Responsible Tech Mixer & event page for the Responsible Tech University Summit

Join us on October 20th for our casual online mixer, and check out the schedule for our online summit happening December 1st!

Oct 12, 2021

👋We are holding a casual online Responsible Tech Mixer; join us!

One of the biggest takeaways from our recent Responsible Tech Summit we held on September 15th was that there is a such a large and diverse range of passionate people committed to co-creating a better tech future. The problem, however, is that it is not always easy to “find the others” in order to learn from each other, build community, and find moments of collaboration. That is why we have decided to hold another casual online Responsible Tech Mixer, which is taking place on Wednesday, October 20th from 1:00pm ET to 1:45pm ET.

Join us for the mixer!

Based on your feedback from our previous mixer in August, we are breaking off into five smaller room conversations during our gathering, with each room tackling a specific question related to our underlying theme:

🤔What do digital spaces that prioritize the human experience look like, and how can we get there?

The five specific room discussions we will be having, which will inform a soon-to-launch working group on the topic (which will create a resource for the community) include:

ROOM 1 | Product Design: inclusive design, diversity by design, human rights by design, international by design, human-centered design
ROOM 2 | Freedom of expression vs safety & privacy; security & safe spaces; content moderation issues
ROOM 3 | Broken business model: social wellbeing over profits; community ownership of social spaces
ROOM 4 | Digital Citizenship (Digital divide; digital media literacy, digital accessibility)
ROOM 5 | Tech Augmentation: digital spaces augmenting physical ones, facilitating connection

We are currently looking for room leaders to assist leading each conversation and keeping track of key takeaways for our shared document. In addition, based on earlier feedback, we are including greater ways to connect with one another post-event for those who would like to include their perspectives and information in our shared document.

👍The event page for our Responsible Tech University Summit is now live! Check out the schedule and register (it’s free & open to everyone.)

We had so much fun with our recent Responsible Tech Summit on Sept 15th, that we are putting together an exciting online gathering to help inform & inspire new voices to get involved in the Responsible Tech movement. We do this by learning from student leaders that are in our Responsible Tech University Ambassadors program, professors who are leading voices in the field, and understanding the career pathways and education journeys from those actively working in Responsible Tech.

🔭Check out some of our speakers, the four panels we will be having, and the five organization presentations. In addition, we have structured the gathering to allow significant time for networking, such as being randomly-paired (if desired) with other attendees for short one-on-one conversations!

Over the coming days you will see additional speakers added, along with a few university partners to be announced. If you are interested in being more involved in the Responsible Tech University Summit as either a university partners, speaker, media, or potential underwriter, please let us know through our INTEREST FORM.

🎤Lots of people are talking about ways to improve social media right now. All Tech Is Human released its report in Feb called, ehem, Improving Social Media that proposed ways to better align with the public interest.

Have you read our report? We interviewed a diverse range of 42 leaders across civil society, government, and industry and had the contributions of over 100 people in our working group to release Improving Social Media: The People, Organizations, and Ideas for a Better Tech Future. We also argued for a holistic approach to improving social media that considers the role of platforms, individuals, policymakers, tech workers, funders, news media, advertisers, and the underlying Knowledge Base that informs all of these parts.

Read Improving Social Media report

👩‍🎓We keep learning from our Responsible Tech University Ambassadors, which now cover 52 universities.

We are looking forward to highlighting some of the incredible leadership happening across college campuses during our upcoming Responsible Tech University Summit, showcasing the work and learnings from many of the individuals in our new Responsible Tech University Ambassadors program. We have our next meeting happening this upcoming Monday, so please reach out if you would like to join us.

When asked, “Why are you involved in the Responsible Tech movement?,” here is what some of the ambassadors had to say:

“Because technology has already forced its way into unethical, oppressive, and punitive uses on the most racially marginalized, the poor, and the working class. Just as it holds the power to oppress, tech can be designed to free, emancipate, and empower those same groups. A better tech future is paramount to a better future (or any future), period.” - Lilia Brahimi, McGill University
“As a digital professional, I started to realize that there's a myth regarding our technological future: there will be wealth, abundance and prosperity. But we are not really moving this way...so I decided to study Foresight to think critically about the long-term futures and allow us to make better decisions today when it comes to digital technologies. This is completely intertwined with the Responsible Tech community, which has being a joy to discover and join” - Daniel Torquato Fortes, University College London
“Digital technologies have captivated every sector primarily to advance changes for the betterment of society, however, it still is a double- edged sword, the negative consequences of which are rampant and visible at critical stages of the decision making processes at law enforcement agencies, big tech companies among many others. The time to build a better tech future begins now to avert occurrences of the disruptive nature of digital technologies and educate the populace of the myriad ways of using the technology in a constructive manner consistent with ethical behaviour.” - Karen Aloysia Barreto, Kirit P. Mehta School of Law, NMIMS University, Mumbai
“I am a progressive data scientist who believes that movements must harness data to maximize their impact and build sustainable, lasting power. People who work in and around the tech industry have a crucial role to play, so we need to make sure that those people represent the diversity of our global community and have the tools to understand the impact and potential harms of their work.” - Tamar Novetsky, New York University

😎Some cool happenings in Responsible Tech

All Tech Is Human is a partner for the upcoming A BETTER TECH: Public Interest Technology Convention & Career Fair that is happening on October 14th and 15th!

A BETTER TECH, Public Interest Technology Convention & career fair hosted by NYU and funded by New America's Public Interest Technology University Network, in collaboration with All Tech Is Human, is a wonderful opportunity to network with others, participate in a diverse range of conversations and workshops around public interest technology, and to hear about some of the career paths in public interest technology.

The final schedule and registration is live for A BETTER TECH. Check out the full line up of events for keynotes, workshops, dialogue panels, book talks, flash “idea” sessions, and more!

Have you checked out The Bloom? We are going to be hearing from its founder during the Responsible Tech University Summit, Jasmine Anouna. The Bloom is a global community for impact opportunities. Jasmine started the project from a storage closet at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva while working as an unpaid intern, frustrated by the systemic exploitation of young people around and lack of diverse resources for changemakers. Since launching in early 2020, The Bloom has grown to 3,000+ changemakers all over the world, offering small seeds for global impact every Sunday through their weekly newsletter. You can sign up here!
Our friends at Digital Void keep on putting out some incredible work exploring the forefront of digital culture, especially around the important of meme literacy. If you are in the NYC area, come on down to their Meme in the Moment Festival on October 27th that will have a Halloween theme! There will be some people from the All Tech Is Human community in the audience, so do stop by to say hello.

👊Let’s build a better tech future,

Responsible Tech Guide | Improving Social Media | The Business Case for AI Ethics

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