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January 2025
TIPI is very excited to host guest speakers for two events next month!
Please RSVP on Eventbrite. More details for each event are below.
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Thursday 01/23/25 - The Case for Unpermissioned Research on Social Media
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Details:
- Thursday, January 23rd, 2025
- 12:30-2:00 PM CST
- FAC 334A
- Eventbrite
Summary: Social media has emerged as a critical part of the American public sphere. Our ability to understand this new space is constrained by actions powerful platform companies take that create obstacles to researchers who seek to study them. Unpermissioned research is the idea that researchers can practically and ethically study social media even when social media platforms would prefer not to be scrutinized. What can we learn when we study social media carefully, closely and adversarially?
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Friday 01/24/25 - Digital Rights and AI in the Urban Landscape
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Details:
- Friday, January 24th, 2025
- 1:00-2:30 PM CST
- DMC 5.208
- Eventbrite
Summary: Good Systems and the Technology and Information Policy Institute invite you to join us for a panel discussion with leading experts on smart cities, ethical AI, surveillance, and digital rights as we explore the transformative impact of AI on urban environments. Our panelists will delve into the implications for digital rights and equity of AI's adoption by city governments, highlighting both the potential benefits for urban communities as well as critical privacy and surveillance concerns. The conversation will also address ethical AI and data practices, ensuring a balanced view of the risks and opportunities. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with AI thought leaders and learn how to engage and empower city residents in the digital age.
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Ethan Zuckerman is associate professor of public policy, information and communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and director of the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure. His research focuses on the use of media as a tool for social change, the use of new media technologies by activists and alternative business and governance models for the internet. He is the author of Mistrust: How Losing Trust in Institutions Provides Tools to Transform Them (2021) and Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection (2013). With Rebecca MacKinnon, Zuckerman co-founded the international blogging community Global Voices. It showcases news and opinions from citizen media in more than 150 nations and 30 languages, publishing editions in 20 languages. Previously, Zuckerman directed the Center for Civic Media at MIT and taught at the MIT Media Lab.
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Prakhar Bajpai is an experienced Data Scientist who graduated from Texas A&M University with interests in Analytics and Business Intelligence. He is experienced in optimization and analytics and reporting operations and has two research papers published in international journals. Prakhar likes to make significant impacts for various teams through his innovative use of data and technology to improve government operations, facilitate effective decision making, and enhance service delivery. Prakhar is leading the City of Austin's first “Data Learning Cohort,” which is helping more than 140 City leaders and staff members develop data literacy skills, improve data-driven decision-making, enhance collaboration, and increase diversity of thought and practice.
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Lee Davenport is the Director of Community Development for US Ignite where he leads the US Ignite Communities program and served as Project Director for Project OVERCOME. For 20 years, he has worked with national nonprofit organizations, large corporations, federal agencies, and local governments to create and deliver technology-informed economic empowerment strategies to communities nationwide. He has expertise in program design, multi-partner program development, communications, implementation, and evaluation
strategies. Before joining US Ignite, Lee founded a successful consultancy delivering strategy and operational leadership for nonprofits and private sector agencies delivering consumer technology to low-income communities. Prior to that, he served as Vice President, Programs at One Economy Corporation leading a national effort for digital literacy and broadband adoption.
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Gwen Shaffer, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Journalism and Public Relations and Director of Research for the College of Liberal Arts at California State University Long Beach. Her telecommunications policy research examines the complex nature of social exclusion in the informational age. Her current research focuses on the data privacy implications of “smart city” technologies such as surveillance cameras, automated license plate readers and sensors. She is the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation-funded project focused on the City of Long Beach’s vision to use data in ethical ways that avoid reinforcing existing racial biases and discriminatory decision-making. Prior to attending graduate school, Shaffer worked as a reporter for more than a dozen years. Shaffer earned her doctorate in mass media and communication from Temple University in Philadelphia.
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Meg Young studies how to support advocacy groups and the public to drive algorithmic accountability and assessment in practice. She has collaborated with activists, advocacy groups, and public agencies on capacity-building for data governance, technology oversight, and public engagement; and co-founded the Critical Platform Studies Group, a non-profit that partners with civil rights groups to pursue algorithmic accountability through adversarial design. Much of Meg’s previous work focuses on promoting digital rights in municipal government; her dissertation examined how government use of proprietary systems impacts public access, accountability, and oversight. Prior to joining
Data & Society, Meg was a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell Tech Digital Life Initiative where she remains an affiliate, and as a fellow in the New York City Office of Technology Innovation. She holds a PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle and an MS and BA from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
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For the latest updates, check out our website!
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