Karen Sandler Featured on Explained: Ethics in Software is Critical

[Deb Nicholson]

URL: https://sfconservancy.org/news/2019/oct/24/ksonexplained/


Our Executive Director, Karen Sandler was featured in today's episode
of ["Explained"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Explained_(TV_series)
presented by Vox on the topic of Coding. The episode covers the history
of coding, how computing became ubiquitous and what that means for the
average non-coding computer user. It's a great piece for the lay
person, which is very handy for that friend or family member who
doesn't really understand what software actually is.

Karen highlighted the problems with code that is designed without
considering the full set of potential users -- a topic which is very
personal for her. Karen has [spoken](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF
ZGpES-St8) [many])https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW1h1s_ojpM)
[times](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2FNqXhr4c8) about the device
which she relies on for her life. Her frustration with the lack of
access to the source code -- to a device which regulates her very large
heart -- drives her work to pursue software freedom for everyone. It's
why she leads Conservancy, an organization dedicated to software
freedom and access to source code for all users.

If you choose to access Netflix[1], you can catch Karen weighing in on
the responsibility that software engineers have to serve their users
with compassion alongside other luminaries including; Allan Kay, Zeynep
Tufekci and David Bowie (yes, really!) We're grateful for the
opportunity to be part of the critical, growing conversation about
ethics in technology which must include software freedom,
responsibility to users, a thorough examination of bias and substantial
improvements in the diversity of teams that build software for general
use.


[1] While we are excited that Karen is reaching those who are not
already familiar with the issues around ethics and software and in
particular DRM, we'd much prefer to share this message via a free
platform.


-- 
Deb Nicholson <deb at sfconservancy.org>
Software Freedom Conservancy