At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, March 18, a public panel will discuss climate justice and data, from communities using inexpensive sensors to monitor the environment to collaboration analysis of obscure government records.
Data into Action: Building Activist Data Enterprises For Sustainability is a panel hosted at Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. It is the first event of a weekend workshop that targets Cornell students interested in activism, corporate accountability, environmental justice, policy, and policy. The panel is open to all Cornell students. The workshops Saturday, March 19, will be limited to Cornell students. Register.
Representatives from three cutting-edge non profit organizations will be part of the panel. They are working to increase environmental accountability through data collection, analysis, and reporting.
- Public Lab, a non-profit community organization whose current research focuses on mine reclamation to support local activists in West Virginia and other organizations opposing extractive land use anywhere.
- LittlesisJournalists and activists can use the database to study the financial transactions and connections between the richest and most powerful people in the world.
- Environmental Data and Governance Initiative [EDGI]The, which analyzes and documents changes in online environmental data, information, and overall governance and advocates for more just, effective policies and practices.
The weekend workshop is part of a research project led by Steven Jackson and Christopher Cskszentmihlyi. They are all associate professors at the Department of Information Science. They are the investigators behind Repair and Redress: Expanding Community-Led Climate Justice Policiesa collaborative project that brings together representatives of communities facing sustainability challenges as well as non-profit and peer organizers.
Cskszentmihlyi said that startups and entrepreneurship are often associated to private ventures. However, the planet needs sharp organizations that drive new technologies for the public good. Cornell will host a panel and workshop featuring some of the most prominent grassroot groups that combine data science, activism, climate justice, and community-driven approaches. Their work is both inspiring and practical. We hope that the workshops will give undergraduates concrete examples of how technology can be used for social good.
Participating students in the Saturday workshop learn about each non-profit and how they are using technology to create social change. Although some technical skills like web scraping or coding are helpful, Cornell students from any major are welcome.
Supported by Cornell Atkinson Center for SustainabilityCskszentmihlyi, along with his colleagues, are creating a multimedia guide for community climate accountability as well as a toolkit for design specifications for software platforms to promote community-led climate justice.
