Replying to
@firestorm We also get a wildly disproportionate number of requests for interviews and surveys from students / researchers. And -- more fun but less frequent -- from folks trying to actually start their own co-op!
Remote
Catalyst Cooperative
@catalystcoop@mastodon.energy
mastodon 4.7.3Catalyst is an all-remote data engineering, analysis and software development consultancy. We empower advocates, policymakers, and researchers working on the #EnergyTransition by publishing #OpenData and #OpenSource software related to the US energy system. We also work with mission-aligned clients on both open & proprietary projects.
We're organized as a worker cooperative.
#PyData #ClimateChange #EnergyMastodon #DataScience #DataEngineering #Cooperative
545 Followers
241 Following
23 Posts
Joined August 08, 2023
Data Viewer:
AWS Open Data:
A gorgeous interactive display of the global electricity system using open datasets:
Replying to
The exposed Claude Code harness was ported (literally) overnight to Python. And then to Rust. 🦀 🦞 By coding agents of course.
How can these purely informational goods -- created by people blatantly violating copyright on a world-historic scale -- *not* end up becoming universal commodities?
https://github.com/ultraworkers/claw-code
Replying to
@fstateaudio@mastodon.sdf.org @paulnatsuo@scholar.social @nev@status.nevillepark.ca
Another good resource is:
https://co-oplaw.org/
Which gives an overview of how many different US states handle co-ops legally.
In Colorado you can also reach out to the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, which is a descendant of New Deal era ag co-ops:
https://rmfu.org/cooperation/
They provide co-op development consulting.
Replying to
@fstateaudio@mastodon.sdf.org @paulnatsuo@scholar.social @nev@status.nevillepark.ca
The Colorado Center for Community Wealth also does co-op development:
https://www.communitywealth.org/programs/coops/coop-development
Replying to
@fstateaudio@mastodon.sdf.org @paulnatsuo@scholar.social @nev@status.nevillepark.ca
Each US state has its own incorporation statutes, some of which explicitly recognize co-ops, while others do not. Then there's Subchapter T of tax code, which governs how co-ops are taxed, based on criteria that are independent of the incorporation statutes. Colorado has particularly robust and modern co-op incorporation options. Jason Wiener specializes in co-op law, both in CO and other states:
https://jrwiener.com/
Replying to
A discussion of the Deep Agents architecture with Sydney Runkle and @mkennedy@fosstodon.org on @talkpython@fosstodon.orghttps://talkpython.fm/episodes/show/543/deep-agents-langchains-sdk-for-agents-that-plan-and-delegate
Replying to
(Actually) open AI frameworks are chasing the frontier pretty hard. It seems unclear how different the underlying LLMs really are, and how much of their apparent differences are due to the tooling that surrounds them.
The inadvertent open-sourcing of Claude Code has lifted the curtain on what the commercial tools are doing. And it's not magic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBHRPeg8zPU
Replying to
You too can check out the FERC EQR through the PUDL Data Viewer:
https://data.catalyst.coop/search?&q=ferceqr
Replying to
But this is more than a discussion about a beautiful, performant static site generator -- the "Zensical Spark" funding + user engagement model is really similar to what we want our PUDL Sustainers program to be. Great to see that someone is already making it work.
We're developing some interactive, in-browser @marimo_io@mastodon.social #DataViz notebooks in the PUDL Data Viewer. They're definitely not ready for prime-time yet, but if you're up for some alpha testing, we'd love feedback.
The first one lets you explore plant-level EIA data. #Energy #Electricity
Earlier this summer at @CSVCONF@mastodon.social Catalyst member @ZaneSelvans@social.coop gave a talk about worker co-ops as an organizational model for creating public interest technology -- open data supporting the #EnergyTransition in our case. We've turned it into a blog post (with the embedded video):
https://catalyst.coop/2024/08/13/workplace-democracy-and-open-source/
Replying to
Unfortunately, USDA has become unresponsive to further FOIA requests that would allow us to update the RUS data through the present. What's a Data Liberation Engineer to do?
Replying to
We also added a new methodology page, explaining how and why we do entity resolution on the EIA boilers, generators, plants, and utilities:
https://docs.catalyst.coop/pudl/en/v2026.4.0/methodology/entity_resolution.html
Replying to
Lol, now that we've integrated EQR of course FERC has approved changing the format in which it is reported. Hopefully they'll do some more data validation?
https://www.mcguirewoods.com/client-resources/alerts/2026/3/ferc-final-rule-reforms-eqr-process-and-reporting-key-takeaways/
Replying to
@zephoria This conversation with @jgkoomey is a good counterpoint:
https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-episode-10-ai-data-centers
RE: @catalystcoop@mastodon.energy
Last week, we told you there was one week left. Now, merely one week later, there are fewer than 48 hours left to apply to our data lab! Click the link! Apply! https://bit.ly/catalyst-data-lab
RE: @catalystcoop@mastodon.energy
Calling all energy nerds! You have one week left to apply for our data lab this August. Now is the time!
Catalyst member Kathryn Mazaitis will be at CMU Energy Week this week to connect with students and other potential PUDL data users. If you're attending too come say hello!