What Happened at the Digital Rights, Data, and Technology Event?
We all have a role to play in solving data issues and expanding digital rights.
On Tuesday, November 16, along with our partners Austin Urban Technology Movement (AUTMHQ), we hosted a series of conversations about digital rights, data, and technology. We also want to thank our collaborating partners, Initiate: Digital Rights in Society, Paris Peace Forum, and Stanford Angels and Entrepreneurs of Texas, for supporting the event. It would not have been possible to have this conversation without the combined effort of all of our networks and organizations, locally and across the globe.
The nonprofit sector, as a whole, is swimming in data that we collect of the folks we serve. As we move to more digital service delivery, we are building an even bigger bank of data both at our fingertips and in our systems. We need to be thinking about the digital rights of ourselves and those we serve, as we dig deeper into the world of data.
We barely scratched the surface of this topic on Tuesday, but are hoping that it kickstarted a conversation in our local sector about digital rights and what we need to be learning and thinking about. To help us navigate this, we had three unique conversations, bridging the local and global landscape of digital rights challenges.
In our first conversation, we explored digital rights challenges and examples that each panelist was experiencing or observing in their respective countries. We heard from:
María Paula Ángel, Director of the Research Network, PuenTech Lab
Abhishek Gupta, Founder and Principal Researcher, Montreal AI Ethics Institute
Emre Eren Korkmaz, Departmental Lecturer in Migration and Development, Department of International Development, University of Oxford
Heloisa Massaro, Head of Research, Information and Politics, Internet Lab
In our second conversation, we explored digital rights and data challenges at the local level and heard from:
Virginia A. Brown, Assistant Professor, Dept of Population Health, Community Engagement and Health Equity; Dept of Psychiatry, Dell Medical School, University of Texas at Austin
Alexandrea Jackson, National Accounts Executive, Social Solutions
Amanda Masino, Associate Professor of Biology and Chair of Natural Science at Huston-Tillotson University; Executive Director of the Austin Community Data Coalition
Joshua Scott, Manager of Data Systems, e3Alliance
Finally, we ended the day with a third conversation, with all of the panelists, where we explored the values of digital rights and data. As one of the panelists said, we measure what we value. Some of the ideas that our panelists encouraged us to be thinking about are:
Don't be afraid of research it's not a dirty word.
Partner with local academic centers and find your partners and like-minded folks who do community-engaged work and partner with them.
Encourage technologists to learn how policy-making actually works.
Don't take technology/tool/internet as good or bad by itself... always question it.
Don't lose sight of the power of storytelling - especially when you're working with policymakers.
There's a slow violence in our field, when you find the harms take them to the policymakers so they know what we're talking about.
Don't be afraid to advocate for the resources that you need to do this work effectively.
Keep an eye on your role as an educator even if you think that's not what your role is.
Diversity of ideas/thought - if we're all educators and learning with each other we'll have a more robust idea of the world.
Michael Ward Jr., President and CEO of AUTMHQ, closed the event with a call to action that everyone can get involved in digital rights and data! We need to be more inclusive in our work to enhance digital rights and improve data.
Resources & Links
Throughout the event, folks shared resources and insights in the chat. Below is a long list, in no particular order, of some of the resources, ideas, initiatives, and organizations highlighted during the event: