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• Post #3770919

  Installing #solar 1 house at a time leaves a lot of value on the table. What if neighbours planned together? How about #Ottawa & specifically #Centretown - Shared buying power - Lower costs - Better #battery options - More resilient communities - Less #CO2 https://mgifford.github.io/neighbourhood-solar/

• Post #3330155

  What if neighbours worked together to make solar, battery backup, and home electrification easier and more affordable? I'm exploring a community-led model for Ottawa that focuses on transparency, resilience, and reducing costs through neighbourhood-scale adoption. No sales pitches. No exclusive vendors. Just neighbours helping neighbours make informed decisions. https://mgifford.github.io/neighbourhood-solar/ #Ottawa #SolarEnergy #ClimateAction #EnergyResilience #OpenSource

• Post #2835448

  Privacy is a big deal for cars, especially electric cars. Many are worried about Chinese cars. What is worth remembering is that Western car manufacturers all fail on respecting user privacy https://www.mozillafoundation.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/ #Privacy #EV

• Post #2835447

  I built a small prototype exploring how we might publish structured accessibility information about physical buildings: https://mgifford.github.io/accessible-buildings/ Web #accessibility has standards as does the built environment. There isn't a good model though to share the work to communicate what has been done via the web. Serious critique welcome. • What key #a11y attributes are missing? • Are there existing standards to align with? • What might stop adoption? • What are the...

• Post #2835446

  What if every project on GitHub had a ACCESSIBILITY.md Would this commitment at the root of a project change anything? This is a rough draft of what it could look like: https://mgifford.github.io/ACCESSIBILITY.md #Accessibility #OpenSource

• Post #2835445

  This has come up before. Screen readers do not have a limit. Long-desc is no longer supported. However for much longer alt text, it probably makes more sense to put in an aria-described by pointing to a paragraph or page describing the content. I don't think that a 1500 character limit is unreasonable. Most folks barely do 20. But then maybe maybe NASA won't like it https://www.npr.org/2022/07/22/1112878868/webb-telescope-alt-text-visually-impaired

• Post #2835444

  I just released pdf-crawler, a tool to audit PDF accessibility at scale! This is a direct "remix" of the brilliant work by the Luxembourg government's #accessibility team & their #simplA11yPDFCrawler - it’s a testament to the power of #OpenSource: a tool built for one #gov can be adapted to help everyone. I relied heavily on #AI to refactoring the original tech into this GitHub-based scanner. It’s a great example of using AI to amplify good. Thank you @Acces...

• Post #2835443

  @allthingsopen is there a podcast or just a YouTube stream?

• Post #2835442

  So many good shows on #CanadaLandShow — I enjoy getting insight on what is happening to Canadians. It's a refreshing view on the news. Thanks @jessebrown Here are some of their popular shows. https://www.labs.canadaland.com/share

• Post #2835441

  What European governments still are using legacy social media? https://mgifford.github.io/eu-plus-government-scans/social-media.html

• Post #2158353

  I am thrilled to announce that I’ve contributed a chapter to the new book, Digital Accessibility Ethics: Disability Inclusion in All Things Tech. Published earlier today! This book explores the intersection of disability rights & the evolving tech landscape, and I’m honored to be included alongside so many brilliant voices in the field. If you are passionate about building a more inclusive digital world, this is a must-read! https://www.lflegal.com/book/digital-accessibility-ethics/...

• Post #795868

  Digital public goods are enabling open collaboration at scale. Explore what shaped the #DPG ecosystem in 2025 in the new State of the DPG Ecosystem Report: https://www.digitalpublicgoods.net/2025-DPG-Ecosystem-Report #DigitalPublicGoods #DPGA #2025DPGEcosytemReport Tag: @dpgalliance

• Post #254753

  I'm glad that at least Toronto is represented here https://citiesfordigitalrights.org Why aren't more Canadian cities interested in digital rights and digital sovereignty?