Abby’s 2020 Year in Review
While 2020 was a tough year, I think it’s important to pause and continue this tradition of looking back and reflecting.
Movement Building and Trustworthy AI
This year, I focused on my new role leading Mozilla’s developer-focused strategy around trustworthy AI and MozFest. This was a great chance to meet our community’s needs while leaning into my technical background to fuel the movement for a healthy internet.
Launching the Building Trustworthy AI Working Group
I kicked off 2020 researching and interviewing Mozilla’s technical audience for a MozFest Tech Audience Interviews Report (read the full report)
One recommendation was to explore a working group format with AI Builders leading up to MozFest. In August, I launched the Building Trustworthy AI Working Group. Today, over 250 AI builders have collaborated on six projects making trustworthy AI a reality.
Movement Building from Home
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced many to work from home, my colleague Chad and I saw a need to support our community quickly pivoting to online convenings. Drawing on our experience running online training and mentorship, we published blogs and ran a series of community calls on Movement Building from Home to collaboratively learn about online facilitation.
After a month of restorative dialogue with 100s of community members, we have learned a lot about online facilitation and community management during the COVID19 crisis. Read our takeaways and watch the recordings in this blog post.
Open Source
Supporting the open source funding ecosystem
In 2020, I supported several programs in the broader open source funding ecosystem. I joined the Mozilla Open Source Support Track 1 committee which funds the open source projects that Mozilla relies on. I served as a reviewer for the Chan Zuckerberg Essential Open Source Software for Science which supports open source software projects that are essential to biomedical research. I was also a reviewer for the 2020 Digital Infrastructure Research which further studies the maintenance of digital infrastructure.
While MOSS is on hold for now, it’s encouraging to see these kinds of programs supporting the infrastructure we all rely on. I hope to continue this kind of work in 2021.
Prototyping
One fun project I got to work on was using Mozilla’s DeepSpeech and Common Voice to train a Dutch speech-to-text model. I chose Dutch to use Google Colab’s free offerings and celebrate MozFest Amsterdam in 2021. View the project on GitHub or Colab.
Consulting
In 2020, I started consulting as an Open Source Mentor with the UNICEF Office of Innovation. I’ve been working with a cohort of startups developing fintech solutions in the Philippines.
The Philippines has a growing open source ecosystem, but it’s still new and unknown to many in the country. I’m looking forward to seeing the impact these companies have on open source in a country I love and come from.
Speaking, Teaching & Writing
I gave 1 keynote, 7 talks, 1 panel, and facilitated 10 workshops in 2020. I attended 13 more events as an advisor, mentor or participant. I continued to speak on open leadership while diving deeper into the intersection of trustworthy AI and open source.
Specific highlights include keynoting the same conference as my former boss and putting my online facilitation skills to good use during COVID-19.
Select talks with recordings
- Bioinformatics Community Conference (BCC) 2020, keynote “Biased by Default: Exploring Discrimination in Research Code” (slides, recording pt 1, pt 2)
- Movement Building from Home, event organizer & facilitator (recordings)
- CarpentryCon @ Home — Fireside Chat, panel (recording)
- Animal Crossing Artificial Intelligence Workshop, talk “Trustworthy AI: Lessons from Open Source” (slides, recording)
A full list of talks, workshops and conferences is included at the end of this post.
Life
The last time I ate at a restaurant, Jordan and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. During the pandemic, we attended 1 virtual wedding and 2 small in-person weddings. We said goodbye to my grandfather in a FaceTime held up to a Zoom call, followed by a virtual funeral. In our local community, we continue to serve with Grace Toronto. In the last days of 2020, we started demo for main floor renovations on house. After re-logging in to TripIt, I traveled 22,444 km to 8 cities in 6 countries in the first two months of 2020.
After 1 miscarriage early in the year, I’m writing this at 40 weeks pregnant, waiting (not so) patiently for our newest addition.
Looking to 2021
While I’m taking time to learn my new role as a mother, I’m excited to explore how I can help shape the world for the next generation.
Virtual conferences and remote work open up ways to contribute without leaving my child. Don’t be surprised if you see me publishing the occasional paper, remote consulting, or at a virtual event — starting as moderator for the Open Source & the Pandemic panel at MozFest 2021.
As always, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@abbycabs) or by email (abbycabs [at] gmail [dot] org). Happy new year 🌟
Full list of 2020 events
- Berlin All Hands, MozFest Open House, facilitator
- CZI Science — Essential Open Source Software for Science, invited talk (slides)
- Movement Building from Home, event organizer & facilitator (recordings)
- Preparing for the New Normal: Best practices and early experiences in organizing virtual interactive events during the pandemic, event organizer & facilitator
- Virtual Mozilla All Hands — open web stretch, facilitator (script)
- #SmartDevelopmentHack, mentor
- Bioinformatics Community Conference (BCC) 2020, keynote (slides, recording pt 1, pt 2)
- Animal Crossing Artificial Intelligence Workshop, talk (slides, recording)
- AI4Good Lab, talk (slides)
- Conference for Open Source Coders, Users & Promoters, talk (slides, recording)
- Creating Trustworthy AI: Mozilla’s white paper industry feedback workshop, event organizer & facilitator
- Openscapes Biomed Advisory Event, advisor
- CarpentryCon @ Home — Fireside Chat, panel (recording)
- MozRetreat, talk
- Creative Commons Global Summit, talk
- Tech + Society fellows onboarding — community engagement workshop, facilitator
- Open Source Summit + ELC Europe, talk (slides)
- Tech + Society fellows onboarding — Intersectionality and working open Workshop, facilitator
- Introduction to Open Source: Finding your open advantage, event organizer & facilitator (slides)
- Introduction to Open Source: Planning to Work Open, event organizer & facilitator (slides)
- Masterclass on Creep-a-thon Challenge, facilitator (slides)
- As a participant, I attended: Stanford HAI COVID + AI: The Road Ahead, CogX, csv,conf,5.0, UPLIFT! by FOSS Responders, COVID + AI: The Road Ahead, Data Feminism Reading Group, RightsCon, Anti-Racist Book Club, Partnership on AI / All Partners Event, Mozilla Builders Fix The Internet Showcase, GloPro Retreat
