I just read a short essay by Eric Matthes "Coding is Political" and its companion piece "Coding for Social Justice." What a good idea.
So much of what happens today is in one way or another, mediated by code. Real people, heartbeats, write code, or write code that writes code. The resulting features and functionality are an expression of values and priorities. People designing and writing code have power and can exercise that power.
More of that power needs to:
- Employ code to mine and explore data for indicators of inequities, privilege, and power as it pertains individual and collective -- human -- rights. This work is needed to identify, quantify and characterize, provide context to any material injustice. It is also needed to reduce the influence of our cognitive biases.
- Prioritize bending existing systems toward increasing social justice and to decreasing investments in features that are antithetical to social justice. Resist contributing to injustice where you can.
DRAFT...
- Code for Social Good: https://app.code4socialgood.org/
- possibly, I need to do more research Code for America: https://www.codeforamerica.org/
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"Coding is Political" by Eric Matthes -- https://ehmatthes.github.io/pcc_2e/
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"Coding for Social Justice" by Eric Matthes -- https://ehmatthes.github.io/pcc_2e/challenges/coding_for_social_justice/
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"Coding and Social Justice." by Sanam Malik https://medium.com/@sanam.malik04/coding-and-social-justice-6d9b7145383a
Sanam Malik -
"Apprentices needed for an Anticolonial Educational Video Game" -- https://urapprojects.berkeley.edu/projects/detail.php?id_list=Edu0804
- “A grim outlook”: How cyber surveillance is booming on a global scale -- New data paints a detailed picture of the ways Western companies are selling cyber weapons and surveillance technology to NATO’s enemies." By Patrick Howell O'Neill, November 8, 2021 https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/11/08/1039395/grim-outlook-cyber-boom-atlantic-council-report/
- "Surveillance Technology at the Fair: Proliferation of Cyber Capabilities in International Arms Markets." By Winnona DeSombre, Lars Gjesvik, and Johann Ole Willers, November 8, 2021 https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/surveillance-technology-at-the-fair/