Taylor Fairbank
I like building ethical technology and operational planning, which is what I'm lucky enough to do every day at Distribute Aid. I studied computer science at the University of Illinois, and have previously founded a startup which was accepted into Y Combinator. When I’m not coding or organizing, I enjoy hiking and learning to cook new vegetarian dishes.
unfold_lessunfold_more The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: Technology in the Refugee Aid Movement
Key takeaways
- Learn how refugee aid groups currently incorporate technology.
- Identify the challenges of building software NGOs, from the aggrevating to the zany.
- Review ethical considerations of technology that impacts migrants.
- Discover how to help, and what NOT to do.
Working in the European refugee aid movement for the past year has been a real eye-opener. Technology has the power to significantly help their efforts, but it can cause more harm to be done if the ethics and impact aren't properly considered. We will start by reviewing the tools that aid groups currently use, and surprising situations where they can't or won't use software to solve a problem. With that in mind we'll look at what it takes to introduce new software tools to the field successfully. Finally, we'll discuss ethical considerations of technology that impacts migrants and outline specific, actionable steps that we can all take to improve on the current situation.
