Shannon Mattern

"The academic career is framed as a privileged but high-risk venture that ppl knowingly choose to embark on so they must endure the consequences or find a way to cope, thus obscuring deliberate adoption of biz models that [deprioritize] investment in staff + render large sections of the workforce 🗑️"

One annoying thing about continuantly getting older is that, every time a new report or project is released, I have to resist the pedantic temptation to point out the precedent project addressing the very same issue from a decade ago.

I’m at a panel discussion where the rule is: when you ask a ?, you have to join the panel — that is, move your 🪑 up to the conference table at the front of the room. The hosts ultimately want EVERYone in the room sharing their expertise ON the panel. I ❤️ it when ppl mess with event hierarchies 😊

Amidst all the well-deserved commendation of Mamdani’s public interest tech crews, I hope we’ll also acknwldg the folks who’ve been advocating for + doing this work (eg, @beta.nyc, the municipal service design teams, the build-your-own-tools advocates, etc) for decades + were ahead of their time.

"The Wichita Public Library is preparing to reduce its hours after being told to downscale as the city puts together its fiscal budget... A member of the library’s board of directors said the library has received the same amount of funding for 40 YEARS." - via @heykellyjensen.bsky.social

Lots of folks had been hoping since last spring that the attacks on 18F and USDS would incite a resurgence of municipal public interest technology!

Some folks disingenuously present AI "literacy" as an "equity" issue, but Colin Rhinesmith, in Digital Equity Ecosystems, offers a smarter frame: "how cmty coalitions—in which libraries can play an essential role—serve as vital infrastructure to tackle digital inequality + 💪 democracy" - Wed @ 1pmET