Constructing the "don’t do evil" company but this time for real

[ UUID ] 31b4d04f-24d6-4bd0-907a-fdc92309cf25

[ Session Name ] Constructing the "don’t do evil" company but this time for real [ Primary Space ] Decentralisation [ Secondary Space ] Openness

[ Submitter's Name ] Kasia Odrozek [ Submitter's Affiliated Organisation ] Mozilla Foundation [ Submitter's GitHub ] @kaodro

What will happen in your session?

“Women who drink margarita and like to walk their dogs, married, over 40” equals the sound of money. The public park of expression has turned into a mall where our data is the foundation of most revenue models. And although there are many ways we might harness our data to our favour, it is not us who controls it and decides what's relevant to us. The decisions are based on the major incentive of any commercial entity: making money. There is very little wiggle space for an “ethics first“ approach unless it is by design.

But we complained enough this year so, for the sake of the argument, we'll ask: how would such design look like?

What is the goal or outcome of your session?

In this session we will be exploring a fantasy world in which tech companies are actually incentivized to develop ethical products with people first in mind, instead of profits. Not only because it is the right thing to do but because it aligns with their funding and business model.

Can crowdfunding be a scalable model? Charity? Memberships? A tech tax? Blockchain? Could a federation of ethically thinking companies be a solution?

We will look at real-life inspirations and then we will enter a game to re-invent the commercial backbone of the internet in a way that serves us, the people.

The outcome of the session will be a set of creative ideas and inspirations for the online economy.

If your session requires additional materials or electronic equipment, please outline your needs.

Projector, paper, pens and post-it notes.

Time needed

60 mins