We have organized a full-day event about “Artificial Intelligence for Social Good” at Istanbul Bilgi University. It was part of the AI Literacy Project, supported by Google Turkiye. The meeting was held in the Energy Museum. If you wonder about the setting in the photo above, The first part was for a group of students, … Read more
During the pandemic, I started to follow TikTok. It was the first social media platform where I could not become a real content producer. However, it has become a good venue to follow so much stuff and popular trends I would miss otherwise. A few days ago, I thought, why not list what I have … Read more
Last week I was in Eskişehir attending the 5th New Media Studies Conference. The conference is organized by an association, Alternatif Bilişim Derneği. I have been a member from the outset. The association, which is not too active nowadays, was a pioneer in internet freedom causes and now organizes biannual conferences and publishes ebooks with … Read more
I already use VEED to edit my videos from time to time but with the VideoGPT by VEED that is operated through Chat GPT. This was exactly what I was looking for and hopefully I will more videos to come:)
Since last summer, I have been directing a project on AI Literacy. Google Turkey sponsors the project. However, I and my colleagues are the sole creators of the project content. So far, we haven’t had a public event, but one will take place on 5 December at İstanbul Bilgi University. The Artificial Intelligence Literacy … Read more
The new minister of Internal Affairs, Ali Yerlikaya, delivers daily news of police raids and clampdowns on gangs and mafia entities that flourished during the previous minister’s reign. Based on the recent news and TikTok self-representations, I created a map of connections between the various gangs. It is not a definite map and relies on current … Read more
Here are some brief observations. I might be misled and am open to changing or modifying my comments in the next few days. Erdoğan surprises a bit and remains calm and moderate. However, in later days, he becomes more aggressive. I am not sure about his followers, though. Generally pro-Palestine, even pro-Hamas. Since Erdoğan stayed … Read more
Sinem and I represented the “AI lobbies” (!) and organized a workshop on AI’s impact on media. The camp is organized by İz Gazete, a successful local media project case. Seferihisar municipality supports the event. The participants were balanced; senior journalists and younger ones were in this 4-day camp in a modest resort near the … Read more
I have been playing with Midjourney for a while and share my “peace of mind” visuals on my Instagram stories. My dear Sinem just curated an exhibition at Spatial.
I had the best of memories of Helsinki. 11 years ago, after an intensive work period- for years- I arrived in Helsinki for a conference and spent five days of relaxation. Kai Ekholm had invited me to a librarians’ conference where I would speak on internet freedom. Thanks to Mr. Ekholm, I had the opportunity … Read more
It is Christian who introduced me to Theodor Fontane. A year ago, we were walking through the places where Fontane described in his novel. I finished heartbreaking Effi Briest while staring at foresty mountains in Trabzon. I have fallen in love with Abdulrazak Gurnah and recently finished his Afterlives. Here is an accidental find. A … Read more
I am about to uninstall Twitter on my mobile phone. In recent months I have limited the usage to check out mentions, and I guess I can look at the mentions from time to time through my browser. This is the level of annoyance on my part. An eccentric spoilt rich man destroys a platform, … Read more
Since 13, I listen to heavy metal and its derivatives. I never had a close relationship with Turkish music. If I ever listened to it, it was a derivative of Anatolian rock genres. Regarding Anatolian rock, Erkin Koray is a pioneer, and I listened to him a lot. He recently passed away. I am quite … Read more
The usual suspects were at work again. Here is the summary of what happened: The controversy emerged after the announcement of the planned liturgy, and a representative from the Islamist New Welfare Party in Turkey criticized it[1]. The Good Party spokesperson, Kursad Zorlu, called for the annual religious ceremony at Sumela to be canceled, which … Read more
Istanbul is also under a heatwave, and I feel like I switched back to my life during the pandemic. I prefer to stay home, start AC occasionally but not always, and pass the time without direct sun rays. I am glad I can mostly do work online, and I had my AC fixed a few … Read more