Francine Berman in Person

Join us on November 12 at 7 PM as Francine Berman shares her new book, Better Tech. She will be joined in conversation by Joe Donahue.
About this Event

About the Book

How do we fix the tech we depend on to empower, rather than endanger, the people who use it?
Technology powers our world. But we often give it the upper hand, treating tech solutions as right by default and accepting online risk as the price we have to pay. Rampant security breaches, unwanted surveillance, predators, and misinformation are just a normal part of cyberspace. But what if tech was designed and managed to empower and protect the people who use it? In Better Tech, Francine Berman explores this question and argues that for society to advance and humanity to thrive, technology must put people first.
Berman focuses on the riskiest and most essential technologies—social media, AI chatbots, search engines—all of which serve as digital critical infrastructure. She argues that the risk-mitigation strategies for critical infrastructure like roads, bridges, food systems, and the electrical grid can also be used for cyberspace because we should be able to expect that our technology is similarly safe, dependable, and trustworthy. Better Tech goes beyond identifying the problems of technology and provides an actionable playbook of responsible design, development, use, and regulatory strategies that can be used by everyone from policymakers to students and general readers to reduce technology’s risks and advance the public good.

About Francine Berman

Francine Berman is a data scientist, Director of Public Interest Technology, and the Stuart Rice Honorary Research Professor in the College of Information and Computer Sciences at UMass Amherst. Her work focuses on advancing the emerging field of Public Interest Technology by building its community, content, and long-term trajectory. Berman is a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, where she co-leads the Public Interest Technology Working Group. She also serves as a trustee of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Berman has provided an interdisciplinary perspective to a wide range of national organizations and advisory bodies, including a nomination by President Obama to serve on the National Council on the Humanities. Her honors include the NCWIT Pioneer in Tech Award, the ARL/CNI/Educause Paul Evan Peters Award, and the ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award. She has also been recognized by the Library of Congress as a “Digital Preservation Pioneer” and by HPCwire as one of “35 HPC Legends.”

About Joe Donahue

Joe Donahue is a nationally acclaimed host and interviewer. Historian David McCullough said “there is simply no better interviewer in the business.” His guest list is long and impressive. He has been awarded a slew of national and regional awards for his interviews and journalism. He can be heard on the syndicated “Book Show” and weekday mornings from 9-Noon as the host of The Roundtable on WAMC/Northeast Public Radio.