#2: Hopeful Actions
What's next for the Society for Hopeful Technologists: events, principles, and opportunities to get involved.
Hello everyone
Two days ago, at the anti-immigration rally in London, Elon Musk appeared by video link to incite racist violence and demand the overthrow of the UK government.
The Society for Hopeful Technologists exists to stand together to ensure technologies have a positive impact, but we must also act in solidarity to call out the ways tech and the tech industry have enabled democracy to be manipulated and undermined by a few men.
If you still have an account on Musk’s platform X (previously Twitter), now is a good time to stop using it; if your employer still uses X, ask them to do the same. Continued use of X by companies and governments gives credence to the platform and the extremist views and disinformation it carries. A high follower count can no longer be assumed to translate into meaningful or useful engagement, which has dropped enormously since Musk’s takeover. It is also worth remembering that posting on X generates advertising revenue for Musk and the company’s other investors.
Society for Hopeful Technologists update
It’s been a few months since the last newsletter, which contained results from the survey. ICYMI, these were the headlines:
522 technologists based in the UK responded to the survey
90% said the UK needs an independent advocacy group for socially progressive technologists
75% said they didn’t feel represented by leading industry voices.
50% would pay a regular subscription to join such an organisation
Since then, we’ve pulled together an initial organising group and made some interim decisions about what this means and what to do next.
What is the Society for Hopeful Technologists?
To quote Nick Cave, “hopefulness is a warrior emotion”.
The idea of the Society started with the ambition to create a solidarity organisation that “champions a progressive vision for technology and galvanises action around socially and environmentally positive uses of technology”. A group of volunteer organisers (see below) is working on clearer principles that spell out what that means, and these will be refined by bringing the wider community together through virtual and in-person meetings over the coming months.
Volunteer organisers
A small group of volunteers - Anthony Dhanendran, Catherine Mayer, Elinor Carmi, Lyubomira Dmitrova, Maria Jose Lira, Michelle Levesley, Neil Brown, Paul Waller and Rachel Coldicutt - attended a hybrid meeting at the end of August. We talked about what the Society could do, who it would be for, and how we could start to turn this from an idea into reality. There are a few more people on a Signal group - if you’d like to join the organising Signal group, let us know by replying to this email.
What’s next?
As well as developing the principles, the Society for Hopeful Technologists will be iteratively developed over the next few months. The plan is to:
Run both virtual and in-person events to build community, share knowledge and refine the Society’s principles and purpose
Create a visual identity
Create a website, set-up an email address and migrate the current email newsletter to another platform
Not make any decisions about formal governance or how the Society is registered just yet. For financial purposes, the Society will use a fiscal host (such as Open Collective) until it’s constituted in a way that requires a bank account.
How can you help?
By joining the volunteer organisers’ Signal group
Developing the visual identity - if you’re a designer who is able to offer some time to work on an initial idea, we need you!
Do you have a UK venue that could host a meet-up? Could you facilitate an online or in-person session to refine the Society’s principles?
Someone with financial knowhow to help us get set-up with Open Collective and ensure we have good record keeping
Offering financial support. We’ll update soon with how to become a paid member, but if you’re able to contribute to set-up costs or overheads such as venue hire or making sure our events are accessible, then do get in touch.
The best way to get in touch for now is to reply to this email.
In the next newsletter
Dates for events, including the next virtual reading group sessions
The first draft of the Society’s principles
And in the meantime
We’ve been gathering examples of things that inspire us. Until the next newsletter, here’s some reading to keep you going:
Payal Arora, From Pessimism to Promise: Lessons from the Global South on Designing Inclusive Tech
Deb Chachra, How Infrastructure Works
Ruha Benjamin, Imagination: A Manifesto
Abeba Birhane, AI Injustices: Towards a Relational Ethics
This newsletter has 628 subscribers. Stay hopeful!!