Ryan Williams

@activationlayer.org

347 Followers 1373 Following

Democracy, Technology, and Other Stuff. activationlayer.org PhD candidate @ the University of Texas. I am friends with a pug.

a cat lying in a sunbeam looks directly into the camera.
A network graph visualization interface displaying interconnected social media accounts as colored nodes (orange for one-way follows, green for mutual follows, blue for fans). The graph shows account names like Ryan Williams, Adi Robertson, Jay, and dozens of others connected by lines representing social relationships. The left sidebar contains layout and filtering options (Force, Clusters, Communities), while the right panel shows analysis results asking "Who bridges my communities?" with detailed breakdowns of top external bridge accounts. A user profile card for Adi Robertson appears at the bottom. The interface is labeled as "@activationlayer.org" and displays 372,1444 accounts with 37,649 edges in the network.
A fawn and black pug with tongue out happily gazes to the side while wearing a purple mesh harness. The dog is outdoors on a sunny street with trees, parked cars, and brick buildings visible in the soft-focused background. The pug has a cheerful, content expression and appears to be enjoying a pleasant day outside.
a website where margin notes gradually appear as the user scrolls to the relevant content.
Screenshot of an interactive coding interface for a net neutrality policy dataset. The interface displays a quote from Netflix's July 2014 FCC comment filing (GN Docket 14-28, sourced via Variety): "Title II provides [the FCC with] a solid basis to adopt prohibitions on blocking and unreasonable discrimination by ISPs." Explanatory text notes this was part of Netflix's argument for reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service, and that the same filing called opposition to Title II "largely political, not legal." Below the quote, a diagram shows a relationship coding prompt: Netflix (labeled "Actor") → [unknown relationship, shown as a question mark] → Title II classification (labeled "Concept"), with the question "Did Netflix support or oppose this?" and two buttons: "← Oppose" and "Support →". The lower portion of the screen shows a partially visible network graph with nodes for Barack Obama, Title II classification, Ban paid prioritization, and Zero-rating is acceptable, with a line drawn from Barack Obama toward Ban paid prioritization. A status indicator reads "1 statement coded."
A close-up of a fawn-colored pug resting its chin on its front paws. The dog is lying on a textured blanket with a vibrant blue, orange, and white geometric pattern, looking directly at the camera with large, expressive eyes. The background is slightly blurred, showing a tufted tan leather chair and a dark wooden cabinet against a pink wall.
A person’s hand holds a book titled Murakami T: The T-Shirts I Love by Haruki Murakami. The book cover features a realistic image of a denim fabric background with an embroidered, rectangular clothing tag sewn onto it. The tag is split horizontally into three sections: a white top, a yellow middle, and a blue bottom. On the white section, the words "Murakami T" are written in a script font next to a large, red circular logo containing a stylized, wavy "M." The yellow middle section reads "THE T-SHIRTS I LOVE" in dark blue capital letters. The blue bottom section displays the author's last name in red Japanese characters (村上) next to a red letter "T," above the name "HARUKI MURAKAMI" embroidered in yellow capital letters.
differential equations swirl around a pug's head on a beanbag.
Apple Music interface with: Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa Gidon Kremer, Keith Jarrett &... Sunbather (10th Anniversary... Deafheaven KHRUANCBIN All Melody Nils FLOATING POINTS PHAROAH SANDERS & THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Con Todo El Mundo Khruangbin TIME OUT RUE RONDOALATURK & BLUE RONDO A LA TURK THE DAVE BRUBECK QUARTET STRANGE MEADOW LARK • THREE TO GET READY • KATHY'S WALTZ• EVERYBODY'S JUMPIN • PICK UP STICKS Promises (feat. London Symp... Floating Points, Pharoah Sand... EGACY EDITION Time Out (50th Anniversary L...
Frieren shows off her true mana. a column of white energy emits from the ancient mage.
an illegally cute pug, looking directly at the camera on a gray blanket.
Photo of Sam Altman in Riyadh.
A smiling statue on a hillside of Green grass
an embarrassing portrait of a complete failure (Rubio) sitting, wordlessly, as he betrays every principle or value he may have once held.
Sweet baby pug struggles to stay awake. Her tongue won’t fit inside her mouth because she is too tired
This graph shows the growth and distribution of different types of policy responses to disinformation over time, from 2000 to the present. The visualization breaks down policies into four categories: Legislative, Executive, Judicial, and Other, represented by stacked bars. There's a clear upward trend beginning around 2015, with a significant spike in policy activity between 2018-2021, particularly in Legislative and Executive actions. The peak appears to be around 2021, with roughly 50 total policies enacted that year, followed by a notable decline in more recent years. The dominance of legislative and executive measures over judicial and other approaches suggests governments have primarily addressed disinformation through lawmaking and executive orders rather than court decisions.
some good progress on teams network page. Next up some network stats and better styling of the network itself. may eventually make this part public facing.
image.png RW This appears to be a tweet from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announcing an investigation into advertising companies. The tweet indicates that he's investigating a potential conspiracy among advertising companies to boycott certain social media platforms. He criticizes the Department of Justice under the Biden administration for allegedly not enforcing antitrust laws against "perceived political allies" and states that trade organizations and companies cannot coordinate to block advertising revenue from entities they wish to undermine. The tweet includes a card from the Texas Attorney General's official account linking to a press release on the state government website. The tweet was posted at 3:36 PM on November 21, 2024 and had received 1.7M views at the time of the screenshot.
a team assignment interface with a dark theme. The main content shows: Left side: A card labeled "MAUVE" with "#0001" A circular profile photo Name "Ryan Williams" with "@activationlayer.org" Two buttons: "Share Assignment" and "View Team" Right side: "TEAM MANIFESTO" section with text: "We are the keepers of the subtle. The ones who see beauty in the spaces between. Join us in our pursuit of the ineffable." FAQ-style sections explaining: What this means What to do now How the team wins A question about trusting "team Sage" "MEET YOUR TEAM" section showing: A team member "molly-a" (@molly-a.bsky.social) Their status: "Smiling at thoughts of house chicken." At the bottom: "an experiment from @ryan-w.bsky.social" The overall design is minimalist and elegant, using purple/mauve tones against a dark background.
different view of the Team Network visualization, filtered to show "Team Members Only" (as indicated in the dropdown). The metrics have changed significantly from the previous view: 9 Total Nodes 15 Total Connections 9 Team Members 15 Intra-team Connections The visualization now shows a simpler network with what appears to be just the core team members (represented by small circles in purple and mint green colors) connected to each other. The circles appear to be roughly the same size, suggesting similar levels of connectivity within the team. There's a red arrow in the image pointing to the "15 Intra-team Connections" metric, which seems to be highlighting this particular statistic. The interface maintains the same dark theme and includes the same note about API rate limits at the bottom. This view appears to focus on internal team relationships rather than the broader network shown in the previous image that included external connections.
A pug frowns as she sits underneath a green cat tree
Bar graph showing 'Posts per Day by Team' over the last 7 days (Nov 13-19). Two teams are represented: Team Mauve and Team Sage, with Mauve showing significantly more activity. Team Mauve's posts fluctuate across the week, with peaks of about 70 posts on Nov 18 and 40 posts on Nov 17, while maintaining roughly 15-25 posts on other days. Team Sage shows minimal activity with only one visible bar of about 3 posts on Nov 18. The graph includes a note that statistics are based on a sample of team members and scaled to represent the full team.
The image shows a pug and a cat lounging together on what appears to be a brown leather couch. The pug has a typical fawn-colored coat and is partially covered by a colorful blanket with blue, orange, and navy patterns. The cat is sleeping on a light blue textured pillow or cushion. They appear to be comfortable companions sharing the same resting space.
A photo of a pug in a tent from below. The pug, naturally, has her tongue out. The pug is standing on someone, unaware that she is making it difficult to breathe. It is near sunset and you can see trees thru the branches of the tent
A squirrel stands next to a vape. Looking out in golden morning light. Why does it vape? Who gave it to the squirrel?
a cat framed in a window. the sun is setting behind him. he is glorious. he is looking straight up and is attempting to eat the pull cord that's used to raise and lower the blinds. A cat is silhouetted against a bright window, looking upward through venetian blinds. The window appears to be on a higher floor with a scenic view of trees and landscape visible through a balcony railing. The sunlight creates a warm, backlit glow around the cat's profile.
A selfie of a pug in a tent as the sun sets. the pug does have its pink little tongue out. the pug does not know what an election is or that we lost.
A sweet baby pug looks into the camera and her whole vibe is desperately worried. The caption: “please vote”
Gorgeous baby pug looking up with a kind of saintly vibe
A cat and a pug photographed nuzzling from a low angle
a pug asleep on the arm of an orange couch. The pug has a droopy face so you know it is that good sleep.
a web app with a list of bluesky users
Screenshot: "We’ve added Discover, a more complex feed that you can expect to evolve over time. Unlike our earlier iterations of simple feeds, Discover is customized for what you like to see, while still giving you a view into what’s trending in the network. The initial version of Discover mixes in a global view of what’s trending in the network with posts from accounts you follow and posts from accounts near your social graph. We’ll continue to improve this algorithm, with the goal of making a feed full of interesting content that refreshes often and takes your unique interests into consideration."
A pug in a pink harness leans out a car window.
A cat lying on his side facing the camera
A small pug puppy lying in the green grass
A big network with red, blue and yellow nodes.
An adorable pug is mostly asleep but has her eyes open.
A cat cuddles a pug as shot from below
adorable pug in a pink harness sitting underneath a japanese maple tree