The Tech We Want Online Summit

Save the dates: 17 - 18 October 2024

In recent years, technology has adopted a complex, wasteful, and expensive approach to serving its purpose, making it rare, even in the open movement, to find affordable, accessible, and sustainable software. There is an urgent need for the technology industry to re-think how software is developed, which tools do we use and how tech solutions are currently conceived, coded, and deployed.

In this two-day The Tech We Want Online Summit, the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) is bringing together key voices working on public interest technologies to start a collective conversation about new practical ways to build software that is useful, simple, long-lasting and focused on solving people's real problems.

Building technology for technologists is NOT the tech we want.
Source: xkcd.com (CC BY-NC 2.5)

The world is tired of falling down the endless rabbit holes of tech tools that have become the norm as if it's the only way forward. The Tech We Want is our attempt to help build critical mass and put the issue on the agenda of developers and decision-makers everywhere.

The Online Summit is open to everyone, especially technology workers, developers, engineers and programming language specialists who are interested in taking a critical look at current technologies.

Join us in building the tech we want and that the world needs!

Register now

Thursday, October 17

Morning – 10 am to 1:30 pm UTC

	[Opening Remarks] Why Do We Want Another Tech? In this introductory session, the Open Knowledge Foundation team will explain what led us to develop The Tech We Want initiative. As a champion of open source software and a hub of the open movement, we suffer from the direction the industry has taken over the last decade. The technologies we have now measure everything in terms of performance and speed. The technology we want is one that is driven by the impact it has outside the developer's room and head.
	[Panel] The Tech We Want is Political Since the Snowden revelations, citizen efforts have been focused in patching a broken system of surveillance, extractivism of people and the planet and rights erosion. This conversation will discuss the current state of the things and the viability of uniting technical and political efforts to move in a different direction.
	[Panel] The Tech We Want is Built and Maintained with Care Digital technologies need people to care for them and keep them alive. In a time of obsession for innovation and disruption, in this panel we will shine a light on the invisible but essential work of maintenance.
	[Panel] The Tech We Want is Sustainable for People and the Planet Eco, green, or simply sustainable technologies have several implicit meanings: long life, affordable maintenance, skilled people, resource-friendly, economical to use, renewable, regenerative, etc. In this panel, thinkers, practitioners and promoters of different aspects of software sustainability will discuss if and how it is possible to achieve a development model for people and the planet. Is there a way out of the disaster versus greenwashing narratives?

Afternoon – 1:30 pm to 4.30 pm UTC

	[Panel] We are Making the Tech We Want With the skills that the panellists have, it would be easier to work for the mainstream tech industry and just go with the flow. But they've all chosen a different path: making software that makes sense. In this conversation, we'll share the trajectories of some open and alternative technologies, and discuss how to tip the scales in our favour amidst a solutionist discourse in an ultra-specialised industry
	[Panel in Spanish] La tecnología que queremos es un bien público En este panel en español, reunimos a representantes de gobiernos latinoamericanos (grandes y pequeños) para que compartan sus experiencias diseñando e implementando stacks tecnológicos públicos en sus localidades. ¿Cómo equilibrar el interés público y la eficiencia? ¿Cómo atraer a desarrolladores/as? ¿Cómo mantener la sencillez y seguridad de las infraestructuras públicas digitales actuales?
	[Community Hangout] The Tech We Want is Happening Now In this informal, unstructured session, OKFN will present the first draft of The Tech We Want Manifesto and tell more about the collaborative writing process we're convening. The aim is for the manifesto to be as diverse an expression of tech workers' voices as possible. We'll also briefly present the line-up of Tech Demos that will take place on the second day of the Summit, and give more information about the format of the workshops.
	Closing Keynote with Cory Doctorow The enshittification of the internet wasn't inevitable. The old, good internet gave way to the enshitternet because we let our bosses enshittify it. We took away the constraints of competition, regulation, interop and tech worker power, and so when our bosses yanked on the big enshittification lever in the c-suite, it started to budge further and further, toward total enshittification. A new, good internet is possible - and necessary - and it needs you.

Friday, October 18

Afternoon – 12 pm to 4 pm UTC

[Demos] The Tech We Want is Happening Now

This is the list of incredible panellists confirmed so far (in alphabetical order by surname), but we still hope to add more names. Check back soon or stay tuned to our social channels.

Renata Ávila – CEO, Open Knowledge Foundation

Bolaji Ayodeji – DPG Evangelist and Technical Coordinator, Digital Public Goods Alliance

Isabela Fernandes – Executive Director, The Tor Project

Christoph Becker – Professor, University of Toronto

Maxwell Beganim – Co-lead, Open Goes COP Coalition

Gerardo A. Cambiagno – Director of Digital Transformation, Government of Córdoba Province, Argentina

Mishi Choudhary – Founder, Software Freedom Law Centre

Patricio Del Boca – Tech Lead, Open Knowledge Foundation

Cory Doctorow – Science fiction author, activist, and journalist

Sid Drmay – Community Manager, Open Source Hardware Association

Anita Gurumurthy – Executive Director, IT for Change

Shweata Hegde – Developer, semanticClimate

Poncelet Ileleji – CEO, Jokkolabs Banjul

Mathieu Jacomy – Assistant Professor, Aalborg University Tantlab

Fieke Jansen – Co-principal Investigator, Critical Infrastructure Lab

Denis 'Jaromil' Roio – Director, Dyne.org Foundation

Angela Lungati – Executive Director, Ushahidi

Armando Manzueta – Deputy Minister for Public Innovation and Technology, Dominican Republic

Katharina Meyer – Director, Digital Infrastructure Insights Fund

Valmik Patel – Data Scientist, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation

Paz Peña – Independent consultant and activist, author of 'Technologies for a Burning Planet'

Sara Petti – International Network Lead, Open Knowledge Foundation

Lucas Pretti – Communications & Advocacy Director, Open Knowledge Foundation

Andrés Vázquez – Senior Software Developer, Open Knowledge Foundation

This is an online event free of charge and open to everyone. We welcome registrations by everyone, especially technology workers, developers, engineers and programming language specialists who are interested in taking a critical look at current technologies.

Registration is open until October 16th, 2024.

All the sessions will take place virtually in the same room, accessible via the same link, which will be open throughout the day. To access the link, you need to register using the following button.

Once registered, you will receive access instructions and a passcode to access the room and join all the sessions you wish.

Register now

For questions and queries regarding the programme or any aspect of registration process, please contact info@okfn.org.

The Tech We Want Online Summit is organised by:

The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) is the world’s ultimate reference in open digital infrastructures and the hub of the open movement. As a global not-for-profit, we have been establishing and advocating for open standards for the last 20 years. OKFN is the organisation behind the Open Definition, Open Data Commons, the Global Open Data Index, School of Data, and cutting-edge tools like CKAN and Frictionless Data. We provide services, tools and training for institutions to adopt openness as a design principle.