Whether you’re launching a new product at a startup or updating software used around the world, Ethical Explorer is your go-to tool for building tech that values fundamental human rights, empowers users, and creates healthy online experiences.
This product is built from a place of empathy, encouraging tech makers to listen to learn and put others first. A great tool in an era of ramping technological innovation!
@maria_kreuz You're right - listening to users and learning about how they want to engage with tech is key to building great products. We think the discussion prompts on the Exclusion Risk Zone card are particularly useful for cultivating empathy for users and stakeholders.
A note from @sarahdrinkwater, Director, Omidyar Network:
In the last few years, we’ve been excited and inspired by the rise of responsible tech
workers asking hard questions, course correcting, and planning ahead for the
implications of their products on people and society. From designers and engineers
to product managers and founders, there’s a growing movement of passionate
people committed to ensuring technology benefits and protects its users.
As we grapple with COVID-19, the racial inequities in our society, and the economic
and political crises that followed, it’s clearer than ever that products must be built
with responsibility—or safety, fairness, inclusion, and compassion—at their core.
But the issues that require thoughtful examination—from AI bias to excessive data
collection and exclusionary design—are complex and resist easy answers.
Sometimes, those of us who work in tech don't know where to start.
And not all companies or teams have cultures that welcome open, thoughtful
conversations about business or product decisions. Even at workplaces that
encourage this kind of nuance, leading those efforts can be intimidating and feel like
uncharted territory.
That’s why we built the Ethical Explorer Pack.
This toolkit is a direct response to the need we’ve seen and heard from makers and
builders—as well as their collaborators—for a digestible, actionable resource to
steward ethical tech. Created especially for workers at startups and small-to-mid-
size tech companies (although we heard in testing that it can work for other kinds of
companies, too), the Ethical Explorer Pack has been shaped by many brilliant
partners from the community we’re serving and dozens of subject matter experts.
The end result is a compass for pioneers who want to support ethical values in
design, foster an inquisitive culture, and ignite positive change through dialogue.
At Omidyar Network, we have a human-centered vision of tech that underpins
greater individual and community empowerment, social opportunity, and safety.
Our work, investing in and creating partnerships with like minds, has led us to the
toolkit’s guiding principles: to support human values, create a culture of
questioning, and ignite change through dialogue.
Building responsibility into core business and product decisions takes continual
conversation and action. We encourage you, as a user of this tool, to make it your
own; please evolve, experiment, and play.
Let’s start exploring.
P.S. During launch we are giving away free physical copies of the Ethical Explorer Pack.
Ethical Explorer Pack
Ethical Explorer Pack
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Ethical Explorer Pack