64 Code For All Summit
Lorin Camargo and Sofía Corona, Co-Directors of [Code for All](https://codeforall.org/our-team) join us for a conversation about their organization's upcoming summit event. We'll talk about what it's all about, how they go about organizing it, and how they address some of its key challenges.<br><br>### Resources and Shoutouts:<br>- [Code for All](https://codeforall.org/)<br>- [Code for All YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/c/codeforallcivictech/videos)<br>- [Code for All Summit Agenda](https://codeforall.org/summit-2021)<br><br>##### Music Credit: [Tumbleweeds by Monkey Warhol](http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Monkey_Warhol/Lonely_Hearts_Challenge/Monkey_Warhol_-_Tumbleweeds)
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Transcript
Hello. I'm Ryan Cook, and this is Civic Tech Chat, a show that looks at the way technology, politics, and policy impacts the world around us. The tools we use, the way services are delivered, and how we talk about and set policy all shape our society. We'll gather around and have a chat about these things together, and more. Either that, or maybe I'll rant about a topic for a while. Before we get started, I do wanna let you all know that we've started a Discord for the podcast. There will be a link with an invite down in the episode description. Do feel free to go check that out. It's a small community right now, but hoping to grow it. It's a great way to reach out to me and let me know things that you might want us to cover or to just hang out and talk about civic tech. Anyway, let's go ahead and start the show. Lauren, Sofia, thank you both so much for coming on to Civic Tech Chat. Could each of you introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about what you do?
Thank you, Ryan. Hi. Well, I'm Sofia. I'm Mexican, and I co direct the Go for a network along with Laurie, who's here with me. And my focus is mostly on founder relations and capacity building programs, but I also lead the three communities of practice we have in the network around disinformation, good governance, and digital sense and engagement. I've been in the civic tech ecosystem for about four years now. I started as part of a Mexican civic tech organization that's called Coleyando Mexico, which means code for Mexico. And in there, I focused it on digital citizen engagement and open data projects. So that's basically kind of, like, the the focus I've I've had along in this four years in civic tech.
Yeah. And hi. I'm Lauren, and I'm the other codirector at Code for All with Sofia. My focus as a director is on communications and team development, and I also lead our support squads program. I originally became involved with Civic Tech through Code for San Jose, which is a Code for America brigade, and also did some work with Code for Australia before joining Code for All.
For each of you, what would you say is your personal why? The thing that drives you to get out of bed each morning to do what you do.
I think for me, I mean, for me, getting into civic tech was mind blowing. It was a whole new universe. So my background is in social sciences, so I wasn't really close to tech before getting involved with. However, I've always focused it on community engagement and citizen participation, so that became some sort of, like, the thread I start to follow, but only adding the digital component. So having collaborated with grassroots organizations previously, I some I understood the challenges and misconceptions that exist around tech as a potential weapon, especially, like, in those areas. But I thought that SufTech could be that bridge, you know, that that thing that connects, more traditional organizations with technology and, like, with using and having this potential use of technology as a tool instead of seeing it as only a threat to make their projects better, to be more efficient. So I don't know. TikTok is a space that invites you to be creative and think on new possibilities, always having collaboration in the back of our heads. You know? That's I think that's one of the things that that hit me the most and that drives me now, as as much.
Yeah. And, for me, I would say that since I first stumbled into civic tech, I've just sort of felt at home in it. I love working on creative projects. I love tackling issues that feel, important to me in some way. And I think civic tech, at least in my experience, has offered a space to do these things in a way that feels quite welcoming, relaxed, and supportive. So I love the possibilities that come with civic tech and with having that type of space. I've also really enjoyed meeting people from different places who do civic tech work, and just feeling that special sort of connection that comes, with having a shared interest. And so I find it exciting that my job involves creating spaces for others to have that type type of experience.
For folks that aren't familiar with your organization, Code for All, can we talk a bit about what the organization is all about?
Yeah. Of course. So Code for All is the largest civic tech network in the world. Our purpose is to bring people together who are doing similar civic tech type work, in different parts of the world so that they can connect, share ideas, share knowledge and resources. So basically, there are a lot of different, civic tech organizations around the world. We have Code for Pakistan, Code for Japan, Civic tech Sweden, Code on the Mexico. And our job is to help connect and bring them together. It's a member driven network, so civic tech organizations can join the network as members. And as a member organization, they help shape code for all and are also given opportunities for shared funding and to join in on events and workshops that help support their work.
So one of the things that your organization does, again, Code for All, is that you put together this annual summit of which there's another rendition of it coming up from the twenty seventh through the thirtieth this month. What sort of importance does the summit have for the Code for All network that, was just mentioned?
So the first Go for All Summit happened a few years after the network was officially founded, and it was this opportunity for members to get together once a year, talk about the projects each organization was doing, generate network strategies. And in a way, also, it was a space for members to decide where which were the topics and projects that we should focus as a network. So even though we constantly share what our members are doing through the newsletter on a daily basis, it can be complicated to know the specifics of the projects that your organization is working on. So the summit was a good way to have a deeper update, to say so, and generate also new projects together or share feedback on the things that we're doing. So the summit has always been this space to let's say, like, we recharge our energies, and in a way, we find new ways to collaborate.
I believe this is the second time that this event has needed to run as a fully remote event. I believe the first time being last year for, very apparent reasons given the state of the world. What lessons have you learned along the way as you've done these sort of large remote events?
Yeah. We've definitely learned some lessons. Last year, our summit was actually supposed to take place in Poland. But, of course, things were derailed, like you mentioned, with COVID. And we had to sort of very quickly, like everyone else, adapt to the change, and we sort of threw together the summit in much less time than we would have otherwise. So one thing we've done this year is, of course, we had more time to prepare, so we've made sure to take advantage of that by starting early. We were also Zoom bombed last year in our very first summit session, which was quite distressing. So security wise, we've made some changes. And we actually realized by sort of being forced into this format that it really works for our network and that more people are able to be part of the summit compared to, you know, when meeting in person, there are the challenges of travel costs, sorting out visas and other obstacles that just aren't there when when meeting online. And, of course, there are plenty of other obstacles, but we've sort of learned that having this event online works well for Code for All.
You mentioned having to respond to being Zoom bombed. What what sort of security things have you put into place with Zoom to try to prevent that from happening again?
I think the thing is we we just were a bit naive last year starting off. So we had started off with, like, no protection. We actually shared an open Zoom link, like, all over social media because the thought was it would be really easy for people to just, like, join in, especially if they were new to Civic Tech and just wanted to, like, tune in to see if it was something that they were interested in. And then we just realized right away that that was a mistake. And so last year, we we changed everything after the very first session when that happened. We we created all new Zoom links, and we put passwords, on top of them and made it so you had to register to get the link. And then it actually caused other problems where it was a bit difficult for people to find everything that they needed to to get to each session. So, so this year, we've just sort of found, I think, a middle ground there where, hopefully, it will be easy to join, but, it'll also be safe from from that happening again.
Looking around about the event, I saw that it's focused on a few key topic areas, including open versus closed tech in government, democracy and elections, disinformation and fake news, power dynamics in tech. Can you talk a bit about the processes that the organizing team went through to make those choices?
Yeah. For sure. So the way we chose our themes is we first took a look at current events happening around the world, relating to civic tech. And we also looked at the themes of projects that our member organizations were working on. And from there, we created a long list of themes and then asked the community to tell us which themes they wanted to see at Summit. And the four themes that you mentioned are what we ended up with. So it was a mix of, sort of looking at the current landscape of things and also asking people what they want.
Something that you both mentioned to me as we were kinda chatting to prepare for the interview is that some portion of the topic choice is a reflection of how network priorities change over time as maybe one thing becomes more urgent, something else becomes less urgent. Can we talk a bit about how that those sorts of changes influence the choice?
Yeah. For sure. Well, one really striking example is how last year a big theme in our summit was the civic tech response to COVID, which was very relevant at the time. And although it's still very relevant today, I think it's a topic that to many might feel a bit more exhausting than inspiring to discuss in this particular context than at this time, whereas last year, it sort of felt unthinkable to not make it one of the themes. And the themes that we've ended up with this year, though they're all different, they all sort of tie into each other by a thread that's, I would say, somewhere in the realm of truth, transparency, and how decisions are made. And we believe these things are all very relevant at this time for people all over the world. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see which things we end up with next next year. It's not something we would be able to come up with now because we don't yet know, what will be most relevant a year from now.
So I definitely understand if this is a difficult question to answer, perhaps the most difficult question of this interview. But is there a topic that each of you is the most is is is most excited about?
Yeah. It's definitely difficult, but I would say that for me, power dynamics is the topic I'm not most interested in. I it also has really great sessions so that I think they're gonna put the conversation in the center around different perspectives within tech beyond the traditional Western approach. So I think it's a space that considers new narratives and groups are usually excluded, and that that gets me really excited.
I'm actually also most excited for, power dynamics in tech. I think it's a really interesting and relevant topic, and it can go in a lot of different directions. Also sort of I'm interested in it because a lot of what's true in the general tech industry, I would say, is reflected in civic tech, whether we want that to be the case or not. And so I think it's important to be aware of and talk about these things.
I've gathered that representing global diversity well is something that's been on your minds. How have you all approached holding to that value as this event has been being organized?
So we're consciously trained to have diversity of participants and regions in the different summit sessions. But also, we're trying to make the sessions available to the different times of time zones of our members that sometimes is a bit complicated. I think that's I think that's one of the of the reasons we came up with the idea this year of doing recorded asynchronous sessions. That way, it would be easier for people in different places to to look around and not miss a thing. So time differences are challenging to a model game. And sometimes no matter how much you try, there are regions that will have access to fewer sessions because it depends a lot on the the facilitator's availability. So, yeah, that was one of our that's one of our efforts on trying to to approach diversity, and that's something that we're we're trying to reflect in both our content and facilitators, but as well as in our audiences.
As a follow-up to that, you mentioned the challenge of of time zones there. I imagine that that impacts, you know, your your thoughts for how you set up a a schedule as far as, like, who's gonna speak when, that that sort of thing. Is that something where the the time is the time zone placement based on, say, like, where the speaker is based off of is there's, like, an agreed upon band that y'all have for the event more generally? Can can you talk a bit about that time zone challenge?
Yeah. Sure. So it depends a lot on the the facilitator's availability. So what we ask them is to for them to, like, fill out some sort of, like, yeah, like, chart where they can put their schedule and the the hours they they have available. And from that on, I wish I could show you our spreadsheet. But we have some sort of, like, you you know, imagine, like, this wall with tons of clocks that have different have different time zones. Well, we have that, but we have the clocks, like, with the physical clocks. So what we what we try to do is okay. We check on each hour where the facilitator is available, and we see, okay, how many yeah. Like, what time is it in this region? What time is it in this region? What time is it in this region? And we try to to accommodate things that the way that, for example, like, Southeast Asia can participate in as many sessions as people in Europe, for example, or people in, I don't know, Latin America can participate in as many sessions as people in, I don't know, South Africa. So, yeah, like, we try to we try to that part, like or try to have the same amount of sessions for each region. But it it is definitely a challenge because, yeah, it it all depends a lot on on the availability of facilitators. And, also, there's like, we have to acknowledge that there's gonna be time. There are gonna be sessions where not everyone is gonna be able to participate. We have huge time differences, for example, between, the Pacific Coast, like California and all that part, and, I don't know, with Melbourne, for example. So, yeah, like, we try to culminate and, like, jumping around one region and the other. I think those are the the ones that are more extreme. And, yeah, as I mentioned, like, that's why we are trying to find new new asynchronous formats that are available for everyone and that you don't really need to be awake at 7AM to join a session or to stay up late until 9PM to join. But you can check out later the, yeah, like, the content that we're gonna have and not miss a thing. Oh, you mentioned that there's gonna be,
asynchronous availability for the content. Do you have a sense for where that's gonna be places or, like, a particular platform y'all have chosen to host that on, or is that, still in flight a bit?
No. We well, we have a YouTube channel. We're gonna share the information around it. But we have a YouTube channel. Last year, we what we did is that we recorded some of the sessions and we uploaded it there, and that was really good. That was something that people give us a lot of good feedback around. So we're gonna upload the asynchronous sessions that we have. We're calling them lightning talks. So those are, like, from five to seven recorded videos around projects of the network and also projects that people have submitted to participate. And so they're also, like, very short. You know? It's, like, easier to see and to understand, and it's, like, a brief scope of the project. And those ones are gonna be uploaded in our YouTube channel, and they're also gonna be uploaded in our website. So, yeah, they're gonna be there so people can check it out.
I imagine that accessibility is probably something that's been on your minds. You know, that's something that can be a challenge whether you're talking about it, virtual mediums or, you know, being somewhere and trying to do an event in person. With you all doing this virtual event, what sort of steps have you been have you been taking to try to address that accessibility challenge?
We're very happy to share that, this year, we are working with engagement and accessibility expert, Mark Renja, who is program manager at Code for Africa. And he's giving us feedback and recommendations on how to make the sessions more comfortable and accessible. So as Lauren mentioned before, the summit is an iterative process where we are learning from our mistakes in our past and the things that we have been considering before, especially now being online. So there will be things that we may not be able to implement this year, but the idea of working with Mark is also to generate resources around the topic so that the core team and our members, can use every time they organize an event or an online session. So we're thinking about creating, like, a guide like, an accessibility guide for events that can be easily shared within our community.
In addition to the to the challenges we've talked about there, I imagine a challenge that's maybe unique to this event, given the global nature of it, is thinking of ways to present information in a way that's available in multiple languages. How have you all been responding to that challenge?
Oh, yeah. The the language, language is a challenge. The multiple languages is challenging the network, as you say. So for the summit in particular, this year, we will include sign language for our panels and workshops. We're working around that's one of the actions we have been working with Mark. We don't have at the moment the resources to offer simultaneous translations in multiple languages, especially because we have a lot of members, and that also means a lot of languages. But it's something that we definitely have in our to do list for next year. And aside from the summit, we we have been trying to incorporate multiple languages in a lot of what we do. For example, our member organizations have helped us translate blog articles. Especially our Black Lives Matter statement was translated into Polish, Japanese, German, French, and Spanish. We'll also be using a translation plug in on our new website, and having code for all information available in multiple languages is a big priority. So we're currently taking the first steps to address that language diversity, but we're aware that it's gonna be a long, long process.
That is totally understandable. I imagine that is, it's very time consuming and resource intensive to attempt to to address. So I'll be curious to, if we have another one of these conversations next year, if you're for the next, I'll be curious to see what new iterations y'all have done as you've learned from from this event.
Yeah. It would be great.
So folks have likely been listening to this conversation at home, and they might be thinking to themselves, hey. You know, I am kinda into what they're talking about with this event. I would like to either watch it or attend some of the synchronous sessions. How should they go about trying to do that?
If you're interested in attending, we would love to have you there. And you can find the information, on our website. You can find the summit agenda there, which is codeforall.org. And from there, you can browse sessions and then register for free on Eventbrite for the sessions that you want to attend. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel, and that way you'll be notified when the Summit Lightning talks that Sophia was talking about earlier, are released.
And worry not, dear listeners. I will have a link to both, the website that was mentioned as well as to their YouTube channel in the episode description. So whether you're going to the Civic Tech Chat website and seeing this, or you're looking at it on your podcast app, there should be a link in either place. As we head to the the tail end of our conversation, a tradition we have on the podcast is to leave some space for our guests to have concluding thoughts. Basically, these sorts of things they'd like you to think about as we're leaving the conversation. So for for this topic, the Code for All Summit, and this conversation, what would you all like the audience to leave this thinking about?
Well, check our website, check our summit agenda, and register. I think that's the the biggest one. Like, go check the things that we're gonna have and also, yeah, like, be part of that community, be part of that summit. Yeah. I think you're gonna have a great time. Time. You're gonna see very interesting sessions. We're trying to make it, like, really, really engaging. So, yeah, check our website. Check check check our website, please. And I think I would only highlight also that the summit is in itself an iterative process as we have mentioned this before along this this talk, and it builds up from ideas and feedback of our community. So it's very important also for us to listening from your experiences as a participant, and that's also gonna help us build a better summit next year. And we wanna thank our members and our community in general for for being part of the design process with their thoughts and their feedback. And, also, we wanna thank them for their participation in the sessions, of course. And a quick shout out to our funders who are making this effort possible too.
Lauren, Sophia, again, thank you both for coming on to Civic Tech Chat.
Thank you, Ryan. Thank you so much. It was great to be here.
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