Our vision is catalyze building a human web with emerging identity technologies. To do so successfully it is critical we move beyond one of the mottos of Silicon Valley, “Move Fast Break Things” (they broke democracy and bulldozed key aspects of social systems that are good for human communities).
It is essential that we change the culture around how technology is built now:
- to put humanness first,
By humanness we mean its rooted in emotionally healthy adulthood with good boundaries, and clear agreements first. This also means we have to be realistic about how humans create and manipulate tech for the purpose of harm. Both are true and should be considered in all stages of development.
- to center communities that have been marginalized in its creation to date
Centering communities and experiences that have were actively marginalized in the design and development of the first wave of web in the 1990’s, Web 2.0 in the 2000’s and Social Media beginning in 2006. This includes African-Americans, Indigenous Peoples, Latinx, women of all backgrounds, people with disabilities, religions communities, immigrant communities and LGBTQ+ identified people.
- to design with awareness of threat models that have often been ignored until it’s too late.
We need to design with awareness of threat models that take into account known bad actor behavior that inevitably emerges rather then be “surprised” when it surfaces.