A Union for Hopeful Technologists
What if progressive people who work in technology had an advocacy body?
I’m not enough of a student of the labour movement to know if it would really be a union, but the thing I’m thinking of is like a membership body for people who make things. That sounds a bit like a union to me so I’ll run with it for the next 400 words.
It could do a few things:
Be a place for fostering and sharing big ideas that isn’t funded by a US technology company (unlike this and this), but by the people who make technologies, either in their work life or in their spare time
Be an advocacy body that responds to government policy proposals and offers pragmatic opinions about hyperbolic policy proposals that won’t survive contact with reality
Be a useful point of contact for regulators and policymakers who are doing things like rolling out the Online Safety Act without remembering that Mastodon exists
Be an inclusive place to gather and learn and improve skills (like this reading group that’s happening in a couple of weeks, that has 150 people signed up and more on the waiting list)
Be a place of professional resistance and organisation when malpractice and bad actors appear on the horizon (yes, I am talking about this)
What do I mean by progressive?
Well only a fool would consider creating an umbrella group for people on the left, who are socially and economically liberal and trying not to make the world worse, but look at me, standing here, offering a few words in the knowledge that people will shout at me for getting it wrong.
The non-negotiables are that this would be a feminist, trans-inclusive, anti-racist space. And if you don’t want to be in a feminist, trans-inclusive, anti-racist union, that’s fine, you can join another one or publicly complain about how this is a terrible idea.
Throwing some words around here as a starting point, I’m going to make a punt that it means:
A group of technologists, designers, researchers, and policy specialists united in our pursuit of progress towards a just and sustainable democratic society that upholds and protects human rights and prioritises care for people and planet.
As words go they are perhaps a bit grand and arm-wavey but they are a start.
If you think this sounds like a good idea, here’s a short (3-question) survey you can fill in. And if it feels like a really great exciting idea, drop me an email at hello@careful.industries and we can have a chat. I’m writing this because I think there’s a gap that needs to be filled, quite urgently, and we’ll be better at making a difference if we do it together not alone. If you hate this idea, that’s fine! You probably don’t need to email me to tell me.
And thanks also to everyone who’s had an initial conversation about this or nodded a bit when I’ve mentioned it in conversation.