Mark Surman’s Post

I recently came across Mozilla's Common Voice, an open-source initiative that's reshaping the future of voice recognition technology. This project stands out because it makes that technology inclusive and accessible to everyone. 🎙️ How does it work? Volunteers from around the world donate their voices, which are then used to build a diverse, multilingual dataset. This dataset is crucial for developing voice recognition applications that understand a wide array of languages, including those less represented in current technologies. 🤝 Why is this important? Voice technology is becoming increasingly integral in our daily lives. By ensuring it recognizes various languages and accents, we're taking a big step towards digital inclusivity. It's more ethical to democratize a technology that works for everyone, not just based on market-driven decisions. 🔍 Want to contribute or learn more? Visit Common Voice and see how you can be part of this unique project. https://lnkd.in/dFq-FEhJ Voice technology can only be truly inclusive with our collective efforts! #CommonVoice #Mozilla #OpenSource #DigitalInclusion

Some personal news! I'm excited to receive the #Rise25 award from the Mozilla Foundation! The award honors "25 visionaries reshaping our digital future". I've always been a huge fan and supporter of Mozilla's work in building a safe, open, and privacy-respecting internet, so being recognized by Mozilla is a real honor. Five years ago, I founded Horizontal on the premise that building technology didn't have to be extractive, exploitative, or invasive; it could be collaborative and let people and communities gain more control and autonomy. Since then, we've released Tella, a mobile app to protect users who document human rights violations; and Shira to train at-risk individuals on phishing and spearphishing. We've also offered digital security training and worked with activists and journalists in some of the world's most repressive places. In 2021, Tella won the World Justice Challenge. Just as importantly, we've built an organization where *how* we work is just as central as what we do. Horizontal aims to blur the lines between tool developers and the communities who need these tools: most of us are activists, fighting for rights, freedoms, and justice in our own communities; and we develop our tools in close partnerships with vulnerable communities. We also think holistically about our social and environmental impact, whether it is our travel carbon footprint, the values of the companies we use (#NeverAmazon), or pay equity within our team. I feel super fortunate to work with a team that isn't just working super hard to build great tools and is aligned with Horizontal's values, but that actively pushes us (and me!) to continuously do better. Now, onto 5 more years building open-source, privacy-respecting tools to empower those on the frontlines!

Finally Completed Google summer of code!!! Here is a blog of the work I did, if you are interested! https://lnkd.in/g_sX_xrx

Two and a half decades of innovation, information, and inspiration. Thank you for making the world a smaller place and knowledge more accessible. And thank you for making it easy for us computer techs to do our jobs... howmany of you know a "Google" tech? Spoiler alert - we all are :p #YYCtech #theITco #google #Google25 #TechInnovation #GlobalImpact   Google

🎉 Celebrating Google's 25th Birthday Here is what we know: 👉Sergey Brin & Larry Page's chance encounter sparked it all. 👉"Backrub" analyzed backlinks before becoming "Google." 👉The name "Google" represents an astronomical number! 👉https://buff.ly/kc7mYV was registered in '97, but the site launched in '98. 👉The first Google office? A humble garage in Menlo Park, CA! 👉Susan Wojcicki, now YouTube CEO, owned that garage. 👉Meet Yoshka, Google's first office dog, with a cafe named in his honor. 👉Google's colorful office tradition continues to brighten workspaces. 👉"Google" became an official verb in the dictionary in 2006. 👉Google's first tweet, coded in binary, was "I'm feeling lucky." 👉Google supports aspiring tech talent with scholarships. What's your favorite Google fact from this list as the company celebrates its 25th birthday? #Google25 #GoogleBirthday #GoogleHistory #TechMilestone #SearchEngineEvolution #GoogleFacts #SiliconValleyStartup #TechGiant #InnovationLegacy #InternetHistory

We have a lot of students opening with "I am new to open source". Well the good news is that open-source is just regular coding, with more eyeballs to check code quality (and a licence to make sure it stays that way). But because we're a small org, this also means that we can't take applicants at face value, no matter how sleek the application: we want to see past code before we even start discussing. Open-Source is great exactly because of this approach: you can either show that you can write clean code, address comments and be overall a good team member, or you can't. And since we have all we need there, we actively discourage people from sending cover letters and CVs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ If you know anyone who codes and would like to join a great team for the Summer, send them our way! https://lnkd.in/eVF7ExnF

Gmail was in BETA for over 4 years. This allowed Google to perfect the experience without losing the patience of their users. Releasing a product or feature as a "beta version" is a simple strategy for iterating without causing a full-blown riot. (This is not an excuse to release a crappy product. Build a strong core product and use it as a platform for iteration and experiment). #softwareengineering

Atharva Purohit, Could you give me some guidance or tips on how to create GSoC as you do? if anyone sees this message give tips and guidance to creak GSoC as a bother

Google’s first (and only) Level 11 engineers have pair programmed for most of their career.  So why is pairing still such a hard sell? “Pair programming is for people that can’t code on their own”.  👈 I’ve never actually heard this said out loud, but I suspect it’s the unspoken subtext in many discussions about pairing.  Having seen the positive impact of pairing many times I’m a big advocate, but I find it a tough sell.  So I was delighted to come across this story of Google engineers Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat and their remarkable partnership.  https://lnkd.in/eut2CymR The article also contains some great stories of Google’s early technical challenges. There are all kinds of myths and misconceptions surrounding pairing, and it’s often rejected because it’s misunderstood.  But, if Google’s most senior engineers don’t consider themselves “too good to pair”, perhaps that is at least one myth that can be robustly challenged!

The Accidental Brilliance of Google's Name(1/5) 1/5: Ever heard the story behind Google's name? It was meant to be "Googol," inspired by the mathematical term for a 1 followed by a whopping 100 zeroes. 2/5: But here's where fate intervened – a typo happened! Instead of "Googol," it became "Google." A simple mistake that altered history. 😮 3/5: Did they rush to fix it? Nope! They embraced it. That tiny misspelling turned into the iconic name we all recognize today. 🤯 4/5: Imagine if it had been "Googol" – a whole different vibe, right? Sometimes, destiny has its own way of branding the big names. 🌟 5/5: So, the next time you "Google" something, remember, it all began with a happy accident, proving that even the smallest mistakes can lead to something extraordinary. 🚀