Greater Than Code
Episode 023: Politics and Software with Lorena Mesa
00:16 – Welcome to “Hey! I Made a Bong Out of This Podcast!” …we mean, “Greater Than Code!”
01:26 – Origin Story
05:46 – Politics and Software; Data Collection
Danah Boyd: Be Careful What You Code For
16:43 – Working in Python for Data Collection
19:46 – The Python Software Foundation (PSF)
23:55 – Communication and Organization Within Communities
MINSWAN: Matz is Nice So We Are Nice
33:49 – Power Structures and Forming Relationships
36:39 – PSF Funding
Reflections:
Jessica: Each of our languages has a metalanguage that people use to talk about the language.
Sam: Needs more sleep
Astrid: Code can and should touch everything: What is it not doing that it should be doing?
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
Coraline: Software is not neutral.
Rein: Software is inherently political. It is made for people by people. There’s no way it can’t be political.
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