Software that can Enhance Your Mission
This has very little to do with technical knowledge and everything to do with power. —Cathy O'Neil
Eddie Glenn, Leyla Mahabadi
Eddie Glenn
Software Engineer
Giving Program Manager
former lawyer - current techie
Leyla Mahabadi
Marketing and Spanish
Carlson School of Management
current student - future unlimited
How do you feel about tech?
On a scale of 1-5 rate your confidence with tech
What tech is your org using?
What apps are you using?
Do you have any developers or IT staff? What do they do for you?
Your relationship to technology
- Can tech serve your mission? Your expertise?
- Where technology ends
- Where social justice begins
- Unwitting consumers can be exploited
- Critical consumers can guide the industry
Only You Can Answer!
- What's your core mission?
- What problems are you solving?
- Underlying problems?
- Interrelated Problems?
- Correlations?
- Causations?
Tech can limit you
Software Development Process
Prepare for Development
- Brainstorming solutions
- Designing
- UX Research
Software Development
- Build a solution
Case Studies
Part 1: Benefits of Tech
Part 2: Dangers of Tech
Part 3: Build a Framework
Part 4: Breaking Barriers
Tech Benefits
- Communication
- Logistics
- Convenience - tipping point in human behavior
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Not an exhaustive list
What problems tech already solved?
Communication
connect isolated voices
Communication
Anonymity, Promoting Safety
- Silent Choir - www.silentchoir.org
- Anonymously and confidentially report sexual harassment
- Blockchain
- Encryption
Logistics
automation, communication, tracking
Food in Location A.
People that need food in Location B.
People that can move the food are in Location C.
Convenience
tipping point in human behavior
Business/Psychology Lesson: Make it easy to pay for music.
Philanthropy Lesson: Make it easy to donate.
Tech Benefits
- Communication
- Logistics
- Convenience - tipping point in human behavior
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Care to add any?
Tech Dangers
- Privacy violations, cyber security, etc.
- Extend our prejudices
- Problems, solutions, and technology will evolve
- Technical solutions for social problems
- Humans are dynamic
- Every algorithm has ethical implications
- Not an exhaustive list
Internet: inherently dangerous
Text
Extend our Prejudices
Extend Our Prejudices
Artificial Intelligence has been used to expedite criminal sentencing.
Secret algorithm
Can we avoid creating "algorithmic bias"?
Problems Evolve
CompStat
1990s: Jack Maple's "Charts of the Future" implemented as NY crime cut in half, several times over
...
2010s: CompStat notorious for incentivizing "juking the stats"
“The numbers became the boss”
"Technical" solutions and "social" problems.
This is a problem?
- moral?
- cultural?
- moral?
- social?
- legal?
- political?
- spiritual?
What is technology's role here?
Humans are Dynamic
What makes a good teacher?
Math gives easy answers:
- Use a Secret algorithm like the "Value-added model score"
- It can't be biased! It's math!
"analyzing test results of only twenty-five to thirty students is statistically unsound"
Ethical Algorithms
Dynamic Scheduling
- use math to schedule staff efficiently
- clopening
"combines user tracking with stimuli calculated to foster addiction and behavior modification" -- Jaron Lanier
Tech Dangers
- Privacy violations, cyber security, etc.
- Extend our prejudices
- Problems, solutions, and technology will evolve
- Technical solutions for social problems
- Humans are dynamic
- Every algorithm has ethical implications
- Care to add more?
Framework:
When is Tech Helpful?!
Ask these questions early and often about your problem space
- What are the "social" problems?
- What are the "technical" problems?
- What tech feels natural?
- What's the minimum viable product?
- Who already solved this problem?
- Let's add some more
Social vs. Technical
-
Develop expertise in YOUR field
-
Tell techies what to make for you
Natural Patterns of Life
Israeli-Palestine Conflict
Goal: Help the younger generation transcend prejudices that set communities apart.
Patterns of Life
Community organize where the community is already organizing?
Where are uncomfortable topics most comfortable?
Minimum Viable Product
It's surprisingly difficult to whittle down
all your good ideas
to find a great idea to start with.
Experiment Creatively
What's the value proposition?
Who already solved my problem?
Use Existing Tech
Donate to pay others' utility bills.
They sought out existing technology, applied it to help with a social problem.
Continuous Improvement
-
Analyze problem(s)
-
Identify possible tech solution
-
Explain that solution to others. (Ask for help?)
4. Experiment! MVP!
5. Rinse and Repeat
Thanks for coming!
Stay in touch!
eddie@softwareforgood.com
@EddieGdotMe
leylamahabadi@gmail.com
I'd love to hear your feedback,
questions, problems, and crazy ideas!
Custom Software on a Budget
-
Open Source
-
Partnerships with tech companies
-
Tech companies adopt a project
-
Meetups
-
Freelancers
-
Aspiring developers
-
Hackathons
Think of an idea big enough
to get a nerd excited
Different kinds of apps
-
Basic Website: static page, sharing information, very limited number of people can edit it
Wix, Squarespace
-
Fancy Websites
Wordpress (with plugins)
-
Commercial Web Apps
Salesforce, Google suite
-
Custom Websites
Wordpress, generic database
-
Web Applications: 100% customizable
-
Mobile Apps: 100% customizable
Different kinds of problems
-
Communication
Distributed teams, real time collaboration
-
Logistics
All the moving pieces
-
Automation
Simplify your life
-
Accessibility
Help your clients better
-
Data Collection, Aggregation, Analysis
Gain insight
There are definitely more...
MCN talk - Final
By Eddie G
MCN talk - Final
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