Day 1: A BETTER TECH
Dr. Charlton McIlwain and Dr. Alondra Nelson in their opening keynote “Building Equity in Public Interest Technology.”
We kicked off the day with a keynote conversation between Dr. Alondra Nelson who currently serves as the inaugural Deputy Director for Science and Society in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and DR. Charlton McIlwain who is Vice Provost, and Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at NYU. Their conversation focused on how we can build public interest technology that is truly equitable.
Our lunch keynote was focused on forging new career paths in public interest technology via philanthropy featuring Michelle Shevin and Jenny Toomey (both Ford Foundation), who were in conversation with Tom Kalil and Kumar Garg (both Schmidt Future(, and Travis Moore (TechCongress).
We also kicked off our HACKATHON, led by the DemocracyLab, and heard about the significance of critical tech journalism in safeguarding the public interest in a keynote conversation led by Vivian Schiller (Aspen Institute) that featured Karen Hao (MIT Tech Review), Khari Johnson (WIRED) and Damon Beres (Unfinished).
We also heard Hana Schank (New America), Tara McGuinness (New America), Cyd Harrell (UX Researcher) and Beth Noveck (Northeastern) present their new books on public interest technology in a conversation moderated by Sylvanna Falcón (UCSC).
“Big Tech, Privacy and Big Data” was the topic of the second book talk, featuring Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (University of Oxford), Ari Waldman (Northeastern), Thomas Ramge (Writer & Journalist), and moderated by Beth Noveck (Northeastern).
Lastly, our Journalism panel was a lively discussion about safeguarding the public interest featuring Vivian Schiller (Aspen Institute), Karen Hao (MIT Tech Review), Damon Beres(Unfinished), and Khari Johnson(WIRED).