Responsible Tech Mixer, new Responsible Tech University Network, Tech & Democracy speakers announced and more!

Plus our upcoming livestream, Jan 31st gathering on reducing online gender-based violence, and more info on our very first summit in London.

🥳We’re holding a Responsible Tech Mixer + Book Launch for Meredith Broussard in NYC on March 15th. You’ll want to be there.

If you are in the NYC area, we hope that you sign up and join us for our upcoming Responsible Tech Mixer + Book Launch for Meredith Broussard on Wed, March 15th from 6 to 8:30 pm at Betaworks in Manhattan. We’ll be celebrating the release of Meredith’s More Than a Glitch, along with our upcoming Tech & Democracy report (coming out Feb 28) and the Responsible Tech community in general. This gathering will be filled with a diverse range of backgrounds and perspectives who are united by a shared mission of co-creating a better tech future.

There will be a fireside chat with Meredith Broussard (by All Tech Is Human founder David Ryan Polgar), food and drinks, and a chance to mingle and hatch plans with others who are rolling up their sleeves to tackle wicked tech & society issues. The first 50 attendees to arrive will receive a free copy of More Than a Glitch, and there will also be some All Tech Is Human swag to give away. If you haven’t attended a mixer of ours before, be prepared to leave with a deeper understanding of the ecosystem, new people to collaborate with, and a dose of inspiration. Because of capacity and the popularity of our Responsible Tech Mixers coupled with the anticipation for Meredith Broussard’s new book, we expect this gathering to quickly fill up.

The upcoming Responsible Tech Mixer + Book Launch has been made possible through our collaboration with Project Liberty, of which All Tech Is Human is a partner. Project Liberty is an international nonprofit organization working to create a new civic architecture for the digital world that returns the ownership and control of personal data to individuals, embeds ethical values into technology, and expands economic opportunities for web users and developers alike.

Watch the video of our previous livestream conversation around the movie Coded Bias, which features Meredith Broussard alongside director Shalini Kantayya and Timnit Gebru. Since 2018, our non-profit has featured well over 400 individuals in our livestreams, summits, and reports along with directly interacting with thousands of individuals from various backgrounds and perspectives through our large community Slack group, summits & mixers, open working groups, our mentorship program, and more.

See the full list of individuals who have been featured in our projects here, along with all of our links & projects here.

🎓All Tech Is Human is launching a Responsible Tech University Network!

Ever since our very first summit in October 2018 in NYC, we have noticed an immense demand from students (undergrad, grad, law, Ph.D.) and academics from a wide variety of disciplines wanting to get involved but struggling for the right information and network. And with the growth of our Responsible Tech University Ambassadors, we heard first-hand how difficult it is for students to connect with others who deeply care about building a better tech future, understand what the landscape looks like, and find actionable ways to get plugged into internships, fellowships, and Responsible Tech careers. We have set out to improve the current system that moves too slowly, doesn’t often mix together disciplines, and fails to involve everyone who wants to be part of the movement. It’s time to change that.

What is the problem? Well, most approaches that try to engage students and professors take a very traditional top-down strategy that is extremely slow and often discipline-centric. In practice, this means that students are often left out of programs at their own university because of their discipline and do not have ample opportunities to connect with student leaders in Responsible Tech at other universities. In addition, this type of approach doesn’t leverage the power of superstar professors who are Responsible Tech champions. We can move ten times faster and involved ten times more people.

Our approach is discipline-agnostic, global, and bottom-up. We skirt around the slow-moving wheels of academia so we can move at the speed of tech. That’s what is needed if we are going to build a generation capable of tackling wicked problems. We need more speed and diversity.

We are currently collecting interest from students and professors who would like to be involved as we curate a list of Responsible Tech programs, key professors, student groups, expand our University Ambassadors program to non-students, and develop ways for more people to knowledge-share and collaborate. Read about our new Responsible Tech University Network and fill out the interest form. In addition, attend our upcoming livestream on January 25th at 1pm ET to learn more!

🤯Check out the speakers who will be joining our Tech & Democracy summit in NYC on March 1st.

On March 1st we will be holding a special gathering in NYC for 120 individuals across civil society, government, industry, and academia at the intersection of tech and democracy. There will be three panels, two fireside chats, and a mixer for this event from 1-6:30 pm at the Consulate General of Canada in New York (our partner & host).

Some of our confirmed speakers and moderators include Amira Dhalla, Amy Larsen, Caitlin Chin, Jameel Jaffer, Jason Steinhauer, Justin Hendrix, Katie Harbath, Michael Miller, Nicole Gill, Nora Benavidez, Omer Aziz, Renee Black and more to be announced shortly! Due to capacity, we have more interest than we can accommodate with attendance. If you would like to be considered to attend our upcoming Tech & Democracy summit in NYC on March 1st, please let us know through our interest form. Invitations will be going out this week.

Our upcoming summit in NYC will be coinciding with the release of our latest report, Tech & Democracy, arriving on Feb 28th.

👍Do you want to attend our very first summit in the UK? Let us know!

The interest for our upcoming summit in April at The Shard has been quite overwhelming in the best way possible. This summit will feature two panels (tech policy & online speech), short org presentations, and a mixer for 250 people to learn from each other and find areas of collaboration to tackle hard tech & society issues.

While 250 people sounds like a lot, we have already received interest from over 300 people (for an event four months out) and will be sifting through submissions as we start sending out invitations next week. For orgs that would like to be considered for our short org presentations, please ping us. This gathering is supported by Crisp, a Kroll business.

We’ll be announcing speakers and org presenters in upcoming newsletters.

👋Join our in-person gathering in NYC on Jan 31st around reducing online gender-based violence.

Are you involved or interested in reducing online gender based violence? Are you in the NYC area? If you answered Yes to these two questions, we hope to see you on January 31st for an in-person gathering that includes a panel, research prestation, and mixer.

You’ll hear from Vaiddehi Bansal (Research Director at NORC at the University of Chicago), Alexandra Robinson (Gender-based Violence Technical Advisor at United Nations Population Fund), Katherine Townsend (Director at Measurement Lab, Advisor at Web Foundation, and Principal for Open Data Collaboratives), and Georgia Bullen (Executive Director at Superbloom). And the panel will be moderated by Sandra Khalil from All Tech Is Human. Join us!

✍️Sign up for our Tech Stewardship Practice Program cohort by January 31st

Do you want to strengthen your skills around tackling wicked tech & society issues? Join All Tech Is Human’s upcoming cohort for the Tech Stewardship Practice Program, which is a free (for the All Tech Is Human community) self-paced program to help you build the confidence, literacy, and intentionality to navigate the tensions inherent in the design, development, and deployment of technologies.

So no matter your background, this practice program is designed to assist you on your journey growing in the Responsible Tech field. And after completely this self-paced program with optional virtual check-ins with the All Tech Is Human team, you’ll earn a micro-credential. Join by January 31st to be in our upcoming cohort!

💨Our organization employs a unique grassroots-power model that rapidly distributes power and ideas across a multi-stakeholder & multidisciplinary network.

All Tech Is Human is intentionally designed to both learn from and affect the Responsible Tech movement. In the coming newsletters we will be explaining our grassroots-power model that allows us to have access to a diverse range of ideas and connect this to multiple levers of power to affect change.

💡Partner Spotlight: The Webby Awards

“The Webby Awards is proud to introduce categories to recognize Responsible Tech work in the 27th Annual Webby Awards. As part of our mission to honor the best of the Internet and inspire new work within this space, new categories include; Accessible Technology, Responsible Information, Responsible Innovation, Sustainable Technology. These categories were informed by The Webbys’ recent industry trend report - It’s Up To Us: A Responsible Tech Future. Participating in the Webbys is a great way to showcase that you and your team are at the forefront of Responsible Tech work and to champion and bring awareness to this important social issue. We encourage you to participate in our first year recognizing this work.

If you're doing this work, participate in The Webby’s first year recognizing responsible technology to set new standards and inspire others. Enter your project by the Extended Entry Deadline of February 10th, 2023.”

😎Cool happenings in Responsible Tech

We are always finding out about new and interesting initiatives, events, research, new orgs being launched, and more. Do you have something you’d like to share with us? Reach out to Sandra Khalil from our team or ping her directly on our community Slack group.

Purdue University recently put out a Tech Ethics Video Series, which features perspectives from Vint Cerf, Shannon Vallor, Afua Bruce, and our very own Karina Alexanyan.

“Traditionally, institutions working in biomedical sciences have used research ethics committees (RECs) to ensure their work meets the highest moral standards. Today’s research in artificial intelligence and data science has great implications for society, but is often missed by RECs. Join this panel discussion on 24th Jan (5pm UK time) where we will discuss how best to equip RECs to address the societal implications of AI and data science research.” -Ismael Kherroubi Garcia

"Interested in teaching the next generation of technologists and policy makers about ethical innovation? I’m looking for teaching assistants in greater NYC or New Jersey to help with my spring course, Public Policy 365, Tech/Ethics. Registration for the course was unexpectedly high, so I’m looking to fill about 4 roles. This course will be at the intersection of ethical theory and social issues in tech – so some academic experience in Ethics, STS, or Design would be helpful, but not necessary. The primary role will be facilitating the students in researching questions using their own pre-existing knowledge, so you need not be an expert. Contact me with a resume, CV or LinkedIn at kelts@princeton.edu” -Steven Kelts

“To continue growing the next generation of Internet law and policy professionals, the Internet Law & Policy Foundry — a professional development organization composed of early-career professionals working across law, technology and policy — launched its inaugural 2023 Junior Fellows program. The program provides Fellows with the opportunity to foster a community of diverse voices that explore issues in the equitable development and governance of technology and the Internet through writing, network building, constructive debates and more. Anyone interested in starting their pathway in the Internet law and policy space or are looking for a platform to elevate their expertise in the field is encouraged to apply by January 30, 2023. Please reach out to me or email us at ilpf@ilpfoundry.us if you any questions. Good luck!” -Lama Mohammed

“The History Communication Institute will cohost an open discussion on ChatGPT, Open AI tools, and their potential effects on knowledge workers (Wednesday, February 1st @ 12 pm - 1:30 pm via Zoom). The conversation will pay particular focus to the history profession, but also touch on how AI could affect the work and futures of other knowledge workers inside academia, think tanks, research universities and journalism. A full list of participants will be announced soon; the event is free and open to all. Register via Eventbrite; a Zoom link will be provided.” -Jason Steinhauer

👩‍🍳Our tech future doesn’t just magically happen, it is made by us. Let’s get cooking.

-All Tech Is Human | Write us at Hello / AllTechIsHuman.org

⭐See all of our projects, including our new Responsible Tech University Program, mentorship program, job board, upcoming gatherings, livestreams, working groups, previous reports, community Slack group, Responsible Tech Guide, our talent matchmaking service, our Responsible Tech Talent Pool, Tech Stewardship Practice Program, 500+ Responsible Tech Org List, and more.