Latest MLTalks Season Opens with Presidential Innovation Fellows Event
Join the public conversation about innovation in social justice and the future of civic engagement
When Media Lab Director Joi Ito launches the new season of MLTalks at 1 pm ET on Wednesday, October 12, he’ll sit down with five Presidential Innovation Fellows (PIF) for a live, public conversation. They’re members of a White House program that’s dedicated to bringing the ideas and practices of the innovation economy into government in order to tackle our nation’s biggest challenges. The fellows, comprising technologists, designers, entrepreneurs, and change-makers, are paired with civil servants across federal agencies to work on innovation-based projects and initiatives within the federal government.
We invited five of the presidential innovation fellows to take part in MLTalks because we’re interested in expanding the Lab’s network of collaborators, especially within areas of work we have yet to explore, and we want to connect our own community with other innovators who are affecting change in the world.
As a first step, Joi has invited the PIF members to take part in MLTalks to discuss their passions, their ideas, and their projects — both those they’re working on as PIF, and those that brought them to the program. As is usual during our MLTalks, Joi will ask questions in a casual, on-stage conversation. He’ll also engage the live and online audiences through Q&As following the talk.
To help shape the conversation at this MLTalks event, we welcome you to submit questions in advance, via Twitter using the hashtag #MLTalks. We’ll make every effort to address your questions and comments.
Meet the five Presidential Innovation Fellows joining us at the Lab, and take a look at the remarkable projects they are pursuing to bring technology and new ways of thinking to government works:
Adam Bonnifield, cofounder of Spinnakr, which was named the top innovator in web analytics (Dataweek 2014), the best back-office application (GigaOM 2014), and was one of the fastest growing developer tools in the US. (VentureBeat 2013). He is also the creator of the first Twitter targeting tool used in politics which was deployed in partnership with both major campaign committees.
Kyla Fullenwider, an entrepreneur, educator, and social designer. She is a faculty member in the Products of Design department at the School of Visual Arts and in the joint MBA/MA program at Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland Institute of Art, where she teaches social design and entrepreneurship.
Olivier Kamanda, founder of Ideal Impact, a civic tech platform that turns news into action for social impact. After founding and leading Foreign Policy Digest, an online magazine aimed at engaging young Americans in international affairs, Olivier served as a speechwriter and senior advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Kate McCall-Kiley, a designer and strategist with a passion for social impact and meaningful change. She has served on innovation teams redesigning sexual assault prevention and response, employee engagement, suicide prevention, and patient experience.
Smita Satiani, deputy director and director of engagement for the PIF program, where she leads project curation, partnerships, and knowledge collection to better scale what works for over 150 million people across more than 20 federal agencies, such as NASA, the FBI, and the VA.
You can read more about these PIF profiles online.
The fellows are working on the following projects, which are part of the PIFs larger initiative, called The future of civic engagement — paving the way for citizens to both interact with and better help their country:
#Hackthepaygap — Smita Satiani and Kyla Fullenwider are using released troves of US Census data to create a citizen changemaker ecosystem aimed at closing the gender pay gap in the US;
Workers’ Rights — Adam Bonnifield, Kyla Fullenwider, and Kate McCall-Kiley are helping marginalized workers get to know and exercise their rights;
Code.gov—Olivia Kamanda and his team are helping the nation unlock the tremendous potential of the Federal Government’s software;
The Opportunity Project — Kate McCall-Kiley and Olivier Kamanda are engaging the private sector to move towards the promise of equal opportunity for all.
If you’re in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, area, please join Joi Ito and the Presidential Innovation Fellows at the Media Lab tomorrow. If you can’t make it to the Lab, you can follow our live webcast from 1 pm ET on Wednesday, October 12, or find us on Facebook Live at the same time. Be sure to submit your questions and comments on Twitter using #MLTalks!
