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Automatically tagging politician when they use their phone on the livestreams
- ajsnigrutin 2y agoThis is useless, if you don't know what they're doing on their phones. Fact checking the speaker? Playing candy crush? Who knows.
- bedane 2y agoNope it's useful. Those people need to feel some kind of pressure and invasive monitoring. Because they're the ones who vote to allow it or not.
- amiga386 2y agoWatching porn! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61245040 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61245040 https://news.sky.com/story/neil-parish-mp-accused-of-watching-porn-in-commons-to-resign-after-being-told-position-untenable-12602430 https://news.sky.com/story/neil-parish-mp-accused-of-watchin...
- robertlagrant 2y ago> We are supposed to set an example in this place I think that went out of the window a long time ago. All the shouting and booing - they're like kids watching a pantomime.
- tyingq 2y agoAnd the loophole is apparently to just use a laptop or tablet, like two of the not-highlighted politicians in the photo.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tomglynch 2y agoTracking their stats is a great idea!
- kelseydh 2y agoLooks like the last tweet was from 2022? https://x.com/FlemishScroller https://x.com/FlemishScroller
- netsharc 2y agoHe (oh he is you, OP) has got a lot of different projects, including one that was tracking people on EarthCam streams and trying to find their Instagram post (or the other way around): https://driesdepoorter.be/thefollower/ https://driesdepoorter.be/thefollower/ , which went sort of viral: https://mashable.com/article/instagram-stalking-ai-facial-recognition-the-follower https://mashable.com/article/instagram-stalking-ai-facial-re... I wonder why you self-promote and repost your "old" stuff though..
- sergers 2y agoYea kind of odd when the last post by which the submission about is from 2022 when it appears to be last active. If there was some update, revelation, or even just being active. I am seeing this person being referred as an "artist". Thinking its a ploy for sales... they arent really selling anything i would consider valuable or sellable (eye of the beholder?).
- Propelloni 2y ago> they arent really selling anything i would consider valuable or sellable (eye of the beholder?). Which meshes well with art, so maybe the OP, in fact, is an artist.
- nkmnz 2y ago"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."
- sergers 2y agoTrue...
- itishappy 2y agoI suspect you may just not value artists or art because your comment is quite dismissive. There are artists putting significantly less effort into their creations than this who sell them for significantly more. This particular exhibit isn't even for sale.
- guy234 2y agoWhoever wrote this must really like taking pictures of electronics.
- pjc50 2y agoFun, but also kind of a dick move to apply bossware to more people; the phone is where the real politics happens.
- A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 2y agoNo, if anything, all that stuff regular people are subjected to, must be now be used against people in power just to let them feel the weight of reality they have created. It is not that dissimilar to how Musk flights were tracked by a bot on Twitter not that long ago. Is it a dick move? Sure, but I am tired of there being two set of rules for those with power and those without it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mathgeek 2y ago> Sure, but I am tired of there being two set of rules for those with power and those without it. Can you elaborate on how this project is going to impact that? What change do you expect will come about from it?
- bondarchuk 2y agoCan you elaborate on how this is not obvious to you? Sorry but this feels borderline concern-trollish.
- mathgeek 2y agoIt was an honest question, and no, your implication is not obvious to me. Let's assume best intent instead of defaulting to "no, you."
- grayhatter 2y agoIIRC a lot of politicians in the US have been very anti-gay, until a family member they cared about came out as gay. Suddenly, and only then did they start to care about human rights. Ideally, this will result in more politicians being upset about needless ~~user~~ human hostility. And perhaps a few of them will understand the implications of why it's bad.
- underseacables 2y agoPlease do this for congress!! It would be fascinating to see stats posted for each person, etc. BUT more interesting would be the response of the politicians. Will they use their devices less, or will the cameras be ordered turned off and the live stream halted?
- redeux 2y agoI think there's probably 3 outcomes. 1. Republic lawmakers won't care because their base won't care 2. Democrats will use their phones less because their contituents expect them to take their role seriously 3. Politicians will use this performatively when "the other side" is speaking
- Jach 2y agoHaving once sat in one of the chairs in the House Chamber, I'll fault no politician for fidgeting with their phone. If whatever is being discussed is rather irrelevant or droning on, you've got to do something to stay awake with such comfort.
- zlagen 2y agothis kind of surveillance is childish and a bit creepy too
- smallpipe 2y agoThese people are elected and paid more than enough to pay attention. If they can’t be bothered doing their job, we’ll elect someone else who can.
- unreal37 2y agoYou don't know if they're doing their job from a photo. Perhaps they're replying to constituents, reading the details of the law they are being asked to vote on, checking with colleagues on the status of votes, etc. You don't know. It's just harassment without facts.
- theultdev 2y agoWell they can do that with paper. They should have the details of the law printed out in front of them. Scrolling through on a phone seems very limited. They can write down notes and they can reply to constituents after they vote.
- grayhatter 2y agoYeah! We used to write code on paper too! Software engnieers should only use paper too! All computer programs should also be printed and reviewed using punch cards! A literal computer with arguably more features than a modern desktop is too limited! This is a totally sane take! I know I like writing things twice, or using a format without any ability to search through it.
- theultdev 2y agoThey are not programming. It's a bill that can be printed off and already is. Just make copies. They are not editing it, they are reviewing it and making notes. Laptop use is...fine, but I don't believe for a second they are reviewing the entire bill on their phone. You don't take tests on your phone, nor should you legislate on your phone.
- tomaytotomato 2y agoI mean if it wasn't the 21st century, they would be having a snooze or reading a newspaper or magazine probably. Having a politican 100% committed and listening all the time would be great, but they would quit in no time I'm sure, at least I would.
- lukan 2y ago"I mean if it wasn't the 21st century, they would be having a snooze or reading a newspaper or magazine probably" Reading a newspaper in parliament? Have not seen that, it would clearly be seen as a sign of disrespect to the speaker, even more so than a mobile as it has a higher vissibility. And dazing off was probably more productive and healthy, because I doubt, politicians are immune to addictive engagement feeds. Meaning I don't think most of that smartphone use is actually productive.
- redeux 2y agoIf they're not committed and listening they should quit immediately. Their work has an extremely outsized impact on their country. If they can't do their job they should leave and let someone else who can fill that role.
- throwaway173738 2y agoDo you ever “take a quick break” at work?
- redeux 2y agoI never use my phone during a meeting
- neilv 2y agoThis seems to be an art installation, but I see no explanation of what it means. Is there subtext that's obvious to someone from Belgium (e.g., politicians on phones is a known hot issue)? Or is the viewer supposed to interpret? BTW, if the main complaint that you have about your politicians is that they sometimes look at their phones while in meetings, you're doing really well, count your blessings.
- bondarchuk 2y agoObviously the subtext is that they are faffing off on their phones and not using their presence at a parliamentary meeting to represent the interests of their constituents in that meeting, which is what they were elected to do. Though from that perspective we should also focus some more on the empty seats, then.
- rrr_oh_man 2y ago> presence at a parliamentary meeting (...) which is what they were elected to do Parliamentarians from all around the world gasp in shock and revulsion
- amiga386 2y agoIt's somewhat tricky to measure the effectiveness of your MP, because of course their work output is politics. We have https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ in the UK, which is a fantastic site, listing everything your MP does in Parliament. But the truth is that most MPs always vote exactly how their party tells them, and rarely speak. The main chamber in Parliament is mostly national debate on how to run the country, and amendments and motions are put forward outwith that chamber, by teams of MPs communicating with the Speaker's office. Most MPs in the Commons are just waiting their turn to speak, and they wrote their speech the day before. The rest only turn up at voting time, and vote how they were told to by their party, then leave again. They don't listen to speeches, it's not going to make them vote differently. So perhaps we need all the MP's official emails and texts to truly scrutinize their activity. Their presence and focus in the chamber is of limited importance. What's more useful, IMHO, are when MPs join the various Parliamentary committees and listen to witnesses, scrutinize legislation line-by-line, and such. Those are meetings where I'd like MPs to be fully focused.
- totetsu 2y agoLiving in a country that doesn't speak my first language, I use the dictionary all the time during meetings and presentations. I hate it when people tell me that’s rude.. Okay I'll just sit here and not understand what was said to keep up appearances?
- bondarchuk 2y agoPresumably that specific reason would not apply to high-level politicians in their own country, and if it did they would have a real-time translator.
- Lanolderen 2y agoIn other wording, if someone is speaking about a subject I'm not entirely familiar with, I'd likely be googling different details to get a more real picture than the one presented by the person proposing changes. Incentives and all that. An issue with political discourse in parliaments is that it's a meeting with a lot of important people so you can't really ask for clarifications again and again as you would in a 5 person meeting at work if you don't understand something you feel might be important. Partially because if everyone started asking for clarifications the topics won't get anywhere and partially because it's politics so you have to appear competent at all times.
- dylan604 2y agoIf you're constantly looking up things on your phone about what a speaker just said, you'll miss the thing being said right now. Humans cannot multitask. Anyone that says they can are lying or are misguided at best. So instead of missing one thing, you've put yourself in a position to miss even more rather than looking up something afterwards.
- LocalH 2y ago> Humans cannot multitask. Anyone that says they can are lying or are misguided at best. I don't believe this to be axiomatically true. I don't believe it's an intrinsic ability, but I believe it's very possible for humans to task-switch at a level that appears like multitasking (and when you think about it, the only multitasking modern computers do is the threading that multiple CPU cores enable, when it comes to a single core there is only one task running at a time, ever). In certain situations, I've found my brain able to do almost fractal searches through a target space. Or at least to simultaneously search for the answer to more than one question (take the game Hangman and its variants, when looking at a partial word my brain is certainly not searching for a single letter at a time).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- khafra 2y agoNeed a predictive version of this that tags politicians in tweets expressing my stance on whatever is being debated, right before they use their phones on livestreams.
- the_mitsuhiko 2y agoFun fact: this is quite likely illegal to do in the EU. If it should or should not be legal is a different question, but my understanding of present day law makes this not permissible.
- aziaziazi 2y agoWould you point out why so?
- geysersam 2y agoInteresting, can you expand a bit on what particular laws you think it violates?
- a5c11 2y agoWhat exactly is illegal?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- remus 2y agoWhich law makes this illegal? Presumably the live stream is setup by the flemish government themselves, and they're all public figures acting in a public capacity. Maybe there is something else here, or some detail of Belgian law, but from the outside it doesn't seem there is much of a privacy argument.
- the_mitsuhiko 2y agoFacial detection is processing of article 9 GDPR data which requires explicit consent.
- unreal37 2y agoThere's a brand new AI law too. You'd likely need explicit consent of these people to have their personal data (face) processed by AI.
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- soygem 2y ago[flagged]
- rrr_oh_man 2y agoCare to explain?
- subjectsigma 2y agoIt’s a 4chan meme, but he’s not even using it in the right context? Where are the dubs?
- soygem 2y agoNo dubs, just based
- tpoacher 2y agoThis is beyond silly. You could be using your phone to factcheck something that relates to the ongoing discussion. Or having a side-chat with another member, privately expressing/requesting an opinion to provide context. Or to take quick notes. Or, nowadays, you might even be using an AI to keep a running summary of what the speaker has been rambling about in the last 50 minutes, translated from 'buzzspeak' to 'humanspeak'. All legit uses of technology, which enhance the politician's attention rather than detract from it. I'm not saying I'm having a hard time believing people 'could' be checking out 9gag instead during parliament, but unless you give me an AI that can detect people who are on their phone AND verified to be slagging off, then you're just bullying people for having phones and being able to use them. Also, I like how laptops are somehow exempt from this bullying for some magical reason.
- sureglymop 2y agoAlso, it ignores that perhaps sometimes slacking off (or perhaps better "taking a break") may be a good thing.
- potato3732842 2y agoEven if they're not paying attention it's likely a "this issue is not a me issue, I'm gonna re-read my notes or the summary memo for the next me issue" situation. People don't generally slack of when a legislative body has a hearing. That's basically their "game day".
- HenryBemis 2y agoAngry Birds high scores won't outscore themselves!!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- float4 2y agoYou call it silly because you could be doing useful stuff on your phone. I'd go one step further and say that even if you're slacking off that's not necessarily a bad thing. Everybody, including politicians, slacks off from time to time. Be it due to stress, awful sleep because the neighbor's dog barked all night, illness, or something else. It's just human and there's little wrong with it as long as you do your job well most of the time.
- nickdothutton 2y agoIf it is anything like the UK parliament, what goes on in the chamber is less important than the WhatsApp groups the UK Gov runs on.
- mcculley 2y agoWhat I found more amusing when in meetings with government officials is their constant use of two phones, one officially issued and one personal. There is a lot more use of the personal phone in official meetings than there should be. They have been trained to do as little as possible on the phone more likely to be subject to a subpoena.
- pandemic_region 2y agoWoah i like his other sideproject: https://driesdepoorter.be/product/shirt/ https://driesdepoorter.be/product/shirt/ . > A shirt whose price increases by 1 Euro with every purchase. The price is embroidered on the shirt. Current price is 183EUR ! (EDIT means he made almost 17k EUR on this so far)
- bkovacev 2y agoI really like the minimalistic design of the website, but I was disappointed to see Wordpress used. Does anyone know if something similar exists whether free or paid - as long as it's available as plain CSS/HTML?
- LastTrain 2y agoA tool which simply invites superficial condemnation intending to anger and divide us even more than we already are. SO, congratulations on your negative contribution to society!
- quuxplusone 2y ago"37% legislative efficiency? That's bad! Let me call my supervisor." "Hey @JanJambon, what's going on, man? You're in red!" "It's just been a rough day." "Rough day? More like a rough month." (the reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43180133 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43180133 )
- duxup 2y agoI agree, this whole system has the vibe of messed up metrics and jerk middle manager going on.
- betimsl 2y agoAny chance open sourcing it? :)
- noelrock 2y agoAs a former politician, I really don't love this. It's already difficult enough to get people of the capacities that most of us want to see (good, smart, could be employed elsewhere, empathetic) involved in politics as it's so negative and divisive. There are, as other comments highlight, loads of legitimate and reasonable reasons why somebody would be using a phone mid-debate: rebuttal research, communicating with colleagues in chamber, communicating with their own office/staff, the list is fairly long and reasonably legitimate.
- plagiarist 2y agoNo need to worry, politicians will make it illegal to monitor politicians in this way. Only workers will ever need to deal with always-on surveillance like this.
- itishappy 2y agoNobody loves this, and I suspect that's the point. I expect this same tech is about to be rolled out en masse to surveil workers everywhere (if it hasn't already been). I further suspect that by applying this to the people in charge of creating regulations, the artist is trying to drive new regulations.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- amelius 2y agoNew regulation: AI-based tagging forbidden for use on politicians.
- dmoy 2y agoIs insider trading still legal for politicians? Pretty much, right? They just have to disclose it weeks after the fact? Certainly I haven't heard of any news of the STOCK act from 2012 actually being enforced, e.g. no insider trading convictions or anything.
- skeeter2020 2y agoIt feels like a lot of people are interpreting this as a cheap attempt to drum up populist angst for "lazy politicians". That's one obvious take-away, and it's legitimate. I see that it's generating a strong emotional response: discomfort with the idea of being monitored; fear that the data is misinterpreted. I see this as very powerful, because a lot of the "nicer" government orders, such as those in Western Europe, are also the most aggressive surveillance states. I like that the artist has come up with a way to drive home the potential impact of the decisions that may be debated and decided in this very chamber. It has a nice symmetry, and I see that as cool art.
- Frederation 2y agoDumb
- dailydetour123 2y agoThis has prompted some interesting points around the value of using a mobile in a chamber which I've enjoyed reading. However, I wonder if the tool could be re-purposed to catch drivers using mobile phones whilst driving? I imagine there are privacy concerns here, but it might be interesting to explore it.