Telling the stories of tech's trailblazers and laying the foundations of a more equitable future with Saron Yitbarek

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with the CEO of OpenUK Amanda Brock about the role of open technology in the UK's tech industry and wider economy.

Amanda explains the work of Open UK and highlights some of the work the organisation does to promote open technology. She also discusses exactly why this work matters so much, and suggests that the UK doesn't always do as good a job as it could in talking about the extent to which it contributes to the global communities of developers and other practitioners making use of open technologies and data.

We also talk about some of the challenges facing the open movement, and Amanda also highlights some of confusion that the increasingly complex world of software licensing has caused. 

Finally, we also touch on the State of Open report which provides some detailed insights on the importance and role of open in the UK right now, and the Open Awards, which celebrates the people that are making an impact in the field. 

• Follow Amanda Brock on Twitter: @AmandaBrockUK
• Learn more about Open UK
• Read OpenUK's State of Open report

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with digital anthropologist Caitlin McDonald about what it means to be a digital anthropologist and why it matters in helping us to understand the way we build and use technology today. 

Caitlin begins by talking through how her work intersects with questions of agency and digital literacy, providing some useful context on how perceptions and understanding about what techbology does and how it's made can have an impact on the way it influences our lives. 

She also explains why there's a growing need for anthropological thinking in the tech industry, and why businesses and governments are starting to see the value in the disciplines specific ways of thinking about culture and communication. She also talks about digital anthropology in the context of the emerging conversation around ethics, and how changes in legislation and compliance rules is increasing demand for work that can help companies tackle these issues head on.

We also discuss ethnography, and compare it to quantitative research. Caitlin notes that there's an emerging scepticism of quantitative methods and its ability to deliver value. 

Finally, we talk about Caitlin's work outside of digital anthropology, such as her work as a coach and her personal technology projects.  She emphasises the value of having a space to adopt a more playful and less productive approach to technology and to "reconnect with technical skills in a low-stakes way."

• Follow Caitlin MacDonald on Twitter: @cmcd_phd
• Explore Caitlin's techy projects
• Learn more about EPIC and ethnography in industry
• Learn more about Microsoft's ethics game, Judgment Call
• Read Tricia Wang's Why Big Data Needs Thick Data

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with Sarah Drinkwater, the Director of Responsible Technology at Omidyar Networks to discuss how we can cultivate organisations and people that will enable a more equitable, responsible - and ultimately compassionate and exciting - technological future. 

We talk about the challenges the tech industry faces, and why it can be difficult to talk about responsibility and ethics. Sarah explains how the work she does at Omidyar Network attempts to support projects that will help us to reimagine the way that we build and use technology in society. 

We also discuss the ways storytelling can help us improve accountability in the industry, and how it can restore some sense of agency in an environment where it can feel like it's impossible to create change on a personal level. Sarah also talks about the Ethical Explorer project she put together, which offers tools to people in the industry - from engineers to product managers to founders - for tackling a range of ethical issues seriously.

Finally, we touch on a theme that exemplifies Sarah's work - joining the dots between different domains, and getting different groups of people talking to one another. We discuss the limitations of the core institutions that shape tech - large corporations and universities - and explore what could replace them and offer us a more effective way forward.

• Follow Sarah Drinkwater on Twitter: @sarahdrinkwater
• Learn more about Omidyar Network
• Get the Ethical Explorer pack (it's free!)
• Watch the Ada Lovelace Institute event mentioned in the episode
• Listen to the conversation between Claire Stapleton and Ifeoma Ozoma that Sarah references towards the end
• Read Casey Newton's comprehensive piece on Basecamp (an incident mentioned a couple of times in the episode)

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to privacy advocate Michelle Wolfe (aka "Stella" on Twitter) about the challenges of security and privacy in today's increasingly sinister landscape of surveillance capitalism. 

Taking in key terms (including the monstrosity that is "cyber"), and looking closely at some of the limits and flaws in the conversation around online security, Michelle/Stella explains how she approaches her work and why she thinks we need to reevaluate the way we talk about cybersecurity and online safety. 

She discusses some of the problems with the field, such as the perception that it's somewhat insular and elitist, and argues that we need to stop thinking about user fallibility as a problem, and instead urge greater accountability across the tech industry for the systems that are designed to confuse, dupe, or simply exhaust us.

We also talk about the problems with EdTech, and examine exactly why so many private companies are eager for a piece of a sector that has never been particularly lucrative (hint: it's probably not altruism).

While Michelle/Stella raises plenty of issues that we should be seriously converned about, it's not all doom and gloom: she also explains why she thinks the younger generation are a cause for optimism and hope when it comes to privacy and taking on big tech.

• Follow Michelle on Twitter: @RisuToInu
• Read her writing on her blog

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to Lorinda Brandon and Mike Amundsen about APIs and the evolution of the tech industry in the last 30 years in a very special episode - the first to feature two guests. 

We discussed issues of equality in the industry, in particular how 'women in tech' has emerged only in recent years - Lorinda offers her perspective on what it was like working as a woman in tech in the eighties, and also explains what frustrates her about the way we talk about toxicity in the industry today. 

We also talked storytelling, and how the stories we tell about technology - and the way we explain technologies - have moved from the purely technical to the user-centric. In the context of APIs, Lorinda and Mike explain, this is particularly important, as it demonstrates not only their ubiquity but also the fact that they are things for which the value is today obvious to many. It wasn't always that way - Lorinda and Mike undoubtedly played a huge role in getting us to where we are now. 

The episode also looks at the nature of the information ecosystem, and how established experts like Mike and Lorinda transfer and share their knowledge. For Mike this is often about presenting and narrativising problems in books: for Lorinda it's about building relationships with teams in a way that allows her to guide people, to support them to uncover their own solutions. 

Not only was this a wide-ranging conversation, it was also exceptionally fun, so thanks to Lorinda and Mike. Enjoy!

• Follow Lorinda Brandon on Twitter: @lindybrandon
• Follow Mike Amundsen on Twitter: @mamund
• Read Mike's takes on the MuleSoft blog
• Learn more about BetterCloud

Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) and Rich Gall (@richggall) are joined by Saron Yitbarek, Founder and CEO of audio learning platform Disco and co-host of the brilliant Command Line Heroes podcast, to discuss the virtues of audio learning in age of excessive screen time and the importance of highlighting the stories of the people that have shaped the technology and software landscape today. 

Saron talks about her background and some of the challenges she faced when starting out in the software industry, explaining how they informed the work she has done since. She describes the thinking behind Disco, and how her earlier venture CodeNewbie (which has now been acquired by the team behind Dev.to), has laid the foundations for the types of work she is doing today. She also explains why she believes audio learning can be an important addition to the wide varity of formats available for people learning technology skills. 

We also discuss Command Line Heroes, with Saron talking about one of her favourite episodes, and touch on some of the parallels between that podcast and this.

Saron also explains the importance of thinking carefully about how we onboard people into the tech and industry: she points out that we need to  better support systems for people moving into the industry from any background and at any point in their career.

• Follow Saron on Twitter: @saronyitbarek
• Learn more about Disco
• Learn more about Code Newbie
• Listen to Command Line Heroes
• Watch Saron's talk on CodeNewbie at Codeland 2020

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to Yin Mei, Director of Strategy and Curriculum Design at Per Scholas about her career and background in psychology in this special episode that went out live on Chubhouse.

In the conversation Yin talks about her journey into the field, and how she developed an interest in technology from a young age as a child of Chinese immigrants in Minnesota, and explains how she moved from an academic background in psychology into tech training and cybersecurity. 

The episode covers everything from Yin Mei's work at Per Scholas and how she works with subject matter experts to develop curricula that are always relevant and up to date, to some of the communication issues the tech industry faces around privacy and information security.

• Follow Yin on Twitter: @MsYinMei
• Learn more about Per Scholas 

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk with the "sickeningly entertaining" coding drag queen Anna Lytical about drag, software development, and the LGBTQ+ community in tech.

Anna discusses how they found their way into the tech industry and explains how they gradually discovered a way of bringing their love of software engineering, drag, and performing together. They also describe the journey from starting out making videos on YouTube, to building a huge audience of learners across many different platforms (including lots of love for TikTok).

The episode is both a look at how we talk about queer experiences in the software industry as well as an exploration of how we can find more creative, engaging and unique ways of helping people to understand technical topics and ideas. (You'll have to DM Jennifer if you want to find out why her math teacher made her class watch The Great Escape.)

• Follow Anna Lytical on Twitter: @theannalytical
• Check out Anna's YouTube channel for tutorials and computer science lessons
• Take a look at Anna's TikTok

Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) and Rich Gall (@richggall) talk with Jessica  Rose, a DevRel at CodeSee and advocate for improving access to technical education and the tech industry, about burnout, impostor syndrome and the challenges of learning the skills needed to navigate a fast-paced and occasionally hostile industry.

Jessica talks about her role at CodeSee, a developer tool currently in its 'stealth' phase, and explains why its such an exciting  project to work on, and explains why she decided to take on the role as a job share. She also talks about some of the problems facing those seeking tech jobs, and why hiring processes in the industry can make life difficult for those from backgrounds that have typically been excluded from tech. 

We also discuss impostor syndrome in the tech industry, and the broader challenges of deciding what to learn in a field that is demanding and sets many standards that can sometimes feel arbitrary or irrelevant. We look as well at the other end of the scale at the Dunning Kruger effect, and ask whether we need to focus more on the comfortable incompetents in the industry - who do we let fail? And who do we reward for failure?

• Follow Jessica on Twitter: @jesslynnrose
• Listen to Pursuit Podcast
• Learn more about BOMLab
• Learn more about CodeSee
• Learn anything on Learn Anything 

Rich Gall (@richggall) and Jennifer Riggins (@jkriggins) talk to author, software architect, and meme wrangler at ThoughtWorks about the importance of storytelling, language and communication in his worker as both a consultant and an educator.

Neal discusses his career in tech publishing, with 8 books already under his belt (the most recent being The Fundamentals of Software Architecture, published in January 2020), and explains what makes it so challenging but so vital in today's saturated information ecosystem. He shares his useful criteria for evaluating whether a topic or an idea should be a book and not something else. 

He also discusses the importance of being multimodal and flexible about the media through which you share ideas. He explains why he's missed in-person conferences, and describes how the switch to remote events has forced him to change the way he tells stories to an audience. 

We also discuss the role of a software architect, and the importance of communication skills. Neal explains the importance of ubiquitous language, and how software architects should attempt to build a common mental model across an organization. 

Finally, Neal talks about ThoughtWorks role in today's software industry, and explains how ThoughtWorks Radar gets put together. He highlights how its quantitative and almost ethnographic nature provide context and detail around emerging tools, platforms, and concepts.

• Follow Neal on Twitter: @neal4d
• Visit Neal's website
• Learn more about (or buy) The Fundamentals of Software Architecture
• Find out more about ThoughtWorks Radar