Personal posts

Posts on architecture, obsessions, photography, poems, visits to art exhibits, essays, family, and or things about me organized under art, home, and work.

  • Pilgrimage to Pay Homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Des Plaines, IL, December 2019

    Pilgrimage to Pay Homage to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Des Plaines, IL, December 2019

    Last night I went, along with tens of thousands of other people, to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I took photos. Here they are and here’s a short essay.

  • Launch: The CUTGroup Book, Third Edition

    Today I published the third edition of “The CUTGroup: Civic User Testing Group as a New Model for UX Testing, Digital Skills Development, and Community Engagement in Civic Tech” It’s available in three ways: As a print-on-demand paperback from Amazon for $4 Free download here In complete text on a stand-alone website at cut.group The…

  • “What Is True Near Me”: The Unkept Promise of EveryBlock and Next Door

    Next Door acquired EveryBlock. I helped start EveryBlock. When making a product, there are lots of competing product directions. The direction I most wanted for EveryBlock was what we call in database work as a “single source of truth”. A decade later, there is still no one delivering on that promise, and the idea of…

  • This Is Not Glandular

    I don’t use excuses. I never liked them. The people who say “they were born this way”.Husky….Stocky…. Big-*****…Let me start by putting your minds at ease. 

  • Chicago Public Meetings Method

    A new way for civic engagement The Chicago Public Meeting Method is a rigorous set of practices for civic engagement that brings together mass information, economic development, and digital skills to foster transparent, accountable, collective decision-making. The principles are as follows: