iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 15/07/2026

I love that the conclusion of the @theverge.com Vergecast is that the best AI gadget is the gadgets you already have, but working together. 1. Phone 2. Watch 3. Headphones We don't need a new form factor for a personal AI device. www.theverge.com/podcast/9650...

theverge.com

Today’s Vergecast: Watch, headphones, phone: Which AI gadget is best?

So far, there have been exactly zero great AI-first gadgets. But that hasn’t stopped the tech industry from trying to figure out what shape and size these new gadgets might take, and whether any of th...

Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 09/07/2026

Tech workers are not worried about AI taking their jobs, they are worried about being expected to do more for less. People are divided about AI, tech is in chaos, productivity is up, quality is down, burnout is rife, but some are still optimistic. www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-tech-w...

lennysnewsletter.com

How tech workers are feeling in 2026: a workforce splitting in two

Results from our second annual tech worker sentiment survey

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Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA) is an R&D funding agency built to unlock scientific and technological breakthroughs that benefit everyone.

If you have a crazy idea that could change the world but feels too big to ever get funded, check out their current opportunity spaces to see whether there's a match. Or maybe even consider applying to be part of their third cohort of Programme Directors to define a new programme. aria.org.uk

aria.org.uk

Home

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They have a unique funding model driven by Programme Directors with total control and flexibility to shift, scale, or cut funding rapidly based on real-time results. They assemble teams of complimentary researchers from different organisations to maximise the chance of success.

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Their remit is fund the "edge of the possible" and back high risk/high reward research which is too speculative or risky to be funded in other ways. They are tackling huge problems like a cure for the common cold, climate cooling, synthetic biology and mathematically safe AI.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 26/06/2026

It was really inspiring to hear about the work of @aria-research.bsky.social at an event at BALTIC Gateshead yesterday. ARIA is a UK research funding agency modelled on DARPA in the US, but with a scope that spans the whole of science and technology for economic and societal benefit. aria.org.uk

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Can't help but think there is a lot of duplication of effort here competing with W3C specifications like ActivityPub and Linked Web Storage Protocol. Curious what goes into that ISO that transforms it from a web application to an actually booting "OS" and what that means.

w3.org

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 26/06/2026

Cool project! Love the aesthetic. I will be interested to see the source code if/when it is released, but probably not the tech stack I would choose to build a web operating system on! (My efforts are currently directed towards tola.me.uk/blog/2025/02...)

tola.me.uk

My Vision of a Smart Building Operating System

A whole building operating system, built on web technologies, which weaves together every sensor, actuator and human-computer interface in a building into a seamless user experience.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 24/06/2026

In case it needs saying, 35-40°C in the UK in June is not normal. We are a planet of boiling frogs 🐸 Feeling helpless? Here are eight ways you can help fight #GlobalHeating today www.unep.org/news-and-sto... #ClimateCrisis

unep.org

Here are eight simple ways you can fight climate change today

By walking more, tweaking your diet and conserving energy, you can help the world avoid a full-blown climate catastrophe.

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Reposted by Ben Francis

Zack Polanski @zackpolanski.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

This is only the beginning. The climate crisis is here. So why are politicians and most of the media still acting as though this can wait? It can't. We can still avoid some of the worst impacts - but only if we find the courage to act. metro.co.uk/2026/06/22/g...

metro.co.uk

Greta Thunberg warns 40°C heatwave about to hit UK 'is only the beginning'

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 19/06/2026

I've had a great time at #TechNExt26 this week. High quality production, some thought provoking talks, and most of all good conversation. Thank you to everyone who came to my talk yesterday about the #WebOfThings and Krellian's #SmartBuilding solutions.

Jamie Hardesty interviewing Pete Cheyne on stage at the Festival Launch.

Henrietta Newble talking on stage about her Biotech startup at the Festival Launch.

The exterior of the Catalyst building hosting the Data & AI Hub in Newcastle.

Paul Hands from ARK51 discussing potential dangers of AI.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 17/06/2026

We tried to do all of these impossible things at once and it took an embarrassingly long time to get there, but I am now really excited to put a real product in people’s hands.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 17/06/2026

- Hardware is hard - Software doesn’t stand still - Hosting public infrastructure is tough - Community is like herding cats - Cash flow kills - Defining international standards takes time

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 17/06/2026

It has been a long and winding road, but Krellian finally has a product that people can buy. medium.com/krellian/ann...

medium.com

Announcing Krellian Commercial Pilot

Meet your net zero targets whilst saving money.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 12/06/2026

Trillionaires should not exist. It would take the average American 16 million years to earn $1tn. There is no way that one human can be "worth" that much more than another human, no matter what they have achieved.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 04/06/2026

Just two weeks until my talk at TechNExt Festival, "Making Buildings Smarter with the Web of Things" www.technext.co.uk/programme/ev... If you're interested in smart buildings or the Web of Things, please join me for this free talk at the The Catalyst in Newcastle on Thursday 18th June.

TechNExt, krellian

Making Buildings Smarter with the Web of Things

Extending the web to physical objects for smarter, safer & sustainable buildings

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 27/05/2026

Where does this lead? It seems like either: a) People stop making websites, LLMs are trained on the output of LLMs and the models collapse b) Some other business model emerges to fund the web beyond ads

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 27/05/2026

AI needs the open web, but it also poses an existential threat to it. LLMs rely on the content that humans create for their training, whilst also undermining the business models that incentivise people to create the content in the first place. nicolasbouliane.com/blog/death-b...

nicolasbouliane.com

AI is killing All About Berlin - Nicolas Bouliane

They used my work to train their AI, and now they're using their AI to put me out of work.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 19/05/2026

Did Lean Startup get a conscience? www.incorruptible.co As someone who has been trying (and often failing) to follow the Lean Startup methodology for many years it has raised lots of questions for me about speed vs. long term impact. I am looking forward to reading this book.

incorruptible.co

Incorruptible by Eric Ries — Why Good Companies Go Bad

Eric Ries's new book — Incorruptible — on why successful companies turn on their founding values, and how to build ones that don't. Out May 26.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 15/05/2026

Which one? Chrome OS or Aluminium OS?

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 14/05/2026

Googlebooks will run a desktop version of Android with a Gemini-possessed cursor. Seems like the beginning of the end for ChromeOS, with serious implications for education in particular. Should we be building an open source web-based replacement..? www.theverge.com/tech/928479/...

theverge.com

Google announces its Chromebook successor: the Googlebook

Google has a new operating system and a new laptop platform, but no hardware just yet.

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I will also be at the Launch Conference and Festival Party if you want to say hi! 🥳

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I'll also talk about how Krellian are helping facilities managers of commercial buildings to meet their net zero targets whilst saving money, by optimising space utilisation and reducing energy consumption using smart building technology. #SmartBuildings #NetZero

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I will be talking about how the Web of Things provides a universal application layer for the Internet of Things that apps, services and AI agents can use to interact with the physical world. #IoT #WoT #Data #AI

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Data and AI Hub - TechNExt 2026

📅 Thursday 18th June 2026 🕒 15:20-16:20 📍The Catalyst, Newcastle 📝 Data & AI Hub registration (free): www.technext.co.uk/programme/ev...

technext.co.uk

A day of activities exploring Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with industry leaders from the region and beyond.

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I'm delighted to share that I will be giving a talk at TechNExt Festival 2026 called "Making Buildings Smarter with the Web of Things". technext.co.uk/programme/ev... #TechNExt #TechNExtFestival

I am hosting a session at the TechNExt Data and AI Hub! TechNExt 15-19th June 2026.

I will be talking about how the W3C Web of Things provides a universal application layer for the Internet of Things that apps, services and AI agents can use to interact with the physical world. #IoT #WoT #Data #AI

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Data and AI Hub - TechNExt 2026

📅 Thursday 18th June 2026 🕒 15:20-16:20 📍The Catalyst, Newcastle 📝 Data & AI Hub registration (free): www.technext.co.uk/programme/ev...

technext.co.uk

A day of activities exploring Data, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning with industry leaders from the region and beyond.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 05/05/2026

This pay package implies Elon Musk believes a 1 million person settlement on Mars is feasible within his lifetime. I'm not anti space travel, but imagine if those kinds of resources were put into solving the climate crisis on our actually habitable planet. www.teslarati.com/spacex-elon-...

teslarati.com

SpaceX Board has set a Mars bonus for Elon Musk

SpaceX has given Elon Musk the goal to put one million people on Mars.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 21/04/2026

I did think $10/month was a bit too good to be true. I don't feel good about a future where developer productivity is a function of which LLM you can afford to subscribe to, but also even Microsoft seem to be struggling to make the numbers work to make it a sustainable business.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 21/04/2026

Typical that in the week I finally caved and paid for a Copilot Pro subscription after getting hooked by the Opus models in their free trial, GitHub removes Opus models from the Pro subscription. I guess I will have to start using my brain again. github.blog/news-insight...

github.blog

Changes to GitHub Copilot Individual plans

We're making these changes to ensure a reliable and predictable experience for existing customers.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 25/03/2026

Very excited at the prospect of the Web Thing Protocol joining a standards track at the W3C, as the "WoT Thing Protocol". This would be the next step towards standardising a universal web-based application layer protocol for the Web of Things. #WoT #IoT lists.w3.org/Archives/Pub...

A diagram showing an hourglass with the WoT Thing Protocol (HTTP REST & WebSockets) at the narrow part in the middle, IoT protocols like MQTT, BACnet and OPC UA a the bottom and applications, dashboards, cloud services and intelligent agents at the top.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 23/03/2026

A reminder that whilst countries fight reckless wars and set fire to gas fields and oil refineries, our climate is being pushed beyond its limits. Humans living on the surface are only experiencing 1% of the dangerous global heating. #ClimateCrisis www.theguardian.com/environment/...

theguardian.com

Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high

State of the Climate report finds Earth’s energy has moved dangerously out of balance, with oceans absorbing vast majority of trapped heat

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 23/03/2026

Same! Although it is getting harder and harder to find the parts.

Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 22/03/2026

I feel like if we could just settle on one protocol (or at least bridge to the extent that it doesn't matter), bringing Mastodon and Bluesky together could really help.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 22/03/2026

My microblogging is split across Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky. Twitter (I refuse to use its porn name) is full of vitriol, Mastodon is all geeks and Bluesky feels like a political bubble. Conversations feel fragmented, engagement is rock bottom and it's just not the same.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 21/03/2026

I like the definition by The Verge, that to be part of the web something has to: 1. Be linkable, and 2. Allow any client to access it. www.theverge.com/2017/5/24/15...

theverge.com

And now, a brief definition of the web

Linkable; agnostic to the client

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 21/03/2026

I agree these are the essential components that made up the original invention of the web, which Tim Berners-Lee clearly states in his new book "This is for Everyone". However, I also think that JSON over HTTP and possibly even CBOR over CoAP are the web.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 17/03/2026

I've been working on the first time setup for Krellian Hub, which involves creating a temporary Wi-Fi hotspot and captive portal, before connecting to another Wi-Fi network. It turns out that not even Claude can figure out how to use the NetworkManager DBus API. 😩

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 17/03/2026

I'm afraid to say this led to an hours-long debate with Gemini about the "right" way to implement MVC, where the LLM kept contradicting itself and going round in circles. It reached the point where it was literally saying one thing and then doing the opposite in its example code.

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Ben Francis @tola.me.uk · 17/03/2026

I recently found myself writing a desktop app, and realised that for the first time in my career I could actually implement the Model View Controller design pattern as it was originally intended (as opposed to the disjointed approximations we use in web apps).

I explain how I think we can put the “web” back in the “Web of Things” with a universal web-based application layer protocol, enabling an open ecosystem of IoT web services which weave together the rich tapestry of the IoT rather than cementing the current fragmented landscape.

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In this blog post I take a deep dive into the last 10+ years of standardisation, how we got where we are today, and why I believe the Web of Things is still missing an essential component due to a subtle misunderstanding about what makes the web the web.

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The WoT Working Group has made great progress in standardising building blocks for discovering and describing connected devices, but when it comes to communicating with them we've become stuck describing existing IoT protocols rather than defining something native to the web.

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