iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

The Book is In! It’s been a great journey to write and to my surprise managed to end the book with sincere hope about the future.

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Reposted by Charlton McIlwain

Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 26/06/2026

Charlton McIlwain makes such a poignant point at #FAccT2026: what has the decades of work that has measured, documented, & evaluated the failure and bias of AI systems done? we have known the negative impact for decades yet very little has changed

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

On #ComputerSaysMaybe, D&S Executive Director Janet Haven and Board President @cmcilwain.bsky.social sat down with @alixdunn.com to discuss the tech industry’s co-opting of academia, how giving the reins to tech oligarchs hurts people, and why independent research is essential. youtu.be/xUJbo0KmbOk

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

Great 2b back in Tulsa this week continuing our amazing collab btw NYU-Tulsa, Tulsa Film Collective, Tulsa Office of Film, Music, Arts, & Culture, & the Creative Equity Initiative for an eve of insight, skill-building, and connection for Tulsa film community. RSVP at: docs.google.com/forms/u/3/d/...

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Thanks for posting! I’m slow on the uptake on this one!

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Reposted by Charlton McIlwain

Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

Just a heads-up that our X account — where we haven't posted since November of last year — appears to have been hacked, this after two of our posts were falsely flagged as a "policy violation." Good times over there! Please note that here and LinkedIn are the only platforms we're active on.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

These cuts & cap on indirects use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, painting all universities with a broad brush when they differ in terms of endowments, the real uses and necessity of indirects to do the actual research, and impact this move will have. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

washingtonpost.com

NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately

The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 02/02/2025

BLACK HISTORY MONTH, Legacy of Black BBQ (AKA, BBQ), Day 2. BBQ has always been about bringing people together, for the sake of building community, also for other things-like activism. Here's an event by the West Philadelphia Committee to Free Angela Davis, May 13, 1972. #blackhistorymonth2025 #bbq

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Much respect to whoever can guess what I’m cookin’ up?

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

4/4. The history bears out @jennydeluxe.bsky.social point - change is inevitable. And as platforms wax and wane communties are of different minds about who stays, who goes and who tries to build bridges amongts them all. You can read more about this history in my book Black Software a.co/d/cBNl9VC

a.co

Amazon.com

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

3/4. Some couldn’t quite find their people in the new web universe. For others, it didn’t deliver the same thrill of learning a new skill (both the tactile experience of manipulating hardware) and the coding to engage and build early software).

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

2/4. Many Black users who had since the mid to late 80s built strong communities on BBS, then UseNet, struggled with what to do with the advent of the WWW. Many made the seamlessly made he transition. But many did not, just for the reason that “things just wasn’t the same.”

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 30/12/2024

1/4. thanks to @jennydeluxe.bsky.social for the shoutout in her insightful piece about @bsky.app. Its premise about the natural and inevitable ebb and flow of platforms and the community shifts that follow them remind me of the transition from pre-Web communities. www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/m...

nytimes.com

Another New Twitter? Good Luck With That.

Users are now flocking to Bluesky. But every social media platform becomes a wasteland in the end.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

As the husband of a career civil servant, I am grateful for those who believe in, and have committed their lives to the mission of government, despite who happens to occupy the White House. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

washingtonpost.com

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Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

We’re among the organizations urging an immediate halt to the Department of Homeland Security's use of non-compliant AI systems, which could be used to facilitate civil rights violations, mass detentions, and deportations under the incoming administration. abcnews.go.com/Technology/w...

abcnews.go.com

Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump's promised crackdown on immigration

President-elect Donald Trump will return to power next year with a raft of technological tools at his disposal that would help deliver his campaign promise of cracking down on immigration — among them...

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Yes, may it be so! “The smart, actually cool, genuinely interested people will once again have their moment, getting the resources and clearance to design and (re)build a tech ecosystem that is actually innovative and built for benefit.”

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

This CNN interview with Clear CEO ask all the WRONG questions about current and developing biometric “identity verification”/surveillance tech… Surely we should be conncerned with more than just the airport lines getting longer, yes? @CNN Clear p.1

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Identity & power have always shaped our technologies in ways that have ALREADY irreparably harmed those with particular identities, including some of those among those exceptional “sunflowers” as @hypervisible.bsky.social called them :) - that schmidt was speaking to in that Princeton crowd.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

In my book, Black Software, I sat something like “Can our technological tools ever outrun white supremacy?” The Q remains rhetorical. Schmidt says AI will shape Identity, but history show he has it backwards. www.businessinsider.com/eric-schmidt...

businessinsider.com

Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt says AI will 'shape' identity and that 'normal people' are not ready for it

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt said in the future AI could be a child's best friend, shaping their identity and worldview.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

First time smoking beef back ribs. They held up pretty well after 3.5 hours of smoke, another 1.5 wrapped… great bark, tender, but of course not a lot of meat on these bones!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Good point. I forget about the styrofoam!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Tonight’s quotable quote from the manchild… “I go to school and come home and have to do homework… you come home from work and don’t do fuckin’ nuthin’”ME: Yup!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

For the old folks out there or people who know - is it just me or was there a time in the 80s/90s when we didnt really recycle but were taught when we did sort recycling, egg crates went in with the plastics and not the paper??? Trying to explain to my wife why I STILL reflexively do this. any help?

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

election coming back to bite me in the butt again. My last Instacart order was dor materials to make signs for the PA polling place I observed on election day. Nice 60 degree day today. Planned to smoke three racks of St. Louis Ribs and some dino beef ribs. But my order went to that PA polling spot!

Image of instacart order showing the wrong location where my order for bbq meats was delivered to. Receipts has personal information scribbled out.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

The Mike Tyson butt shot - could have gone the rest of my days without that one.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Tonight’s choice. Brisket continues to be the favorite for this Texas BBQ fanatic.

Bbq smoker, with two rows of meat each wrapped in butcher paper. Multiple thermometer wires crisscross each other and are inserted into their respective meat

Stacked rows of thick-sliced brisket, laid out diagonally on a light brown wood cutting board

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

BBQ has a long, storied history intimately entertwined with American (race) politics - depending on time and circumstance, an expression of both pain and joy. Gonna spend my time here for the next little while….

Large cinderblock smoker lined with two rows of briskets and one in the center, all about halfway through their cook.

Large cinder block smoker filled with various meats - 4 briskets wrapped in butcher paper, two racks of ribs wrapped in foil and a rown of 10 half chickens in two rows side-by-side.

Large hand (mine) wearing a black nitrile glove holding a rack of ribs with a dark reddish black bark.

Rack of ribs, sliced and lined in a row on a light brown cutting board, with a long slicing knife lying next to it.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

I keep getting a page not found when I try the link (?)

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Reposted by Charlton McIlwain

Haymarket Books @haymarketbooks.org · 13/11/2024

Where Do We Go From Here? Join @naomiaklein.bsky.social, @chenjerai.bsky.social, @astra.bsky.social, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor for a post-election assessment and conversation Thursday, November 21st at 7:00 pm ET RSVP to attend: www.tickettailor.com/events/hayma...

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

That’s all for me folks. I’m out.

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 23/09/2024

What should we do about online harms like climate #misinfo and #childexploitation? Looking forward to moderating the #IPIE's #UNGA program! Join @selcankaynak @BruhnJensen @SRakotomalala @joaobrant and I tomorrow: CUNY Elebash Hall 9/24,...

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 23/11/2023

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! May your day be filled with smoky and fiery skirt steak!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 17/05/2023

Back at it again! @nyuniversity commencement @Yankees stadium! CONGRATS grads!!!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 11/05/2023

It’s that time! Congrats @nyusteinhardt newly minted Docs!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 11/05/2023

It was an honor, as always, to present @nyuniversity Distinguished Teaching Awards to some truly amazing faculty educators from @NYUStern @NYUSilver @NYUWagner @NYUSPS @nyugrossman @NYUTischSchool. simplebooklet.com/20222023dtaprogra….

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 18/04/2023

This article made me think of the years of police harassment, brushes with good ‘ol boys-some better/worse than others, some with badges/others who thot they had power but dint, folks who could’ve easily been the fella in this audio saying “if this had been twenty years ago…”

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 18/04/2023

About five minutes later she looked over at me again and “Charlton, seriously honey, it might be a good time to leave and get on home…” This time a took a hint. Put my money on the table said my good bye’s, hopped in my for escort and hit the road!

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Charlton McIlwain @cmcilwain.bsky.social · 18/04/2023

My campaign mgr-white woman-looks over at me and says “Charlton, ya might wanna hitthe road before it gets dark.” At the time I wasn’t wise to the fact that Durant, like many other places in OK had been sundown towns. Me and a few of my campaign buddies had a good chuckle…

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