Sean Boots
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bluesky.sboots.ca
Sean Boots
@bluesky.sboots.ca
A better world, by listening.
Reposted by Sean Boots
I feel this so deeply. I’ve been told I belonged somewhere. I’ve been told I was valued and appreciated and accepted.

I’ve also *been* valued, appreciated, and accepted.

Almost never by the same groups. And never in the same places.
"you belong here" means "you are responsible for staying here and fixing this no matter what" when it is delivered to you by someone who also says "and I cannot be held responsible for ever making you feel like you belong and are seen"

This is why I don't accept invites to talk to girls about tech
I believe a lot of folks underestimate the bruising psychological effect of being told "you belong here" while simultaneously being consistently oppressed by the same people

Bearing witness & providing community & data to prove it's real is so important
November 28, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
"you belong here" means "you are responsible for staying here and fixing this no matter what" when it is delivered to you by someone who also says "and I cannot be held responsible for ever making you feel like you belong and are seen"

This is why I don't accept invites to talk to girls about tech
I believe a lot of folks underestimate the bruising psychological effect of being told "you belong here" while simultaneously being consistently oppressed by the same people

Bearing witness & providing community & data to prove it's real is so important
November 28, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Whoa, this kinda took off on me! Look at all the love for CanCon!

(And I happened to write a piece on Schitt's Creek a few years ago - which we then developed into an undergrad seminar course! - you can find here: theconversation.com/schitts-cree...)
‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Letterkenny’ are love letters to rural Canada
Shows like ‘Schitt’s Creek’ and ‘Letterkenny’ upend how we imagine rural Canada to be. The small-town dynamics represented are wonderful presentations of what it means to be human.
theconversation.com
November 28, 2025 at 7:36 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Dan Levy openly says that Schitt's Creek would not have survived anywhere except the CBC because it was weird and took a season or so to find its feet... Just for reference if you wanna know the ROI on this approach to supporting creative things.
Canada made weird tv shows because it was all being done with government funded art grant money so they fell in this wacky middle ground between “shoestring budget” and “no expectation to generate shareholder value” which is really the best way to make art
November 27, 2025 at 1:20 AM
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And Canada is going all in on pipelines and fossil fuels. Setting ourselves up to be both climate criminals and years behind the rest of the world.
November 28, 2025 at 4:14 PM
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well, it’s an understatement to say that this put me on the floor. as beautiful and devastating as you might expect from @amalelmohtar.com
November 27, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Today's Love Letter is a stunning meditation on birdwatching and the loss of a friendship, from the one and only @amalelmohtar.com

stone-soup.ghost.io/love-letter-...
Why I Need the Birds
A Love Letters Feature by Amal El-Mohtar - November 2025
stone-soup.ghost.io
November 25, 2025 at 11:33 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
This is why OpenAI is selling so aggressively to education at all levels—they want to create entire generations of users incapable of reading, writing and thinking without ChatGPT to hold their hands

And teachers and professors should call this out for what it actually is
To bear out this rosy projection, HSBC assumes that OpenAI will become "as ubiquitous [...] as Microsoft 365" (345mm users worldwide) while bringing in 10x the number of users (3bn).
November 25, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Fifteen Years

xkcd.com/3172/
November 26, 2025 at 10:32 PM
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"[The Deloitte report] included fictional papers coauthored by researchers who said they had never worked together."
November 27, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Reposted by Sean Boots
"The Deloitte report contained false citations, pulled from made-up academic papers to draw conclusions for cost-effectiveness analyses, and cited real researchers on papers they hadn’t worked on, the Independent found."
November 27, 2025 at 4:41 AM
Reposted by Sean Boots
"A Canadian government-commissioned Deloitte health care report that cost one province nearly $1.6 million contains potentially AI-generated errors, marking the second country this year to allege the consulting firm’s fact-checking shortcomings."
Deloitte allegedly cited AI-generated research in a million-dollar report for a Canadian provincial government | Fortune
In a healthcare report aimed to address a nurse and doctor shortage, Deloitte cited several fake studies with real researchers’ names attached.
fortune.com
November 27, 2025 at 4:38 AM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Always looking for an excuse to buy (and use!) new stamps, so this is just a delight: www.cbc.ca/books/new-st...
November 26, 2025 at 9:21 PM
My team is hiring! 👩‍💻 Product manager for digital credentials, deadline to apply is December 9th. (Based locally in Whitehorse, Yukon.) It’s a great crew! yukon.ca/en/digital-b...
Looking for a product manager for digital credentials and identity management program | Yukon.ca
Details about a job competition at eServices for the digital credentials and identity management project manager position.
yukon.ca
November 26, 2025 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
My guess: the BOM got taken for a ride by Accenture, who turned a $20M contract into a $62M contract, because BOM didn't have empowered technologists who knew better. I've got no special knowledge here—this is just how these projects tend to go.
November 25, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
A big failure like this, naturally people started asking how much the project cost. At the time of the launch, BOM said that it cost $4.1 million. That's a fair and reasonable price tag for a project of that scale. But it turns out that was part of a USD $62.5M contract to Accenture.
BOM website questions intensify over true cost of redesign
Tender documents and sources show the Bureau of Meteorology's new website may have cost between $78m and $150m — much higher than initially reported.
www.abc.net.au
November 25, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
A month ago, Australia's Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) launched a new version of their weather forecast website for the country. It has *not* been well received, and with a price tag somewhere between USD $2.6–62.5M (it's unclear), this has become a small scandal. www.bom.gov.au
www.bom.gov.au
November 25, 2025 at 6:38 PM
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Today's @showuptoronto.ca newsletter includes some thoughts on Bill 60 and not losing heart in the face of defeat, as well as another incredible 60+ events for this upcoming week. Subscribe and tell your friends buttondown.com/showup/archi... #toronto
Show Up Toronto - November 25, 2025
Hi friends and neighbours, Yesterday protestors packed the public gallery at Queen's Park and created an organized disruption of the Bill 60 vote (including...
buttondown.com
November 25, 2025 at 8:10 PM
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"The colonial stench of Indigenous Service Canada must be deep-cleaned, and the Department of Justice can’t keep defending the indefensible."
November 25, 2025 at 11:08 PM
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My latest article on why cleaning up ISC and Justice are so essential to clear the way for the multiple solutions to solve longstanding problems and rset reconciliation policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/11/indi...
Ending harm starts with reforming ISC and Justice
Indigenous Services Canada and the Department of Justice must be overhauled to end their discriminatory practices and harm to First Nations children.
policyoptions.irpp.org
November 25, 2025 at 10:08 PM
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@bluesky.sboots.ca kicking ass and taking names to help launch this year Canadian Open Data and Govmaker Summit.

Sooo good as always Sean
November 25, 2025 at 2:09 PM
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ChatGPT fake citations in a 1.6M$ report! Absurdly unprofessional by Deloitte, NL gov't should sue for a full refund. I expect in a few years this too may be seen as 'normal'. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
N.L. asks Deloitte to carry out review after 'incorrect' citations found in $1.6M provincial health plan | CBC News
The Newfoundland and Labrador government says it's been in contact with the private company responsible for a new report meant to guide the province into the future, which was found to contain fake ci...
www.cbc.ca
November 24, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Windows 11 is barely recognizable as a desktop operating system for a general purpose computer. It's absolutely "applianceware", turning our boxes into externally managed devices with mandatory adware.
November 24, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Here's the second Washington Post Guild pay report, which covers retention from 2022: postguild.org/2022-pay-stu...
Pay, Diversity and Retention at The Post: Introduction
As a follow-up to our 2019 pay study, we once again examine compensation at The Washington Post by race, gender, age and department. But this report goes a step further, using demographic data provide...
postguild.org
November 24, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Reposted by Sean Boots
Two big reasons why I stopped being a media reporter: I started in 2017 when the first MeToo reports were released, then saw the union reports showing the extent non-white staff were discriminated against on pay and performance at the Washington Post and NYTimes. They were all difficult to read.
November 24, 2025 at 6:03 PM