Category: Blog

Tech and Revolution meeting in NYC, Nov 2017

Please join myself, Radical Action Design, Progressive Technology Project, May First / People Link and other progressive and social justice movement technologists for a special Technology and Revolution mini-convergence, the 20th convergence of this kind this year, at ThoughtWorks – Monday, November 13 from 6- 9 pm in NYC. Tools have an important role in our movement – and our role as… Continue reading Tech and Revolution meeting in NYC, Nov 2017

PBP’s work in the NYC Open Data report

I’m excited to share that my work with Participatory Budgeting, leveraging open data to help both elected officials and residents make data-informed choices made it into the 2017 MODA Open Data Report. Read the report here.   

Smart Cities NYC 2017: Open Minds, Open Data panel

It was an honor to share the panel stage with Dr. Amen Ra Mashariki, Beth Noveck, and Lourdes German at the Smart Cities NYC conference. The core questions I asked were: What tools or frameworks do we use to generate broad civic engagement with our metrics and data sets? How do we see our development… Continue reading Smart Cities NYC 2017: Open Minds, Open Data panel

The ethics of algorithms: nonprofits, open data, and feedback loops

I recently gave a talk at Thoughtworks’ Ethics of Algorithms series, which was a great opportunity to examine how structured logic appears in my work with decidedly unstructured-leaning organizations. A few key takeaways:   Feel free to grab the slides if they’re of interest: Ethics of Algorithms_Dec16

Digital Information Security: Explaining the Two Main Issues & How To Deal With Them

[download this resource as a PDF:infosec_resources_femmetechdec2016-1] While the current political climate in the US is spawning mass interest in digital security, the situation as it stands has been created over the last 20 years or so, with concern and activism around the issue rising with the tide of technologies that are fueling the problems. Here… Continue reading Digital Information Security: Explaining the Two Main Issues & How To Deal With Them

So You Want to Make A Digital Archive? Three Strategy Questions

Managing physical and digital files, metadata-gathering, and enabling complex internal or public searches of cultural production, ephemera, archives and/or born-digital assets are issues faced by many organizations: large, small, funded, volunteer… At Openflows, I build digital catalogs and archives regularly and want to share some of those specific strategies we use at the outset of a… Continue reading So You Want to Make A Digital Archive? Three Strategy Questions

Digital Security Options for Punk Community Spaces

[from a mini-discussion 9/29/15 at QUILTBAG++, with much thanks to Roo Khan of Palante Tech for skills and recommendations] Recently I was presented with a technology problem: the downloads in a rural, well-traveled, punk/artist community space are threatening that spaces’ security to retaining internet access. Is a strongarm solution – hard limits to the www –… Continue reading Digital Security Options for Punk Community Spaces

Digital Archiving: How to Pick A Software

Photo by Chris Crisman

I’ve been building and teaching others how to build digital collections and archives for about three years now. Seeing that I often field questions from folks, here’s a starting list for those interested in creating online archives or collections. PLANNING YOUR DIGITAL COLLECTION Ask yourself the following questions, as a way to information-gather what you’ll… Continue reading Digital Archiving: How to Pick A Software

Raised Fist Review: Punk Music

Who among us who #1 goes to see bands, and #2 has the physical ability, has never raised a fist at any show ever? Rock. The. Fuck. On. Right??!! These raised fists show up in punk flyers from the 90’s and GUESS WHAT: the 90’s are back, y’all. Positive Force | http://raisedfist.femmetech.org/items/show/51 Positive Force was… Continue reading Raised Fist Review: Punk Music