Move Fast and Break Democracy

	Working Collectively	Capturing Value
😊	Lots of experience	Creative resource models
😞	Overemphasize autonomy	License away profit

Move Fast

and

Break Democracy

LibrePlanet 2017

Shauna Gordon-McKeon(@shauna_gm, shaunagm@gmail.com)

Slides @ shaunagm.github.io/personal/libreplanet2017.html

"You all worked for Nazi Germany. And you tried to offer only a passive resistance. Certainly, to buy off your conscience you helped here and there a persecuted person, but millions of innocent human beings were allowed to be murdered without any kind of protest being uttered..."

The economy is

changing

The economy is

always changing

“What I would like is for us as

programmers to recognize our labor for

what it is. Our labor is input to a system

that’s extracting an enormous amount of

capital that goes to a very few people, and

that system is wreaking havoc in many

ways.

What I find increasingly urgent is for us to

align ourselves with all of the other

workers who generate that capital,

whether they write docs, answer phones,

serve food, drive buses,

or clean conference venues.”

Why?

What are some ethics guidelines?

disclose conflicts of interest

publish corrections

cite your sources

respect privacy rights

seek comment from subjects of reporting

use full and unfixed quotes

Money Problems

less funding than misinformation

privacy violations/behavioral tracking

vulnerability to media consolidation

lack of diversity among reporters

Recurring Themes

work collectively

pay attention to resources

Potential Solutions

alternative business models

unions

codes of ethics

government action

We need to talk

We need to act

Recommended

What Tech Workers Can Learn From Harry Bridges by Kelsey Gilmore-Innis

Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neill

Consequences of an Insightful Algorithm by Carina C Zona

The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu

The code I'm still ashamed of by Bill Sourour

Sources

Lise Meitner's quotes

Campaign Explorer website by Ben Schmidt

Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide by Ed Rensi

Mitchell, Amy; Gottfried, Jeffrey; and Matsa, Katerina Eva. “Millennials and Political News.” Pew Research Center: Journalism & Media. Pew Research Center, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

Silverman, Craig. “This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook.” BuzzFeedNews. BuzzFeed, Inc, 16 Nov. 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.

Frightened by Donald Trump? You don’t know the half of it by George Monbiot

On Russian Propaganda Network Mapping by PropOrNot

Image Credits

Elektronenkonfiguration von Meitnerium, dem 109 by Greg Robson

Lise Meitner and Otto Hahn in their laboratory by Unknown

Octobre 1793, supplice de 9 émigrés from La Guillotine en 1793 by H. Fleischmann

Hitler accepts the ovation of the Reichstag posted by Marion Doss

Boston Tea Party copy of lithograph by Sarony & Major, 1846

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at Carrier Corp. by Darron Cummings (AP)

Sunbelt and Rustbelt

Figure A: U.S. manufacturing employment, January 1970–December 2014 (millions of jobs) Economic Policy Institute

Figure 10: Manufacturing Employment by Marc Levinson, Congressional Research Service

Image Credits (cont)

Technology Explains Drop in Manufacturing Jobs, Charts 2 & 4 by James Sherk

FightFor15-1330523 by Mark Dixon

Among Millennials, Facebook Far Exceeds Any Other Source for Political News by Mitchell, Amy; Gottfried, Jeffrey; and Matsa, Katerina Eva.

This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook by Craig Silverman

O caso Maine na Prensa Amarela USA, 17 febreiro de 1898 by the New York Journal

Google search results for the term “did the holocaust happen” on Dec. 13, 2016 by Ananya Bhattacharya

Thank you!

Shauna Gordon-McKeon
(@shauna_gm, shaunagm@gmail.com)