Member Q&A with Shane Rusing
Shane Rusing, Createscape member 897, joined in March. Most days, you can find the Texas attorney of two years sitting in the Groove room at his designated desk and planning his next career move. What could that be? Find out by reading our Q&A below!
What do you do for fun?
For fun I play on two soccer teams, one indoor and one co-ed. I'm a member at Squatch Fitness and at one point or another I've met some Createscape members while relaxing in the sauna or participating in one of their hyper-intense group workouts!
At night, sometimes I hit The Concourse Project and vibe out to some of the worlds best DJ's!
Wow. That's a popular event here in Austin. I've never heard of it. How often do you make a show?
It's a great spot. It brings the warehouse techno vibe to Austin every weekend. I go about once a month, or as often as a DJ I like makes it worthwhile. Not sure if it's the music that attracts all the folks or my slick dance moves and rhythmic fist pump!
Where in Austin do you live?
Just down the street, off Govalle and Tillery.
Where are you from?
Prescott, Arizona. I graduated from the University of Arizona College of Law in 2019.
What kind of work do you do when you're at your desk in the Groove room at Createscape?
I'm an attorney licensed in Texas and Washington, DC.
So you've been practicing for...let me crunch some numbers...three years?
No! After graduation I skipped the bar exam and traveled a bit. I took my Subaru wagon from Arizona all the way down the Baja (aka, Baja California Peninsula in Mexico) to Cabo (aka, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico) with a buddy from high school. I took the next bar exam in February 2020. I'm a member of the Austin Bar Association and the Austin Young Lawyers Association.
What did you like most about studying the law?
One of my favorite experiences in law school was working in the Wrongful Conviction Clinic and attending the annual Innocence Project conference in Atlanta, GA. (Ed note: Since graduation, the Clinic merged with another department and is now known as the Innocence Project.
During the pandemic lockdowns, I started thinking more about a research project I did my last semester of law school and presented at ASU's Conference on Governance of Emerging Technologies and Science. It's related to the current First Amendment, Twitter/Facebook, content moderation debate. I started working at Createscape to work full-time on these projects. They have to do with decentralized social media platforms and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that run on a blockchain.
Instead of boring folks with technical speak, my websites are Gibbz Social and DIY DAO
When we spoke you said one thing that brought you to Texas was that you passed the bar exam here. Was Austin someplace you were considering moving to after graduating?
Yes. I have my DC and Texas license as I saw myself living and working in these states/districts. Utah is another place I may apply, but the fees add up, so....
Under the old bar system, every state had their own exam that you would have to take in order to practice there. Recently, most states began to administer the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE). It allows score transfer and reciprocity, which is really nice. You're welcome to apply to any state you have a qualifying score in!
You did a research project on "The New Free Speech Wars." Can you tell us more about your proposal?
In 2019, for a tech law and policy seminar class and to satisfy a writing requirement, I wrote a paper about online censorship and content moderation issues: First Amendment, Section 230, etc. I then presented my research at a tech and law conference, part of ASU's law school.
Basically, I was looking into how private tech companies (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) navigate the legal and political implications of their content moderation policies and when a private platform may start to function as a public forum.
The projects I'm working on today are a continuation of this initial research, specifically decentralized social protocols. In other words I'm way down the rabbit hole.
The cool thing is I happened to start following an issue relatively early, around 2018-2019, and then watched it blow up -- the crescendo being Trump's ban from Twitter after January 6, 2021. I originally became interested in the topic when a link to a news story I posted to my Facebook page was taken down.
Does your proposal have anything to do with why you're not on Twitter or other social media sites?
Well you might not be able to find me, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm not there.....hehe.
I was fortunate to have a really interesting internship my first summer of law school where I was exposed to different perspectives on corporate tech or web 2.0 (if the service is free then you're the product, the purposefully addictive nature of many apps, etc). So I'm personally not big on social media.
Yeah, I hear ya'.
I think many of us have a surface-level understanding of what free speech really means, but you have to dig in to see how it operates. At its core, the Constitution is a limit on government conduct, but today it's a little more complex.
Do you think your time at (what’s now known as) the Innocence Project and the conference in Atlanta influenced the type of law you want to eventually practice?
I would love to work in this area.
So, moving on from your profession, on your Linkedin page, it says you taught English to students in Taiwan. Did you go to Taiwan or is that something you did online?
I was there for about five months. All around the island!
Is this your first time living outside of Arizona?
No. I've lived in Ohio, DC, and NYC for a summer.
Quick Q Round:
How long have you been in Austin? Little under a year
Favorite sports? I play soccer, pickleball, workout at Squatch across the parking lot, swim at Barton.
Favorite bars/restaurants around town? JuiceLand
Favorite lunch spots? JuiceLand
How did you find Createscape? It's close to home -- a 5 minute walk. I did check out a few other spots, but landed here.
What amenities do you use here? I attend all the events involving free food or drinks! I use the conference room a lot and I'm probably the reason the coffee gone before 3pm.