Bringing Home The Humanity to Tech … The Journey So Far
Two years ago, the Co-op Foundation and Luminate asked social impact agency Noisy Cricket to explore how we might establish Greater Manchester as an exemplar for ethical tech. So, what have we learnt?
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Through establishing the Responsible Tech Collective, we learnt that before all else, ethical tech is about putting people first when it comes to the creation and deployment of technology, and thinking holistically about the impact of the tech digital solutions we create and use on communities, society and the environment too.
It comprises tech-for-good, which speaks to externally-focused products and services offered to more holistically serve humanity, beyond individual users and competitive industries, plus responsible tech, which concerns the internally-driven processes and practises that teams and organisations use to create digital solutions. Civic tech (somewhat) bridges the two.
With Tech for Good Live leading the charge in supporting and upskilling the third sector, and GMCA pioneering ethical approaches to data in the public sector, what quickly emerged were gaps around responsible tech understanding and action within the region’s businesses, local government and national bodies plus civil society more broadly.
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Bringing together organisations as diverse as Co-op and BBC, Department for Education and Manchester City Council plus Thoughtworks, Code Computerlove, Open Data Manchester and Reason Digital, the collective recognised that while strides were being made in diversity and data ethics — albeit because of international movements and national legislation — design ethics and digital exclusion need greater attention across the city-region.
Understanding these cross-sector and community organisations needs was paramount to ongoing engagement, and in a world where Amazon’s approach to workers rights and Facebook’s impact on global democracy is eroding trust, better meeting the expectations of digital users and tech employees emerged as key need (alongside the desire to mitigate bad PR).
Understanding that investing in design and data ethics — alongside ensuring inclusion both internal and external to the organisation — could also contribute to the design, development and deployment of better products and services AND enhanced innovation, engaging in responsible tech became a no brainer.
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Fuelled by the collective’s shared mission to bring home the humanity to tech — by putting people first, always, in tech’s creation — we committed to working together to share learning, best practice and co-create solutions underpinned by responsible tech disciplines. The question was, how?
While awareness of some of the challenges around data ethics (e.g. GDPR) and diversity (e.g. gender representation) was good, understanding of how to best approach such practices was patchy, with even less insight into the issues underlying digital exclusion and the opportunities afforded through ethical design.
Working with a bevvy of values-led organisations and a group of responsible tech pioneers based out of Manchester’s former tech ethics hub, The Federation, the collective decided that aligning with priority areas for the region’s digital ecosystem would best enable us to take action, and inherently raise awareness and improve understanding of responsible tech practices, processes, policy and governance.
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As a rapidly growing tech hub, with investment underway in smart city technology and cyber security — followed by growing interest in ethnic equality and digital inclusion during the pandemic — we recognised the opportunity to contribute to existing conversations across Greater Manchester, and engage influential partners already active in each of the four focus areas
Leveraging the city-region’s socially and environmentally progressive history — engendered through a culture of cooperation, issue-led activism and progressive changemakers — we brought together cross-sector and community project teams to address responsible tech challenges across each, all embedded with participation or people-first approaches.
Responsible Tech Diagnostic Tool (Design Ethics): Led by Hyper Island Manchester alumni, Mariagiulia Benato, we partnered with Co-op Group and Ethics Kit to explore how we might make responsible tech more relevant and practical for organisations to engage in. With cross-sector research revealing that leadership values, organisational culture and decision-making processes are central to influencing responsible practice, we focused on the latter, resulting in a responsible tech framework, strength-based exercise and ideation tool to integrate into an organisation’s planning architecture. Currently in prototype form, we’ll be building wider partnerships around the work to develop a minimum viable product.
Ethnic Equality in Tech (Diversity & Inclusion): Led by Honey Badger service designer, Vimla Appadoo, and Diverse & Equal Founder, Annette Joseph, we partnered with Barclays and were supported by Code Computerlove in exploring how we might empower organisations to create safe workplaces for people of colour in tech. With a region-wide survey revealing stark differences in perceptions of equality between white people and ethnically diverse groups, and desk-based plus user research uncovering challenges around trusted data, senior representation, fair pay and progression plus bullying culture, the team shaped a blueprint for diagnosing and benchmarking key challenge areas, based on a co-created set of standards and consultancy tools. With an ambition to scale the holistic solution nationally and cross-industry, we’re engaging investors and sponsors to design, develop and test the service with us.
People-Powered Smart City (Digital Exclusion): Led by Reply service designer and Tech for Good Live founder, Rebecca Rae-Evans, we partnered with Manchester City Council and Open Data Manchester to explore how we might ensure community needs were central to future smart city initiatives. With desk-based research revealing evidence of the tech industry pushing innovation agendas on local government, an overwhelming focus on data usage over design approaches plus ad hoc and light touch usage of participatory practises, we co-created a solution to improve community communication, cross-sector collaboration and empower local authorities. With a clear set of principles designed and a blueprint mapped for local government governance, participation support infrastructure and a global marketplace, we’re speaking with local government partners to prototype and pilot the proposed service.
Citizen-Led Security Standards (Data Ethics): Led by Honey Badger service designer Vimla Appadoo, we partnered with GMCA’s Information Governance team and People’s Powerhouse to explore how we might mitigate people’s data vulnerabilities through building trust with organisations. Undertaking desk-based research and co-design sessions with families experiencing difficulties across Greater Manchester, we learned that understanding about data security and privacy, trust in organisations and related perceptions of risk and reward are fuelling people’s decision making. Currently workshopping ideal future scenarios with participants through One Manchester and Inspire Women Oldham, a set of recommendations comprising standards, tools and communications are in the pipeline, as well as the opportunity to influence local government data strategy and policy.
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Above and beyond sharing insights on the negative consequences of technology, or engaging organisations with principles or framework without consideration of the wider context of digital creation, the collective’s action-led projects help holistically shift culture within organisations, enable them to adopt new structures and empower changemakers with people-led solutions.
Learning that our changemakers often lack a clear remit to consider responsible tech or embed its practises, working alongside changemakers in other organisations has provided a peer support network from which to either influence their own organisations to create more equitable, inclusive and sustainable techno solutions and digital products and services.
Through the projects and issue or practice-aligned thought leadership events run throughout the two years, we have established the conditions for systems change. Practically, this has helped changemakers challenge their thinking and access new insights, platform expertise and openly share tools and resources, engage in networking or pitch, apply for funding or commission new work.
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Strategically, key players in the Responsible Tech Collective now play a proactive role in shaping digital strategy and investment across the city-region’s digital ecosystem. Noisy Cricket’s founder, Lauren Coulman, is now on both the board of GMCA’s Information Governance Board and panel of Digital Strategic Advisors.
Also supporting Prolific North in curating the annual Digital City Festival’s ethical tech offering, and strategic partnerships developing with Tech for Good Live and 10GM — who collectively represent civil society and communities across Greater Manchester’s ten borough — an Ethical Tech Ecosystem Mapping project is being explored to facilitate wider ethical tech collaboration.
Through bringing on board more partners, funders and investors for Phase 2 of the Federation programme, Noisy Cricket in partnership with Paper Frogs, alongside the Co-op Foundation and Luminate, will be working to establish the Responsible Tech Collective as a member-led organisation, where the collective power of those involved will work to embed and evolve responsible tech practice in processes and policy.
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With the intention of taking the projects from blueprints and prototypes to pilotable services and minimal viable products too, we also aim to become a sustainable organisation, with the ambition of scaling the Responsible Tech Collective and its multi-disciplinary solutions to tech hubs across the U.K. and internationally, as we scale the responsible tech movement.
