What better alternatives are there to waiting for the perfect charismatic leader?

How did "columnist" become a lifetime appointment? Seems like prominent roles in public discourse should be subject to more frequent rotation.

I just spent the morning as an observer at the first @bouldercolorado.bsky.social community assembly. It is a work in progress, and I am so proud of my town. At a time when democracy is falling apart, there is hope when we come together for real problem solving. bouldercolorado.gov/community-as...

If you have an extra $10 a month to spare, here's a list of worker-owned cooperative news sites you might want to support: • 404 Media • Defector • The Flytrap • Flaming Hydra • The Appeal • Aftermath • Racket • Hell Gate • The 51st • The Colorado Sun • Range Media • Discourse Blog • Pop Heist

It has been the honor of my work life to serve the people of Colorado as a professor at CU Boulder, and to have my colleagues' support—today, with a medal recognizing tenure. I'm wearing a sweater from my grandfather, an earlier Prof. Schneider.

... the deal with @rude1.blacksky.team and Blacksky that's so compelling and gives me goddamn hope about the future is that it's community-first design, communities deciding what their needs are + tech *to meet those needs*, plus a stab at a sustainable means of funding commons

Happy Occupy day. If you can't remember a world before this regime, or have no idea what I'm talking about, I wrote a book about it: nathanschneider.info/books/thank-...

🚨 We’re seeking a Staff UX Researcher to join the Local Lab team. Can you… 👉 lead tactical studies to refine and evaluate our approach? ✍️ develop and facilitate workshops with design peers? 🤝 collaborate closely with your product colleagues? More details below

If you take the headlines as a true representation of what this world is, what a heartless world. May we notice that there is so much good around us, and let us help that grow.

If you need some magic to curl up with tonight, there's a new interview with tarot artist and reader @dhornbein.bsky.socialDrew Hornbein: protocol.ecologies.info/interviews/h... Drew is also a dear old friend and built the gorgeous website where this appears.

if you live in the Denver/Boulder area, I would love to see you at the Boulder Public Library Canyon Theater Tuesday 5pm! I'll be performing a version of myself along w/my fav collaborator @rose-alibi.bsky.social, a lot of radios, some semaphore flags, & a few other neat bits & pieces #othernetworks

"When you put all your faith in technological progress [...] Democracy has no air left to breathe [...] collectively, as a society, we are at the mercy of whatever innovations the market sees fit to deliver; that is the future, full stop" Great article by @ntnsndr.in in @techpolicypress.bsky.social

Look here, @cyberlyra.bsky.social is at it again!

This game worked well on a hike with a six-year-old: take turns asking each other questions about each other. They can be anything, or pick a theme. It can go on forever. Long live the craft of questions. www.americamagazine.org/features/202...

You might not be obsessed with living forever, but the people you least want to live forever are.

re-order & get 25% off my new graphic novel A BETTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE: Global Youth Confront the Climate Crisis. Today through Friday (9/3 to 9/5) only, with ‪@barnesandnoble.com‬ preorder sale! *Link in bio* More exciting news: it was just chosen as a Junior Library Guild selection!

AK Press is in @publisherswkly.bsky.social, alongside other worker-run and publishing collectives, talking about the work we do and why we do it. This is our 35th year in business and we’re grateful to everyone who has helped us along the way ❤️🖤 www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

As Donald Trump Jr. joins the Polymarket advisory board, the push toward speculation as a replacement for democracy is poised to go further. This builds on what I earlier called the rise of "campaign financialization": nathanschneider.info/2024/11/the-...

If we can't find time for democracy, those who take the time to do politics will decide what to do with our time.

For years and years people have challenged my democratic maximalism: yeah, but who has time for that? This new paper lays the theoretical groundwork for an answer: osf.io/cdrmp_v1/

Participants allocate attention to governance related tasks (e.g., writing or voting on proposals). The outcome of the process results in potential outcomes for the participant …, the system being governed …, and external stakeholders (e.g., whoever benefits from the project's implementation).

Is it possible, or even desirable, to actively participate in collective governance across many arenas of our lives? I'm excited to share a preprint of a long-in-the-works paper with team Metagov, exploring the intersection of online governance and attention economies. I hope it's useful! https://

One of the best essays relating to Silicon Valley ... I always recommend it

Thirty years ago, this week, an article diagnosing the "Californian Ideology" of Silicon Valley was published. This scathing critique has become a badge of honor for the new tech right. As I argue today in Tech Policy Press, it has never been more relevant: www.techpolicy.press/thirty-years...

Great @rudyfraser.com writeup from @newpublic.org on how Blacksky is the most exciting thing going in decentralized social right now. 🔭🖤🚀 Social media’s next evolution: decentralized, open-source, and scalable newpublic.substack.com/p/how-blacks...

Once again, Andreas Hepp and I are teaming up to edit a special issue of the Int'l Journal of Communication—this time, you guessed it, on AI. Come map the emerging imaginative minefield around this eerie tech: https://comai.space/en/call-for-papers-the-imaginative-landscape-of-ai-visions-positions-c

There's a new publication for food co-ops, just launching now—learn more and sign up here: garlicandroses.coop/

Just posted, at last: A review of one of my favorite recent books, Benjamin Shestakovsky's "Behind the Startup"—the most rigorous and precise account I've seen of how the dominant startup model produces inequality: muse.jhu.edu/article/968586

I am so, so excited to help launch my colleague Lori Emerson's extraordinary new book, Other Networks. We've got two events coming up—mark your calendars! In Boulder (9/10): https://calendar.boulderlibrary.org/event/14949129 Online (10/8): https://lu.ma/4kfjgd6a

This is an extraordinary provocation for anyone tempted to replace coalition politics with preference agregation. That is: AI-enabled democracy is probably not going to be democracy.

For all the AI maximalists in the Trump administration, is anyone there working on UBI? Wasn't that supposed to be part of the package?

I'm doing the Protocol Town Hall on August 20! m.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Lq...

Nice to wake up to a big ol employee ownership deal in the UK, the toy chain Entertainer: www.bbc.com/news/article... Policy for shared ownership works, if you build it.

Just had my first ride home from the airport with Colorado Drivers Cooperative. Cheaper than Uber/Lyft and pays the drivers more. If you're around here, get on it!

Have you noticed that everyone in certain subcultures keeps using the term "first principles"? I explore its origins for Compact magazine: www.compactmag.com/article/how-...

Now out at America—an essay I've been working on on-and-off for almost a decade. It became about what life with AI is doing to the practice of asking questions. "With what we ask, we shape ourselves and each other." www.americamagazine.org/features/202...

"Technology is politics by other means." Great conversation from @robin.berjon.com facilitated by @ntnsndr.in on web standards!

An extraordinary new book has just come out: a collection of chapters by archaeologists on how human history is so, so much more interesting than our modern obsession with the nation-state. Join me on September 10 for an interactive seminar on the book: lu.ma/c2dfg67r

Ever thought about what it takes for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to display more or less the same web? The latest interview at the Protocol Oral History Project is with @robin.berjon.com, reflecting on a career between tech companies & common standards: protocol.ecologies.info/interviews/b...

I'm proud to be part of celebrating an advance for governable online spaces—a huge update for @coralineada.bsky.social's Contributor Covenant, the most widely used code of conduct in open source. It is now interactive & supports design for due process. Take a look! ethicalsource.dev/blog/contrib...

I wish we could bring historians of the future back in time so that the people destroying the infrastructure of climate resilience can see how history will treat them.

The employee-governed @coloradosun.com reports beautifully about Leadville's famous Melanzana clothing company, which is on the path to full employee ownership: coloradosun.com/2025/07/28/m... Better models make better media:)

Now I really want Coach Prime as a guest in my classes on the tech economy.

I'm spending the day with the leadership of the @coloradosun.com and am so in awe of their commitment to serving the whole state at a time of attack on serious journalism. If you're in Colorado and able, consider joining me in becoming a member.

@brianckeegan.com so wonderful to see you doing this column! Thank you! boulderreportinglab.org/2025/07/22/b...

Thank you to the great Colorado-founded @catalyst.coop for this deep-dive on worker co-op management & governance!  And thank you GEO Collective for publishing: geo.coop/articles/wha...

I was interviewed by Michigan Public Media about what will happen when Republicans cut funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

The success of the AI industry should be judged by how much high quality, economically viable, widespread leisure time it produces for humans. So far it is not looking good.

I'm thrilled to share that Start.coop has just been awarded a major grant from Press Forward to support cooperatives in journalism. @medlabboulder.bsky.social will be a partner, alongside co-ops, unions, and more. Want to collaborate? www.start.coop/shared-media...