Sean Boots

AI continues to be the headline, but this digital public infrastructure stuff is rolling along - and it's usually a caught off guard sensation when it comes to consultation, so a good one to get a bit more read up on. it may also be more talk than action, but one of these times it's going to stick.

Small hopes for the future of digital ID in Canada It’s April, so like most Canadians, I spent a lot of time logging in to the Canada Revenue Agency and other government websites. The CRA’s login system is better than most of the 60 or so separate log...

this piece is of the same era, also helpful background and context - written by @bluesky.sboots.ca

sboots.ca/2022/04/21/s...

the G-20 consensus on digital public infrastructure is that it has three requirements: digital identity systems, digital payment systems, and data exchange systems.

this is canada's latest on how the public service is working towards digital public infrastructure:
digital.canada.ca/2025/06/23/d...

Do it! 💯💯

My workplace is so top heavy. We went from 46 people on the Ontario Sunshine list in 2019 to 110 in 2024 (and counting) with most of those being management/C suite positions.

I would welcome trimming some of the fat so we could afford to hire more front line staff and pay them more.

Ottawa's top HR official aims to reduce excess senior executives in public service: memo The federal government says there are too many senior executives in the public service, slowing productivity and creating workplace conflicts.

If it were me I would scrap at least half of the executive class in the public service

“The memo does not say if those assistant deputy minister positions will be demoted, eliminated or transformed into permanent positions to reduce the ‘overage’”

nationalpost.com/news/politic...

I call these "load-bearing justs"

My technique is skimming the text and doing something else while the (muted) narration completes, getting distracted in that time, and taking four hours to complete a single training, retaining nothing. Recommended!

Once I again, I meet my nemesis*

* mandatory annual training that involves slides with audio reading the text of the slide and you can't advance to the next slide until the audio has concluded for each slide

I want you all to understand that every time a politician calls for a release of the hostages and does not mention the MANY Palestinian hostages in Israel, they are making it clear they only value some lives — those adjacent to power, those it is politically safe to defend.

SF Bay Bridge from the back of a ferry on a sunny day.

View from the back of a ferry with an American flag passing between two large container ships.

View of SF skyline from a ferry with the Bay Bridge on the left. The water is a shade of green.

Clearly took in the subtle pro-ferry content from @allafarce.bsky.social over the years (w/ @nkkrms.bsky.social on a great SF day)

Watching with horror as Trump discredits the neutral, non-partisan and expert capacity to produce employment estimates because he didn’t like the data and doesn’t understand standard revisions, and thinking “e-payroll sure could cut down on delays and revisions.”

Trump Orders Firing of Bureau of Labor Statistics Chief The president’s move throws the quality of America’s statistical apparatus into question.

‘US econ. statistics have been considered the gold standard for decades, the product of efforts that began in the depths of the Great Depression to better understand how the economy works. Trump’s move throws the quality of America’s statistical apparatus into question.’ www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

It’s critical that OC Transpo not encourage people to establish the transit habit when they’re young, lest they grow up into transit-dependent adults.

Once again, this is what happens when our council is dominated by car-dependent suburban and rural councillors who believe that if you take transit, you're poor and they don't have to care about you.

Horrible decision. Will result in less ridership, lower revenues, more driving and worse vehicle congestion (with all the corresponding costs and consequences). Either they don’t understand that, or they’re ok with all that.

The renewable energy revolution is a feat of technology | Rebecca Solnit An energy revolution is underway in this century, though most people have not noticed it

“About 40% of global shipping is just moving fossil fuel around.” That’s astounding!

😄

Aw congratulations!! 🎉

A detailed look at New York’s community of independent and in-house model makers Amid all of the ways to make an architectural model today—from 3D renderings to virtual reality fly-throughs and AI illustrations—there’s agreement at the upper echelons of architects and developers t...

"Amid all of the ways to make an architectural model today—from 3D renderings to VR fly-throughs + AI illustrations—there’s agreement at the upper echelons of architects + developers that there is no substitute for the tangible, physical thing."

the backlash of not using the data we already had / have for justice

👏👏

It has been the honor of my life to serve as Commissioner of BLS alongside the many dedicated civil servants tasked with measuring a vast and dynamic economy. It is vital and important work and I thank them for their service to this nation.

Sometimes I think of how only two generations of us were even allowed to attend these settler colonial ass universities in tiny, awkward handfuls, and how even that was too much

Great piece – thanks for writing this!

A really good post here.

That's so awesome!! 🙌🙌

Show Up TO Show Up Toronto is a hub and weekly newsletter of community organizing, mutual aid, and advocacy events from around the city.

Anyway this is my attempt at occasional self-promo for my little project that is also a love letter to the city. Tell your Torontonian friends. showuptoronto.ca

The biggest lesson I've learned is that I actually hate Instagram so much more than I already thought I did and it's actively harmful to meaningful coalitional organizing. Anway,,,

(136 of those events ONLY have an IG link, approx 2/3 of those events I found via IG and then tracked down a real URL)

Show Up TO Show Up Toronto is a hub and weekly newsletter of community organizing, mutual aid, and advocacy events from around the city.

It's been almost three months since I launched Show Up Toronto and in that time I've posted 426 events from over 200 groups, which is pretty dang cool. The fact that there are consistently 100+ events a month representing the labour of thousands validates my optimism about the city. showuptoronto.ca