Duncan Brown
@duncanjbrown.com
CTO for Digital Prevention Services, NHS England
https://mechanicalsurvival.com
https://mechanicalsurvival.com
this excellent paper has a section called “From antipolitical AI to political AI”? read.dukeupress.edu/public-cultu...
From Thin to Thick | Public Culture | Duke University Press
read.dukeupress.edu
November 21, 2025 at 12:47 AM
this excellent paper has a section called “From antipolitical AI to political AI”? read.dukeupress.edu/public-cultu...
what a brilliant essay. amongst many other things, i’m definitely having “thick” and “thin” construction🧎
November 8, 2025 at 8:16 AM
what a brilliant essay. amongst many other things, i’m definitely having “thick” and “thin” construction🧎
There are definitely more, especially on interop and open standards!
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
There are definitely more, especially on interop and open standards!
5. Good software does not make the world worse by deliberately enabling violence or injustice.
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
5. Good software does not make the world worse by deliberately enabling violence or injustice.
4. Good software remains attentive to the needs of its users throughout its lifetime.
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
4. Good software remains attentive to the needs of its users throughout its lifetime.
3. Good software does not force its user to deviate from standard operating procedures (e.g. just run a process in a container) without very good reason.
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
3. Good software does not force its user to deviate from standard operating procedures (e.g. just run a process in a container) without very good reason.
2. Good software does not pursue lock-in. It seeks to actively participate in open standards and to improve them where tasteful and appropriate. Ideally it does not need to care what its own commercial model is.
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
2. Good software does not pursue lock-in. It seeks to actively participate in open standards and to improve them where tasteful and appropriate. Ideally it does not need to care what its own commercial model is.
1. Good software works, which means it does what is expected according to the consensus reality shared by the team, the rest of the company, the community, etc, and it can change as the consensus reality changes.
October 27, 2025 at 6:41 AM
1. Good software works, which means it does what is expected according to the consensus reality shared by the team, the rest of the company, the community, etc, and it can change as the consensus reality changes.
I agree—APIs need good public relations!
October 25, 2025 at 8:18 AM
I agree—APIs need good public relations!
We’ll definitely blog if we find traction!
It’s so hard to argue for the long term in general isn’t it. I feel like someone must have written about this!?
It’s so hard to argue for the long term in general isn’t it. I feel like someone must have written about this!?
October 24, 2025 at 1:52 PM
We’ll definitely blog if we find traction!
It’s so hard to argue for the long term in general isn’t it. I feel like someone must have written about this!?
It’s so hard to argue for the long term in general isn’t it. I feel like someone must have written about this!?
We lived this at DfE didn’t we—70-odd university integrations on 6 month release cycles governing what we could and couldn’t change in the teacher training application form. It wasn’t incompatible, but it was definitely a constraint!
October 24, 2025 at 8:48 AM
We lived this at DfE didn’t we—70-odd university integrations on 6 month release cycles governing what we could and couldn’t change in the teacher training application form. It wasn’t incompatible, but it was definitely a constraint!
And on a longer term view, of course the habit of procurement lives in so many aspects of the culture
October 24, 2025 at 7:48 AM
And on a longer term view, of course the habit of procurement lives in so many aspects of the culture
I’ve only been here a few weeks! But @richardpope.org and I are trying to make standards desirable from a both dev and product point of view - excellent developer experience and tangible benefits (a path to NHS App integration, for example) for adopters
October 24, 2025 at 7:46 AM
I’ve only been here a few weeks! But @richardpope.org and I are trying to make standards desirable from a both dev and product point of view - excellent developer experience and tangible benefits (a path to NHS App integration, for example) for adopters
This is delicious—going to read the whole thing. Thanks!
October 22, 2025 at 4:03 PM
This is delicious—going to read the whole thing. Thanks!
💯 it’s practically impossible to do anything when language is so degraded? Stealing common words for technical terms is especially wicked
October 18, 2025 at 11:40 AM
💯 it’s practically impossible to do anything when language is so degraded? Stealing common words for technical terms is especially wicked
Thank you for the shout out!
October 18, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Thank you for the shout out!