Nathan Schneider

How Engineering Replaced Politics If an extraterrestrial—or, for that matter, a human being from anywhere else—were to land in Silicon Valley, the traveler would encounter a distinctive dialect of American English.

Have you noticed that everyone in certain subcultures keeps using the term "first principles"? I explore its origins for Compact magazine: www.compactmag.com/article/how-...

Questioning A.I. Questioning A.I.: What we lose when we ask tech questions instead of humans A.I. is killing the skill of asking meaningful questions. We shouldn't let it.

Now out at America—an essay I've been working on on-and-off for almost a decade. It became about what life with AI is doing to the practice of asking questions.

"With what we ask, we shape ourselves and each other." www.americamagazine.org/features/202...

Robin Berjon: Web standards The standards that govern the World Wide Web develop at the intersection of profit-seeking companies, nonprofit organizations, and small groups of people with …

"Technology is politics by other means."

Great conversation from @robin.berjon.com facilitated by @ntnsndr.in on web standards!

Seminar: Understanding Early Large-Scale Collectives · Zoom · Luma This seminar will explore the extraordinary new book "Understanding Early Large-Scale Collectives - A Global Perspective." The book is full of chapters arguing…

An extraordinary new book has just come out: a collection of chapters by archaeologists on how human history is so, so much more interesting than our modern obsession with the nation-state.

Join me on September 10 for an interactive seminar on the book: lu.ma/c2dfg67r

Robin Berjon: Web standards The standards that govern the World Wide Web develop at the intersection of profit-seeking companies, nonprofit organizations, and small groups of people with …

Ever thought about what it takes for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox to display more or less the same web?

The latest interview at the Protocol Oral History Project is with @robin.berjon.com, reflecting on a career between tech companies & common standards: protocol.ecologies.info/interviews/b...

Announcing Contributor Covenant 3.0 A major new version of the premier code of conduct for open source.

I'm proud to be part of celebrating an advance for governable online spaces—a huge update for @coralineada.bsky.social's Contributor Covenant, the most widely used code of conduct in open source. It is now interactive & supports design for due process.

Take a look! ethicalsource.dev/blog/contrib...

I wish we could bring historians of the future back in time so that the people destroying the infrastructure of climate resilience can see how history will treat them.

Well put!

Melanzana mystique: A peek into the rulebreaking business strategy of Leadville’s fleece factory The company, founded in 1994 by Fritz Howard, does not advertise or deploy influencers. You can’t buy Melanzana’s coveted hoodies online.

The employee-governed @coloradosun.com reports beautifully about Leadville's famous Melanzana clothing company, which is on the path to full employee ownership: coloradosun.com/2025/07/28/m...

Better models make better media:)

Now I really want Coach Prime as a guest in my classes on the tech economy.

Nope

I'm spending the day with the leadership of the @coloradosun.com and am so in awe of their commitment to serving the whole state at a time of attack on serious journalism.

If you're in Colorado and able, consider joining me in becoming a member.

Opinion | Brian Keegan: Rethinking Boulder’s growth debate — with data, not nostalgia In an age of misinformation and partisan posturing, let’s use open data to raise the bar for public arguments and hold each other accountable.

@brianckeegan.com so wonderful to see you doing this column! Thank you! boulderreportinglab.org/2025/07/22/b...

What It's Like to Work at a Tech Worker Co-op Catalyst Cooperative is an all-remote, 8-person, tech worker cooperative based in North America. The coop was founded in 2017 with the mission to make US energy system data more accessible. Catalyst's...

Thank you to the great Colorado-founded @catalyst.coop for this deep-dive on worker co-op management & governance! 

And thank you GEO Collective for publishing: geo.coop/articles/wha...

Always my feeling when returning from anywhere

It's certainly possible. But as I argue in this paper: quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mij/150318..., shared ownership isn't a substitute for public funding of journalism, which is a necessity. Actually I think that many public radio stations are co-ops in all but literal ownership. @joshshepperd.bsky.social?

The history (and future) of public media in the US - WDET 101.9 FM Historian and author Josh Shepperd joined the show to talk about the history of public media and efforts by the Trump administration to cut funding.

I was interviewed by Michigan Public Media about what will happen when Republicans cut funds for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

The strike.

I use that metric because that's what proponents of automation have long promised but rarely delivered.

The success of the AI industry should be judged by how much high quality, economically viable, widespread leisure time it produces for humans. So far it is not looking good.

Amen exactly.

Shared Media Services — Start.coop Support start-up and growing cooperatives in our community through in-kind and financial contributions. Our community is made stronger by the contributions of many.

I'm thrilled to share that Start.coop has just been awarded a major grant from Press Forward to support cooperatives in journalism. @medlabboulder.bsky.social will be a partner, alongside co-ops, unions, and more. Want to collaborate? www.start.coop/shared-media...

The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.

I like this longer piece by @jasonkoebler.bsky.social because it is making me think of a whole lot of things, especially the ways that business leaders/university administrators think about what AI is as an object: it is a panacea, a Hail Mary, and a black box.

www.404media.co/the-medias-p...

Other Networks: Beyond the Internet Imaginary Lori Emerson will celebrate the publication of Other Networks: A Radical Technology Sourcebook (Anthology Editions, 2025) with a 30 minute lecture performance involving handheld FM...

The internet is not enough!

My colleague @loriemerson.net has just published a beautiful book on networks beyond the internet, OTHER NETWORKS, and I get to help bring it into the world. Join us on September 9 at the Boulder library: calendar.boulderlibrary.org/event/14949129

Loomio - make decisions together without meetings Loomio is a collaborative decision-making app that saves time in meetings and keeps a record of decisions

Are you in a self-governing community, or one aspiring to self-govern?

Consider trying Loomio. It is a pioneering platform for community governance—like a really well-designed forum plus unique sense-making tools. I've been using it happily for years.

They're in need of new customers:) loomio.com/

The political divisions in the West today might be reducible to competing interpretations of today's gospel reading, the Good Samaritan. Is being a neighbor a collective obligation or an individual choice?

One of the most hopeful things I've heard in a long time is how afraid Peter Thiel is of Greta Thunberg

I am new to Girard, but from what I gather so far, the Christian Girardians who use Girard to justify Trumpian sacrifice of migrants are admitting they are not actually Christians at all.

The cover of Democracy and Economic Power by Kelso and Kelso. Very blue.

I'm sad to share news of the passing of Patricia Hetter Kelso, a visionary advocate for democratic ownership and the widow of Louis Kelso, inventor of the ESOP. 

Her writing and conversation helped inspire my work around "exit to community" and more—see how: osf.io/preprints/me...

A few esp. relevant to decentralized social:
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

And not super lazy, but here's my Zotero folder: www.zotero.org/ntnsndr/coll...

Providing stuff like this makes me really appreciate my institution.

Plus: a use-case for a blockchain.

CU Randomness Beacon random.colorado.edu