Elizabeth Ayer

Hello @support.bsky.team

I heard from Sarah Kendzior @sarahkendzior.bsky.social that her account was suspended.

Can you please look into this and reinstate her account? She’s a published author and scholar on authoritarianism. Her presence here is valuable.

cc:
@jay.bsky.team
@aaron.bsky.team

From a Calling to a Calculation Grieving What We’ve Lost in Public Service

This govt employee talks about his decision to leave.
“Leaders seem to believe the daily indignities don’t matter, that they can erode trust and purpose to push people out, and still keep the rest motivated with a new incentive program. But that’s not how it works.”
open.substack.com/pub/slowmind...

Online: CityCamp 2025: A global movement of community-focused events that foster civic collaboration and innovation - Chi Hack Night Hear about CityCamp - an “unconference” designed to bring together technologists, nonprofit leaders, and local government stakeholders to collaborate on innovative ways to improve our cities.

This Tuesday night, Nicole Dan from @floridainnovation.bsky.social will be talking about @citycamp.bsky.social at @chihacknight.org - register for the online event here! chihacknight.org/events/2025/...

#civictech

In other words, a robust, respected, well-paid, well-staffed bureaucracy is the key to accomplishing large-scale public works project on time and under budget.

Cutting public agencies to the bone & farming out their responsibilities to the private sector *doesn't work*.

Level 7 Apprenticeship course: leading and commissioning for outcomes in complexity – convening systems change – free webinar on 20 August 2025, 12:30pm UK time [Apologies for cross-posting, just trying to get the word out! This programme is fully levy-funded in England until the end of the year, and – if I say so myself – will be great! –…

Level 7 Apprenticeship course: leading and commissioning for outcomes in complexity – convening systems change – free webinar on 20 August 2025, 12:30pm UK time stream.syscoi.com/2025/07/31/l...

If you have profesh development budget and want to get better at talking to people, there is one seat left this week:

www.eventbrite.com/e/presenting...

This year marks the 32nd year of the PLoP conference held in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge at Skamania Lodge. Spark your creativity. Satisfy your itch to explore the potential of patterns. Submit a proposal for an Imagination Run Wild session. Feel free to ask me Qs

See: plopcon.org/plop2025/

Hey UK friends, you know Trader Joe's is one of the US's great union busters, right?

Allegations of illegal union busting were upheld by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Trader Joe's has fought back, along with fellow anti-union friends SpaceX and Amazon, claiming NLRB unconstitutional

Anyone (@anyaso.bsky.social maybe?) got access to an up to date flow diagram for all the stages of hell that Hansard data goes through?

Delta moves toward eliminating set prices in favor of AI that determines how much you personally will pay for a ticket The airline touted a partnership with an AI-enabled revenue system as a step on the road to fully personalized ticket pricing, part of its goal to raise profit margins long-term.

"Consumer Watchdog found that the best deals were offered to the wealthiest customers—with the worst deals given to the poorest people, who are least likely to have other options."

fortune.com/2025/07/16/d...

this is awful & shouldn’t happen for anything

it’s also especially awful because airlines in particular capture so much identifying data from you (full name, tsa/passport #, your face) — you can’t scalp a ticket purchased at a lower price point, they could sell your profile to other vendors, etc.

CRITICAL.

Also, Unbreaking is doing a fantastic job of keeping up to date while not fumbling with a 24 hour news cycle.

Everything is immaculately vetted, written, presented, and then updated.

I promise this is a resource you should use.

The legend of St Swithin and his July 15th weather forecast Saints, witches and sin all played a part in how our ancestors predicted the weather

www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2...

Shunned Myanmar leader thrilled at US contact after Trump tariff letter Min Aung Hlaing expresses ‘sincere appreciation’ for letter from US president threatening 40% tariff

The Trump admin sent a Myanmar general a letter threatening high tariffs.

Turns out, this seems to have been the first time the U.S. has recognized the military junta that took over after a coup as the rulers of Myanmar.

So the general is responding to the threatening letter with effusive thanks.

If you're in striking distance of Toronto, this looks very good!

Yes, an unconference is more work for participants with a less certain result... but isn't that consistent with building a participatory, inclusive future?

I hope we get good at showing up and learning together in spaces like this ❤️

Home Re-shape the way you think about facilitation.

Are you a #facilitator? Maybe a #facilitation expert? Want to learn from fellow #facilitators?

Then the Facilitator's Unconference (TFU) is for you www.facilitators-unconference.com

3 questions:

1. October or November for #TFU2026?
2. Birmingham, London or Manchester?
3. How should it feel?

Benchmark your Organizational Effectiveness and Alignment Assess your current and near-future approaches and capabilities that shape effectiveness and alignment within your organization or department - in the context of fast flow

Agility is NOT intuitive. Very soon you hit dependencies, work queues, high cognitive load, and other things that block agility. It's vital to use shared language and mental models, including clear team boundaries that work well for value flow.

➡️ Benchmark your org: confluxhq.com/benchmark

about

I'm retiring as @ukgovcamp.bsky.social deliver manager (DM).

I need an individual or jobshare to volunteer 1 to 2 hours a week of your time.

You'll lead the best, annual #publicsector #unconference.

Reply or email james@ukgovcamp.com please.

Free hoodie included 🙂

www.ukgovcamp.com/about/

He’s wrong but this is an incredibly common elite pathology: the belief that your voice should be held strategically in reserve, to strike at the right moment and change everything.

Then they do and it’s washed away by the firehose of noise. I call it Jim Mattis Syndrome.

Agentic systems in action.

18F files legal challenge A statement about 18F’s appeal filed with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board.

We have some news to share with you. 🥄

Today we took legal action to challenge our termination, filing an appeal with the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. We did this because we believe the elimination of 18F violated safeguards that exist to protect a nonpartisan civil service.

This is very encouraging & written with high-energy, which is fun to read.

I am curious if the Clinger-Cohen Act & E-Government Act which have been the statutory basis for USDS (& lots of OMB tech management) will be persuasive statutory authorities as this case continues to unfold.

This weekend, people kept asking the poet kid who read her poem at high school graduation, "how did you get AI to do that??"

Bleak indeed.

glad that this is being written about but lol, how depressing that "the new boss came in and made sure the website was actually usable" feels revolutionary for the media in 2025

Liberal Oregon and Washington Vowed to Pioneer Green Energy. Almost Every Other State Is Beating Them. The Northwest states passed aggressive goals to decarbonize the power supply but left it to the Bonneville Power Administration to build the transmission lines needed for wind and solar. The agency ha...

NEW: How the Pacific Northwest’s Dream of Green Energy Fell Apart @opb.org

Oh no, what terrible fate befell you?? 😂

I trust this sign was not on the Tate Modern, which I contend is *much* better from an altered mental state.