LA Tech4Good
Teaching responsible data for a more equitable world
Generative AI for Creative Workflows
Balancing Innovation and Ethics
This event will delve into the multifaceted implications of generative AI for artists, with a unique exploration of both its positive and negative aspects, and an understanding of this transformative technology's impact on the artistic landscape.
Read more and RSVP on Eventbrite
May 9 Los Angeles in-person event
We stand with Palestinians
LA Tech4Good stands with Palestinians and Palestine, opposes the genocide, and calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Statements from our community, both signed and anonymous, are here.
We suggest that folks who support freedom for Palestinians connect with Tech For Palestine. They are building out strong projects like Palestine Datasets and Oct 7 Fact Check. Join their robust Discord, help with a project, and sign up for their newsletter here.
Statement:
Blog posts and guest articles
Hey, we’re on Feedspot’s Top 15 Los Angeles Tech Blogs!
Will you help fund our Consortium membership?
The membership fee for the consortium is $1,000 per year. You can help make our participation possible! Y’all know we’re scrappy and that we will be very grateful for your financial participation.
About us and our programs
Data equity skills trainings
We offer our signature trainings – Leading Equitable Data Practices – in one and 3-session formats, to individuals and to organizations.
We invite anyone who works with data to our workshops, to learn practical tools to infuse equity and ethics into your work and build community around the data equity movement.
Learn how to use data responsibly for a more equitable world
Our programs train people to think about data in its respective context. We’re not teaching you math, statistics, or technical foundations, we’re training you to think from the lens of social justice and design justice as you use data and technology as a tool to further equity and the mission of your organization.
The curriculum and exercises in our workshop are meant to elucidate that data is a product of our current systems and that there are opportunities and necessity to collect and use data in a manner that is grounded in concepts of equity and ethics. Read more in this overview.
Our mission
Our mission is to foster social change by teaching equitable and ethical data practices
We believe data can be actively employed to mitigate inequalities and build a more equitable world. As we strive for racial justice, to strike down gender bias, and to work towards equitable healthcare, responsible data is a key tool in our toolboxes.
We aim to strengthen the broad tech and data “for good” ecosystem. And to help establish, in partnership with like-minded organizations, professional norms for data practices that are rooted in equity, ethics, and data sovereignty, and which contribute to social justice through technology.
Our data principles
Data is about people
Nearly everything facet of modern life has been digitized, but ultimately data is a measure of people, individuals and community that can’t be reduced to numbers, algorithms and data.
Data is power
Mountains of data are collected and generated each day – and this impacts lives. Shouldn’t people own and control the data they generate – the data about them?
Data equity prompts accountability
Equity practices require action and accountability, encompass data privacy considerations, and require transparency while protecting anonymity.
Technological change outpaces regulation
Regulation lags far behind the rate of change in technology, so those creating data projects generally must rely on their own efforts to ensure that people are not harmed through unregulated processes.
Data equity enables informed action
The collection and analysis of data around inclusivity, bias, and inequity can be useful in counteracting these same problems, and implementing more equitable data practices support these efforts.
“Equity is both an outcome and a process.”
— Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, Data Feminism