Date: Thursday, August 21
Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm 
Online via Zoom
The event will be recorded

Join Jessamyn West and Ale Ruiz for a conversation about computers: what they are, how we use them, and why we use them wrong. Also, why it's not our fault. The values supposedly imbued into technology are not the ones actually reflected back at technology users. We'll talk about how various dark patterns serve the goals of capitalism not community and what we can do about it.

About the speakers: 
Jessamyn West has been speaking on the intersection of libraries, technology and politics since 2003. You may have seen her talk about topics such as the digital divide and its effects on library services, Legislation that affects library services (such as CIPA, the USA PATRIOT Act and copyright laws), or rural libraries using new technologies to make the most of their small budgets, spaces, and staff. She has given talks to organizations all over the world, and her main work is at home in Orange County Vermont, helping libraries and librarians make sense of technology and teaching adult education classes in basic technology topics.

About Alejandro Ruiz: After 14 years writing software in the tech industry, Ale is now a PhD student at UVM in complex systems and data science. He writes about the intersection of computers and power at theluddite.org. He's interested in trying to understand what horrors he's helped unleash upon the world in his time in tech, and what we can do about it.