Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · 20d

New Civic Tech Chat episode! I was joined by @amandarenteria.bsky.social to talk about good government forms and to let you know about FormFest (a neat event about them)! Check it out over here: civictech.chat/2025/09/form...

FormFest 🧑‍💻 - Civic Tech Chat

We’re joined by Amanda Renteria CEO of Code for America. We dive into a conversation about what’s needed to make ‘good’ government forms and we let you know ...

civictech.chat

Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Jun 25

New civic tech chat out today!

We talked about experimentation in government services with two experts from Nava Labs: Genevieve Gaudet and Martelle Esposito.

Learn about their approach to experimentation, leveraging data, and how they advocate for adoption.

civictech.chat/2025/06/pion...

Pioneering Progress: Advocating for Experimentation in Government with Nava Labs - Civic Tech Chat

We’re talking about experimentation in government services with two experts from Nava Labs, a philanthropically funded part of Nava PBC: Genevieve Gaudet (Di...

civictech.chat

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · May 30

This was a thoughtful conversation digging into the work Ami Yares and Shannon have been doing to share the stories of Federal workers through @wethesongwriters.bsky.social. Along the way they've hoped to build empathy and give folks an artistic outlet. Listen in here: civictech.chat/2025/05/we-t...

96 We the Songwriters 🎵 - Civic Tech Chat

We’re joined by Ami Yares, songwriter and Executive Director of Build a Bridge, a non-profit that focuses on transforming lives through art-making, and by Sh...

civictech.chat

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · May 23

The 2025 Code for America Summit is coming up. Check out this interview I had with their CEO @amandarenteria.bsky.social. We talked about the event, the state of civic tech, some things they've learned in their adventures so far, and more. Check it out here: civictech.chat/2025/05/Code...

95 Code for America Summit 2025 🧑‍💻🇺🇸 - Civic Tech Chat

We’re joined by Amanda Renteria, CEO of Code for America to discuss their upcoming Summit event. We’ll cover a bit about the event itself, the state of the c...

civictech.chat

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Reposted by Ryan Koch

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · May 1

it feels like 500 years have passed since the martial law declaration and that 1000 upsets have happened in south korea since

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · May 1

South Korea's presidential race faces a shake-up as front-runner Lee Jae-myung is found guilty by the top court of violating election law

South Korea Court Finds Presidential Lead Guilty of Breaking Law

South Korea’s top court ruled that presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung violated election law and sent the case back to the high court for final sentencing.

bloom.bg

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Apr 25

Non-profit tech modernization work is hard, but boy do those small wins feel so fantastic when you get them.

Reposted by Ryan Koch

Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · Apr 7

A tricky thing about modern society is that no one has any idea when they don’t die.

Like, the number of lives saved by controlling air pollution in America is probably over 200,000 per year, but the number of people who think their life was saved by controlling air pollution is zero.

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Apr 4

It turns out that in some places it is possible to hold political leaders accountable. www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/p...

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol impeached - The Korea Times

The Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, resulting in his immediate removal from office. The decision to remove the president from office was unanimous, with all eig...

www.koreatimes.co.kr

Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Mar 3

I guess this is what squandering generations worth of work looks like.

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Mar 2

👇

John Skiles Skinner @skiles.blue · Mar 2

I believe Musk and DOGE disbanded 18F because we stood in the way of their "procurement capture" operation. We get the government *out* of wasteful contracts. Musk wants that money back for himself.

Explanation by @anildash.com of procurement capture:
www.anildash.com/2025/01/04/D...

Understanding DOGE as Procurement Capture - Anil Dash

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

www.anildash.com

Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Feb 21

We’ve got a new episode of Civic Tech Chat out into the world! This time we talked about building accessible web services. @mgifford.bsky.social shared fantastic insights around this work and why it’s important to do. Check it out! civictech.chat/2025/02/buil... #civictech

93 Building an accessible web 🌐 - Civic Tech Chat

We’re joined by Mike Gifford, Open Standards and Practice Lead at CivicActions. We’ll dig deep into what it takes to build accessible web services and why th...

civictech.chat

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Reposted by Ryan Koch

Dan Nguyen @dancow.bsky.social · Feb 3

FWIW, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISAgov) maintains a list of the 1,374 current federal .gov domains on Github:

github.com/cisagov/dotg...

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Jan 21

Coming back around to this, I wound up discovering this awesome youtube playlist as a starting point: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Jan 21

It's January, which means Civic Tech Chat brings something back from the archives. This time it's our conversation covering the book Hack Your Bureaucracy. We discuss a bunch of good stuff you can take into your work in all sorts of organizations. civictech.chat/2025/01/arch...

92 Archives: Hack Your Bureacracy 🏢 - Civic Tech Chat

We reach back into the archives to rerelease this episode. In it we were joined by Marina Nitze to talk about their book Hack Your Bureaucracy. We discussed ...

civictech.chat

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 26

Hoping to dive into some linear algebra self study for a bit.

What resources have y’all had success with?

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Reposted by Ryan Koch

Karly Kingsley @karlykingsley.bsky.social · Dec 15

It truly is a perfect simplified explanation.

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 14

They managed to get more than the 8 votes from PPP to make it happen. This has been a wild thing to watch as a foreigner here. I believe the President is now suspended until the court weighs in. #korea apnews.com/article/sout...

South Korea’s parliament votes to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his martial law order

South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration this month.

apnews.com

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 10

Working in the open is a great way to go for custom app work with government.

When I had the opportunity to work on MilMove, I felt good about us managing to have our work out there in a public repository.

Barring obvious exceptions, like secret squirrel stuff, this should be the way.

Luigi Ray-Montañez @luigi.land · Dec 10

Harmonize all the source code, yes. www.nextgov.com/digital-gove...

House passes SHARE IT Act aimed at custom code in government

Agencies could save money if they shared such code, lawmakers say.

www.nextgov.com

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 10

I had a chat with Sarah Schacht about their research into innovation teams. Her work has interesting insights looking back at things that have been done well and ways we can improve such programs in the future.

civictech.chat/2024/12/inno...

#civictech #government #tech #innovation

91 Innovation Fellows 🧑‍💻 - Civic Tech Chat

We’re joined by Sarah Schacht, Senior Data Fellow at Data Foundation and author of a new report called Innovation Fellowship Career Outcomes. We’ll dive in a...

civictech.chat

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Reposted by Ryan Koch

OSINTtechnical @osinttechnical.bsky.social · Dec 8

APNewsAlert: BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian government appears to have fallen in stunning end to 50-year rule of Assad family after lightning rebel offensive.

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Reposted by Ryan Koch

Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · Dec 6

Early days, but another exciting application of vaccine technology.

And a tough one for antivaxx crowd.

Vaccine shows promise against aggressive breast cancer medicine.washu.edu/news/vaccine....

Vaccine shows promise against aggressive breast cancer | WashU Medicine

Clinical trial targeted recurrence of hard-to-treat triple-negative breast cancer

medicine.washu.edu

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 5

I see where @civicwhitaker.bsky.social is coming from. It feels tough to be generous given the track records.

I’ve heard a take suggesting leaning in with a reform agenda in hand. Folks out there seem to want some kind of change, so a proactive approach may be an effective influence strategy.

Christopher Whitaker @civicwhitaker.com · Dec 4

100% disagree with @pahlkadot.bsky.social here. I’m not giving DOGE any grace whatsoever. DOGE is not a good faith effort. Any benefit of the doubt evaporated when Musk started using X to bully individual civil servants.

www.eatingpolicy.com/p/the-doge-s...

#civictech

Screenshot Jen Pahlka's post “I am going to give Elon and Vivek the benefit of the doubt that some of you may not be so generous to extend: that they don’t actually want to destroy everything they see despite the rhetoric, that they are willing to break some things in the short term for the promise of building something leaner, more focused, and less kludgy in the long run

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 3

Thank you for doing what you’ve done! I’ve been nervously watching things unfold from Busan and getting a solid account helps a lot.

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Ryan Koch @ryanakoch.com · Dec 3

I have empathy for the fear of political retribution with the next administration. If that's the point though, why just pardon his son? Why not release a statement expressing this and include the broad set of folks that would likely fall victim to this if it comes to pass?

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Reposted by Ryan Koch

The New York Times @nytimes.com · Dec 3

President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea declared emergency martial law, accusing the opposition of plotting “insurgency.” It was the first time a South Korean president had declared martial law since the military dictatorship ended in the country.

Follow live updates: nyti.ms/4eUS5xu

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