In The Loop, November 2023
11 minutes read | First published: November 21, 2023
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OUR LATEST NEWS 🚀
🆕 OUR NEW SHOP IS OUT! EXPLORE AND PICK YOUR FAVOURITE GIFT FOR THESE HOLIDAYS
🎉 Now you can find our brand-new merchandise on the Tactical Tech online shop! From the "Exposing the Invisible" tote bags to the "Everything Will Be Fine" socks and the "Data Detox Kit" mugs, you will find unique items and accessories with which you can support our projects and initiatives. Your purchase is an investment in extraordinary impact! Are you looking for the perfect present for you and your loved ones? Visit our shop and fall in love with our items.
💡NEW ARTICLE ON THE TRANSFORMATIVE LABOR IN INDONESIA'S POLITICAL INFLUENCE
General elections are approaching in Indonesia, and journalists, investigators and citizens are covering and monitoring political campaigns. This new research by Pradipa P. Rasidi, digital anthropologist and Digital Rights and Research Project Coordinator for EngageMedia, gives us an insider’s perspective into the increasingly visible and economically important buzzers’ business that is transforming working-class youth into politically influential groups. Read the case study “Transformative Working-Class Labor in Indonesia's Political Influence Operations” here.
🎥 Our Data Detox Kit was featured on the SHARE? Film website
Are you looking for a weekend plan? We have the perfect recommendation! "SHARE?" is a sci-fi film directed by Ira Rosensweig that takes viewers on a journey that explores the profound impact of social media on individuals and society. Tactical Tech's Data Detox Kit was included on the "Take Action" website page created by the film's director to invite people to rethink their relationship with technology and provide practical tools to help people have a more balanced and healthy digital life. Watch the film and check the Take Action page.
Illustration about the Research Transformative Working-Class Labor in Indonesia's Political Influence Operations
Screenshot of the trailer of the Share? Film
✨Introducing Critical ChangeLab, a project that promotes critical practices to support youth-led civic interventions
Critical ChangeLab is a project that aims to develop a flexible model for Democratic Pedagogy in and through learning environments. The initiative led by Ars Electronica, the University of OULU, Trinity College Dublin, European Alternatives, WAAG -FUTURELAB, University of Barcelona, Kersnikova, LATRA, ISRZ and Tactical Tech, will draw on creative and critical practices to support youth-led civic interventions that address societal challenges relevant to today's youth. For more info, check out the project website.
Critical ChangeLab Banner
🤝 WE PARTNERED WITH THE Media Ownership Monitor AND THEIR NETWORK!
We are happy to announce our partnership with the Media Ownership Monitor and their Global Media Registry network, a non-profit that supports transparency, accountability and pluralism in the digital information space. GMR serves as a solution hub for newsrooms, regulators, policymakers, and all stakeholders that engage with the media industry. Learn more about the Media Ownership Monitor and the Global Media Registry here.
✨EXPOSING THE INVISIBLE AT THE CLIMATE ARENA CONFERENCE
Our Exposing the Invisible team facilitated the workshop "A safety mindset for climate investigators: Addressing risk as a team" at the Climate Arena Conference organized by the Arena Climate Network, part of Arena for Journalism in Europe in Vienna the past 10-11 November. The session focused on means of safeguarding the work and communications of climate and environmental investigators conducting field and online research. We thank all participants who joined the workshop. Learn more about safety and climate-focused investigations here.
✨ DATA FEST: IT’S A WRAP!
Datafest Tbilisi 2023 has concluded, but the excitement lingers! Proudly organized by our partners ForSet, this festival remains a crucial networking platform for data professionals. Amber Macintyre, Project Lead of The Influence Industry Project, presented to over 400 data enthusiasts from civil society, government and the tech industry on how personal data is used in election campaigns and the role of data experts in the run-up to next year's elections worldwide. Discover more about the next DataFest!
Amber Macintyre, Project Lead of The Influence Industry Project at the Datafest Tbilisi 2023. Courtesy of DataFest
OPEN CALLS 📢
🤝 Calling all the organisations interested in expanding investigation skills in their communities DEADLINE: DECEMBER 18, 2023
Tactical Tech’s Exposing the Invisible project is looking for partner organisations who want to work with communities in low and middle-income countries to expand their knowledge on investigating and keeping themselves safe. If your organisation can produce audio or visual material around the investigation topics covered by Exposing the Invisible – such as artworks, podcasts, educational videos, or other formats – we want to hear from you! Apply and get an honorarium, promotion within our networks and constant support. Apply here.
Illustration for the Exposing the Invisible open call for partners
EVENTS THAT EMPOWER YOU 💡
[CONFERENCE 🙋] 31ST CONFERENCE OF THE DISRUPTION NETWORK LAB. BERLIN & STREAMING. NOVEMBER 24–26, 2023
The Disruption Network Lab’s annual conference marks its 31st edition! From the local to the global, “Organised Crime: A Global Business”, comprising talks, hands-on workshops and more, digs into the interrelatedness between corruption and organised crime.Get your tickets here.
[WORKSHOP 🧰] HOW TO TRACK DISINFORMATION NETWORKS. NOVEMBER 25, 2023
This online workshop, in collaboration with Prater Galerie and led by expert Nicola Bruno, introduces the basics of networked disinformation and manipulation campaigns, helping participants acquire a methodology for discovering, mapping, and tracking networks of disinformation in different languages and contexts. To reserve your spot, send an email to anmeldung@prater.digital. More info here.
THE GLASS ROOM ON DISPLAY WORLDWIDE ✨
✨THE GLASS ROOM COMMUNITY EDITION — MAKING SENSE OF THE DIGITAL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OLDENBURG, GERMANY. until December 7, 2023
The University of Oldenburg presents the exhibition "The Glass Room Community Edition - Making Sense of the Digital" as part of the "Day of Teaching and Learning". This year's focus will be on the rapid (technological) developments and their significance for the future of teaching. The exhibition itself aims to initiate a discussion about data, privacy and the influence of technology on society. Find out more
✨ THE GLASS ROOM FEAT. WHAT THE FUTURE WANTS IN LARISSA, GREECE. NOVEMBER 16 – DECEMBER 15, 2023
Our Greek partners Homo Digitalis, Digital Detox Experience and Open Lab Athens just inaugurated the double exhibition at the JOIST Innovation Park. Participants will get an understanding of how misinformation spreads, how social media and the internet have transformed the way information is managed and how young people can reclaim their digital futures. More information.
Pictures of the exhibition. Courtesy of the partners
✨ THE GLASS ROOM AT SOCIAL GOOD BRASIL FESTIVAL 2023. NOVEMBER 24-26, 2023
The Glass Room exhibition will be hosted at the Festival Social Good Brasil 2023, which is the largest Festival of Innovation, Data, Impact and Culture in the country, in November at the ACATE Primavera Innovation Center. Explore the Festival’s official website here.
✨ THE GLASS ROOM MISINFORMATION EDITION AT THE COMPUTER HISTORY MUSEUM LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA. until December 15, 2023
This exhibition explores what misinformation is, why it is shared, how it spreads and how we, individual users, participate in the process through our many clicks, likes and shares. We will show you how misinformation can become normal and how the decisions of technology administrators can influence the behavior and opinions of the masses. Find out more.
MEET OUR PARTNERS WORLDWIDE 💫
🌟 FORSET: TRAILBLAZING CREATIVE DATA STORYTELLING IN GEORGIA
ForSet is a creative enterprise made up of experts in data storytelling, community building, education and civic tech. The team makes complex information more accessible to diverse audiences through their projects, and they are also the organisers behind the international DataFest held annually in Tbilisi. ForSet partnered with Tactical Tech to conduct research on data in elections in Georgia for The Influence Industry Project, and also translated, exhibited, and tested materials from The Glass Room: Misinformation Edition and What the Future Wants exhibitions. Read the research “The Use of Personal Data in Georgian Politics” here.
🌟 Policy Lab Africa: tackling misinformation by promoting digital literacy among young people in Nigeria
Step into the world of Policy Lab Africa, an organisation in Nigeria that uses Human-centered design to imagine sustainable futures. This think tank works to raise awareness among young people about the impact of technology and the proactive actions they can take to have a more balanced digital life. Having a special focus on battling misinformation, Policy Lab Africa has resorted to Tactical Tech’s resources to organise 13 educational workshops in four universities across Nigeria attended by over 300 people. In these spaces, young participants were equipped with knowledge and tools to become change-makers while interacting with the materials within The Glass Room and What The Future Wants exhibitions. Read the complete impact story here
Group of participants within one of the youth workshops facilitated by the organisation. Picture courtesy of Policy Lab Africa
Official launch of the youth-focused activities of the project at Mulwani School. Picture courtesy of Policy Lab Africa
🌟Development Three Sixty: engaging policy makers and communities to protect citizens' digital rights in Zambia
Meet Development Three Sixty, an organisation in Zambia that implemented the “Right to Click or Not to Click Project” using resources from ”What the Future Wants”, “The Digital Enquirer Kit”, “The Data Detox Kit”, and The Glass Room. The initiative included several awareness-raising events with which they promoted conversations around digital rights and misinformation and engaged policymakers and decision-makers of the region.Read the complete impact story here
🌟 FUNDACJA REPORTERÓW: BUILDING A SAFER INFORMATION ECOSYSTEM IN CENTRAL EUROPE
Fundacja Reporterów is a Warsaw-based nonprofit journalistic organisation focused on independent, investigative, cross-border journalism in Poland and Central Europe. Fundacja Reporterów partnered with Tactical Tech and other partners to implement the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI) that aims to strengthen the collaborative journalism ecosystem. They recently launched V Square, a group of independent investigative journalists from the four Visegrád countries who decided to join forces and create a regional collaborative platform where they could present their investigations to an international, English-speaking audience. Check their new project V Square here.
Screenshot of the V Square website
WHAT WE ARE READING 🔍
- [💻 PLATFORM] reversing.works. Organisation committed to using an unique blend of technical expertise and multidisciplinary knowledge to provide reverse engineering services to labor union and other actors. Explore here.
- [🎙️Interview] Becoming the Director of One’s Future. An interview with cultural entrepreneur and activist Aris Papadopoulos from LATRA, about the importance of bringing marginalised perspectives to the forefront of the current discourse about democracy. Read here.
- [🗺️ GUIDE] GIJN Resource Center’s Top Guides and Tipsheets from 2023. By the GIJN. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] AI is already being melded with robotics – one outcome could be powerful new weapons. By The Conversation. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] AI: the world is finally starting to regulate artificial intelligence – what to expect from US, EU and China’s new laws. By The Conversation. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] Shifting Political Winds Threaten Progress on Europe’s Green Goals. By Yale Environment 360. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] How to fix the internet - If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms. By Technology Review. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] AI could cause ‘catastrophic’ financial crisis, says Yuval Noah Harari. By The Guardian. Go to source.
- [🔎 RESEARCH] “The official US climate report includes LGBTQ+ issues — for the first time. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] “Food delivery service Glovo: tracking riders’ private location and other infringements”. Go to source.
- [📝 ARTICLE] “Microsoft releases AI tool for photorealistic copying of faces and voices”. By The Guardian. Go to source.
- [💻 BLOG POST] “Okay, what now? – Thoughts in the Aftermath of Students Submitting AI Generated Work”. Go to source.
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