First and foremost, Welcome! 🎉 Willkommen! 🎊 Bienvenue! 🎈🎈🎈
Thank you for visiting the Sentencing By Numbers project repository.
This document (the README file) is a hub to give you some information about the project.
Hi! My name is Di. My desire is to unearth data overlooked and misrepresented in society grew from finding a way to speak up for myself and my communities. Since 2015 I was selected as a Making All Voices Count Bronze Prize recipient and a Mozilla Open Source Leader. DemoChat, an app for garment factory workers to report labor and workplace violations, is an initiative fused from my professional experience in labor rights, technology, and social entrepreneurship.
What are we doing?
The problem
Algorithms are increasingly being used by law enforcement in the United States for surveillance and censorship. These algorithms contribute to targeting and shutting down political opposition at rally events, civil liberty advocacy, or the general public. Algorithms have been the underpinning of technology like assigning risk scores to travelers at border crossings in the U.S. and evaluate good citizenship in China.
We have the right to evaluate and audit these “black boxes” for biases. Algorithms act on human biases by replicating these biases, thereby reinforcing and even exacerbating existing inequalities. Data literacy is a path to better understanding the human decisions behind the curtain of the great and powerful AI.
The solution
Algorithms often rely on data that are embedded with selection and confirmation biases, leading to erroneous results, outcomes, or predictions. We want to transform this data into human stories. This project aims to:
- increase data literacy (how data is collected, where to find open data sources, understand the gaps within this data)
- develop tools for documenting and organizing against practices that may undermine civil liberties, human rights, and Internet privacy.
What do we need?
Are you a computer scientist with a background on AI? Or are you may be a talented visual artist. Or someone who is good at reminding your team lunch is ready? We welcome your ideas and unique talent, and will not discount anyone's contribution.