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Third: Diversity and Inclusion Series:  Discriminatory Surveillance 

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The third event in the Internet Law and Policy Foundry’s
Diversity and Inclusion Series: 
Discriminatory Surveillance 
For registration

The Internet Law and Policy Foundry (ILPF) is excited to invite you to the third event in our Diversity and Inclusion Event Series, which explores how issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity intersect with the internet law and policy spaces.

Diversity & Inclusion Event Series: Discriminatory Surveillance

Powered by artificial intelligence, surveillance technologies such as facial recognition technologies can now identify, track, and analyze individuals and their behaviors in real time and recognize up to 100 people in a single image by can quickly scanning information it collects against databases that feature tens of millions of data points. These surveillance technologies are increasingly being adopted by law enforcement, with few safeguards and oversight, raising concerns related to privacy and data protection among other things. This panel will explore how surveillance technologies have been developed and deployed in the United States, how the use of these tools have contributed to discriminatory outcomes, and what effective policy reforms in this space could look like.

A link to the event will be sent to registered attendees on the day of the event.

Tickets are free. Donation tickets are available in case you wish to support the Foundry activity.

To share this event: https://surveilliance.eventbrite.com

Speakers:

Jasmine McNealy

Jasmine is an Associate Professor of Telecommunication at the University of Florida, where she teaches courses on regulation. She researches media, technology, and law with an emphasis on privacy, surveillance and data governance. She is also the Associate Director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project at UF, and a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society.

Evan Greer

Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello calls Evan “a heck of a guitar player,” but she’s perhaps better known as an activist. She’s been on the frontlines of some of the most notable grassroots victories of the last decade, from defending net neutrality to helping free Chelsea Manning to keeping facial recognition surveillance out of music festivals. When she’s not parenting or recording pop-punk songs about surveillance capitalism, Evan writes regularly for outlets like The Guardian, Washington Post, NBC News, and Buzzfeed. Follow her on Twitter @evan_greer

Jeremy Greenberg

Jeremy Greenberg is a Policy Counsel with Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) where he works to promote responsible data use in emerging technology. Prior to that, Jeremy served as a Policy Fellow with FPF where he worked on issues around privacy legislation, artificial intelligence, and advertising technology. Before joining FPF, Jeremy was a Law Clerk in the Office of U.S. Senator Ed Markey where he focused on a number of telecom and privacy items. Jeremy holds a J.D. from Georgetown University School of Law and a B.S. in Cinema, Photography and Media Arts from Ithaca College.

Moderator

Donalene Roberts

Donalene Roberts is a recent graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, where she was a Research Assistant for the Center on Privacy and Technology.

During law school, Donalene was a privacy law intern at Facebook, a participant in Georgetown’s Iron Tech Lawyer competition, and a student advocate in the Federal Legislation Clinic where she co-wrote a model state bill with MIT engineers on smart cities.

Donalene is currently an Assistant Counsel at Office of Legislative Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives. In her free time, Donalene enjoys reading dystopian fiction and exploring hiking trails in the DMV area.

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Diversity & Inclusion Event Series: Recruiting & Retention

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The Internet Law and Policy Foundry (ILPF) is excited to invite you to the second event in our Diversity and Inclusion Event Series, which explores how issues of diversity, inclusion, and equity intersect with the internet law and policy spaces.

Time and time again, research has indicated that a diverse workforce can introduce a broad array of perspectives into an organization and can yield a significant number of additional benefits including increased employee engagement, more informed and creative decision-making, increased innovation, greater productivity, and decreased employee turnover. Despite this, entities in the technology policy space still struggle to integrate diversity and inclusion in their workplaces. Join the Internet Law and Policy Foundry for a virtual panel discussion on how tech policy organizations can hire and build diverse workforces, establish workplace cultures that promote an inclusive environment, and address issues of implicit and explicit bias.

Event will take place on Thursday at 3 PM EST. Register here. Webinar information will be provided to registrants on the day of the event.

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Internet Law and Policy Foundry Hackathon: Addressing Disparities in Access

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About this Event

The digital divide disproportionately impacts communities of color and other marginalized groups, who often lack reliable and affordable access to the internet. These issues have been compounded by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s policy will convene a diverse set of students and early career professionals to ideate solutions related to disparities in access to the internet.

Registration will be open until November 7 via this link (you could additionally register through Eventbrite only if you wish to donate to the foundry and help us grow.)

Registered guests will receive more details about the event.

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Diversity and Inclusion Event Series: Understanding Algorithmic Discrimination.

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The Internet Law and Policy Foundry’s Diversity and Inclusion Event Series: Understanding Algorithmic Discrimination.

About this Event

Please join the Internet Law and Policy Foundry for a panel discussion on how algorithms can perpetuate historical biases in areas such as housing, employment, and credit and how policymakers and internet platforms can tackle these issues.Link will be provided before the event.

Speakers and bios:

Dr. Nicol Turner Lee

Dr. Nicol Turner Lee is a senior fellow in Governance Studies, the director of the Center for Technology Innovation, and serves as Co-Editor-In-Chief of TechTank. Dr. Turner Lee comes to Brookings from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC). Prior to joining MMTC, Dr. Turner Lee was vice president and the first director of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Dr. Turner Lee graduated from Colgate University magna cum laude and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University.

Hodan Omaar

Hodan Omaar is an analyst focusing on AI policy at ITIF’s Center for Data Innovation. Previously, she worked as a senior consultant on technology and risk management in London and as a crypto-economist in Berlin. She has an MA in economics and mathematics from the University of Edinburgh.

Morgan Williams

Morgan Williams is the general counsel for the National Fair Housing Alliance. Williams is responsible for leading NFHA’s strategic and tactical legal initiatives and affairs. Williams leads NFHA’s efforts to pursue pioneering litigation under the federal Fair Housing Act, often utilizing testing-based evidence and working in partnership with NFHA’s network of local fair housing centers.

Spandana Singh

Spandana Singh is a policy analyst with New America’s Open Technology Institute, where she researches and reports on policies and practices related to algorithmic decision-making, content moderation, transparency reporting, intermediary liability, and disinformation. She is currently also a Fellow at and the Vice President of the Internet Law & Policy Foundry, as well as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Esya Centre in New Delhi.

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Internet in The Time of Crisis

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Join the Internet Society’s DC Chapter and the Internet Law and Policy Foundry for the first in a series of roundtables

About this Event

* Registered attendees received an email with a link to the event. If you didn’t have the chance to register, the event will broadcast in this link. *

We find ourselves in very concerning and unprecedented times, with inequities around health, race, privacy and class all coming to the fore. The Internet now plays more of a role in our lives than ever, so how are these fundamental societal issues reflected through this omnipresent and critical technology?

Join the Internet Society’s DC Chapter and the Internet Law and Policy Foundry for the first in a series of roundtables on this question, as well as possible policy actions and responses. This roundtable will focus on issues around social media, health tech, digital surveillance and overall psychology and well-being on the Internet.

Event is open to all members of both organizations, and will also serve as an opportunity to discuss many of the topics that were covered at Internet Governance Forum USA 2020 in July. A meeting link will be sent to registered guests closer to the event.

For more information about the organizers:

Internet Society’s DC Chapter

Internet Law and Policy Foundry

Speakers and bios:

David Morar

David Morar, PhD, is a researcher and public policy professional, a three time ICANN Fellow, who has done work throughout the spectrum of technology policy issues, both nationally and internationally, from privacy and open data to ethics and content issues (e.g. disinformation, moderation). Dr. Morar is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Elliott School of International Affairs, with the Digital Trade and Data Governance Hub, and a Fellow at the Digital Interests Lab. He is also an Associate Researcher at the Big Data Science Laboratory at the West University of Timisoara, Romania; and a Researcher at the Center for Advanced Studies in Public Policy, Governance at Paraiba State University, Brazil. Most recently he was a Policy Manager focusing on disinformation and data science ethics with Data for Democracy, and has previously been a Google Policy Fellow with the Global Network Initiative and the Internet Education Foundation, among other fellowship positions.

Muira McCammon

Muira McCammon (@muira_mccammon) is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, where she studies military policy, new media, and the history of deletion. Muira wields public records requests and web archives to answer questions about the web that was and will be. She recently published “Tweeted, deleted: an exploratory study of the US government’s digital memory holes” in New Media & Society and has a piece forthcoming in Information, Communication, and Society entitled “Anticipatory witnessing: military bases and the politics of pre-empting access.” She holds a Master’s in Law from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Master of Arts in Translation Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Previously a fellow at the Harvard Law Library Innovation Lab and a former Fulbrighter, Muira is writing her dissertation about communications within and about Guantánamo Bay. Her work has appeared in Slate, VICE, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Columbia Journalism Review.

Suchi Pahi

Suchi is a data privacy and cybersecurity attorney with a passion for tech. She has a depth of experience in managing incident response and health privacy regulatory issues, as well as in building effective cybersecurity programs, partnering with product teams to create products that embed privacy, and counseling clients on privacy and cybersecurity implications of new technologies or services. She is currently a Director of Privacy and Business Affairs at Rally Health, Inc.

Yasodara Cordova

Yasodara Cordova is a technologist working at the intersection of product and policy at the World Bank Group, where she helps teams to deliver digital innovation in governance infrastructure. She is driven by curiosity and ethics; her work fuel is the willingness to deliver useful products where technology is a central piece, and the will to challenge technology when it is exploitative, or generally unsuited to a beneficial purpose.

July Newsletter is Out

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Great to see that you’re back!

The newsletter is distributed to fellows, foundry members, advisors, and everyone can subscribe
through our website. Its purpose is to update you about the foundry’s work and to provide a monthly
snapshot of professional opportunities, upcoming events, recommended readings, and important
news from the tech policy world.

https://mailchi.mp/a30b020f61b1/internet-law-and-policy-foundry-newsletter-4469680

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The 2020 Congressional App Challenge Launches Today

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives has come together to launch the 2020 Congressional App Challenge. Registration is now open for students, and more detailed rules and guidelines can be found on our website. 

The Congressional App Challenge, the official student coding competition of the U.S. House of Representatives, is an initiative encouraging American students to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science through a series of district-specific competitions. Over 250 Members of Congress have already signed on to host App Challenges in their districts, with many more expected in the coming weeks. This remarkably bipartisan initiative is co-chaired by Rep. Suzan DelBene (WA-01) and Rep. French Hill (AR-02). 

In five short years, the App Challenge has become the largest series of student app developer competitions in the world. The challenge is open to middle and high school students who reside or attend school in a participating congressional district. Eligible students can submit applications to the program through October 19th, 2020. 

Students demonstrating their winning Congressional App Challenge apps to Members of Congress at #HouseOfCode.
Students demonstrating their winning Congressional App Challenge apps to Members of Congress at #HouseOfCode.

“Urging students to pursue these careers is important not only because of the COVID-19 crisis, but because we are also facing a larger competitiveness and innovation crisis in America” said DelBene and Hill in a joint statement. “The Congressional App Challenge inspires students and workers to pursue these technology careers.”

The CAC was created because Congress recognizes how essential computer science and STEM skills are for economic growth and innovation, and that the U.S. is currently experiencing a dearth of adequately trained technical talent. By some estimates, there are nearly a quarter of a million unfilled programming jobs in the US. The COVID-19 crisis will likely exacerbate this talent deficit. However, the virtual and decentralized nature of the CAC will provide students with the inspiration and tools to pursue these crucial skills despite the interruption to their regular educational routine.

The Congressional App Challenge winners receive official recognition from their Member of Congress, and their app is displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year.

Students demonstrating their winning Congressional App Challenge apps to Members of Congress at #HouseOfCode.
Students demonstrating their winning Congressional App Challenge apps to Members of Congress at #HouseOfCode.

The CAC aims to bridge the gender, geographic, and racial gaps in tech by building the domestic pipeline of future tech innovators. The program has inspired over 25,000 students across 48 states to code over 6,500 apps for desktop PCs, web, tablets, mobiles or other platforms. Participant demographics for the 1,132 past App Challenges surpassed all tech industry diversity metrics. This year, the Congressional App Challenge strives to build upon this success.

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