meant to capture the fact that the feature is widely available or if you may need to pay attention to it. Of course, it's a simplification, and the goal is not to the way it's, the way the messaging is done to developers is meant to capture the fact that, they may want to look, uh, into more than just this, baseline status, because. [01:02:54] Francois: If you take a look at web platform tests, for example, and if you were to base your assessment of whether a feature is supported based on test results, you'll end up saying the web platform has no supported technology because there are absolutely no API that, uh, where browsers pass 100% of the, of the, of the test suite. [01:03:18] Francois: There may be a few of them, I don't know. But, there's a simplification in the, in the process when a feature is, uh, set to be baseline, there may be more things to look at nevertheless, but it's meant to provide a signal that, uh, still developers can rely on their day-to-day, uh, lives. [01:03:36] Francois: if they use the, the feature, let's say, as a reasonably intended and not, uh, using to advance the logic. [01:03:48] Jeremy: I see. Yeah. I'm looking at one of the pages on MDN right now, and I can see at the top there's the, the baseline and it, it mentions that this feature works across many browsers and devices, and then they say how long it's been available. And so that's a way that people at a glance can, can tell, which APIs they can use. [01:04:08] Francois: it also started, uh, out of a desire to summarize this, uh, browser compatibility table that you see at the end of the page of the, the bottom of the page in on MDN. but there are where developers were saying, well, it's, it's fine, but it's, it goes too much into detail. So we don't know in the end, can we, can we use that feature or can we, can we not use that feature? [01:04:28] Francois: So it's meant as a informed summary of, uh, of, of that it relies on the same data again. and more importantly, we're beyond MDN, we're working with tools providers to integrate that as well. So I mentioned the, uh, visual Studio is one of them. So recently they shipped a new version where when you use a feature, you can, you can have some contextual, uh. [01:04:53] Francois: A menu that tells you, yeah, uh, that's fine. You, this CSS property, you can, you can use it, it's widely available or be aware this one is limited Availability only, availability only available in Firefox or, or Chrome or Safari work kit, whatever. [01:05:08] Jeremy: I think that's a good place to wrap it up, if people want to learn more about the work you're doing or learn more about sort of this whole recommendations process, where, where should they head? [01:05:23] Francois: Generally speaking, we're extremely open to, uh, people contributing to the W3C. and where should they go if they, it depends on what they want. So I guess the, the in usually where, how things start for someone getting involved in the W3C is that they have some

It's episode 788! In which Geeky Panda brings inspiration, along with chat about travel and a number of anecdotes about our university days - we also have trivia question on pandas and libraries; all this and some rather silly questions to finish things off! In our next show - #789 Toppie Smellie is in a rather needy mood and requires some attention from Mister Yeti! Please do join us! Email us at shyyeti@yahoo.co.uk if you have any comments - you can even send me a sound-file and I'll include it. The music is by Shy Yeti, Muffleyontour, Udio and Luca. Sound effects by Paul C Freesound Community from Pixabay and Soundbible. Logo by Owen O and Shy Yeti. All other content of this episode is Copyright Paul Chandler, 2025. Episode 788 was recorded on the 11th July 2025. 

First broadcast September 12 2025. Playlist here. "We are going to get nostalgic today."

Mike, Nick, and Zach chat about comics they've been reading, the importance of libraries, and MIke's realization that he's already read a comic...Timestamps:00:00:00 - Start/Last Week in Comics00:00:54 - Superman: Lost00:09:19 - Shadow of the Golden Crane #1-400:21:55 - Kill Them All00:29:18 - Discord Picks00:29:47 - Beautiful Darkness00:34:54 - Aeon 6 / Werewolf Jones & Sons00:37:43 - The Seasons #800:46:27 - WrapMusic provided by Infinity Shred. Find them on Bandcamp.IRCB Avatars by @ICELEVELIRCB Logo by Kyle RoseProducer: Mike RapinProoflistener: Danny MartinezEditor: Zander Riggs Support us on Patreon to get access to our Patreon-only series: IRCB Movie Club, Saga of Saga, Giant Days of Our Lives, A Better Batmobile, and more! patreon.com/ircbpodcastEmail: ircbpodcast@gmail.comTwitter: @ircbpodcastInstagram: @ircbpodcastDiscord: discordapp.com/invite/E8JUB9sReddit: ireadcomicbooks.reddit.comIRCB GoodreadsMerch: ircbpodcast.com/shop

This episode comes to us from our friends at Book Riot! In this segment, you'll hear Book Riot's Erica Ezeifedi speak with Rodney Freeman, a librarian and producer of the forthcoming documentary, Are You a Librarian? The Untold Story of Black Librarians. This is part of their Reading and Resistance series, which looks at the relationship between reading and the pursuit of freedom in America. Subscribe to Book Riot: The Podcast wherever you listen!

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Welcome to your one minute masterclass! To get the latest episodes first, subscribe to the DiscoverDance mailing list: https://discoverdance.us18.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9d0eb3d3536d1544ab2f7979c&id=221ecffc19&fbclid=IwAR3nrjIxWTLLEb65jNpntPxm6EMlNqhuZNanQgSK51ZfXjsiFY2z4BAEGMo   Enjoy~ Andrea  

⸻ Podcast: Redefining Society and Technologyhttps://redefiningsocietyandtechnologypodcast.com _____ Newsletter: Musing On Society And Technology https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/musing-on-society-technology-7079849705156870144/_____ Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/nFn6CcXKMM0_____ My Website: https://www.marcociappelli.com_____________________________This Episode's SponsorsBlackCloak provides concierge cybersecurity protection to corporate executives and high-net-worth individuals to protect against hacking, reputational loss, financial loss, and the impacts of a corporate data breach.BlackCloak:  https://itspm.ag/itspbcweb_____________________________A Musing On Society & Technology Newsletter Written By Marco Ciappelli | Read by TAPE3We Have All the Information, So Why Do We Know Less?Introducing: Reflections from Our Hybrid Analog-Digital SocietyFor years on the Redefining Society and Technology Podcast, I've explored a central premise: we live in a hybrid analog-digital society where the line between physical and virtual has dissolved into something more complex, more nuanced, and infinitely more human than we often acknowledge.But with the explosion of generative AI, this hybrid reality isn't just a philosophical concept anymore—it's our lived experience. Every day, we navigate between analog intuition and digital efficiency, between human wisdom and machine intelligence, between the messy beauty of physical presence and the seductive convenience of virtual interaction.This newsletter series will explore the tensions, paradoxes, and possibilities of being fundamentally analog beings in an increasingly digital world. We're not just using technology; we're being reshaped by it while simultaneously reshaping it with our deeply human, analog sensibilities.Analog Minds in a Digital World: Part 1We Have All the Information, So Why Do We Know Less?I was thinking about my old set of encyclopedias the other day. You know, those heavy volumes that sat on shelves like silent guardians of knowledge, waiting for someone curious enough to crack them open. When I needed to write a school report on, say, the Roman Empire, I'd pull out Volume R and start reading.But here's the thing: I never just read about Rome.I'd get distracted by Romania, stumble across something about Renaissance art, flip backward to find out more about the Reformation. By the time I found what I was originally looking for, I'd accidentally learned about three other civilizations, two art movements, and the invention of the printing press. The journey was messy, inefficient, and absolutely essential.And if I was in a library... well then just imagine the possibilities.Today, I ask Google, Claude or ChatGPT about the Roman Empire, and in thirty seconds, I have a perfectly formatted, comprehensive overview that would have taken me hours to compile from those dusty volumes. It's accurate, complete, and utterly forgettable.We have access to more information than any generation in human history. Every fact, every study, every perspective is literally at our fingertips. Yet somehow, we seem to know less. Not in terms of data acquisition—we're phenomenal at that—but in terms of deep understanding, contextual knowledge, and what I call "accidental wisdom."The difference isn't just about efficiency. It's about the fundamental way our minds process and retain information. When you physically search through an encyclopedia, your brain creates what cognitive scientists call "elaborative encoding"—you remember not just the facts, but the context of finding them, the related information you encountered, the physical act of discovery itself.When AI gives us instant answers, we bypass this entire cognitive process. We get the conclusion without the journey, the destination without the map. It's like being teleported to Rome without seeing the countryside along the way—technically efficient, but something essential is lost in translation.This isn't nostalgia talking. I use AI daily for research, writing, and problem-solving. It's an incredible tool. But I've noticed something troubling: my tolerance for not knowing things immediately has disappeared. The patience required for deep learning—the kind that happens when you sit with confusion, follow tangents, make unexpected connections—is atrophying like an unused muscle.We're creating a generation of analog minds trying to function in a digital reality that prioritizes speed over depth, answers over questions, conclusions over curiosity. And in doing so, we might be outsourcing the very process that makes us wise.Ancient Greeks had a concept called "metis"—practical wisdom that comes from experience, pattern recognition, and intuitive understanding developed through continuous engagement with complexity. In Ancient Greek, metis (Μῆτις) means wisdom, skill, or craft, and it also describes a form of wily, cunning intelligence. It can refer to the pre-Olympian goddess of wisdom and counsel, who was the first wife of Zeus and mother of Athena, or it can refer to the concept of cunning intelligence itself, a trait exemplified by figures like Odysseus. It's the kind of knowledge you can't Google because it lives in the space between facts, in the connections your mind makes when it has time to wander, wonder, and discover unexpected relationships.AI gives us information. But metis? That still requires an analog mind willing to get lost, make mistakes, and discover meaning in the margins.The question isn't whether we should abandon these digital tools—they're too powerful and useful to ignore. The question is whether we can maintain our capacity for the kind of slow, meandering, gloriously inefficient thinking that actually builds wisdom.Maybe the answer isn't choosing between analog and digital, but learning to be consciously hybrid. Use AI for what it does best—rapid information processing—while protecting the slower, more human processes that transform information into understanding. We need to preserve the analog pathways of learning alongside digital efficiency.Because in a world where we can instantly access any fact, the most valuable skill might be knowing which questions to ask—and having the patience to sit with uncertainty until real insight emerges from the continuous, contextual, beautifully inefficient process of analog thinking.Next transmission: "The Paradox of Infinite Choice: Why Having Everything Available Means Choosing Nothing"Let's keep exploring what it means to be human in this Hybrid Analog Digital Society.End of transmission.Marco______________________________________

0:00 Housekeeping 03:35 Community News 08:04 State of CircuitPython, Libraries & Blinka 17:48 Hug Reports 20:23 Status Updates 25:48 In the Weeds 26:00 Wrap-up Notes document is available here, with timecodes: https://github.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/blob/main/2025/2025-09-08.md Join here for the chat all week: http://adafru.it/discord The CircuitPython Weekly normally is held at 2pm US ET/11am us PT on Mondays. Check the #circuitpython-dev channel on Discord for notices of change in time and links to past meetings. Meeting times are also available in iCal format using the following link: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical or view it in your browser: https://open-web-calendar.herokuapp.com/calendar.html?url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adafruit/adafruit-circuitpython-weekly-meeting/master/meeting.ical CircuitPython development is sponsored by Adafruit. Please support them by purchasing hardware from https://adafruit.com. Reminders: Podcast available on most services. Let us know if we're missing some. Visit the Adafruit shop online - http://www.adafruit.com ----------------------------------------- LIVE CHAT IS HERE! http://adafru.it/discord Subscribe to Adafruit on YouTube: http://adafru.it/subscribe New tutorials on the Adafruit Learning System: http://learn.adafruit.com/ -----------------------------------------

Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Executive Director for the Mid-Hudson Library System joined the podcast to discuss the Sustainable Libraries Initiative. She shared how the initiative was created, how libraries can earn the certification, and the importance of adapting sustainability language. Host: Lauren Palmer

What would your dream author business vacation look like? Would you do nothing or keep working during the fun? Today's top story is The Library of Kindle-andria. Question of the week is What would your dream author business vacation look like? Would you do nothing or keep working during the fun? Join the Sell More Books Show Afterparty group on Facebook and answer the Question of the Week in the comment section. Be sure to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.

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Get our premium episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Do you often go to the library? What do you usually do in the library? Did you go to the library when you were a kid? Do kids in your country often go to the library? Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/s12e20 Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Canada and the U.S., public libraries have become a target in the culture wars. It's an urgent conversation to have, no matter where one sits on the political spectrum. Libraries exist to give everyone access to a wide variety of content, even when books may offend others. Yet librarians are increasingly having to persuade skeptics that all ideas belong on their shelves. In our series, IDEAS for a Better Canada (in partnership with the Samara Centre for Democracy) we ask: What do we have if the freedom to read isn't ours anymore? *This series originally aired the week of April 21st, 2025.

Libraries, both public and little free, are growing and changing with their communities! Read more here and here ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

D&P Highlight: What's the deal with all of the active violence hoaxes at campus libraries? full 309 Tue, 26 Aug 2025 18:58:00 +0000 os1AUlT2i4hCevnTF2bIG3VkwICSojM9 news The Dana & Parks Podcast news D&P Highlight: What's the deal with all of the active violence hoaxes at campus libraries? You wanted it... Now here it is! Listen to each hour of the Dana & Parks Show whenever and wherever you want! © 2025 Audacy, Inc. News False ht

Libraries get rid of books all the time. There are so many new books coming in every day and only a finite amount of library space. The practice of freeing up library space is called weeding. When the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library was damaged by an earthquake 1989, the argument over which books need to be weeded, and how they were chosen for removal, reached fever pitch.This episode originally aired on May 14, 2019.Weeding is FundamentalThis episode also features “The Pack Horse Librarians Of Eastern Kentucky” produced by the Kitchen Sisters and mixed by Jim McKee. Subscribe the The Kitchen Sisters Present on Apple Podcasts and RadioPublic. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of 99% Invisible ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.