Ian G. Williams
@igraywill.bsky.social
770 followers 2.1K following 310 posts
Personal account. Social worker, PhD student. @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social @gcsocialwelfare.bsky.social. I read and think a lot about tech ethics, digital literacy, innovation, inequality, and social change. I find refuge & inspiration in the humanities.
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Reposted by Ian G. Williams
Wednesday 10/29 from 3-4pm in @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social Room 6203.02: Join us for a conversation on oral history, friendship, and social movement research with faculty member Dr. Benjamin H. Shepard, where he'll discuss his latest book!

@commonnotions.bsky.social
Reposted by Ian G. Williams
Most of these universities will know how to spell “fuck off.”
Reposted by Ian G. Williams
🗽 NYC’s open data belongs to all of us.

Join The Office of Council Member Erik Bottcher and NYC Open Data Ambassadors for a conversation on how open data strengthens community knowledge and how to explore NYC’s datasets!

📅 Wednesday, October 15 at 5 pm
🔗 RSVP: www.beta.nyc/event/e251015/
A digital flyer with a white and blue background promoting an online event titled “Discovering NYC Open Data.” At the top, the NYC Open Data Ambassadors logo appears, followed by bold text: “Discovering NYC Open Data” — Be part of a conversation with Council Member Bottcher and Zachary Feder from NYC Open Data, then join a workshop to learn the basics! Event details are displayed in a purple box: Wednesday, October 15, 5:00 – 6:30 pm EST. Below, bullet points list what participants will learn:
Reposted by Ian G. Williams
Letitia James is showing Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries what it means to be in lockstep. What an intro for Zohran Mamdani.

NYC: PLEASE understand the assignment!!
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Really struck by how brilliant a protesting tactic this is not just in terms of optics, but as a form of both privacy protection and discouragement of violence.

It masks your face and has to give pause to anyone thinking about beating you up.
there are SO many more inflatable costumes tonight. clearly we have settled on a motif
Wide shot of many people in inflatable costumes
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"Meche" works making raisins in Fresno CA. Fresh grapes are placed on sheets of paper and then laid on the sand between rows. The suns heats the sand and dries out the grapes. She can feel the heat from the sand through her shoes while she earns 35 cents for each sheet. #WeFeedYou
Grapes on brown paper drying into raisins after workers harvested them
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eventually politicians need to start advocating for criminal and civil penalties for people involved in fabricating stories to get citizens incarcerated.

or, put another way: a society that would like to keep functioning has to discourage baldfaced lying, especially by authorities
In the midst of all that is going on, there is nothing quite like reveling in the pleasure of photographing Chloe, my parents' cat, rolling around outside before she slinks off into the raspberry bushes, in search of prey.
A cat rolling in the grass A cat rolling in the grass A cat rolling in the grass A cat rolling in the grass
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It really is striking how much they want us to see images of their own brutality. The pretense of being anything but a exercise in violence has all but disappeared.
Gestapo posting about their work.
Fuck this
The Trump administration's offer would see the government dictate everything from hiring and admissions standards to grading, and has provisions that appear intended to make conservative ideas more welcome on campus.
Trump offers universities a choice: Comply for preferential funding
Who needs peer review? Plan offers easier grants to schools that agree to limits.
arstechnica.com
Reposted by Ian G. Williams
As if irony isn’t already dead, the Hatch Act violation on the DOJ website, which blames Democrats for the shutdown, appears on the page advising DOJ employees they are subject to the Hatch Act. joycevance.substack.com/p/a-note-abo...
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We are living in some times...
The #GovernmentShutdown right after I assigned a research project to my students, and the entire federal data apparatus was reduced to "RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRAT" splash pages.

This is the cover slide for my lecture this week. #EconSky
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CNN @cnn.com · 15d
In a book-length opinion, Senior Judge William Young ruled that the Trump administration can’t deny First Amendment protections to non-citizens, such as pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, or retaliate against them because of their positions.
Legal opinions usually aren't exciting. This one has everyone talking | CNN Politics
Not since the years before the Civil War had a trial-level federal judge signed off on an opinion simply as “Judge of the United States.”
www.cnn.com
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Just FOIA'd HUD for information from its web team about this clear Hatch Act violation. You can, too - just go to FOIA.gov
Two thoughts:

- Big AI (& tech) firms were angling for military contracts for some time, & need big $$$ to stay afloat;
- AI systems are by design dual-use technologies with civilian & military applications. Some harms are extremely hard to mitigate.

AI safety-washing just makes this worse.
OpenAI, Anthropic & others have shifted from championing ethics to signing $200M+ defense contracts that embed gen AI into high-risk military systems. In @theverge.com, @heidykhlaaf.bsky.social explains why the move toward defense partnerships is a safety risk.

Listen here: shorturl.at/mTAZq
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I have come to see scheduling and calendar coordination with academics as one part jigsaw puzzle, one part Jenga, and one part luring a colony of quasi-feral cats into bubble backpacks. #PhdLife #AcademicChatter
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🚨This is a big deal: suburban chicago police launch an investigation into an ICE attack on local CBS news journalists.
Broadview Police have opened an investigation into an attack from federal agents on a CBS crew at Broadview, per BPD Chief Mills.
The following statement can be attributed to Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills:

“The Village of Broadview Police Department has launched a criminal investigation into an allegedly unprovoked attack on a CBS Chicago TV news reporter’s vehicle on Sunday by a chemical munition fired from the direction of U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility. The victim declined medical attention. The Broadview Police Department expects the full cooperation of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into our criminal investigation.”
The video of this panel on affordable housing from @schoolofdata.nyc in March 2025 is up (with @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social colleagues @samohana.com & Holden Taylor). What a fun time. Thanks @beta.nyc for organizing this & having us. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL0l...
22 Defending Affordable and Stable Housing: Progress and Problems
YouTube video by BetaNYC
www.youtube.com