Using technology skills for positive change

I’m answering your questions about the future of news technology, and about how news works behind the scenes. If you have a question for me, enter it here, and I’ll answer it in a future post.

Evan Hahn asks:

What is the best way for technologists to apply their skills to positive change?

This feels like a good question to answer now: this week, the Supreme Court ruled that roving immigration enforcement patrols can continue to profile people based on their appearance in California. Afterwards, Governor Gavin Newsom, in a statement I agree with, said: 

“Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court majority just became the Grand Marshal for a parade of racial terror in Los Angeles. This isn’t about enforcing immigration laws — it’s about targeting Latinos and anyone who doesn’t look or sound like Stephen Miller’s idea of an American”.

This immigration enforcement is heavily technology-powered. Amnesty International has pointed out that Palantir and Babel X, in particular, are heavy collaborators. They have produced software that allows authorities to scan social media and other activity for content that they deem unacceptable. Palantir’s Immigration OS supports “end-to-end immigration management,” which includes facial recognition and support for fast removal.

In this environment, how can technologists be forces for good?

The technology industry has never been an unambiguous force for human progress. IBM’s technology helped the Nazis manage the Holocaust, in full knowledge of its management; Thomas J. Watson, its head, received the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle from Hitler himself. (He returned it in 1940 after the State Department gave him some quiet advice.) Silicon Valley itself was arguably built on billions of dollars in Cold War military contracts.

As a movement, the web stands apart, and has been an aberration in tech rather than the thing that defines it. It was created by a software engineer at CERN, the vast particle physics laboratory that straddles the border of Switzerland and France, to help people share information more easily. From the beginning, its ethos has been of free and open co-operation and pursuit of collective knowledge rather than the competition and dominance that characterizes military-funded work. Tim Berners-Lee made a conscious decision that the web would be available for all, rather than for the profit of any one group. CERN itself is a collaboration of many nations in service of collective knowledge, and it made sense for the web to follow suit.

That doesn’t mean that doing good technical work means advancing the open web (although I do believe the open web is a force for good). More important are those principles of collaboration: a focus on elevating a common good rather than creating something proprietary that only its stakeholders can gain from. That could be doing work that helps combat climate change, make government more transparent, providing ways for independent artists to thrive, or many other things. It could mean building open technologies, seeding an ecosystem, or pushing for civil liberties and justice. I believe that doing good means making the world better for everybody.

But it helps to understand what “good” means for you. I’ve found it useful to build myself a career mission: to work on and support projects with the potential to make the world more informed and equal. This allows me to make clearer decisions about which projects I get involved in: if a project is successful, will the world be more equal and/or informed? If not, I don’t want to get involved. Informed speaks to collective knowledge; equal is intended to speak to intersectional equality. The two together imply revealing truths that lead to equality. For me, that led to me seeking out non-profit newsrooms that focused on bringing about change through their journalism.

One important factor in being a force for good is finding an environment where you are supported in applying these principles. That’s particularly tricky in today’s very harsh hiring environment: most technology vacancies seem to be in line with the current administration’s priorities, and mission-driven organizations are hiring less frequently. Unless you’re privileged enough to be financially independent, that places serious constraints on your ability to do values-aligned work.

Both your skills and mindset need to be compatible. It’s not enough to want to do good; you need to be able to slot into an organization and meet it where it’s at. If you go in thinking you’re going to be a savior on a white horse, you’re going to fail. You have to respect its needs, its values, and its culture. There are experts in each space, and you need to learn from them.

Because your skills and mindset need to be compatible, you need to understand organizational culture from the start. Not only does that help you figure out if you can meaningfully help, it helps you evaluate it as a place to work. Unfortunately, some mission-driven organizations feel absolved from building supportive organizational cultures because of their missions: they justify being shittier places to work because the work itself is meaningful. That’s usually a sign that leaders don’t understand the impact culture has on the quality or depth of the work being done, and that the mission itself is not as integral as it could be.

So you need to figure out:

1. What is your mission?
2. What can you offer?
3. Which organizations are in line with your mission and need what you have to offer?
4. Of those, which ones will be sustainable places to work?

It’s worth saying that “places to work” might also mean “industries to work in”; it might be more sustainable to put out a shingle as an independent contractor or consultant than as an employee at an organization. Regardless, the steps are the same. Each industry has its own norms around organizational culture and how people are supported; each requires you to meet them where they’re at and show up with a spirit of learning and service rather than being a savior.

Here’s where I would look for values-aligned organizations:

Knowledge commons:

• Universities and research labs
• Foundations supporting open source projects
• Open knowledge and open science projects

Accountability and transparency:

• Journalism and media
• Civil and digital rights organizations

Alternative ownership models:

• Worker-owned co-operatives
• Community-owned infrastructure projects
• Member-supported non-profits
• Technology companies that aim to seed ecosystems

These categories aren’t enough in themselves: they have to be aligned with your values. For example, a foundation supporting an open source project can still be doing harmful work: open source projects can be components of all kinds of evils. The project itself would need to be in line with your definition of “good”.

There’s no doubt that working in these organizations pays less than working in tech. When I moved into journalism, my cash salary dropped by a six figure sum and I stopped earning equity. I made the calculation that this was worth it: I am still paid very fairly, all things considered, and the loss of income was offset by how much more meaningful my work was. Depending on your own circumstances, your calculations might vary. And if your goal is to become a millionaire, this path is not for you. 

For what it’s worth, I do think journalism’s salaries and benefits could improve, and paying too low leads to inclusion issues that harm an organization’s ability to do good work (because past a certain point the work only becomes sustainable for the independently wealthy). Pushing for change is never a bad thing. But it’s also important to acknowledge the current reality.

If you’re a founder like me, you may also wonder if it’s more effective to work inside one of these organizations or to start something new. My recommendation that working inside one is non-optional. Even if you eventually aim to start something new, the experience understanding a new space, becoming familiar with its norms, and figuring out what’s effective and ineffective is invaluable. 

Approach it all with a beginner’s mindset, an intention to be of service, clarity about your values, and an understanding of how to make this work sustainable for you, and good things will flow from there. In a world that faces unprecedented challenges, from a resurgence in global fascism to the fast-developing storm of the climate crisis, we need more technologists to focus on doing good work. I encourage you to take the leap.

Do you have a question about newsroom technology? Ask it here and I may answer it in a future post.