Lucy Bernholz

Software Kills

Yep, deliberately trying to provoke you with the headline. Here's what provoked me: The news that two airplane crashes killed a total of 346 people, in part due to a software upgrade that was "optional." (read: cost more) This story about electronic health records (software) and

Responsible data in civil society

The World Food Programme recently announced a partnership with Palantir. There’s a lot to be concerned about here - in this specific instance and in the broadest possible sense for understanding civil society’s role regarding digital data use. Please read this open letter https://responsibledata.io/2019/02/

The year (and decade) ahead

The tenth annual Blueprint - Blueprint 2019 - went live in December. You can find it and the entire decade's archive here. On January 23rd we'll be hosting our annual "prediction-palooza" (free, online) discussion about philanthropy predictions. Information on that is available here. In

Media Manipulation and Giving Tuesday

Like many of you I woke up this morning to an email inbox full of leftover Black Friday ads, a whole bunch of Cyber Monday ads, and the Xth day in a row of #GivingTuesday announcements. Among those was the first clearly-designed-to-misinform #GivingTuesday astroturf email that I've received.

Verify the data

Three tweets from yesterday: Depending on a commercial company for our giving infrastructure is problematic in several ways. First, at any point in time the company (and this company has done this repeatedly) can change it's commitment, algorithm, priorities and leave everyone who was using it without recourse.

Flipping assumptions about algorithms

I've had countless conversations with well-intended people from a number of social sectors and academic disciplines who are working on digital innovations that they firmly believe can be used to address shared social challenges. Some of these approaches - such as ways to use aggregated public data -

Shining lights on generosity

You know the old trope about how people looking on the ground around a streetlamp for their lost keys, even if they lost them down the block, simply because "that's where the light is?" (http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Man_Under_the_Street_Light) This

First question...

I've been talking to a lot of nonprofit and foundation folks + software developers lately. The good news is these two communities are starting to work together - from the beginning. But there is a long way to go. Just because you're working in or with a

Liabilities and line items

A lot of work on responsible data practices in nonprofits has focused on staff skills to manage digital resources. This is great. Progress is being made. Digital resources (data and infrastructure) are core parts of organizational capacity. We need to help board members understand and govern these resources in line

Your tech vendors are your landlords

https://www.eff.org/wp/clicks-bind-ways-users-agree-online-terms-service No one reads the Terms of Service. Few of us understand who has access to the data we generate all day every day. Rachel Maddow and others continue to refer to Cambridge Analytica/Facebook as the former "stealing" data from the latter,

Hacking civil society

(Image from Charlie Chaplin, The Circus) I've been saying - explicitly since at least 2013 - that the digital policy environment and the digital ecosystem are civil society's domains. This article on why the Russians might hack the boy scouts spells out the same point fairly

dafs

A new DAF?

Nonprofit Advocacy News, a regular newsletter from the National Council of Nonprofits, is a great source of information. The issue I received in early August had this little nugget: "Flexible Giving Accounts: A new bipartisan bill (H.R. 6616) has been introduced to allow employers to create flexible giving

The social sector and shiny objects (e.g. blockchains)

Like people in general, civil society organizations are easily distracted by shiny objects. Although I pinged blockchain as a buzzword a few years ago, the frenzied hype of last year's bitcoin boom and bust (probably manipulated) finally brought the idea through to general public. There probably are good

digital civil society

Civil society and threats to a free press

It's August 16, 2018 (Forty seven years to the day since President Nixon's administration admitted to keeping an "enemies list" of the American people). Today, newspapers across the United States are running editorials on the importance of a free press and declaring their outrage

The nonprofit/volunteer layer of the internet's content infrastructure

I've been thinking about the role that  volunteers and nonprofits play in providing curatorial and editorial support to the internet ever since 2014 when I learned that Twitter was going to "partner" with several women's organizations following the murders in Santa Barbara, California that

digital identity

Digital identity and civil society

I posted this reflection over on DigitalImpact.org - regular readers of the Blueprint - send me your notes! For those who don't want to click over (and you should) the piece discusses the technological work being done on digital identities - where you would control yours -

Civil society and platform curation

One of many things that have been made more public during this week's congressional hearings with Mark Zuckerberg is the way in which the platform curates content. Zuckerberg bemoaned the reality that it's his job to decide who sees what when. For those who study curation

The burden of digital data

This article from India Development Review captures some of my thoughts on civil society and digital data. http://idronline.org/civil-society-and-the-burden-of-data/

Remember when....?

Remember when philanthropy, foundations, and nonprofits were unknown? Boy, has that changed - they now play regular roles in news and literature. * Senator Patrick Leahy asked Mark Zuckerberg why Facebook had to hear from civil society groups before taking action against violent crimes in Myanmar * (editor: Why didn't

GDPR

Nonprofits (beyond the EU) and the GDPR

(originally posted on DigitalImpact.org) Have you noticed an uptick of emails from companies like Slack, Google, or PayPal, announcing new privacy policies and terms and conditions? Why the sudden onslaught of updates? The answer is easy. The companies sending these notices are changing their policies to meet the requirements

civic life

Identity and civil society

Gun violence survivors. The extent and reach of this as part of the identity of millions of people in the  U.S. was on heart-wrenching full display on Saturday, March 24. Thousands of people have survived the USA's totemic mass shootings (Columbine, Aurora, Charleston, Virginia Tech, Pulse, Newtown,

engineroom

The research I've been waiting for

http://www.theengineroom.org/civil-society-digital-security-new-research/ Thanks to The Engine Room and the Ford Foundation - this report clearly shows how the digital ecosystem is now core to civil society, the expertise needed, and the emerging infrastructure to support digital civil society. Read it now.

Civil society as the immune system for democracy

This post is an excerpt from Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2018, my ninth annual industry forecast. Read the entire Blueprint series and join the conversation on social media with #blueprint2018. The logic, theory, and experiences that connect an open civil society with a stable majority-run democracy are well

A digital civil society framework

This post is an excerpt from Philanthropy and Digital Civil Society: Blueprint 2018, my ninth annual industry forecast. Read the entire Blueprint series and join the conversation on social media with #blueprint2018. The language of the social economy helps us describe a diverse system of institutions and financial flows. The

Predict-a-palooza!

Have you downloaded, read, marked-up, tweeted corrections to me yet about Blueprint 2018? Well, what are you waiting for? I've been hearing from lots of folks already, arguing with me about buzzwords and commiserating with me about trying to write something for print that addresses tax and telecommunications