BCNM Around the Web February 2020
Here's the recap of what our amazing BCNM community has been up to from the web this past month!
Executive Director of CITRIS and the Banatao Institute Camille Crittenden was recently featured in an East Bay Express article titled "Researchers Into 'Deepfakes' Highlight Failings of New California Legislation".
From the article:
Crittenden, the executive director of CITRIS, a co-founder of the Policy Lab, and former executive director of the Human Rights Center at Berkeley Law, said that by casting doubt on authentic media content, deepfakes threaten democracy. Quick to acknowledge that social media platforms have placed restrictions around sex trafficking and actively support developing tools to detect manipulated media, she nonetheless said it's not enough.
Read the rest of the article here.
Alum danah boyd recently spoke at Data Science for the Public Good Forum, a speaker series hosted by the Biocomplexity Institute and Initiative at the University of Virginia. At the forum, boyd gave a talk titled "Data: Its Vulnerabilities and Legitimacy".
From the website:
Weaving together her work on media manipulation, search engine "data voids," and efforts to protect the 2020 U.S. Census, danah helped the audience think about the social and technical challenges that our data-centric world introduces.
Read more about the the Data Science for the Public Good Forum and boyd's talk here.
Alum Jane McGonigal was referenced in a Texas Observer article titled "The Internet Broke Democracy. To Fix It, Design for Human Rights." in mid-January. In the article, author Samuel Woolley spoke about online misinformation and the Ethical Operating System, a set of guidelines created with McGonigal.
From the article:
And so with Jane McGonigal, who’s a game designer and author, we designed something called the Ethical Operating System. It’s a gamified series of guidelines and prompts to make technology designers think about the problems that could come up with technology before they build it, as they build it, and as they launch it.
Read the rest of the article here.
McGonigal was also recently featured in a Quartz article titled "The books, people, and podcasts to help you gamify your life." McGonigal's app Superbetter and book Reality is Broken were both featured as recommended reading.
From the article:
One of the most prominent faces of the “gaming for good” movement [McGonigal] makes the case for applying game design to everything from combating addiction to saving historical cemeteries.
Read the rest of the article and list of recommendations here.
McGonigal is also going to be speaking at Think 2020, IBM's annual business and technology conference in early May. Learn more about the event and the lineup of speakers here.
Alum Trevor Paglen recently spoke at Ways of Reading, a symposium co-presented by KADIST and e-flux. At the symposium, Paglen discussed issues such as "artificial and nonhuman intelligence, remote sensing technology, and post-natural landscapes" with Kate Crawford, James Bridle, and Steve Rowell.
Read more about the Ways of Reading and the speakers featured here.
Alum Jen Schradie was mentioned in a Mumbai Mirror article titled "Broken promises: The internet has become an instrument in the hands of the rich and powerful" in mid-January. The Mumbai Mirror discussed the dangers of the internet and praised Schradie's book The Revolution That Wasn't.
From the article:
The inernet gave many people hope that it would aid grassroots change, Schradie writes, because the whole idea of connecting people around the world seemed to be in tune with liberal, countercultural openness. Yet powerful conservatives quickly and systematically captured online systems in the United States, long before paranoia about "Russian interference" in American politics surfaced.
Read the rest of the article here.
Schradie is also lined up to speak at Comm230X +1 Speaker Series hosted by Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society on February 25. Schradie will give a talk titled "The Revolution That Wasn't: How Digital Activism Favors Conservatives".
Read more about Schradie's upcoming talk here.