doteveryone

What’s going to be the most talked-about 2018 tech story? A massive data breach, like those at Facebook and British Airways? The scary door-handle manipulating robot? The environmental impact of energy-hungry bitcoin mining? Or the mental health impact of social media addiction on children, where the government has now asked the Chief Medical Officer to draw up guidelines.

Tech news used to be about shiny new gadgets and quirky new online services. The headlines this year have been much more dystopian than utopian. 2018 will be remembered as the year the problems of tech became clear to everyone.

In reaction, we’ve seen initiatives such as Scroll Free September and more people are questioning the consequences of a few dominant digital platforms in our lives and the reliance on data-hungry advertising to fund these services.

At Doteveryone, we are tackling these problems in a number of ways. We are designing ways to improve government regulation (look out for our report calling for an independent regulator coming soon). We are investigating how the public understands and thinks about technology, and what could help and empower us to feel more in control. And we are working on ways to help the makers and doers in tech to take greater responsibility for the unintended consequences of the things they make.

We think it’s time to change the way we make digital products and services, looking beyond user needs to the context, contributions and consequences around the product. We believe makers can and want to do better, but there’s a gap for tools and examples of how to make this work in practice.

At Doteveryone we believe 2019 can be the year we make responsible tech the new normal. So we are holding a one-day event in January called Responsible Tech 2019 for anyone who wants to make this happen. We will showcase examples of investing, leading and creating companies and technologies with responsible principles. We will demonstrate practical ways to embed these ideas into your practice.

We want to take the energy from the conversations we’re already a part of and consider the broader solutions to the tech problems we’re seeing and haven’t yet seen. If you’re interested in making this happen, we’d love to see you at the event and hear your ideas too.

Join us and other world-leading experts, practitioners, policymakers, funders and tech leaders at this exciting one-day event to make 2019 the year the industry comes together to build a more positive future where responsible technology becomes the new normal.

Places will be limited, so if you want to be there, you can sign up before November 21 for discounted tickets.

We are able to host this event with thanks to the generous support of the Omidyar Network. If you’re interested in supporting this event, we would love to hear from you — get in touch at [email protected]

Responsible Tech 2019: an event to create a fairer future was originally published in Doteveryone on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.