Track: Ethics in Computing

Location: Soho Complex, 7th fl.

Day of week: Wednesday

Ethics in computing isn't new, but in recent times the implications of ignoring ethics in computing are front-page material.  Privacy, inclusion, bias, and many other aspects of the human relationship with technology are at play. Let's take a good, hard look at ethical challenges in information and technology to understand how to treat these challenges with a respect and diligence appropriate to impact our work has on society.

Track Host: Theo Schlossnagle

Founder and CEO @Circonus. ACM Practitioners Board member. Co-chair of the ACM Queue.

Theo founded four technology companies, most recently Circonus in 2010.  After earning undergraduate and graduate degrees from Johns Hopkins University in computer science with a focus on graphics and randomized algorithms in distributed systems, he went on to research resource allocation techniques in distributed systems during four years of post-graduate work. A widely respected industry thought leader, Theo is the author of Scalable Internet Architectures (Sams) and a frequent speaker at worldwide IT conferences. Theo is a computer scientist in every respect. Theo is a distinguished member of the ACM. He serves on ACM's Practitioners board and as the co-chair of the ACM Queue.

CASE STUDY TALK (50 MIN)

10:35am - 11:25am

Privacy Ethics – A Big Data Problem

Onslaught of Big Data coupled with rapid technological changes/innovations has resulted in numerous Privacy violations. This talk broadly covers best practices with respect to Data Management aspects from mapping your Enterprise data to applying Data Protection rules like GDPR at petabyte scale. In addition, the talk also covers some of the “Privacy by design” methodologies to maintain good privacy hygiene.

Raghu Gollamudi, Co-Founder/VP Engineering @Integrisio
CASE STUDY TALK (50 MIN)

11:50am - 12:40pm

Data, GDPR & Privacy: Doing It "Right" Without Losing It All

We all know someone (or maybe you're that person) that tries to live off the data grid as much as possible. They don't participate in grocery store rewards programs; ad blockers are turned on; cookies disabled; they wouldn't be caught dead on social media. They value their data to an extreme... and it's not hard to understand why. 

Finding a news story these days where some organization's customer data has been breached (looking at you Equifax, Target, Home Depot, Uber....) is as easy as checking out google news.  Even worse there are the companies who haven't been breached, they just actively allow your data to be actively mined and used for purposes you were never aware of (Hey, Facebook). These breaches and intrusions into individuals personal information cause real harm, lead to a great deal of mistrust by consumers, and impact the ability for corporate citizens with positive intentions to innovate and drive value to the same individuals. 

At the same time that data breaches and privacy intrusions are popping up at an uncomfortable rate, the technology space for collecting, categorizing, visualizing, and targeting data is growing even more rapidly. Look at nearly any technology, marketing, product, or customer success focused conference and you're sure to see sessions, if not a full track, dedicated to the all encompassing big data story.  Looking at one specific industry, such as the world of email, data is leveraged to inform what to send, to whom, and when. The thought of stripping away access to these fundamental insights seems terrifying to companies who are constantly looking for a way to increase engagement and conversion.  So what are companies to do? How do you mesh the desire and ability to leverage an abundance of valuable insights, with the resonsibility to do so in a careful and permitted way?

In this talk we'll journey through the world of data at our fingertips; the privacy concerns and subsequent regulations that come with so much information; and, how to operate a business that does both the "Right" thing for the consumer, whithout impact the ability to innovate, personalize, and grow.

Amie Durr, Vice President of Product Management @SparkPost
CASE STUDY TALK (50 MIN)

1:40pm - 2:30pm

Ethics in Computing Panel

Ethics in software today is a hot topic. Join us for a panel of the speakers in the Ethics track while we discuss the important points around privacy, security, safety online, and intent of software today.

Raghu Gollamudi, Co-Founder/VP Engineering @Integrisio
Natalie Evans Harris, COO and VP of Ecosystem Development @BrightHive
Kathy Pham, Product Leader and Computer Scientist, former USDS @WhiteHouse, @Google, @IBM
Liz Fong-Jones, Site Reliability Engineer
CASE STUDY TALK (50 MIN)

2:55pm - 3:45pm

Organizing for Your Ethical Principles

Our job as engineers does not stop with eliminating technical defects and ensuring high reliability. Engineers of all kinds must ensure their work serves the public good. A service that reliably harms, exacerbates injustices, or excludes marginalized groups is not a service worth building and maintaining. 

Learn how to effectively accomplish change in your working conditions or your employer's products through grassroots employee advocacy.

Liz Fong-Jones, Site Reliability Engineer
CASE STUDY TALK (50 MIN)

4:10pm - 5:00pm

Spurring The Ethical Imagination

How can individuals incorporate ethical decision-making and identify ethical dilemmas in their work with data? Whether you are a developer, data scientist, program manager, or leader of an organization, come to this workshop to explore your ethical imagination around data use. If you’re writing reports, creating models, scrubbing data sets, or using data from other providers, this workshop will give you tools to think more responsibly about your data practices.

Natalie Evans Harris, COO and VP of Ecosystem Development @BrightHive
CASE STUDY TALK (50 MIN)

5:25pm - 6:15pm

Ethics in Computing, From Academia to Industry

Thinking about ethics and social responsibility should begin in academia and continue through industry. We learn to build and write scalable, efficient, clean algorithms and code that impact millions. We learn to optimize our data systems. When we get to industry, we continue this trend. Our performance reviews also reflect what we learn in academia. The ethics, social responsibility, and long-term impacts of our products are often not as widely considered. We also often work in engineering silos, occasionally pulling in other deeply human disciplines as thought partners on how our products affect humanity. Come to learn and discuss actions being taken in academia and industry today, and hear about actionable paths forward to create cultures that build more responsible software and services for all people. 

Kathy Pham, Product Leader and Computer Scientist, former USDS @WhiteHouse, @Google, @IBM

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