Friday, December 29, 2023
As described in my previous post, Istanbul is a city of layers. Nothing demonstrates this more than one of the gems of the city: the Hagia Sophia. Built on the site of an earlier Christian church erected in 336 AD by Constantius II (son of the Emperor Constantine) the current building was made in the 532 AD by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. For a thousand years it was the largest building in the world.Tuesday, December 19, 2023
In The Hundred Years' War on Palestine Rashid Khalidi takes us through six turning points of modern Palestinian history woven with family and personal history, including his frontline experience escaping Beirut during the 1982 Lebanon War. Khalidi has a long history as an advocate and an academic and writes a highly detailed account with an insider view. He covers the early Zionist movement, the Nakba of 1948, the Six Day War of 1967, the Lebanon War, the Intifadas and the rise of Hamas, giving context throughout as to who the geostrategic players are and how they change.Monday, November 27, 2023
Istanbul, Constantinople, Nova Roma — the city at the crossroads of the world — is a city of layers. First settled 6000 years ago each new community was built on top of the previous. And being located at such a strategic point as the world’s only trans-continental city, there have been a lot of different people groups and empires with designs on the city. I was in town for just over ten days, mostly for work, but my old pal Chris Gunson flew up from Dubai and we toured around together for a few days.Sunday, November 5, 2023
(This is a post in a series about attending the Internet Governance Forum 2023 in Kyoto.) To describe where the Internet Governance Forum fits in terms of internet governance, we have to also describe the other stakeholders in the system. Internet governance is polycentric. The IGF is just one part of a network of stakeholders that hold influence over how the internet works. Its key mandate is to bring various stakeholders together in a forum to discuss public policy, which is a key differentiator from other technology fora.Wednesday, November 1, 2023
(This is a post in a series about attending the Internet Governance Forum 2023 in Kyoto.) The Kyoto International Conference Center is a sprawling complex on the north side of the city, at the very last stop of the Kyoto Municipal Subway line. The subway exit features a circular chamber with a 10m wide IGF logo on the floor welcoming visitors. Hallways are lined with posters for the event, and two escalators later you exit to the ground floor and a red carpeted entrance.Monday, October 30, 2023
The Internet Governance Forum is a multistakeholder forum established by the United Nations and held annually around the world since 2006. The 18th edition was held in Kyoto, the city in which I reside, so I decided to attend. I have been to a few technical conferences, barricaded in rooms with passionate technologists arguing over the most minute details of a newly forming standard, but the IGF promised something different. This is a policy forum to discuss the societal impacts of digital technology worldwide.Monday, October 16, 2023
🔗 Should I stop Flying — Outside Online Appreciate the discussion in this piece. It is something I have thought about for years, and actually one of the reasons I don’t look forward to when I return to Canada where everything is so remote. Imagining a no-fly future — whether due to carbon laws, massively increased expense, or the threat of RPGs (see Ministry for the Future my fav book of 2022 for more on that extreme form of flygskam) — I would rather live some place like Europe or Japan: dense with a good rail system.Monday, October 2, 2023
Hello there! 👋 Thought I would give a quick self introduction. I am a 🇨🇦 in 🇯🇵 interested in tech and society, Buddhism, travel, and more. You can get to know me more here: micro.chadkohalyk.com/about-me/ I have a large collection of posts at my main site (https://chadkohalyk.com), most recently: Why Kyoto is the way it is The Santiago Boys LoFi software and inverting our relationship to The Cloud Driving Fukushima: The 3/11 nuclear disaster 12 years later That might give you an idea of my interests.