Technology, certified for the public good.
Techizen and the Public Interest Technology University Network are launching a 10-week joint program that trains public-interest technologists to assess their products for societal risk, and to ship them with warranty-style assurances of social responsibility.
Ten weeks. Four movements.
Each cohort follows the assessment methodology built across two decades of Prof. Latanya Sweeney's teaching at Harvard.
- 01
Issue spotting
Teams map the surface area of their technology: who it touches, what norms it could clash with, and where harm could appear that is not in the original brief.
- 02
Risk analysis
Each candidate risk is examined for likelihood, severity, and reversibility, with a structured assessment of who bears the consequence.
- 03
Remedies
Working with PPAL faculty, teams redesign, technically or in their business model, to eliminate or mitigate each identified risk.
- 04
Warranty
The cohort publishes a warranty-style statement: a public record of the risks assessed and addressed before the product reaches its users.
Product testing is standard for cars, electronics, and code.
Why not for society?
Many technology products create societal harms that could have been avoided had those risks been identified earlier. By the time outside groups document the damage, design and business decisions have hardened, and remedies are costly, disruptive, and late.
The PIT Product Assessment Lab extends the testing-lab model, long standard for electrical devices, automobiles, and cybersecurity, to the full spectrum of technology and the societal norms it can clash with.
A joint program
Two organizations, one mission.
Founded by Prof. Latanya Sweeney, Techizen develops the assessment methodology PPAL teaches. Two decades of student-led assessments at Harvard have already shaped laws, regulations, and business practices.
Visit ↗A network of universities advancing public-interest technology through teaching, research, and applied work. PIT-UN hosts the hackathons whose winning teams enter the PPAL cohort.
Convened by
Originator of the assessment methodology PPAL teaches.