Doing good True North’s Tech for Good Declaration designed to be living document for companies
True North’s Tech for Good Declaration is designed to be a living document for companies
KITCHENER — The first True North technology conference has come to a close, meaning the nearly 2,400 attendees have all returned home, the stages and lights have been dismantled and the microphones have gone silent.
Now what?
The theme for the two-day conference at Lot 42 in Kitchener was Tech for Good.
It featured close to 50 speakers who discussed the changing role of technology in our lives; the topics ranged from so-called “fake news” and the future of artificial intelligence, to issues of diversity, privacy and inclusion.
But how does host Communitech, along with the nearly 50 sponsors and corporate partners, ensure the ideas and concepts don’t just scatter in the wind?
The hope is that one of the legacies of the conference is a written declaration that encapsulates many of the ideas discussed and that it can be used as a guiding document for those who want to do better with technology. The Tech for Good Declaration is the result of two workshops involving more than 100 people who attended the conference from a wide range of backgrounds, including the not-forprofit sector, local and international technology companies, and government or institutional backgrounds. It’s available online at www.techforgood.ca.
For Steve Currie, the chief innovation officer for Communitech, the timing was right for this kind of discussion given increased concerns about technology and the way it is impacting our lives — from the way Cambridge Analytica allegedly misused Facebook data to help sway the U.S. election, to ongoing worries about automation replacing workers, artificial intelligence run amok, and autonomous vehicles.
“In our minds, we felt it’s not so much, ‘why now?’ but rather, ‘is it too late?’” Currie said. “This event couldn’t have come fast enough to get this discussion going.”
The declaration is about 525 words long. Currie said it will act as a living document that he hopes will guide tech and nontech companies alike. He wants people to take the time to comment on it and provide feedback.
The declaration encourages the tech community to:
• Respect an individual’s data;
• Incorporate transparency and consent into new technological advances;
• Respect people, including support for retraining programs if workers lose jobs to automation;
• Consider inclusion and diversity, and examine any prejudices that might exist.
Currie said it’s important to emphasize the human element when it comes to technological change. “We can’t lose sight of that, because at the end of the day it’s all about humans.”
He noted that a growing number of tech companies are embracing the so-called triple bottom line, which is broadly understood as “people, profit, planet.” Companies can still make a profit, but should consider other impacts such as quality of life for workers and the community as a whole.
Waterloo tech company Kiite is taking the declaration to heart. It uses AI to develop intelligent sales coaches to help make employees more productive. Earlier this month, Kiite announced a new partnership with the Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation to develop an endowment fund that is paid for through ongoing donations from employees and the company.
“Our charitable sector is so crucially important, and if we forget to support or enable them,
This event couldn’t have come fast enough to get this discussion going STEVE CURRIE COMMUNITECH
I think we’d be living in a culturally poorer environment,” Kiite CEO Joseph Fung said.
Employees can opt in or out at any time, and four per cent of the value of the fund will be donated every year by the foundation. About 80 per cent of the company’s 20 employees have already signed up.
Last year, the foundation distributed approximately $3.2 million to 210 charitable organizations in the community, including The Working Centre, the Food Bank of Waterloo Region and the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre.
Fung was a speaker at True North but did not participate in the declaration workshops. He said the document is an important first step in continuing the discussion about leveraging tech for good.
“A conference in itself doesn’t solve these bigger problems, so hopefully (the declaration) helps us to spend more time thinking and talking about it,” he said.
Communitech has already announced it will host another True North conference in June 2019, where it will continue the conversation about technology as a force for good.
“We don’t expect these challenges to go away any time soon,” said Currie.
For more information, visit truenorthwaterloo.com.