Happy 55th, Project Gutenberg! Let's celebrate!🎉 On July 4, 1971, Michael Hart typed the Declaration of Independence into an early internet computer, sparking the world's first digital library. (And happy 250th, USA.) The Declaration of Independence at PG: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1 #ebooks

Every few years I read a article that flips my understanding of the world around. This is one of those. So many things make more sense now! Bravo!

Never say anything to a child that you are not ok hearing back from them, because you will! All of it!

For those of us wondering if WA needs a digital service. The structure is not, I understand, there for it. But this is NOT the first case we've seen where they would have been used.

hey! if you didn't see that Kansas has requested trans folks to surrender their Driver's Licenses, I'll link it below - but meantime, this urgent appeal is worth your time & $$. I just donated, join me.

I cannot tell you how excited I am by this! Alexis is epic and she will do a tremendous job!

Some personal news

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

I tend to get backed up doing the final processing for Digital Proofreaders getting books to @gutenberg.org. But this one cut in line. The foundational text on Free Speech as we've understood it for the last century. gutenberg.org/ebooks/77769

"Society has got to stop knee-jerk accepting random social media as a sole information source. The sea of tweets and posts isn’t always wrong. But it is always hyperventilating." So true. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...

You deserve control over who has access to your private data. That's why we're fighting data brokers and challenging illegal information sharing. Learn more at Take Back CTRL: takebackctrl.org/reclaim-you...

Let's be clear: no one should be taking medical advice from the man who told Americans to inject bleach. To moms worried about the Tylenol they took while pregnant: you deserve better than being RFK Jr's scapegoat. And to the autism community: you are loved exactly as you are.

BREAKING: Trump’s Education Dept. cancels grants that help students who are both deaf and blind. “How low can you go?” said one person who works with DeafBlind students and their families. W/ @jsmithrichards.bsky.social for @propublica.org www.propublica.org/article/trum...

I crocheted Patti Smith’s Horses cover

State of DC: ICE and MPD are starving out Mt Pleasant community members - people are too scared to come to the weekly neighborhood Catholic Charities food distribution. Traitors to the city they swear to protect.

Today’s a good day to remind everyone DO NOT PHOTOGRAPH OR FILM UNHOUSED CAMPS. IT IS DANGEROUS FOR RESIDENTS & CAN BE USED TO TARGET THEM.

Looking at the words-we-haven't-seen-list I can tell this will get ugly. I can see folks using galumphs and kerfuffles, indeed I could see myself using those. But bombycids and chinoviks? Less likely. I've done books on butterflies, but it is likely to have been bombycidae, as they were scientific.

Kentucky hospital group warns of closures, reduced services, job losses due to Medicaid cuts www.lex18.com/news/coverin...

The economy is adding barely any jobs right now and where we’ve seen new jobs it's been in health care.   Well guess what? Republicans just passed the largest cuts to health care and Medicaid EVER.   We need to reverse those cuts and end Trump's tariffs if we want to salvage our economy.

I’ve said this before and I’ll probably say it again, but every hardcore IRL activist I know makes a very deliberate effort to interject joy into their lives and appreciate little things. I’ve only ever seen this dedication to misery in extremely online meme “activists”.

I am so heartbroken for the excellent folks I've worked with in the Department of State. The folks I know who were impacted were all great, and did not deserve the way they have been treated. Years of passionate service to Americans deserves better than this.

Today in the @missouriindependent.com I shared how new Medicaid red tape imposed by Republicans will kick over 10 million people off their healthcare, including more than 180,000 people in Missouri ‼️ missouriindependent.com/2025/06/06/r...

How do we repair the mess Trump & the tech titan have made? Public servants who know how to build things can tell us. Here’s @merici.bsky.social, who built IRS Direct File AND helped launched the beloved CFPB on @cnn.com with @philmattingly.bsky.social transcripts.cnn.com/show/cg/date...

This article is the most accurate summation of DOGE and civictech I've seen. Could not agree more with his conclusions.

My oldest kid filed taxes for the first time ever this year. She used direct file. The gen-z verdict was: "objectively pretty awesome". Imagine a whole generation who felt that way about the tax filing experience?

Just published my first article with Niskanen Center- how to use data management best practices from the private sector to combat fraud in government programs. (Spoiler: it's not by giving senior leaders and small strike teams broad access to all datasets) www.niskanencenter.org/how-to-stop-...

Want a more rich understanding of why this is dangerous? Years ago the incomparable former USDSer, Marianne Bellotti, did an explainer: medium.com/the-technica... (archive link: archive.is/K2TX3). What if SSA calculates benefits wrong? That seems... bad?

being an indie bookseller in the helltimes has felt both very stable and very stabilizing, and part of me wishes everyone could be on my side of the counter for a little while, because I think it would help some of you be a little less cynical and doomy right now. so here is my VERY anecdotal data:

I helped build a government AI system. DOGE fired me, rolled the AI out to the whole agency, and implied the AI can do my job and the jobs of the others they've fired. It can't. But, what DOGE accidentally revealed about themselves in the process is fascinating. 🧵

Someone pointed out that influencers use serotonin/dopamine/cortisol/oxytocin like they’re the four humors and now I can’t stop seeing it

Thanks for all the excitement, we'll get this thing going shortly. Get on our mailing list at digitalcorpspdx.org

I've lived in DC most of the last year, and Takoma Park never stops enraging me. The worst kind of appropriation. And here, at home, təqʷuʔmaʔ can't be called by its given name!

Living on the other side of the country, I regularly find myself explaining why I still listen to KEXP every day. What they do for the community can not be overstated. That and yeah, if you don't know Deep Sea Diver by now you should.

I officially launched @pdxdigitalcorps.bsky.social today. An all-volunteer civic tech sprint connecting local technologists with Portland-area nonprofits and community orgs to help solve digital problems. This isn’t a startup, and it’s definitely not my new job. Just a way to do some good.

Yesterday was my last day at the US Digital Service and IRS. Four years ago, my family and I packed up our lives in London and moved to DC. It was a big, exciting move but we did it because I wanted to get back to unfinished business, to play my part in helping government work better.

When isolation, trauma and despair are weaponized; building community, helping people heal, and bringing hope are acts of resistance. Connect people. Resist bullies. Protect the vulnerable. Shine light on the fighters. Give yourself and others grace. We are in this together. You are not alone.

18F alum here. While I appreciate the well-deserved attention the 18F team is getting, let's address a fundamental misunderstanding of why 18F was so effective in working with other govt agencies to improve their digital services and why starting a consulting company is not a substitute. 1/

if your state or city doesn't have a digital services group or office of innovation, one thing you can do is start advocating for one.

18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated shortly after midnight. Read our letter to the American people: 18f.org

I’ve been hearing this from current and former TTS/USDSers for weeks at this point. Some of the stickiest “tech” issues in govt are people/policy issues. Being able to identify and address those differences with the proper toolsets (software, or just connecting the right depts) is the job.

Since last night, the RIF'd 18F folks organized to issue a group statement: "18F was doing exactly the type of work that DOGE claims to want – yet we were eliminated," they said. Whole statement here:https://18f.org/

former colleagues from 18F have asked me to share this open letter widely - please pass on 🙏 🇺🇸 💻💪 18f.org

Have I mentioned that USDSers.are superheros? This makes me soooooooo happy! ❤️✊

oh wow The Library of Congress has a trove of images “free to use and re-use” that are in the public domain - and they’re fantastic

🥁 Announcing the Public Domain Image Archive! 🥁 We are v excited to share our new sister-project, the Public Domain Image Archive (PDIA), a curated collection of 10k+ out-of-copyright historical images, all free to explore and reuse: pdimagearchive.org @pdimagearchive