Child Safety! Info Integrity! Working groups, upcoming gatherings in DC and NYC, and three livestreams this month
Plus learn about our approach to tackling thorny tech & society issues, see takeaways and videos from our recent in-person and livestream conversations, and more!
👋Hello, there. We’re glad that you have joined us on our mission to tackle thorny tech & society issues and co-create a tech future aligned with the public interest. In today’s newsletter, you’ll read about our upcoming Responsible Tech DC: A Better Tech Future for Youth happening on Feb 28 and our Strengthening the Information Ecosystem gathering in NYC on March 6. We also have a livestream happening tomorrow for Safer Internet Day (Feb 6) on healthy digital spaces, Feb 13 on Digital Disruption and the Role of Social Media, and Feb 26 on This Month in Responsible AI.
🎉We’re continuing to grow! Our Slack community recently crossed 8k members (sign in | apply), and we are hiring for a Senior Full Stack Engineer. We’ll also be announcing some new additions to our team in our next newsletter. Numerous individuals across the globe are downloading our Responsible Tech Org List 2024 and checking out our refreshed website. We’re having hockey stick growth, but it is not for some app you don’t need. We’re growing the Responsible Tech community.
💡We were recently welcomed as a member institution for the Public Interest Technology Network of New England, our impact on connecting engineering to the social sciences and humanities was recognized here, and our recent panel conversation around data privacy was showcased on the popular podcast SHIFT. We’re also sifting our way through 1k applications for our Responsible Tech Mentorship Program for a March cohort start, gearing up for our six new working groups to start meeting, and showcasing our unique approach and power to tackle thorny tech & society issues (see below).
👇As always, reach out with your ideas about collaboration. We’re currently building out additional education materials, expanding our career resources, and setting up future gatherings and workshops. Read about our 2024 plans and see all of our projects and links here. Now onto the newsletter!
👋We’re getting ready for Responsible Tech DC: A Better Tech Future for Youth; a curated gathering in Washington on Feb 28.
To unpack the thorny issues around child safety and Trust & Safety, it is necessary to unite key stakeholders and understand values, best practices, and competing trade-offs. Responsible Tech DC: A Better Tech Future for Youth is a curated gathering for 200 people in Washington on Wed, Feb 28th (apply here). There are two panels, short org presentations, and ample space for knowledge-sharing and collaboration. Check out all of the incredible speakers and learn how you can get involved here. Most of the All Tech Is Human team will be in attendance, so do say hello.
Some of the companies and orgs that will be in attendance include Accountable Tech, Atlantic Council, Berkman Klein Center, Bipartisan Policy Center, Center for Democracy & Technology, Center for Humane Technology, Common Sense Media, Discord, Electronic Arts (EA), Encode Justice, Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), Future of Privacy Forum, Global Network Initiative, Howard University, Integrity Institute, Mental Health America, Meta, National Democratic Institute (NDI), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), New America, Pinterest, Search for Common Ground, Stanford Internet Observatory, Tech Coalition, Tech Policy Press, TechCongress, The Reclaim Coalition, Thorn, TikTok, Trust & Safety Forum, TSPA, UN, USAID, X, and the Young People's Alliance.
We’ll be releasing videos and takeaways from this timely gathering in an upcoming newsletter; check out the bios of all of our speakers here. We are also looking for a values-aligned sponsor for Feb 28, along with planning future gatherings around reducing online harms, promoting healthy digital spaces, and strengthening the field of Trust & Safety. Reach out to Sandra Khalil, our head of partnerships, to learn more.
🤯We have three upcoming livestreams this month you can participate in:
📺Check out the video and takeaways from our discussion on data privacy!
All Tech Is Human is thrilled to release a special panel discussion from our Responsible Tech Mixer & Data Action Day on January 29, 2024, focused on raising awareness and fostering data activism among young people, university students, privacy advocates, and all individuals concerned about their digital privacy. Read the takeaways here.
Tracy Chou (Founder & CEO, Block Party), Julia Angwin (award-winning investigative journalist), Ginny Fahs (Director, Product R&D, Consumer Reports), and moderator Jennifer Strong (Producer and Journalist), gathered for a discussion about how to empower people and make informed choices about one’s online presence. Our partner for this version of our Responsible Tech Mixer + Interview Series was Consumer Reports.
🚨“What is the right level of alarm to express publicly?” Ginny Fahs posed to the 200 people gathering in NYC. “Working at a consumer organization, we know that 96 percent of consumers are concerned about their privacy and security online. But I still think that very far from 96 percent of consumers are doing much about that other than just being fearful.” Ginny explained how Consumer Reports is addressing the widespread fear among consumers through its Permission Slip app.
Tracy Chou addressed the individual safeguards people create for themselves — and the responsibilities of their network to support their privacy decisions. “Everybody has worked out these ways to safeguard themselves. Everybody is conscious of how they move through space online and in the physical world.” Chou said.
Watch the panel conversation and read the takeaways from our discussion with Julia Agwin, Tracy Chou, Ginny Fahs, and moderator Jennifer Strong. Like podcasts? Have a listen to the discussion on the podcast SHIFT here. And check out photos from our mixer here.
🤔Have a suggestion for a future convening? Reach out to All Tech Is Human.
📸 Scenes from Responsible Tech Mixer & Data Action Day
😎Cool Happening in Responsible Tech
👋We’re sending out invitations to our special curated gathering in NYC on March 6th on Strengthening the Information Ecosystem (apply here). This curated gathering of 70 people across civil society government, industry, and academia takes place at the Finnish Consulate and Residence. We will have a panel conversation on Building National & International Resilience for Information Integrity and also on Strengthening Partnerships to Protect the Information Environment. Confirmed speakers include Christina Nemr, Daniel Arnaudo, Jeff Allen, Michelle Lipkin, Niamh Hanafan, Rebecca Thein, Sean Guillory, and Swapneel Mehta.
📅Our six working groups are starting to take shape and will be meeting shortly with virtual check-ins and asynchronous collaboration with individuals from a broad range of backgrounds across the globe. Our areas of focus are listed below, which coincide with our curated knowledge hubs.
🥳Our All Tech Is Human affiliates continue to have major achievements throughout the world of Responsible Tech. Theodora Skeadas and Jason Steinhauer recently joined the Christchurch Call Advisory Network, Numa Dhamani released a book on Generative AI, and Belle Torek wrote a compelling piece in Tech Policy Press on why advocates should be concerned about the recent Taylor Swift deepfake.
🔔All Tech Is Human’s Founder & President, David Ryan Polgar, will be speaking at the National Liberty Museum in Philadelphia on March 14th on Artificial Intelligence, Elections, and the Future of Democracy. This panel also features Caitlin Chin-Rothmann from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and Katie Harbath from Anchor Change, along with moderator Michael X. Delli Carpini. Both Caitlin and Katie are previous speakers at our previous summits.
📜In our last newsletter, we released our Responsible Tech Org List 2024. Have you read it yet? Check out resources from our 600 organizations, fifteen profile interviews with a wide range of leaders, and an overview of the Responsible Tech ecosystem. This resource pairs well with our Responsible Tech Guide. And let us know through our submission form if there are orgs that should be on our radar!
👩💻We recently held a livestream for our Responsible Tech Author Series, welcoming Hilke Schellmann (The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted, and Fired, and Why We Need to Fight Back Now). Read about the conversation here.
🗳️On Jan 30th we held a livestream (watch here) for our new Global Majority Spotlight series, in collaboration with Tech Global Institute and Thuley, on the impact of technology on numerous upcoming elections.
🤔Did you watch the recent U.S. Senate hearing on child safety? Read our profile interview with Vaishnavi J, former head of youth policy at Meta and now founder and principal of Vyanams Strategies. Vaishnavi wrote a piece about red herrings at the Senate hearing and was interviewed on Integrity Institute’s Trust in Tech podcast. Vaishnavi will be a panelist at our upcoming Responsible Tech DC: A Better Tech Future for Youth.
🔭If you are looking for daily posts about our getting more involved in the Responsible Tech movement, join our nearly 25k followers on LinkedIn. We regularly post career resources, educational resources, and frequent articles and videos.
We’re glad you are joining us here at All Tech Is Human!
👋Together, we work to solve tech and society’s thorniest issues.
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💡 Have an idea for a project together? Fill out our form and let us know!
⭐ See all of our projects, including upcoming summits and mixers, knowledge hubs, our previous reports, working groups, affiliates, Responsible Tech University Network, mentorship program, livestreams, job board, community Slack group, Responsible Tech Guide, our talent matchmaking service, our Responsible Tech Talent Pool, 600+ Responsible Tech Org List, Tekalo (matchmaking for social impact) and much more. Our three key workstreams are multistakeholder convening & community-building, multidisciplinary education, and diversifying the traditional tech pipeline.
🙏 Feeling generous? Help All Tech Is Human grow with a donation! Or if you are part of a foundation that can support our mission, reach out directly to Founder & President David Ryan Polgar.