Advancing Media Rights and Access

Events

15 October 2012

Ford Foundation Hosts Wired for Change

On October 23, 2012, the Ford Foundation hosts its second annual Wired for Change conference, bringing together social innovators, technologists, entrepreneurs, government leaders and philanthropists for provocative conversations about the challenges and opportunities big data presents for social change makers. How can we ensure that vast data sets are tapped for the common good? How do we protect the right to privacy? And how do we build a transparent framework for data collection and analysis that allows us to create a better and more equitable future for all?

Blog

Resources

Stay tuned for videos from the Wired for Change conference
Follow the conversation on Twitter with #wired4c
Learn about the event’s live bloggers:
- Sonal Bains, digital strategist, Wired for Change lead blogger, @sonalbee
- Mark Belinsky, co-founder and advisor of Digital Democracy, @mbelinsky
- Jed Miller, internet director of Revenue Watch Institute, @jedmiller
- Dev Aujla, blogger, author, founder of DreamNow, @devaujla
Explore additional coverage from the day on Google’s Big Tent blog (Google+ subscription required), by Jesse C. Friedman, and the Media Action Grassroots Network, by Carlos Pareja, and Media Impact Funders (formerly Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media)
Read Alistair Croll’s articles about Big Data: “New Ethics for a New World” on O'Reilly Radar blog or on our website, and “Big Data, Big Apple, Big Ethics” on Croll’s Solve for Interesting blog
Read the Ford Foundation president’s remarks
Learn more about our Advancing Media Rights and Access initiative

Images from the Day

To view captions for each photo, click the full screen icon, then "Show Info" in the top right corner.

About the Event

Big Data, Big Challenges and Big Opportunities (9:50 a.m.)

Big Data has the power to transform. It offers us a new lens on the world—and with it, new ways to innovate and create, analyze and identify, strategize and achieve. Big Data has revolutionized how we plan and build cities, conduct business, run political campaigns and report the news. So what does it mean for social change makers? With access to an ever-growing number of data sets, how might public interest groups take advantage of data to further their work? Join us for a wide-ranging discussion of hopeful ideas and pragmatic concerns about our hyper-networked, hyper-public society.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	Ethan Zuckerman (Moderator)	Director MIT Center for Civic Media
	Sir Tim Berners-Lee	Inventor World Wide Web
	Esther Dyson	Investor, Entrepreneur and Philanthropist
	Jaron Lanier	Computer Scientist, Composer, Visual Artist and Author
	Kaitlin Thaney	Manager of External Partnerships Digital Science

The End of Privacy? (11:00 a.m.)

How Big Brother is Big Data? With data increasingly becoming a valued currency, in the corporate world in particular, the rush is on to collect as much as possible. How is that information mined, and how deep does the digging really go? How do we strike a balance between the need for data to fuel innovation, build markets and increase competitiveness, and the need to safeguard fundamental privacy principles? How can social change makers ensure they take into account both the day-to-day risks and the long-term implications of a data-run world?

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	John Palfrey (Moderator)	Head of School Phillips Academy, Andover
	Harvey Anderson	General Counsel and Public Policy Lead Mozilla
	Brad Burnham	Co-Founder Union Square Ventures
	Kamala D. Harris	Attorney General California
	Jon Leibowitz	Chairman Federal Trade Commission
	Ashkan Soltani	Independent Researcher

Bringing a New Lens to Old Data (12:00 p.m.)

Through the smart use of Big Data, we can identify areas of economic opportunity, track growth and productivity and visualize what a healthy economy looks like. And, says César A. Hidalgo, visualizing data in creative ways can lead to fresh insights and more effective strategies.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	César A. Hidalgo	Assistant Professor MIT Media Lab

Lunch Discussion: The Human Face of Big Data (12:30 p.m.)

Since March 2012, approximately 100 of the world’s leading photographers in over 30 countries have been searching out and capturing images that illustrate The Human Face of Big Data. Project creator Rick Smolan will share some of the stunning images from this globally crowdsourced media project focusing on humanity’s new ability to collect, analyze, triangulate and visualize vast amounts of data in real time.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	David Kirkpatrick (Moderator)	Founder and CEO Techonomy
	Rick Smolan	CEO Against All Odds Productions

Big Data and the Media (1:50 p.m.)

The ability to access reams of data at the click of a mouse has opened up new ways for the media to tell stories and support narratives. But it has also added new pressures and challenges. We look at how journalists and media outlets are handling data: when it works, when it doesn’t and when it’s just plain complicated.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	Sewell Chan (Moderator)	Deputy Editor, Op-Ed and the Sunday Review The New York Times
	Emily Bell	Director Tow Center for Digital Journalism Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
	Stephen Engelberg	Managing Editor ProPublica
	Shazna Nessa	Deputy Managing Editor of Editorial Products and Innovation Associated Press
	Joseph Turow	Associate Dean for Graduate Studies Annenberg School for Communication University of Pennsylvania

Tracking Progress: What The Media Cloud Can Do For You (2:40 p.m.)

The brainchild of Harvard’s Berkman Center and MIT’s Center for Civic Media, Media Cloud can store and index hundreds of thousands of articles a day from tens of thousands of blogs and conventional news sources, allowing us to see and understand the way stories morph, mutate and gain traction in local, national and international media. MIT’s Ethan Zuckerman illustrates the power of this new tool and what it means for organizations driving social change.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	Ethan Zuckerman	Director MIT Center for Civic Media

First Do No Harm: Changing the Human Rights Landscape (2:55 p.m.)

Now more than ever, our data rich world enables us to build networks, grow movements, collectively build new public records, bring together the voiceless and marginalized, and identify abuse and shame the perpetrators. But the same tools that connect and reveal can also be used to quell dissent, censor, spy and punish. For legacy human rights organizations whose reputations are built on strategic expertise, controlled messages and careful research, these crowd-sourced tools present a difficult challenge. How do they incorporate the new while preserving the tried and true? How do they collaborate with tech developers to meaningfully seize the opportunities of Big Data without creating vulnerabilities that undermine their legacy?

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	Yvette Alberdingk Thijm (Moderator)	Executive Director WITNESS
	Jeremy Heimans	Co-Founder and CEO Purpose
	Becky Hurwitz	Codesign Facilitator and Community Organizer MIT Media Lab
	Cristina Jiménez	Managing Director United We Dream
	Kenneth Roth	Executive Director Human Rights Watch

Big Data and the Just City (4:05 p.m.)

Whether we are conscious of it or not, Big Data has changed the way we live, travel and co-exist in urban settings. It has been used to transform metropolitan development plans, identify areas of need and opportunity, and galvanize local movements seeking improvements to community services. We offer three vignettes of what’s new in the networked city, highlighting bold ideas for using data to create the just and sustainable urban environments of the future.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	Rick Karr (Moderator)	Journalist and Educator
	Adam Greenfield	Founder and Managing Director Urbanscale
	Nithya V. Raman	Project Director Transparent Chennai
	Jon Tolva	CTO City of Chicago

Pushing the Envelope: Baratunde Thurston (5:00 p.m.)

Whether personifying the Swine Flu on Twitter, treating a Foursquare mayor battle as legitimate politics or live-blogging his experience clearing an exit ramp on Lakeshore Drive during Chicago’s epic blizzard of 2011, Baratunde Thurston has used social media to do much more than post photos and beg for followers. Beyond delivering comedy and shock value, he has also engaged communities and delivered results. His riff on living online concludes our day.

Portrait	Name	Title and Address
	Baratunde Thurston	Author “How to Be Black”

Media Contacts

Press Line

Tel: (+1) 212-573-5128
Fax: (+1) 212-351-3643
Email: pressline@fordfoundation.org

Follow @FordFoundation

Joshua Cinelli

Media Relations Chief
Email: j.cinelli@fordfoundation.org

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