IEEE is preparing for another Global Humanitarian Technology Conference and I have submitted again. I billed this as Part II of the technology due diligence methodology for humanitarian contexts. Here is my new abstract which combines elements of the first GHTC talk I delivered and my participation in the Web 3 panel of January. The [...]
Category: Through a new lens
Web3, Meaningful Framework or Rebranding
I was invited to participate in a panel discussion about Web3. This is the title: "Governance and Web 3.0: Sense and Sensibility." It struck me as a clever enough title. The details were a bit complicated. It was a virtual meetup with over 80 attendees. I suspect most were enthusiastic about the Blockchain/Crypto angle on [...]
What makes technology humanitarian?
This is the month when I deliver my very first talk at IEEE's Global Humanitarian Technology Conference. Here is the abstract: The United Nations addresses economic objectives in SDG 8 (promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth) and SDG 10 (reduce inequality within and among countries to achieve greater participation in economic growth). A 2017 UN [...]
I coined the term Open Technology
It was late 2004. I had been asked to make the idea of a small business incubator in Beaverton, Oregon (Portland outskirts) a reality. The City of Beaverton put up the initial funding. The Software Association of Oregon (SAO), learning of this, decided to jump in with some gentle nudging to make sure the incubator [...]
What can I do?
It's a question almost everyone I know is asking. What does it really mean to be fully anti-racist? I am a white person living in a gloriously diverse community. We have these exchanges more now than ever before but in that context I mostly am in listening, learning, and supporting mode. This post offers preliminary [...]
Technology for good
Also sometimes called "public interest technology." If we're serious about re-imagining systems, one possible outcome of the great 2020 pandemic, then we have to examine the whole of technology. First thing it's important to understand: Technology is not neutral and technology that delivers services to those in need, even in the form of humanitarian aid, [...]
What’s in a word?
One of my favorite colleagues from the community of advocates for agency online, Doc Searls, posed this question today. What if we called the phenomenon of being tracked on almost every website and across the internet worm instead of cookie? Would it help if it did not suggest something that sounds comforting? Check it out [...]
About economic justice . . . again
I'm still self-isolating although I do have plans to meet some friends for distanced drinks in a few minutes. Much more seriously, of all the news and punditry about the pandemic grabbing my attention, the one that rankles most is the way it is exposing economic inequality. And that inequality shows up in unequal access [...]
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