Civicist

CIVIC TECH NEWS & ANALYSIS

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A holistic techno-activism coding program in Ferguson; when Internet filters block too much; and more.

  • FiveThirtyEight’s Jody Avirgan interviews Donovan X. Ramsey, a journalist and a fellow at the progressive think tank Demos, and Samuel Sinyangwe, an activist and data scientist, for a podcast about the volunteer-led effort to gather data and statistics about police violence.

  • wrote about a free coding workshop for black and brown youth in Ferguson, Missouri, that teaches tech, activism, and building community. Participants receive support and nourishment (mentorship, new skills, healthy meals) during the program, and in return they build a website for local businesses. At graduation, they receive a small stipend and a personal laptop, so they can put their new skills to use.

  • Internet filters in schools have gone too far according to the American Library Association, Cory Doctorow notes in Boing Boing.

  • Apple just released the second annual diversity report, with new statistics on recent hires, Max Nisen reports for Quartz.

  • A Harvard student got his internship at Facebook rescinded after he created an app that pointed out a major privacy hole, Allison Pohle reports for Boston.com.

  • A piece by Chris Latterell for The Next Web asks what Facebook’s responsibility to Internet.org users is.

  • To say Uber is not wheelchair friendly would be putting it mildly, according to this Wired article by Issie Lapowsky.

  • If you thought it couldn’t get worse than Hillary Clinton’s campaign asking for feedback in emojis, you were wrong