Takeaways from the True North Conference
True North is not your typical tech event, and I’ve been to a few this year. When I packed my bags last week for Kitchener-Waterloo, I knew the mission of this two-day conference was to dig deep on big ideas – such as tech for good – a conversation on how technology can be used to make our lives better.
Last week, more than 50 business and technology leaders took to the stage at Lot 42 to tackle this along with today’s tech challenges.
They included Dr. Ann Cavoukian, former information and privacy commissioner of Ontario, Kara Swisher, a stanch critic of big tech and Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.
Here’s what I learned from them.
Ann Cavoukian
“If you value freedom, you value privacy”
This was my first time seeing the Queen of Privacy and she did not disappoint. As one of the world's leading privacy experts, Cavoukian’s talk Privacy by Design, explored how privacy and freedom can be preserved in our increasingly connected world. As people now understand their personal data has value, online models such as free service in exchange for personal data are losing their appeal. Cavoukian believes it is up to governments to do more to protect their citizens and the importance of encryption for safety. For tech organizations, she urged developers to embed privacy into the “DNA of their products” at the onset to win consumer trust and competitive advantage. Good advice.
Kara Swisher
“Everything that can be digitized will be digitized.”
If you don’t know Kara Swisher (and are a lover of forthright opinions), this is a voice worth hearing. As a tech journalist Kara writes about the need for legislature that will allow us to take back control of our online lives. In her talk “No More Excuses, Let’s Fix this Thing”, Swisher explained we’re at a cross-roads with tech, and noted the major shift in media when BuzzFeed started A/B testing to magnify and spread attention around certain media items such as the infamous Katy Perry Left Shark incident of 2015. This adaptation of news combined with our “continuous partial attention,” - classified as our inability to put down our iPhones - has changed how we relate to each other and the world at large.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee
“Citizens don't know for certain if their elections are being manipulated, or how their personal data is being collected and used”
The man who built the world wide web, now wants to return the power to the people. As the closing keynote speaker, Sir Tim spoke to his original vision of the web as an open, collaborative platform that that improves lives and has a positive impact on the world. Today, he is concerned with the darker side of the web that has led to centralization (hello Facebook), and some ad-based revenue models that can rely on tactics such as misleading click bait to earn money. Over the past few years, he's been working on a project called Solid, an open-source program that gives people more control over their own personal data (yup, sign me up). He asked the tech community to follow his lead and provide people with more authority over how their data is collected.
Tech for Good
This brings us back to the theme of the day. To launch big ideas like tech for good – there needs to be action. This is what makes True North special. Last Wednesday, True North launched their second annual Leader’s Prize: a national contest designed to solve a global-scale societal problem using artificial intelligence. The successful team stands to win $1 million, with winners announced in 2020. This year’s challenge: fake news.
The internet opened the door to a new way of consuming and sharing information, with the downside of undercutting legitimate media and rise of fake news.
Kudos to True North for living their mission: tech for good and tackling this challenge head on.
I’ll be back in 2020.