Colin Megill

Bluesky's near-consensus that AI doesn't work and won't be a technology that has major knock-on effects on society is…not grounded in reality. No mater how loudly and repetitively people say it.

Panel on Growing the Open Society: Tech and democratic innovation

And now we have a panel 'Growing the Open Society: Tech and democratic innovation' with @fecampagnucci.com, @colinmegill.com from Polis (a real time system for gathering and analysing what real people think), and Lula Chen from MIT Governance Lab. #TICTeC

Fantastic panel at #TICTeC Day 2
✨ @fecampagnucci.com
✨Lula Chen from MIT GOV/LAB
✨ @colinmegill.com from Pol.is

I might go as far as to say that the attempt to “get past” process is actually a part of that problem because it further undermines the attempt to have the conversation we need about process.

This has to be critical assumption of next generation of dem tech

Agree with @glenweyl.bsky.social: "We cannot "get past" process. We must improve on it."

or thinking that what they believe is the answer will appear unattractive to the "hoi poloi" and therefore needs to be hidden. Making the case for why I think this is bad practice is hard to do briefly, but I think it is a strategic mistake.We cannot "get past" process. We must improve on it.

TICTeC 2025 Growing the Open Society: tech and democratic innovation. Fernanda Campagnucci, InternetLab/University of Muenster; Colin Megill Polis/The Computational Democracy Project; Martin Tisne, AI Collaborative; Louise Crow mySociety. Day 2 of TICTeC June 11 2025, 10:15-11:00, Mechelen and online

TICTeC day 2's plenary sees @fecampagnucci.com of @internetlab.bsky.social; @colinmegill.com‬ of Polis & the Computational Democracy Project; ‪@martintisne.bsky.social‬ of the AI Collaborative and our own @itscrowbot.bsky.social‬. Join the conversation: tictec.mysociety.org/event/tictec... ‬ ‬

AlphaEvolve: A Gemini-powered coding agent for designing advanced algorithms New AI agent evolves algorithms for math and practical applications in computing by combining the creativity of large language models with automated evaluators

deepmind.google/discover/blo...

not the wedge issue platform, the union issue platform

at some point there's a tip-over

Nostalgia for the Early Days of Parenting “Cherish it while you can” is hard advice to follow for many new parents.

Older parents are constantly telling those in the early days to cherish it. But that can be very hard advice to follow when you’re in the thick of it. In the Wonder Reader, Isabel Fattal rounds up stories on the gems and the challenges of parenting:

I hardly ever draw on paper anymore and I miss it. I miss the results.

The 100 Men Vs 1 Gorilla debate

Blue Devil of the Week: Helping Patients Take Steps Toward Healing | Duke Today

Lost a dear friend to cancer today, absolute force of nature. As a doctor, Dana was hope for many patients. Joyous, generous, humble. Impossible that she's gone, leaving behind a young daughter.

We loved you Dana Lott — you'll be in our hearts forever.

today.duke.edu/2019/09/blue...

Oh hell yes.

Papers with Code - Polis: Scaling Deliberation by Mapping High Dimensional Opinion Spaces Implemented in 4 code libraries.

paperswithcode.com/paper/polis-...

Yeah! Dimensionality reduction, cluster and then look across clusters for what's agreed on

It's the method community notes it's built off of too, (their paper cites polis) happy to share links if interested

A small US city experiments with AI to find out what residents want Residents of Bowling Green, Kentucky, used machine learning to shape civic debate. The real test is whether the government acts on the results.

Bowling Green, Kentucky, is home to 75,000 residents who recently wrapped up an experiment in using AI for democracy: Can an online polling platform, powered by machine learning, capture what residents want to see happen in their city?

A small US city experiments with AI to find out what residents want Residents of Bowling Green, Kentucky, used machine learning to shape civic debate. The real test is whether the government acts on the results.

A fascinating democracy experiment in Kentucky saw good participation. There's still a debate though: can a self-selecting group of residents ever really represent a city's ideas? Great to speak with @politicsprof.bsky.social @bethnoveck.bsky.social
www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/15/1...

pol.is founder here — would be happy to discuss or answer questions — thanks for sharing and commenting!

A small US city experiments with AI to find out what residents want Residents of Bowling Green, Kentucky, used machine learning to shape civic debate. The real test is whether the government acts on the results.

Really interesting story about essentially using AI for participatory (non-AI) governance; a lot of stuff about participatory methods in AI is about using crowds or voting or things like that to design the AI itself, this is sort of the reverse.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/04/15/1...

Also curious!

a screenshot of the new Explore page. The title is "Explore." Underneath there's "Search for posts, users, or feeds." Under that there are trending topics listed 1 through 5, which are Dodgers, Roberts Stay, Iran Talks, Minecraft Movie, and Trump and Netanyahu.

Team's been working hard on a new "Explore" page (what you see before you search). Apparently the dodgers are hot rn.

Shout out to Darrin ( @mrnuma.bsky.social ) for showing us all the upside of hiring a designer

A dishevelled Debbie Harry in a long dress, in a dingy, fire-scarred kitchen, furnished with makeshift shelves and aged appliances, holding a burning frying pan out in front of her.

Debbie Harry, wearing a dress that was purportedly once Marilyn Monroe's, in the fire damaged apartment she shared with Chris Stein at 17th Street and 6th Avenue, New York City, 1970.

Photo by Chris Stein.

CNBC's Steve Liesman doesn't mince words about the way the White House calculated its tariff rates:

"Nobody ever heard of this formula. Nobody has ever used this formula. So I’m sorry, but the conclusion seems to be the president kind of made this up as he went along... these are off the charts."

This is a picture of the Northern Technologies Vision 1000 computer terminal from the early 80s. It's in the "set up" screen where various settings can be changed including switching from 80 columns to 132 columns. #retrocomputer

Got my Northern Technologies Vision 1000 VT-100 workalike terminal sort of working. It comes up all weird and when it warms up, it's fine. This one is quite stylish and was designed by Bertoni (the Ferrari Bertoni). It has a built-in tilt screen and a keyboard garage underneath. #vintagecomputer

my profile page on flashes, a photo sharing app. recent photos i posted show up there in a grid display

Here’s my account on Flashes, a photo sharing app. All my followers can automatically find me as soon as they log in!

This is what we mean when we say Bluesky is open: your identity and followers belong to you. It took 30s to sign up for this new, independent app, and everything is there.

YouTube video by WCVB Channel 5 Boston Surveillance shows Tufts graduate student detained

This is horrifying. She co-wrote an OpEd at her school, then was grabbed by masked people, put into an unmarked black van, is now detained in an ICE facility over 1000 miles away.
youtu.be/PuFIs7OkzYY
Trying to limit the topics I post about, but this is my country and this one shook me. =(

You can read the oped Rumeysa Ozturk co-authored that got her added to Canary Mission’s website:

www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024...