Technology for User Sovereignty

Conducted testing and analysis of Covid-19 infection rates and economic impact in Chelsea, Massachusetts, to understand localized effects of the pandemic.

Develops and maintains Mathesar, a no-code, open-source platform that provides a spreadsheet-like interface to view, edit, and query PostgreSQL data, enabling non-technical users to manage databases securely with minimal setup and learning curve. The platform supports features such as data exploration, filtering, sorting, grouping, summarizing, multi-table editing, CSV import/export, form building, and granular permissions.

Directs revenue generated from Mathesar Cloud to the Mathesar Foundation, a nonprofit that funds the continued development, maintenance, and open-source distribution of the Mathesar platform.

Offers a hosted version of Mathesar—Mathesar Cloud—in early public beta, enabling users to access the platform without software installation or server management. Includes a limited free plan with a hosted PostgreSQL database and single-user account.

Conducts research and promotes public understanding of monetary processes and the importance of a healthy monetary system for a free society.

Recruits and collaborates with volunteer Rails programmers and web designers via GitHub to support the redesign and development of civic tech platforms like AskThem, fostering community-driven innovation in open-source governance tools.

Develops and supports nonpartisan, open-source research initiatives such as RaceTracker, which crowdsourced election data for all 2010 U.S. federal and state races, and the Democracy Map project, which provides accessible local civic data. Also created the Congressional Scorecard Library to centralize expert analyses of legislative voting records.

Creates, operates, and maintains free, open-source web platforms such as OpenCongress, Councilmatic, AskThem, and Contact-Congress to improve access to legislative information and enable public participation in government at federal, state, and local levels. These tools include searchable interfaces for legislation, systems for contacting Congress, and platforms for tracking elections and elected officials.

Develops and provides free, embeddable JavaScript and HTML widgets that allow regional media outlets and political blogs to integrate public question campaigns into their websites, enabling constituent interaction with members of Congress and candidates during elections. Examples include issue-specific widgets on immigration and the opioid crisis.

Advocates for the official use and integration of its tools in governmental processes, such as securing the NYC Council’s adoption of Councilmatic for public legislative access. Also promotes broader use of open-source technologies to strengthen digital public spaces and democratic participation.

Runs Sludge, an independent newsroom producing in-depth reporting on corruption, lobbying, and financial influence in government. The organization receives grant funding from multiple foundations to support this journalistic work.

Runs AskThem, an open-source Q&A platform enabling the public to submit questions to elected officials and political candidates, with over 80 officials committed to monthly responses. The program was actively used during the 2018 and 2020 election cycles across federal, state, and municipal levels, supported by partnerships with local media and embeddable widgets.

Produces reports and advisory materials on digital rights, privacy, and information policy, and provides expert input to national and international communications and intellectual property regulators to advance digital freedom.

Publishes reports summarizing discussions and outcomes from annual FreedomBox Summits, including proceedings from the 2018 and 2019 events held in New York City, to document community insights and guide future development.

Develops, maintains, and distributes a free and open-source software platform (licensed under AGPLv3) that enables individuals to self-host private internet services such as file sharing, encrypted messaging, voice calls, and personal websites. The software is released approximately every two weeks with updates including patches, new features, UI improvements, and support for additional hardware like ARM64 devices and Orange Pi Zero.

Provides technical infrastructure and hosting for developers, publishes onboarding materials including a manual and tutorial for contributing code, conducts training sessions to set up development environments, coordinates developer activities, shapes strategic direction through partnerships, and drafts governance frameworks such as a code of conduct.

Organizes and hosts annual FreedomBox Summits (including fully virtual events) and collaborative hackathons, such as one co-hosted with the Software Freedom Law Center at Columbia Law School, featuring discussion sessions on development plans, UI changes, and actionable project ideas, along with installfests and developer training.

Manages global communications, marketing, and partnerships to promote awareness and adoption of the FreedomBox project.