Ian G. Williams

@igraywill.bsky.social

1004 Followers 2499 Following

Personal account. #socialwork, PhD student @thegraduatecenter.bsky.social @gcsocialwelfare.bsky.social. Read & think about tech ethics, digital literacy, innovation, inequality, & social change. Find refuge & inspiration in #humanities & #openscience.

An obviously AI generated flyers outside a restaurant.
A screenshot from the article https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/jun/27/europe-heatwave-germany-poland-france-uk-temperature-heat-latest-news-updates
A flyer for the INC Exit Fest. https://networkcultures.org/geert/events/incs-exit-fest/
A photo from the NYC Charter Revision Commission Commission Hearing on Modernizing Government and Streamlining Government Technology in June 11, 2026.
A sign that says "Critical AI Literacy Institute <- Segal Theater"
An image of an octopus in binary code with the words DIGITAL IDEAS overlaid.
A photo from the Trump-Epstein Memorial Library.
A screenshot from the article
A photo from the Distributed AI Research Institute Possible Futures zine-making workhsop.
A screenshot of text from the petition, with a purple Sphere with the text "New capability unlocked: Palantir integration."
A meme image with the allbirds logo, where a machine with a conveyor belt has several Allbirds shoes followed by a circuitboard. A worker stands by and says "I guess we're doing AI compute now."
A picture of people petting a cat at Brooklyn Brainery
A lineup for the NYC PIT PopUp's NYC Open Data Week 2026 schedule https://nycpitpopup.org/
A flyer for the 3/24/26 at 6pm ET panel event for NYC Open Data Week. RSVP here: https://opendataweek.nyc/event/forging-links-between-public-scholarship-civic-tech-and-open-data-a-showcase-of-cuny-public-scholarship-practice-space-ps2-projects/
"In a blow to the First Amendment and privacy, the Trump administration last week approved a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plan to collect social media handles from people applying to change their immigration status. The new requirement, which was approved for one year, comes after the administration has openly declared its intent to use social media handles to screen people for speech it dislikes. The more than 3 million people applying each year for immigration status changes — such as seeking work or travel authorization, a green card, or citizenship — will now be required to give the government their social media handles. In some cases, they must also provide the handles of their young children, spouses, and parents, many of whom are U.S. citizens, green card holders, or are otherwise in the United States legally. The new rules will require them to submit any social media handles they have used over the past five years, whether used in a personal or professional capacity or even on behalf of an organization. This covers platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as well as messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and GroupMe."
"Dozens of statements on controversial matters from academic freedom to the murder of George Floyd remain on our university websites. This version of campus “neutrality” resulted in a two-tiered system for free speech. Free inquiry and academic freedom for most topics; censorship and chilled speech when donors and politicians complained. The reason for this two-tiered result is both obvious and unavoidable: There is no objective standard for what qualifies as “political” or “controversial.” The killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have highlighted the repressive side of neutrality once again. Recently, our university held what it described as a “Community Gathering” to memorialize Pretti. But the event could hardly be described as a community gathering with diverse perspectives and recollections on his death. It was instead a choreographed video presentation staged to erase any political valence from a death that was, by definition, political: Pretti was killed by the state while participating in a popular protest movement."
A screenshot of articles in City Journaly by John McMillian
A flyer for the roundtable "More Than Prompt Engineers: Philosophical Perspectives on Generative AI in Social Work Scholarship."
A picture from the NYC PIT Pop-Up Open House and Re-Launch on January 9, 2026. Rev Dr. Katie Cumiskey giving opening remarks.
A picture of a protest behind a sewer steam vent in NYC.
A screenshot of the article's title and first two paragraphs.
Screenshot of the app Brick stating "THIS IS A DISTRACTION"
A snowman in Prospect park
A tuxedo-patterned bodega cat named Zorro
A diagram of #PhDlife
Front matter image for Metagov's "Collective Governance for AI: Points of Intervention"
Logo for NYC Open Data Week 2026
Photo of Celina Su's Budget Justice book launch and livestream of an expert panel on Zohran Mamdani's election to NYC mayor, both at The CUNY Graduate Center.
Kesi Foster talking at Celina Su's "Budget Justice" book launch at The Graduate Center, CUNY
A photo from Celina Su's book talk on Budget Justice
Photo from the audience for Budget Justice book talk with Celina Su.
Juliana Rodrigues speaking at a plenary at the 10th EMES International Research Conference on Social Enterprise in Utrecht.
A photo of Jean-Louis Laville and Ian G. Williams at the 10th EMES Conference
Screenshot of EMES Conference Program
Diagram from https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.70001
CIVIC WEALTH CREATION: BYPASSING MONOPOLIES THROUGH COLLECTIVE ACTION G. T. LUMPKIN University of Tennessee University of Oklahoma EDUARDO MEL ENDEZ University of Oklahoma SOPHIE BACQ IMD Business School The market power of monopolies can severely restrict citizens’ freedom of choice. In the case of utilities, often portrayed as natural monopolies, such power may result in high prices and unreliable or absent services, especially in marginalized communities such as low-income neighborhoods or remote rural villages. While government regulation has been the traditional remedy to curb natural monopolies’ power, in this paper, we address a different solution: monopoly bypassing through collective action. We present two types of monopoly bypassing—partial and complete—through the lens of civic wealth creation (CWC): the generation of social, economic, and communal endowments that benefit communities. Through our analysis of three water and sanitation utility services cases, we demonstrate howCWC is used to catalyze the collective action of engaged citizens to effectively bypass monopoly power. The cases highlight the three stakeholder categories involved in CWC initiatives—communities, enterprises, and regimes of support—and illustrate how they act collectively to provide credible market-based solutions.
A screenshot of a map of The Oculus, showing how to find The NYC Public Interest Technology Pop-Up.
A photo of the NYC Popup storefront in The Oculus.
A flyer for a 10/29/25 talk with Benjamin Shepard about oral history, friendship, and social movement research at The CUNY Graduate Center.
A cat rolling in the grass
A picture of Montauk Brewery's Pumpkin Ale next to Watermelon Season Ale.
Banned book reading garden from Brooklyn Book Festival
A picture of a striped gray short-haired bodega cat standing outside a store, in front of a sign that says "NO PETS ALLOWED".