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
Volunteer gratitude
What an honor to be able to thank the LA Tech4Good volunteer team – who make *everything* possible! – during National Volunteer Week. It is humbling to reflect on expertise and passion that our volunteers contribute to make our data equity work so impactful. Mil gracias a:
🩷 Our Steering Committee: Cindy Lin (Workshop Operations and Partnerships); Eva Sachar (Director of Advocacy and inaugural member of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s AI Safety Institute Consortium); Rachel Whaley (Data Equity Program Lead, who’s designed and led public and corporate workshops since 2020); and Yohance Barrett (working to expand our programs)
🩷 Workshop facilitators who led our fifteenth and “best to date” data equity workshop series in January: Kai Williams, Vivian Lam, Kathryn Wolterman and Zariah Cameron
🩷 Healthcare advisors Alana Nash, Brandy Wilkins Rafael Lopes who designed and led a November Healthcare Data Equity webinar; watch for an upcoming blog post!
National Volunteer Week
🩷 A hearty welcome to new volunteers: Vanishaa Doshi (press); Roxanne García (video); Emilia Navarro (website); and Sophia Wilson (editor)
🩷 And a toast to our OGs: Regina Walton (SF and national newsletter editor); Christopher Chenet (who has some serious grantwriting chops); Mary Lang (ditto, plus author of strong articles on digital education); Jared Sheehan (strategy advisor since our inception); and Kelly Poole (our resident climate expert)
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
Learn how to use data responsibly for a more equitable world
We invite anyone who works with data to our signature Leading Equitable Data Practices workshops, where you’ll gain practical knowledge and tools to infuse equity and ethics into your work, and become a more active participant in the data equity community.
❝ 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.❞
–Eva Sachar, our Director of Advocacy
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 injustices and build a more equitable world. Data must be employed with an equity lens, as a key tool in our toolbox, as we work for racial justice, gender equality, equitable healthcare, and more.
We also advocate for professional data norms rooted in equity, ethics, and data sovereignty, and the concept of data justice, contributing to social change 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