Humane Tech Community
Note: 2019 is our year. We are in transformation. Most info here still valid but first read Our Philosophy !
Welcome Activist !
Since we were founded in February 2018 we have collected a lot of information on interesting Humane Tech topics, and discussed about it. Our members and many more visiting readers find value on this forum.
But this is not enough. There is a whole world out there full of people, unaware of what is happening in tech. Unaware of the harms of technology. Or - when aware - they don’t know how to improve it. They are frustrated.
You and I are there to help with this. Our community will grow much larger than it is now. And as we grow we’ll become more influential, attract more members. We’ll spread awareness, and - eventually - great solutions.
Yes, we will not just complain about the state of things. This community is solution-oriented. We are a place of action! And you, dear activist, can act with us. Help us grow, and improve the world of tech.
Who We Are
We are The Humane Tech Community, or HTC, a grassroots movement positioned as a subsidiary of The Center for Humane Technology, or CHT.
Our mission is: “To Re-align Technology To Humanity’s Best Interests”
And to achieve that mission we work along the same four strategic pillars as the CHT. Strategic pillars that reinforce each other. We will bring Humane Technology into practice in the following ways:
- Cultural Awakening - By raising awareness of harms of technology, and showing an alternative path
- Public Pressure - Aimed at political and organizational change, and better regulation and protections
- Engage Employees - To stimulate the proper mindset for people on the workfloor and promote adoption
- Apply Humane Design - By offering production-ready best-practices, design patterns and work methods
What We Do
It all starts with awareness. A cultural awakening doesn’t come easily, as you can imagine. Our fist community-driven projects therefore are about reaching out to the masses and informing the public.
Community Website
We are developing our internet presence. A vibrant home of Humane Tech information, that is worth bookmarking and frequently returning to. On this crowdsourced site you’ll find:
- Blogs - For your own articles, that we will subsequently help promote and spread
- Events - Home for our own Meetup groups, Humane Tech Calender to track many activities
- Meetups - Individual pages for each Meetup group to engage their local audience
- Campaigns - Overview of all planned and ongoing campaigns in our Awareness Program
- Research - Space where scientists and experts share their knowledge and insights, interact together
- People - Directory of people who are active in the Humane Tech space, where you can present yourself
- Resources - Links to the best places on the web to learn more about Humane Technology
- [Projects] - Additional website sections that will be added as our projects come along (see below)
Awareness Program
The Humane Tech Awareness Program is where we do our campaigning to promote Humane Tech tech topics and spread our message to the outside world. For this we’ll use the same Social Media we aim to improve.
The campaigns can be about anything our members can dream up, and are a place where we can unleash our creativity to reach out to other people, to steer the conversation surrounding tech, and influence public opinion.
Some campaigns are already taking shape:
| Campaign | Theme | Discussion | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reality Shock | Mankind 2.0 | proposal, forum | Using short, dramatic video’s to shock people into awareness |
| Phone Zombies | Speak Easy | proposal, forum | Anchoring the term “Phone Zombies” in common language |
| Computer Says No | Speak Easy | proposal, forum | Little Britain’s famous meme, but with a Humane Tech twist |
| Don’t Count On Me | Resocialized Media | proposal, forum | We don’t need those Social Media metrics to socialize |
| Aware Prepare | Dogfooding | proposal, forum | Growth hacking the Humane Tech Community itself |
| Eventful | Dogfooding | proposal, forum | Foster a vibrant meetup culture, organize exciting events |
Future Projects
Many more projects will be started, and we encourage you to take your own project ideas to the forum for discussion and brainstorming. Here are some likely candidates for future projects:
- Hotfix - Harms of Technology Fixes is a crowdsourced library of tech harms and their best-practice solutions
- Kids4Tech - Learning children responsible tech use in fun ways, and to be the future Humane Tech champions
- Courseware - Training materials and courses, created in the public domain, and free for anyone to use
- LogoProgram - Certifications for apps, websites and tech gadgets on their level of Humane Tech compliance
- DesignMatters - Technical resources, best-practices and work methods for Designers and Developers alike
- Outreach™ - Participation matters most. This independent FOSS project helps boost our campaign efforts
What project ideas do YOU bring to the table?
How You Can Help
Humane Technology is a very broad subject area. And setting up our community website, campaigns and projects requires input and help involving many different disciplines and areas of expertise.
- Every single one of you can bring value to this community, no matter your background and experience !
We need help from:
- Marketeers and promoters - Use your smarts and creativeness and promote Tech for Good
- Scientists and professionals - Help collect, cross-pollinate and improve our body of knowledge
- Techies of all kind - UX, graphics designers, developers and testers: build our community tools!
- Teachers and students - Combine your curriculum subjects with Humane Tech action in a win-win
- Parents and children - Join a campaign, reinforce our message, voice your concerns, bring fresh insights
How You Are Rewarded
You are, of course, reading this because you are already aware, concerned, and thinking about ways to improve things. To help your children have a better future, or to build new solutions that people will love.
In that regard, helping us grow and become successful is already awarding in itself. But we think there should be yet more value in partaking on our quest. It is okay to also have some selfish motives to cooperate with us.
- Participation in our community should be both fun and rewarding !
We encourage you to define those rewards that will make it interesting and fun for you to spend your time with us. And to not be afraid to let others know about them too, so we can help each other to attain them.
What are the additional rewards that motivate YOU?
- Maybe you want to display your skills as a graphics artist and build up a portfolio
- Or you want learn new skills, and have other members teach and guide you
- Develop new competencies and positions to show on your CV or LinkedIn profile, perhaps?
- Become a social media influencer, public speaker, start a career as blogger or vlogger
- Something unique and personal to you? Let your mind wander, decide, and then go for it!
You can do anything you want in this community, reach any height. Your actions, commitments and perseverance will be the deciding factor, but we will not hold you back in any way.
Come Get Some Action !
So wait no longer, and become active. Be a Humane Tech Activist! As you can see, we have lotsa plans. How fast they come to fruition depends on YOU.
We are both patient and impatient. Patient, because we know you are busy, and we can only grow with the help we get. Impatient, because tech is disrupting our lives at increasing speed, and unforeseen consequences.
Whatever you do to help… We are truly thankful and proud of your involvement 
!
Warm regards,
Arnold Schrijver
Community facilitator
the Campaigners team too and 