I often think of the adage from Pirkei Avot that “You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it (2:21).” Some translations say you are not free to “neglect” the work. What “the work” may be can change. In the context this quote is most frequently referenced in, it refers to tikkun olam or “repairing the world,” which I interpret to be trying to bring some increasing measure of justice into the world.

In an attempt to openly share some of the experience I’ve accrued, I’m going to recount how I fundraised from the Craig Newmark Foundation for a few years for OpenNews. I start here because of attention on Newmark’s funding as he turns away from journalism due to the issues of lack of return on investment and impact. Important beginning caveat: the old fundraising advice of “if you’ve met one funder, you’ve met one funder” applies here—the specifics of communicating with the Newmark Foundation are unique to that relationship, but some of the network pieces that made that relationship possible are more broadly transferrable.

After receiving 500+ applications for $20M in Press Forward Infrastructure funding, it was great to see a thorough report and analysis by Elizabeth Hansen Shapiro on insights that can be gained from this process. I appreciate the chance to share high-level findings with a funder audience, and to surface some of the difficult considerations funders are trying to balance.

I wish there were a corollary to this report written for a journalist audience though. I had a bit of insight into the process last year as a reviewer and later project coach, and my main takeaway was how incredibly valuable the corpus that Hansen Shapiro analyzed would be for other journalists. It was a process that highlighted to me that journalism organizations themselves also suffer from the “inequitable access to information” that Hansen Shapiro notes as one of the “persistent challenges.”

I finally had the chance to burn through another season of “Platonic” and it’s unexpectedly been the shot of hope I needed.

One of the running gags in the first season was Seth Rogen’s character kicking over electric scooters whenever he saw them. This time, it’s food delivery robots.

At a basic level, it’s just a good sight gag. It’s funny watching people kick things. You can imagine how it’s also just physically satisfying to unleash some frustration at an inanimate object that also represents, potentially, some of the most annoying encroachments of technological “progress” in daily life.

A few years ago, I noticed houses seemed like they were being flipped on my block. Neighbors moved, the tell tale gentrification font house numbers turned up. I looked up the houses on Zillow and saw their updated interiors and prices many multiples of what I bought my house for about a decade before. I asked on my synagogue’s list serv about how people had handled their house sales in markets like this and got a lot of great advice. Now that I’ve actually sold my house, I can share about the experience.

In 2024 we moved across the ocean on a boat. First thing to acknowledge is:

Cruise ships are the worst for the environment

About 20 years ago I saw a little chart in GOOD Magazine that compared the carbon impact of various types of travel. The method that was the worst, and by a long, long, long way? Traveling by boat! Or, well, on a cruise ship, which is the way people these days typically travel by sea. I never forgot that little data viz cause it was so surprising. How could it be so bad when you can just float!? Well, it’s basically like carrying an amusement park and hotel with you everywhere you go.

I finally got the chance to attend the TICTeC conference hosted by mySociety, and this year’s theme was about “Pro-Democracy Technology,” as a more directed framing than the more general term of “civic tech.” It was great to attend as part of the Open Parliament TV team and be back in a space focused on the public service aspect of technology, and, as one might expect that meant there was also a lot of overlap with journalism.

Woohoo, this website is finally updated! I will document my Drupal -> static site saga at some point, but first, a brief description of how to host a Hugo static site on Mayfirst.org.

Getting setup with Hugo generally

So, why Hugo? Well, it’s what Mayfirst uses for their own static site content. I just followed the Hugo docs to set it up locally first. This was great. Really easy to follow, ran out of the box easily and I just used the default theme. Then I searched for simple themes, and found some helpful posts. I eventually found one I liked and began adjusting things. Given my really incomplete styling knowledge, I eventually complained on Bluesky and got some extremely patient and kind and amazing help from María A. Matienzo (thanks again, María!!!).