Each fall, Big Tech firms host pricey conferences in major cities to show off new products and technologies. This year, Wednesday September 15th, Ethics in Tech will throw a monkey wrench in the system with our own conference and disrupt Big Tech towards human rights, eco-sustainability, and civil liberties.
Tickets start at $15 on Eventbrite here: Fire and Fury, Throwing a Monkey Wrench at Big Tech! Tickets, Wed, Sep 15, 2021 at 9:00 AM | Eventbrite
9:00 to 9:30 AM Welcome, Program Overview from Vahid Razavi, Director of Ethics In Technology
A technology veteran of Silicon Valley. Vahid has founded, advised and worked in senior management roles in Silicon Valley. He has published two books, The Age of Nepotism and Ethics In Tech and The Lack Thereof. As a lifelong activist and humanitarian he has published hundreds of articles and videos on various social issues including tech industry and social injustice.
He has previously worked for companies such as Amazon Web Services, Fast Search, Exodus Communications, Qwest Communications, and was the founder of the Cloud Computing Company BizCloud.
9:30 to 9:40 AM, Doctor Martin Todd Allen
Rev. Martin Todd Allen is an Associate Minister at the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.
He is scheduled to graduate with a Doctor of Ministry(DMin) at the Pacific School of Religion May 2020. His DMin project trains congregations to demand and demonstrate eco-socialist alternatives to global capitalism.
Previously, Rev. Allen worked as a prison, hospital and military chaplain and currently works as a hospice chaplain in the South Bay.
In addition, he serves on the board of directors of The Human Agenda.
9:40 to 10:00 AM Brett Wilkins, Ethics In Tech Board Member
Brett Wilkins is a San Francisco-based independent writer and activist whose work focuses on issues of war and peace and human rights. His articles have recently appeared in print and online publications including Asia Times, The Jakarta Post, Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Antiwar.com, Mondoweiss, Socialist Viewpoint, TeleSur and Venezuela Analysis. Brett is a member of Collective 20 and is editor-at-large for US news at Toronto-based Digital Journal, as well as a board member of the nonprofit advocacy group Ethics In Tech.
10:00 AM to 10:10 AM Doctor Karen Melander Magoon, Poetry
Karen Melander graduated from Indiana University in Music and received her Masters Degree from Boston University. She spent two decades in Europe singing on the major stages of Germany and Austria. Her children, Aaron and Bridget, were born in the Loire Valley of France and in Berlin, Germany. In October, 2008, she received her Doctor of Ministry from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, through San Francisco Theological Seminary and Starr King School for the Ministry.
10:10 AM to 10:20 Stretch Break
10:20 to 10:40 Tauriq Jenkins
Tauriq Jenkins is a Convenor of the Anti-Repression Working Group of the C19 People’s Coalition and an accredited monitor for the South African Human Rights Commission. As chair of the AIXARRA Restorative Justice Forum, based at the Centre for African Studies University of Cape Town, he convenes the commissions on Sacred Human Remains, Land and C19. He is the High Commissioner of the Goringhaicona Khoi Khoin Traditional Indigenous Council and involved in various civic, heritage and environmental structures including the Observatory Civic Association, Two Rivers Urban Park Association, and the Civic for Action in Public Participation. He holds an MFA, School of the Arts, Columbia University, and an alumnus of the International Fellows Program, School of International Public Affairs, Columbia University.
10:40 to 11:00 Albert Fox
Albert Fox Cahn is the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project’s ( S.T.O.P.’s) founder and executive director, and he is also a fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, Ashoka, N.Y.U Law School’s Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, and the Day One Project. As a lawyer, technologist, writer, and interfaith activist, Mr. Cahn began S.T.O.P. in the belief that emerging surveillance technologies pose an unprecedented threat to civil rights and the promise of a free society.
Mr. Cahn is a frequent commentator on civil rights, privacy, and technology matters. He is a contributor to the New York Times, Boston Globe, Guardian, WIRED, Slate, NBC Think, Newsweek, and dozens of other publications. He has lectured at Harvard Law School, New York University School of Law, Columbia University, and Dartmouth College. Mr. Cahn previously served as an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, where he advised Fortune 500 companies on technology policy, antitrust law, and consumer privacy.
11:05 to 11:15 Break
11:15 to 11:35 Tracy Rosenberg, Oakland Privacy and Media Alliance
Tracy Rosenberg is the co-coordinator and advocacy director at Oakland Privacy, a citizens’ coalition that works regionally to defend the right to privacy and enhance public transparency and oversight regarding the use of surveillance techniques and equipment. As experts on municipal privacy reform, OP has written use policies and impact reports for a variety of surveillance technologies, conducted research and investigations, and developed frameworks for the implementation of equipment with respect for civil rights, privacy protections and community control. https://oaklandprivacy.org Rosenberg is also the director of Media Alliance, a 45-year old Northern California democratic communications advocacy nonprofit. Https://media-alliance.org
11:35 to 11:55 AJ Rice
AJ Rice is a privacy advocate and the Founder & CEO of Privo Mobile – a tech startup making a dumb phone for modern times, designed for kids. AJ is a privacy ambassador for PDX Privacy – a non-profit focused on advocating for privacy and increasing transparency on the use of surveillance in the Portland area. AJ is also author of the privacy blog Private Matters.
12:00 to 12:40 Panel Discussion on Privacy and Civil Liberties withTracy, Albert, AJ and Vahid
12:40 to 1:00 Mike Rufo, Advisor to Ethics In Tech, Music and Talk
1:00 to 1:30 Break
1:30 to 1:50 Ray Acheson Wilpf.org/ Stop Killer Robots
Ray Acheson is the Director of Reaching Critical Will. They provide analysis, research, and advocacy across a range of disarmament issues from an antimilitarist feminist perspective. Ray represents WILPF on the steering committees of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, and the International Network on Explosive Weapons. They also work to challenge the international arms trade, war profiteering, and the patriarchal and racist structures of war and armed violence. Ray has an Honours BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto and an MA in Politics from The New School for Social Research and is currently a Visiting Research Collaborator at Princeton University. Ray previously worked for the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies. They are a 2018 UN Women Metro-NY “Champion of Change” and recipient of a 2020 Nuclear Free Future Award.
1:50 to 2:10 VFP Adrienne Kinne
Adrienne Kinne, President, Veterans for Peace Board of Directors
2:10 to 2:30 CodePink Carley Towne
Carley Towne is National Co-Director of CODEPINK and leads the Divest from War and Defund the Pentagon programs.
Carley graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a degree in Critical Gender Studies and Political Science. She’s now happy to organize and live in Los Angeles.
2:30 to 2:40 7th Inning-Stretch
2:40 to 3:20 Peace Discussion Adrienne Kinne, Vahid Razavi
3:20 to 3:30 Cristina Deptula, Ethics in Tech Board Member
Cristina Deptula has been involved in human rights-related activism from an early age, starting with her membership in her high school’s Amnesty International and Students for a Free Tibet groups. Since then, she’s remained active within various movements, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the digital privacy-related Restore the Fourth. She is committed to helping build a more just and inclusive world for people of all ages, ethnic backgrounds, abilities, genders and other categories and a world where the tech world acts in service of people living their best lives.
3:40 to 3:50 Break
3:50 to 4:30 Comedy – Mean Dave and Nina G.
Mean Dave is a stand-up comedian. He is a regular at Cobb’s Comedy Club, Punch Line in SF and Sacramento and has opened for headliners such as Judy Tenuta, Eddie Pepitone, Big Jay Oakerson, Dan Soder, Allan Havey, Tom Rhodes, Neil Hamburger, Josh Blue, Brent Morin, Bret Ernst and most importantly, Barry Sobel. Most of Dave’s life has been littered with utter disappointment and flat out betrayal that only a sarcastic, cynical sense of humor can remedy. Hopefully this information helps you in your decision as to whether Mean Dave’s comedy will help
Nina G is a comedian, professional speaker, and author. She is comfortable performing stand-up comedy, doing book readings at a library or talking to elementary school age children about disability awareness. She has performed and spoke across the world and is an acclaimed keynote speaker on disability issues. With two TedX Talks, a performance at the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony in 2021 and the release of her book Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen, Nina is both funny and professional.
4:30 Final Thoughts- Vahid Razavi
Note all times are in Pacific time.
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