Issue 19
the Week of April 6, 2015
In this issue, we feature articles on corporate surveillance, cultural appropriation and exploitation of Asians in tech, and how the learn-to-code complex pushes people into developer roles. We discuss domestic violence and online spaces, tech’s harmful attitudes towards sex work, and accessibility in social media. Plus, ageism in technology, the truth about open source culture, and gentrification and power dynamics as human context. Photo CC-BY Pedro Ribeiro Simões, cropped and filtered.
What Your Open Source Culture Really Says, Part One
Just send a pull request!!
Silicon Valley’s Other Diversity Problem: Age Bias in Tech
The open-mindedness that permits very young people to succeed in tech goes out the window when it comes to the other end of the age spectrum.
The Targeted Marketing of Ideas: How Constant Tracking Impedes Free Thought and Creativity
It’s not just the government who is watching us.
Things Left Unspoken: Erasure in Online Discussion of Domestic Violence
In speaking about domestic violence online, we must be inclusive of those that do not fit the traditional narrative.
Context as Crisis: The Street is a Book
The changing faces and storefronts reveal another chapter in the long ugly history of race and power.
Opening the Tech Pipeline to Non-Developers
What message are we sending about the tech industry to people who don’t want to be developers, after all?
UX of People with Disabilities: Advancing Accessibility in Social Media
The power and promise of social media is still out of reach for some people with disabilities who do not have the same ease-of-use and benefits as non-disabled users.
Feminists in Tech: Please Stop Treating Sex Work as a Contagion
We love to talk about diversity and bringing marginalized women into tech. But our biases against sex work are biases against the very marginalized women we wish to include.
Damaged Karma: Commoditization and Exploitation of Asians in Tech
Cultural appropriations perpetuate stereotypes, disrespect and exploit Asian culture, and reflect an industry-wide disdain for Asian people and culture.
This issue is made possible in part by some of our generous readers: Henry Joseph, Paul Mederos, Matt Rogish, Mike Hall, James Turnbull, Normandie Wilson, Shelly Carpenter, Erik Cunningham, Brian V. Hughes, Zee Spencer and Jez Humble.