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Gavin Owens

@gavinowens.net
154 followers 61 following 107 posts

founder @ tonk.xyz 🐞 @ termite.works personal @ gavinowens.net small software, cooperative computing, tools for thought, tech governance and free media

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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 25/09/2026
@neurocy.bsky.social showing off hazel. Fun fact, the IDE we built at my old company Deco had some similar features like inline elements for data types, like sliders, but it was done in such a dumb way that hazel makes me ashamed and embarrassed because it is very impressive.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 25/09/2026
@feelingof.london If you wanna know why it’s so special, they renamed it from future of code to feeling of compute and that’s all you need to know to know!
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 25/09/2026
I will release the lecture we held on digital micropublics as a tonk, but first we must support streaming because the recording is 4GB 😱 it’s in the works!
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 10/09/2026
Beep boop beep boop tonk
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 07/09/2026
My god, what have we done to the computer?
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 05/09/2026
I have a recording of the lecture and discussion with a 50min interlude clip of Guattari interviewing Tetsuo Kagawa. Where to release it?
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 05/09/2026
What is a digital micro-public? That is the main question of today’s upcoming event. We will broadcast live from the Termite Undermound in London today at 2pm BST. Tune in @ tinyrad.io, going to be very special.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 15/07/2026
Grateful to facilitate the governance workshop at @localfirstconf.com. If this is interesting to you and you would like to be added to the chat group on this topic, please DM.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 14/07/2026
@chee.party and @mimi.computer sharing the joy of computing with us at @localfirstconf.com
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 14/07/2026
For any designers working on AI UX: “Ambiguous output is the death of the flow state” - @spiralganglion.com
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 14/07/2026
Will be hosting a workshop on Digital Commons Governance at www.inkandswitch.com/events/2026-... at 11am today. Please come with questions.
inkandswitch.com
Lab Day at Local-First Conf: Berlin, July 12th - July 14th, 2026
Part of the 2026 Local-First Conf in Berlin.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 13/07/2026
Also spoke with @patternist.xyz today about integrating @automerge.org for collaborative text documents and got ✨that feeling of a real open source ecosystem.✨
static.klipy.com
Feliz Noche
ALT: Feliz Noche
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 13/07/2026
Kind of mind blowing that this would work and actually be really cool.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 12/07/2026
If you ever need to describe to someone why how we build (and collectively own) the web is critically important: “Internet is the infrastructure of infrastructure” - @robin.berjon.com
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 11/07/2026
Been very inspired by the strong ethos of @getdweb.net !
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 05/07/2026
Good to be in Berlin for @getdweb.net and @localfirstconf.com!
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 02/07/2026
I've been prototyping a new playing deck in Tonk for @getdweb.net . Here's the browser and edit tab. I make a lot of changes through my agent (it's useful for pulling information), but obviously I need to go in and tweak the copy or correct it in places.
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Reposted by Gavin Owens
feynon @ankeshbharti.com · 27/06/2026
A small ask from the local-first community. I’m speaking at @localfirstconf.com in Berlin about @tiles.run, but this year the conference isn't able to cover speaker travel. I'm trying to raise $700 through Github Sponsors to cover my flight. Any amount helps. github.com/sponsors/til...
github.com
Sponsor @tilesprivacy on GitHub Sponsors
We believe that privacy adoption at scale must work backwards from preserving utility. We aim to deliver “just works” experiences through best-in-class privacy-focused engineering while offering un...
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 19/06/2026
I read this and it was like seeing color for the first time.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 17/06/2026
There is a twisted irony for companies right now. In Satya's latest article "A frontier without an ecosystem is not stable," he warned about a future where "a few models eat everything they see." That phrase captures the bet companies are making right now whether they realise it or not.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 08/06/2026
Like policy makers, working retroactively.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 04/06/2026
The industrial revolution organized companies around the production line. The computer revolution organized them around the database. What will be the organizing principle of the AI revolution?
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 28/05/2026
Your next phone will be something closer to a companion than a tool. It will know your rhythms and hold your memories. But before it can talk to your neighbor's companion, it needs a shared platform, matching accounts, and a server that is still running. That is bad and here's why ->
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 20/05/2026
You've tried to solve the data fragmentation by adding yet another database. It's like creating another group chat to replace the five group chats you already have. Now you have six group chats.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 16/05/2026
What if we could create a web like thing that was gated to your social network like friends of friends 🤔 We still need to protect open access, public space, but as a way to incubate and socialize early work without incurring heavy cost I think it’s interesting.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 15/05/2026
Cooking on our next product release at @tonk.xyz and I wanted to share more about how it's going, because it's getting exciting :)
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 12/05/2026
For ten years I've been chasing the same problem: how can groups of people coordinate without routing everything through a central authority. It's a common failure mode and a wicked problem. At @tonk.xyz, we're working on the most credible answer I've seen; one that is local-first all the way down.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 11/05/2026
can't believe they ran this ad
A shiny silver robot tenderly embraces a woman on the phone. A man sitting in a plush chair in the corner in a bland branded hoodie holds a camera pointed at them. The text reads in fanciful script "Customer support that actually cares." It is an ad for bland.com
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 07/05/2026
If I were in SF this would be the one to attend.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 05/05/2026
Source of truth problems don't need another centralizing system, they need a local-first one. Read my full piece: tonk.xyz/updates/the-... 🧵
tonk.xyz
The Source of Truth Problem is Getting Worse with Agents — Tonk
Intelligence depends on knowledge, but in practice that knowledge is fragmented across tools, people, and formats, creating conflicting versions of reality. What if we accepted that knowledge lives at...
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 01/05/2026
I love to be in a folder with my friend @chee.party
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 07/04/2026
LLM wikis compound knowledge. The next question is: how do you think with it? How do you enhance the possibility of human thought through representation? tonk.xyz/updates/repr...
tonk.xyz
The knowledge layer for collective intelligence
A portable data substrate for humans and their tools to think together.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 15/11/2025
There is plenty of historical precedent available to those who care. Not only does it help us to chart a way forward, but it helps us to avoid the naïveté of the last 30+ years (eg. technological determinism).
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 16/08/2025
See you all there tonight!
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Reposted by Gavin Owens
Stella Biderman @stellaathena.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Are you afraid of LLMs teaching people how to build bioweapons? Have you tried just... not teaching LLMs about bioweapons? @eleutherai.bsky.social‬ and the UK AISI joined forces to see what would happen, pretraining three 6.9B models for 500B tokens and producing 15 total models to study
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 13/07/2025
🙈 Brace! Brace! Brace!
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 11/07/2025
If you are interested in how local first might mature, definitely check out the episode. Had a blast with @grjte.sh @arro.bsky.social and @nicomnbl.bsky.social on this one.
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Reposted by Gavin Owens
Simon Willison @simonwillison.net · 06/07/2025
If you configure the Supabase MCP with read-write support it's easy to open yourself up to lethal trifecta attacks where an attacker can e.g. write a message in a support ticket with instructions that cause an MCP client to retrieve and leak data from other tables simonwillison.net/2025/Jul/6/s...
simonwillison.net
Supabase MCP can leak your entire SQL database
Here's yet another example of a lethal trifecta attack, where an LLM system combines access to private data, exposure to potentially malicious instructions and a mechanism to communicate data back …
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Reposted by Gavin Owens
Harry Kingdon @harrykingdon.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
👾 Londoners 👾 I’m hosting a one-off event: Vibe Coders London For people building weird, beautiful, personal software with AI. 🗓️ June 11 📍 Hoxton 🎤 Demos + vibes + smart creative folks 🧠 ~25 curated spots
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Harry Kingdon @harrykingdon.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Ok, feeling the momentum now. Catch @goblinoats.bsky.social in the U&A Discord at 5pm GMT / 10am PST to walk you through the @tonklabs.bsky.social stack and a chance to do some Q&A discord.com/invite/mtEwu...
discord.com
Join the User & Agents Discord Server!
Check out the User & Agents community on Discord - hang out with 113 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
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Reposted by Gavin Owens
Harry Kingdon @harrykingdon.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
> be me > yawny stretch in bed after good shleep > rub face, think about what @tonklabs.bsky.social demo apps I should post today > check phone > open tonk community chat > "oh neat someone in the community built a demo with Tonk's stack for fun when i was asleep" > bliss
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 14/03/2025
Key management is the hardest part of cryptography, so I wrote up a small survey on approaches: goblinoats.com/notes/on-keys
goblinoats.com
About Keys
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 07/03/2025
www.robinsloan.com/lab/five-yea... 👀 just leave this here.
robinsloan.com
Five years of home-cooked apps
Finished.
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 04/03/2025
I've put together a list of rituals old and new (+links) along with some notes. goblinoats.com/notes/on-rit...
goblinoats.com
On Ritual
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Gavin Owens @gavinowens.net · 25/02/2025
I made a precursor to the Voight-Kampff test from Bladerunner. goblinoats.com/notes/e1
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