Colin Perkins

After recently moving to the University of Oxford, I am currently recruiting PhD students in the broad areas of web systems, social computing and Internet measurements. If you know of anybody, please let them know to reach out (deadline 2nd December)!

Is my account b0rked, or did Bluesky hide the profile links feature behind the age verification ?

🌏 IRTF Diversity Travel Grants support early-career academics & PhD students from under-represented groups attending IRTF at IETF-128 in Kuala Lumpur, March 2027. ⏰ Apply by Nov 27, 2026—earlier than usual to allow more time for visas. Details: www.irtf.org/travelgrants/

www.irtf.org/anrp/ Submit nominations for the 2027 award period of the Applied Networking Research Prize until November 23, 2026

If you're at ACM IMC in Karlsruhe this week, look out for Vivian Band from my group who will be presenting a paper on "The Disputed Internet: Quantifying Fragmentation in the IPv6 Internet" with the results from a successful internship with Romain Fontugne at IIJ Research Lab

A thought worth provoking

Following backlash from scientists, CRANE says it has suspended all grant decisions for this funding call and committed to sending rejected proposals for human review. https://scim.ag/46Qiqv3

If you'll be attending the Netnod Tech Meeting 2026 in Stockholm tomorrow, 6 October, please look out for my student Elizabeth Boswell, who will give a presentation on "AS112 Deployment Characteristics and Security"

Well said

"…given the complexities and sensitivities around the use of AI tools in peer review, we will re-review all applications that were initially screened out using AI, and reconvene the funding panel…"– this is likely the best outcome from a difficult situation; I hope UKRI are listening

Just saw folk who join the uncritical rush towards AI referred to as "LLMings", and I am stealing that.

www.programmablemutter.com/p/machine-go... what it says on the package

As Alex notes in this thread, AI doesn't "democratize" science. Rather, it compels scientists to rely on anti-egalitarian means of directing their attention.

OpenAI did not "lose control", the agents did not go "rogue" and there is no "swarm" that "escaped". all control and responsibility remains firmly in the hands of these "frontier" labs. most importantly this "rogue" narrative is an intentional and strategic marketing PR

Wonder why my phone didn't get the "high risk of wildfires" emergency alert everyone is talking about on social media. Look at the weather forecast: "18° drizzle" 🤷

So many people, colanders in hand, staring forlornly at a bank of thick cloud

Technical standards are not party politics. But they are political. They define who can interoperate, who can be observed, who gets priority, and what assumptions get baked into infrastructure. “Open and neutral” was never value-free. That does not make it wrong. It means we should be honest…

Useful information

How many satellites are currently planned for low Earth orbit? 2,345,078 Concerning numbers from Dan York in the IRTF SPACE research group at #IETF126 #KesslerSyndrome

Another excellent edition of the ACM/IRTF Applied Networking Research Workshop getting underway at #IETF126 in Vienna www.irtf.org/anrw/2026/progra...

Congratulations to Elizabeth Boswell, from my group, and Sawsan El Zahr from the University of Oxford, who shared the Brendan Murphy memorial prize for best presentation at the recent multi-service networks workshop – Elizabeth spoke about her work on security and privacy risks of junk DNS queries

Standards processes need appeals, objections, and ways to challenge decisions. But when those same tools are used to exhaust people, delay work, or make participation unsafe, the process stops protecting the work. New post: When Process Stops Protecting the Work

"Scotties in the City"

This report is a must read for anyone seeking to understand the debate around age verification and the Internet

I am looking for a (fully funded) PhD student working with me in Glasgow on provable security! www.iacr.org/jobs/item/4226

"Discover the Ease of Going Digital" they say, outlining a 9-step process to follow where step 5 requires downloading and completing a PDF form containing 50 questions…

A discussion about the social media ban on under 16s. BBC: “You’re gong to have a lot more time to fill. What will you do?” Student: “Stare at a wall.”

We need to think deeper: why is this unacceptable for a 17 year old but acceptable for an 18 year old - or a 57 year old? Age controls are not the real problem.

THIS. Do I worry about the effects of social media on my 11-year-old? Obviously yes. Do I think she should be banned from it any more than young men falling into the manosphere on Reddit, middle-aged ladies being dragged into transphobia on Mumsnet, or pensioners radicalised by Facebook? 100% no.

We are offering a number of Diversity Travel Grants to support early-career academics and PhD students to attend the IRTF meetings co-located with the IETF-127 Meeting in San Francisco in November 2027. More details at www.irtf.org/travelgrants/ Application deadline: July 03, 2026

Fun fact: the magical child safety solution which Jess Philips cited in her resignation letter is a vendor-specific offering, which benefited from an intense PR and lobbying campaign, and was previously praised by ... Prince Andrew. I always keep the receipts. heatherburns.tech/2026/02/20/t...

"The Intolerable Hypocrisy of Cyberlibertarianism" – on the early Internet, and things that should have been clear at the time, if only we knew then what we know now matduggan.com/the-intolerable...

Vote early (well, err, vote!), vote often

We've submitted "Analysing Internet Standards Development Organisation Data" to the IRTF, highlighting some issues to consider when studying data relating to the Internet standards development ecosystem – feedback welcome! datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-pe...

UK policymakers need to rethink online safety laws. A new joint statement warns that age-gating and access restrictions threaten to fragment the open Internet and erode the rights of all users. Read more about the statement from 19 organisations including ORG, @mozilla.org and @torproject.org ⬇️

“People talk a lot about the protocols that power Bluesky vs. ActivityPub, because we're nerds and we believe deep in our hearts that the superior protocol will win. This is adorable. It flies in the face of literally all of human history…” matduggan.com/boy-i-was-wr...

Proud advisor moment of Shuo Li who successfully defended her PhD with minor corrections - she is now heading to NSDI to present her work next week!

London, briefly – it’s always a pleasure to support the @internetsociety.bsky.social in their policymaker programme

As we celebrate #EarthDay 2026, what is the technical community—the people who actually build and operate the Internet—doing about climate concerns and environmental sustainability? I wrote on the Internet Society blog about two #IETF and #IRTF groups.. www.internetsociety.org/blog/2026/04...

Is social media dying? How much did Twitter change as it became X? Which party now dominates the conversation? Using nationally representative ANES data from 2020 & 2024, I map how the U.S. social media landscape has changed Here are the key take-aways 🧵 Full paper out now in in JQD:DM!

I just saw someone wearing a Great Wave off Kanagawa - Godzilla mashup t-shirt, and I need this.