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Digital Humanism

See also: computing, creative-coding, reading-and-writing-the-world-with-mathematics

My working definition is that digital humanism is about putting people, individuals, communities etc at the centre of technology. Or, drawing on Arthur/Dron's definition of technology - the orchestration of phenomena for a purpose - ensuring that the orchestration and purposes are driven by people, individuals, and communities. Not companies etc. Or, perhaps are at least used purposefully by people, individuals, and communities.

From the Digital Humanism Initiative

People are the central focus. Technology is for people and not the other way round. We need to put “humankind” at the center of our work.

Digital culture#

Our culture isn't about digital computing being creative, protean. It's about use.

Seymour Papert

If you go into any school or any home you'll find many pencils, many crayons, many paintbrushes. Because these are instruments that people are made part of their lives. They use the pencil whenever they have a need for it to draw, to write a story, to calculate, and so with a computer it's the natural instrument for doing mathematics, for music for a hundred other things. our goal is to make it sufficiently part of the culture of the place that everybody uses it when it's needed there

Concepts#

Examples#

People#

Coding

Projects#

  • Mask on zone - Advice for protest attendees
  • [Escape the Algorithm]
  • YouTune - site that cycles through less viewed songs from YouTube
  • Escape the algorithm - newsletter examining platforms and algorithms that shape out world

  • Contra Chrome - web comic explaining the issues with the Chrome browser

  • Name-age-calculator - repo and web page - simple Javascript/D3 app that generates graph showing # of people by given name at birth and beyond

  • Better intersections - crowdsourced tracking and visualisation of Sydney traffic intersections

FSF related projects

Design projects#

Talia Cotton

All Tech is Human#

We are committed to co-creating a tech future aligned with the public interest

Digital Humanism Initiative#

Digital Humanism Initiative released the Responsible Tech Guide - maps the ecosystem

Concepts/ideas#

  • habituating the user an idea that platform companies etc "create training schemes to operate as "habituation programs" - see Williamson et al (2022)
  • making the user friendly - similarly arguing that the aim of tech company training programs is to make the user friendly for all the stuff/assumptions baked into the technology - see Gorur & Dey (2021)

From the Digital Humanism Initiative#

The Corona-Crisis shows that IT keeps the system running. But at the same time IT is changing our society. We are in the midst of the digital transformation, with computer science and its artifacts as a major driver. We experienced the metamorphosis from the stand-alone computer to the global operating system of our world, a journey leading to yet another industrial revolution: digitizing everything, and automating work and thinking.

This digital and global operating system integrates, links, and permeates everything: work, leisure, politics, the personal, the professional, and the private. It influences or even shapes actions on a technical, economic, military, and political level.

Whereas digitalization is opening unprecedented opportunities, it also raising serious concerns: the monopolization of the Web, the rise of extremism orchestrated by social media, the formation of filter bubbles, the loss of privacy, the spread of digital surveillance, automated decision making, and the potential loss of jobs due to automation.

... Such an approach starts from several key points:

  • IT forms a critical building block for our society; it facilitates and drives change, but it also needs rules and guidance.
  • To understand, to reflect, and to influence this development, we need a multi and interdisciplinary approach, looking at the individual and the society.
  • It is a global international issue.
  • The approach needs to be scientific, in the tradition of the enlightenment – and fact based in the best sense.
  • People are the central focus. Technology is for people and not the other way round. We need to put “humankind” at the center of our work.

References#

Gorur, R., & Dey, J. (2021). Making the user friendly: The ontological politics of digital data platforms. Critical Studies in Education, 62(1), 67--81. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2020.1727544

Williamson, B., GULSON, K. N., PERROTTA, C., & WITZENBERGER, K. (2022). Amazon and the New Global Connective Architectures of Education Governance. Harvard Educational Review, 92(2), 231--256. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-92.2.231