STS-3094B Diversity and Technology

Edit: These are just the stream of consciousness notes I took, take a look at a later draft under Final Project!

I was really engaged in this presentation because I actually live in one of the buildings that Michael Higgins brought up. It was really cool experiencing the tour through online Google Maps, and it was especially interesting to learn so much more about the street that I live on and the area that I spend almost every day. It also made it clear how Brooklyn has changed over time and how it has been subject to gentrification. I remember a friend of mine once told me that MetroTech was laid out very specifically and with a purpose. So it was really cool to hear that affirmed that it was designed to be an urban renewal site. There were other really cool and almost wild facts like how 20,000 apartments have been built in Brooklyn, just in the last few years. 

Chris Woods talked about the LGBTQ+ Center at NYU. I was really interested in this lecture and even more engaged in this one than other ones because not only did Chris explain to us a lot of the efforts that the center takes, he also really involved us and treated our  discussion as though we were acting under those guidelines. I think one of the most important things that Chris emphasized was comfort. He was he was making sure that everybody was comfortable. It was about making the entire class and everybody around him feel comfortable, whatever their identity was, and if they even wanted to identify. Another thing I think was important that Chris brought up was talking about the phrase queer. Originally, queer meant odd and strange and was incredibly offensive towards the community. While largely we think that this phrase has been reclaimed, it is important to remember the implications behind it and the history behind it and how it is important to use terms that everybody around ...

Raechel Bosh talk about NYU's college programs for incarcerated individuals. I was really interested to learn more about this because I did not know that so many prisons had education programs. Furthermore, the classroom that Rachel showed looked inviting and familiar. However, it was interesting to see that safety precautions were still maintained: everything that went in to the program was check for security purposes. This actually reminds me of how everything is checked in psychiatric wards and how context results in different treatment. When Jerry started talking about his story, I was really excited to hear more about how this college program directly affected somebody firsthand. I thought it was really cool that Jerry had actually chosen to join the program, and that it wasn't required. It was also cool to know that he works for NYU. I was so glad to hear that he felt welcomed by the community when he arrived. It makes me proud to be a part of this community. 

Michael Lindsey talked about the McSilver Institute and its goal to find the actual causes behind poverty and address consequences that arise because of them. The McSilver Institute has university wide reach and takes initiatives on that large of a scale. They attempt to reduce inequality and bring together diverse faculty together to discuss ways to address inequality and reduce it as much as possible. The McSilver Institute is also a very large Institute, and has many partners that were shown to us.  Uzoma Orchingwa talked about Ameelio, which is a free way to send mail to someone that is incarcerated. There are no entry requirements and it is free. It takes away the costs of stamps and the cost of mailing. Making this service accessible and free is important to incarcerated people and their social interactions, as most of these people communicate with their children through the mail. Ameelio is not being funded by a major corporation, and yet still boasts over 500 letters just ...

Yvonne talked about open for business, which she described as a coalition of companies that believe in inclusive and diverse communities, and that these communities are good for business. The main goal is to advance the communities of diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. She noted that South Africa was most progressive as they legally protect the queer community. However, they are not perfect, as there are still several issues, including misguided "correction." Yvonne also mentioned genderless pronouns in Swahili. My parents speak a dialect known as Cebuano, which also has genderless pronouns. My mom used to say this made it easier for her to use the correct pronouns with non binary people or people who are comfortable with the use of they/them pronouns. While there is some truth and benign intent to that sentiment, gender identity isn't about ease, it is about expression. I think that looking away from a problem isn't solving it. It is goo...

Chancey's phrase, "dark patterns in accessibility," I believe refers to a sighted approach to problem solving of a situation involving visually impaired. She made an example of the AT&T store, where she would not ask somebody at the store how to use these tools because they wouldn't know how to. She also brings up ghostwriting in terms of coding, which is code that is written supposedly to help the visually impaired community but is not tested on the visually impaired community. I believe that with no knowledge of a problem, you cannot find a solution, and this is the problem with accessibility tools. Max's phrase, "cede authority to the algorithm," I believe refers to the avoidance approach most companies take when it comes to identities. These companies act as though they are not blame, that these decisions are made by an external program, and therefore, that blame is shifted to the decision making algorithm. However, I believe this is a weak excu...

Before finding out about the future works makerspace, the only makerspace I knew about was the one we had at Tandon. I knew that Stanford has a personal development lab, and Case Western Reserve University has the think[box], which are both similar concepts to the makerspace. Given my limited knowledge of makerspaces, I can't fully speak to what is unusual or unique but I believe that it is unique in its demographic. It aims to be more accessible. For starters, they have kids events and they also have events that are for the arts. The other way it is more accessible is that while a regular membership is $250 per month, I think that pricing is fair, especially since they have a community giveback program which is aimed at giving memberships to lower income potential engineers. In terms of how they support diversity, looking at their event page, they mentioned having Harriet Tubman event to celebrate her. They included a performance, as well as teaching how to create a Harriet Tubman...

The three technologies that came up in the lecture that stuck out to me and surprised me were Touch This Page, Boston line type, and the BARD app. While Touch This Page is at Dibner, I actually have not seen it, which illustrates my privilege in not looking around. Some people see through world through touch and I don't, so it didn't come up. The Boston line type was something I wasn't aware about. I only knew about Braille, and when I tried to do a little bit of research into Boston line type, I couldn't find much material on it, which goes to show how uneducated the sighted community is. Braille was being developed at the same time and is on a dot system rather than a raised Roman system. Dots are a lot easier to distinguish in a tactile manner than the Roman alphabet is. I was impressed by the BARD app, and how much material is on it. I read that they have 330,000 pieces of reading material. In the podcast provided on sense and scale, I found out that only 10% of vi...

After the guest presentation, I looked at the sources provided for the lecture on sense and scale. I clicked through to the source What Technology Wants. While there is much material in this book, what stood out to me most that was also in the presentation is the anthropomorphization of technology. Seeing technology as a living being with wants and needs reshapes how you treat it. My best friend has a knockoff Roomba that he talks to and yells at and treats very similarly to his dog. In my life, I recently just got a puppy and being around her in my phone has taught me that, of course, while it's obvious a living being in the true sense that we know requires much more of my attention, I have begun to notice the pull towards my phone when I'm not around my puppy. Also because of COVID-19 and quarantine, all of my productivity and my work has been done through my computer. I've been spending so much time on my computer and I noticed that after a long stretches of time, I expe...