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Today I am thinking about Ted Nelson's observation, embedded into the design of his iconic 1974 book, that you can't have visionary technology futures without politics.
The book was two in one. After reading "Dream Machines" you turned it over for "Computer Lib."
Last month at a conference, someone came up to me and excitedly asked me what I thought about prediction markets. As a scholar of online violence, I explained that betting markets have long been associated with intimidation & threats, and that this has been a problem in sports for a long time. Expanding gambling expands intimidation too.
And here we are.
"High-level information about the private work of students and staff using ChatGPT Edu at several universities can be viewed by thousands of colleagues across their institutions"
Research by @cynddl
@cyberlyra I have found this to be very true. Thank you for continuing to be a great conversation partner in this important space.
As a US citizen whose research and freedom of expression have been harmed by this US censorship policy, I am a named declarant in the lawsuit.
You can read the description of how it has impacted me, my lab, and many others in the complaint that was filed yesterday (pages 43-45): https://knightcolumbia.org/documents/hpsetihu54
I'm not planning to talk to the press, but I do encourage you to follow news about this story, which I estimate affects the authors of more than 1% of peer reviewed papers in computer science.
Here's a story in NPR: https://www.npr.org/2026/03/09/nx-s1-5741213/trump-censorship-visas-deportation-lawsuit
The New York Times (paywalled): https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/us/politics/lawsuit-rubio-social-media.html
Since May 2025, the US State Department has publicized a visa restriction policy that targets and threatens deportation toward people who study and report on online harms.
Yesterday, @knightcolumbia & @protctdemocracy filed a lawsuit challenging this censorship policy on behalf of @transparenttech, whose members have been harmed by this policy.
“At a time when AI is rapidly changing our lives and economy and people are already worried about their freedom and safety online, we need independent researchers more than ever. This policy is meant to censor researchers into silence and keep the public in the dark, and that’s exactly what it’s doing” -- Brandi Geurkink, ED of CITR.
cc @pluralistic
Attending Code4Lib remotely & I am *impressed* by how accessible they have made this conference. They had a venue canceled by CMU for politics, moved cities, & are still putting many orgs to shame by how inclusive it is to people with disabilities.
Librarians y'all 
Code4Lib 2026 will be held in Philadelpha, PA from March 2 to March 5.
Code4Lib (code4lib.org)
