For Seattle folks… I’m giving a talk tonight at Obec Brewery (6:30) about science funding, the history of human computer interaction, and the future of AI. I’m off the clock, so I may get a little spicier than usual. If you’re around, please come!

Hi Seattle! Come see my talk on the history of human-computer interaction. I'll explain U.S. gov funding of science has led to many of the innovations that power our economy & shape our lives — and call out the short-sightedness & hypocrisy of efforts to defund science in this field & so many others

Happy refresh email for CSCW 2026 results for all who celebrate.

Does your work explore mis/disinformation, scams, hate speech, or other forms of harmful information online?

We are convening a CSCW workshop to bring together a global community focused on information disorder. We welcome short submissions, due August 8th.

cscw2025infodisorder.netlify.app

Interesting new study from researchers at the UW Center for an Informed Public finds that AI-generated persuasive messaging (AI-Pasta) is more effective in key ways (e.g. creating a false sense of consensus) and harder to detect than traditional CopyPasta.

Join us online or in person in Bergen, Norway!

Really excited to draw attention to this dissertation by Melinda McClure Haughey (@melm.cc‬). Melinda's research explored collaborative infrastructure for supporting the "sensemaking" work of journalists working on high-stakes, fast-paced & often data-driven beats. www.melm.cc/research/dis...

We’ve seen this repeatedly. QAnon. COVID denial. Election lies. War crimes denial. In each case, the problem wasn’t just what people believed, it was how those beliefs hardened into identity and made correction impossible.

Does your work explore mis/disinformation, scams, hate speech, or other forms of harmful information online?

We are convening a CSCW workshop to bring together a global community focused on information disorder. We welcome 2-6 page submissions, due August 1.

cscw2025infodisorder.netlify.app

Trying to write about anti-immigrant visual propaganda nothing to see here.

“The net effect of these technological forms has been to nudge us into seeing one another as the machines see us: fungible, expendable parcels of data open to classification and judgment.” Another fabulous blog post from @aidanwalker.bsky.social howtodothingswithmemes.substack.com/p/fossil-foo...

Trump operates almost uniformly in the epistemology of spectacle. Entertainment. Theatrics.
Images of chaos in the streets of major U.S. cities is exactly what this administration wants. It reinforces the conflation of “urban” with “violence” like this is where lawlessness reigns.

The administration’s vision of science in America is that we do 75% less of it. That means more death, less progress, more ignorance, fewer experts, fewer educated people, all to make billionaires wealthier.

It’s Fustilarian Friday again.

This week: NSF all but abolished in the President’s proposed budget.

The goal is plainly and literally to cut the number of people involved in basic science in the US by 70%

Here’s something we can all do: every time we see something about the Trump administration’s attacks on science — and the impacts of those attacks — boost it. People, and even faculty, have no idea how bad it is and how much worse it’s going to get. We need to let people know…

Perhaps relevant as scientists weather a range of attacks, our team (led by UW research scientist Rachel Moran) published a paper describing how a slew of public records requests impacted our work & what that means for collaborative research in adversarial spaces & times: dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

And I guess the last last thing of this musing is I really recommend Becker's Sociological Work: Methods and Substance. It's been fundamental for my thoughts around methods, why I want to do research, the role research should have, etc in these...very interesting times to be trying to do research.

I didn't have an endpoint with this per see, just musings, but I have seen so many people doubling down and being dedicated to continuing their work and standing with colleagues to support them. And I just hope that changes, for the better, how we do research as people for publics.

I also just think this type of embedded nature will emerge from living and still doing research in this time (albeit more slowly because for some reason focus has not been on high the last few months...wonder why) -- and this will result in new bridges and methods formed.

One thing it has me thinking on is how collaborations and data restrictions may emerge concurrently in this time and inspire new methods and a slow down of deep work with intent. I hope this time will make the research community come together to do this innovation as we support each other.

And it's been...interesting to think about all this while there is a systematic attack on research at large. Thinking about how we can make research better and more inquisitive in the wake of AI's role in it and research shrinking is an odd mind bend for me. And I don't know how that all fits.

But there's just a lot of plug and playing. And I think it misses an opportunity to get excited about innovating and experimenting with methods. And that does require slowing down and being deeply embedded with our data and questions.

I think this can stop us from asking questions we WANT to ask in favor of a more formulaic questions and a "format" of a paper. I see this a lot in the HCI space and I get the temptations. In one hand, you HAVE to build off lit and the other it's a good way to learn.