Joseph D. Smith

Selected work

I build products and the systems behind them.

I lead Product at DDC Public Affairs and build independent software in my spare time.

My work ranges from enterprise public-affairs platforms used by hundreds of organizations to small iPhone apps, games, data tools, and experiments in artificial life.

01Current role

DDC

One product system for public affairs.

I lead Product at DDC Public Affairs, an Omnicom company. My team builds and operates the software used for PAC management, advocacy, communications, compliance, and reporting. View the experience ↗

Most public-affairs programs are split across several vendors. DDC brings the CRM, PAC website, advocacy tools, email, compliance, and reporting into one platform, with one client record underneath it.

My job covers product strategy, design, engineering priorities, security, client experience, and the business behind the products. The platform supports more than 360 clients and 430 websites, including heavily regulated companies that put us through more than 300 security reviews each year.

The work is often less glamorous than a new feature: enforcing legal contribution limits, generating payroll files correctly, keeping constituent targeting accurate, moving legacy systems into Azure, and making hundreds of sites manageable by a small team. That reliability is the product.

I have also led our work on personalization and AI. We built shared rules for dynamic content, a permission-aware AI orchestration layer, and internal operating tools that turn repeatable agency work into documented workflows.

Democracy Direct®
01 — Democracy Direct®PAC receipts, disbursements, payroll deductions, contributor history, and legal limits in the same CRM. Filing and reconciliation happen in the system instead of a separate spreadsheet.
Capitol Connect®
02 — Capitol Connect®The advocacy platform supports letters, calls, social posts, and regulatory comments. VerifiedConstituent confirms that a sender lives in the district before the message reaches an office.

Role

SVP of Product · current

Platform

Democracy Direct® · PACWeb® · Capitol Connect®

Under management

430+ websites · 360+ clients

Assurance

300+ enterprise security audits a year

02Portfolio · Artificial life

Loom.haus

A search for stable, self-reproducing structure.

Loom is an artificial-life experiment that evolves the rules of a small simulated universe instead of designing the creatures inside it. View the experience ↗

Each universe contains two complex fields on a torus. They evolve under the Gross–Pitaevskii equation, a nonlinear form of the Schrödinger equation used for quantum matter waves.

The search changes physical constants such as mass, coupling, damping, and drive. The question is simple: which combinations allow persistent structures to form, split, and pass recognizable structure to descendants?

The difficult part is measurement. A spreading wave can look like reproduction, so Loom only counts an event when descendants separate, persist, and remain more similar to their parent than to unrelated structures. The system has observed many fissions, but no confirmed inheritance yet.

Live — loom.hausThe live simulation. Brightness shows density and hue shows phase. The overlay tracks active area, excitations, packets, fissions, inherited structure, and heterogeneity.

What it is

Artificial-life research platform

Engine

Gross–Pitaevskii · Visscher staggered leapfrog

Physics as data

Planck · mass · 3 couplings · damping · drive

03Portfolio · iOS · simulation

Emergent.D

Build a planet. Spend the planet to keep playing.

Emergent.D is a planet-building simulation for iPhone and the web. You sculpt terrain, move water, grow life, mine resources, and manage the damage caused by doing it. View the experience ↗

The core is a fluid and particle simulation built in Metal. Terrain, rivers, ice, clouds, and vegetation respond to the same world state rather than running as separate visual effects.

The economy is tied to the simulation. Mining produces gold but damages the ecosystem that makes future mining possible. Satellites use real orbital parameters and affect only the ground they pass over.

The browser version uses React, Three.js, WebGPU, and a WebGL2 fallback. Each persistent planet has an authoritative server process that hibernates when empty and advances the world while players are away.

Gold is controlled by the server through an append-only ledger. Player actions are sent as compact brush operations and replayed for verification, while arcade scores that award currency are checked server-side.

Terra Prime
01 — Terra PrimeThe browser build with named geography, orbital scale, chat, and the complete terrain tool set.
Characters
02 — CharactersAbout three dozen shared characters have profiles, worlds, leaderboard records, and distinct voices. Global character data is cached; only each player’s relationship history is stored separately.
Terraforming
03 — TerraformingThe Metal simulation produces terrain, water, ice, clouds, and rivers from one world model. The energy budget across the top limits sculpting and mining.
Satellite shop
04 — Satellite shopThe collection includes 107 cards based on real satellites and missions. Their game effects are tied to the work each satellite actually performed.
Cosmic Arcade
05 — Cosmic ArcadeA set of arcade games that provide another way to earn gold. Payouts are capped and scores are verified by the server.

What it is

iOS simulation game · released Feb 2026

Engine

Metal fluid & particle simulation

04Portfolio · iOS · civic

Touch Advocacy

Contacting Congress should feel normal.

Touch Advocacy makes civic participation accessible to every American, whether or not they know how Congress, legislation, campaigns, or advocacy organizations work. Download on the App Store ↗

The app starts with the people who represent you and two familiar actions: call or write. It removes the jargon, issue catalogs, forms, and long onboarding flows that make advocacy feel like something reserved for professionals.

On-device Apple Intelligence helps people understand bills and campaign finance in plain language. Survey results and Census data add context about public opinion and the communities affected, so people can decide what matters to them before taking action.

Verified location connects each person to the correct district and representatives. Calls and messages move through the tools people already know, while Touch records completed actions without requiring an extra confirmation step.

Ranks, badges, and streaks keep people engaged and help occasional participation become a regular civic habit. Only completed actions count, so the system rewards real participation rather than taps inside the app.

Touch Advocacy
01 — Touch AdvocacyApp icon.
Your representatives
02 — Your representativesThe first screen shows who represents you, how to reach them, and your voter-registration status without requiring you to understand congressional districts or advocacy software.
Ranks and badges
03 — Ranks and badgesCompleted calls and messages build ranks, badges, and streaks that encourage people to stay involved over time.
American Zeitgeist
04 — American ZeitgeistSurvey results, Census data, prices, presidential administrations, and major legislation provide context for the issues shaping American life.

What it is

Accessible civic participation for iPhone

Context

On-device Apple Intelligence · surveys · Census data

Participation

Verified location · calls · messages · civic streaks

05Portfolio · Production system

Monday Draft

A repeatable production loop for client work.

Monday Draft combines local AI agents with a web application for briefs, production, quality checks, approvals, delivery, and measurement.

Most AI content tools stop after generating a draft. Monday Draft keeps the context around the work: the brand, market, template, source material, review history, performance, and what should change next time.

A local agent runtime produces typed artifacts. The web app handles client onboarding, review, approval, billing, and delivery. Quality gates can send weak work back through the run instead of simply flagging it.

Modules can publish independently, and each cycle feeds its results into the next brief. The goal is not more content. It is a production system that becomes more useful with each week.

One week across every market
01 — One week across every market
Monday Draft
02 — Monday DraftIdentity.
Production console
03 — Production consoleOne view for reviewing a week of work across 27 businesses. Each item keeps its version history, approval state, and feedback.

What it is

AI-native production system for client deliverables

Shape

Local agent runtime + web app as one pipeline

First-class

Brands · locations · artifacts · runs · approvals · memory

The loop

Brief → produce → QA gate → review → approve → measure

06Portfolio · iOS · mindfulness

Amieeba

A digital fidget toy for reclaiming your focus.

Amieeba is a private, ad-free digital slime experience for iPhone and iPad. Fluid physics, haptics, sound, and simple repetitive interactions give restless hands somewhere to go while the mind slows down. Download on the App Store ↗

The experience is built around sensory play rather than competition. You stretch, split, merge, and reshape a fluid form while bubbles respond with crisp sound and a satisfying haptic click.

The score and timer provide a light rhythm to the session, not a game to win. As the screen fills and rewards build, pressing and holding releases the form in an explosion of fluid motion—a digital exhale before starting again.

Amieeba is designed as a safe, calming break for adults and children. It has no advertising, no subscription, and collects no data. The app costs $0.99 once.

Amieeba
01 — AmieebaA private, ad-free digital fidget toy built from fluid physics, sound, and haptics.
Amieeba — Digital Slime
02 — Amieeba — Digital SlimeApp icon.
Sensory play
03 — Sensory playStretching, splitting, merging, and popping bubbles occupy restless hands without demanding sustained attention.
Digital exhale
04 — Digital exhalePress and hold to release the accumulated form in an explosion of fluid motion, then begin again.
Reclaim your focus
05 — Reclaim your focusA score and timer add a gentle rhythm while the experience remains non-competitive and focused on mindfulness.

What it is

Mindful digital fidget toy · $0.99, once

Built with

Fluid physics · Core Haptics · spatial audio

Privacy

No ads · no account · no data collection

07Portfolio · iOS · art discovery

Oodl.ai

A feed made from museum collections.

Oodl turns open-access museum collections into a simple art feed for iPhone, using familiar gestures without the advertising or engagement machinery of a social app. Download on the App Store ↗

The app includes more than 100,000 works from the Met, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Denmark. Swipe up for another work or sideways to change collections.

Saved works shape recommendations on the device. You can also add your own photographs, identify subjects locally, and generate a short description without creating an account.

Every museum work keeps its credit, license, and link to the source collection. The app is free and does not include advertising or collect a personal profile.

Oodl.ai
01 — Oodl.aiApp icon.
Van Gogh · Cleveland
02 — Van Gogh · ClevelandVincent van Gogh’s Two Poplars in the Alpilles, 1889. Each work includes its museum, credit, license, and source link.
Collection view
03 — Collection viewBrowse all works, saved works, a channel, or one museum collection. Recommendations are built on the device.

What it is

iOS art discovery · free

Collection

100,000+ open-access works, four museums

08Portfolio · AI discovery

a-gnt

A catalog of useful AI tools.

a-gnt organizes prompts, personalities, agents, games, and MCP servers for people who want to use AI tools without searching through repositories and social posts. View the experience ↗

The catalog contains thousands of tools grouped by what a person is trying to accomplish rather than by technical format.

People can save tools into a personal library, combine them into shared collections called benches, and reach them from supported AI clients through the a-gnt MCP server.

The product is aimed at people who are interested but not yet fluent: families, teachers, students, and people changing careers.

a-gnt
01 — a-gntIdentity.
Catalog
02 — CatalogTools are organized by the job a person wants to do, with separate counts for tools and MCP servers.
Kids collection
03 — Kids collectionA separate collection of age-appropriate creative tools designed to support play rather than replace it.
Community bench
04 — Community benchA bench is a saved collection of tools assembled and shared by a person.

What it is

Curated discovery platform for AI tools

Catalog

3,500+ tools · 2,200+ MCP servers

Reach it from

Claude · ChatGPT · a-gnt MCP server

09Portfolio · Data substrate

Atomic

One record shape for relational software.

Atomic is a small Node.js data kernel for applications whose information is naturally relational but still needs to be easy to model, import, query, and expose through an interface. View on GitHub ↗

Every record uses the same atom shape. Models, data, identities, permissions, queries, and logs are represented through that structure instead of separate subsystems.

From those models Atomic derives validation, forms, REST endpoints, imports, exports, tenant boundaries, and audit behavior. Relationships and reverse references are part of the core rather than added later.

The practical goal is to keep the ease of a lightweight database tool while giving the application a foundation that can handle connected data without collapsing into special cases.

atom://0
01 — atom://0The root atom viewed through the interface generated by the same model system. Schema, data, identity, permissions, and logs all use the shared record shape.
Reverse references
02 — Reverse referencesA record with everything that points to it resolved automatically. The form is generated from the model.

What it is

Graph-relational data substrate

The idea

The ease of Airtable on a relational foundation

10Portfolio · Reasoning layer

Atomic Reason

Measure what is known and what is still missing.

Atomic Reason is a small logic engine that evaluates evidence against a stated goal and returns what is known, uncertain, missing, or contradictory.

A slot represents a question required by the goal. Assertions provide possible answers and evidence. Folding those assertions produces one of five states: known, pending, gap, tension, or contradiction.

Understanding is the share of required slots that are known. The remaining slots become a prioritized worklist instead of being hidden behind a confidence score.

The goal determines which questions matter. Domain-specific rules for required slots and incompatible answers are injected, so the same engine can be used with different kinds of evidence.

understand(store, goal)
01 — understand(store, goal)The core function turns required questions into slots, folds the evidence for each slot, and returns known over required with a worklist for everything unresolved.

What it is

Pure-logic reasoner over evidence records

The formula

Understanding = f(Evidence, Relationships, Time, Context, Goal)

Slot states

known · pending · gap · tension · contradiction

Interface

Zero-dependency stdio MCP server

11Portfolio · Public affairs data

pac.dog

Public political data, made usable.

pac.dog combines campaign-finance, committee, enforcement, and legislative records into a free public-affairs data platform and MCP server. View the experience ↗

The underlying records are public, but using them usually requires downloading separate files, learning different schemas, and paying for a commercial interface. pac.dog models the records together and makes the relationships navigable.

The site includes committee filings, contributions, disbursements, votes, enforcement records, compliance material, and links back to original sources. An MCP interface lets an AI client query the same modeled data.

The bulk data used by the site is published openly, refreshed nightly, and available without an API key or rate limit.

Money and contributors by cycle
01 — Money and contributors by cycleReceipts and disbursements use each committee’s filed totals. Contributor counts are based on itemized receipts over $200 and are labeled as minimums rather than complete totals.
Open bulk data
02 — Open bulk dataThe modeled source data is published under an open license, refreshed nightly, and includes provenance for each record.

What it is

Free and open public affairs data platform

Interface

Web · MCP server

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