Ethics of Data in Civil Society
September 15 -16, 2014
Arrillaga Alumni Center
Stanford University
326 Galvez Street, Stanford, CA
Proposal for a two-day conference and follow on research
Request
Support for a two-day conference for practitioners, scholars, policymakers, and funders on the ethics of
digital data in civil society. Conference will be held at Stanford University, September 15-16, 2014, and is
being produced by the Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society as part of its Digital
Civil Society Lab, in collaboration with the Columbia University School of Journalism Brown Institute and
the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative.
Purpose
Digital data – from remote sensors, research, communications tools, donated human tissue and other
sources – are becoming a key resource for social change in a number of settings. Using data well and
ethically requires new skills, new thinking, and new codes of practice.
Policy makers, international corporations, civil and consumer rights groups, and associations focused on
privacy issues are engaged in debate about the use of digital data. Most of these discussions position
national security against privacy or economic and technological innovation against personal concerns.
And while nonprofits are often the hosts of such discussions, rarely do these investigations consider the
ways that networked digital data are changing the nonprofits themselves. This conference offers a first –
a discussion of the ethical choices that nonprofits, funders, and associations face in using digital data for
social good. By deliberating mixing practitioners with scholars, funders and policymakers we intend to
foster new ways of understanding the tensions and ethical challenges civil society faces in using digital
data. These range from the systemic (how does donor intent relate to digital donations?) to the
immediate and life-threatening (what obligations do volunteers tagging tweets have in relation to
standard humanitarian practices?)
Recognizing that “data flatten terrain,” we are particularly interested in crosscutting lessons and
approaches. We will consider ethical challenges and emerging codes of practice in humanitarian work,
journalism, medical research, digital humanities, civic technology and other domains to surface common
areas of inquiry and potential shared practices. We also are interested in ethical questions along the
entire “chain of data use” including collection, coding, storage, access, sharing, analysis, and use.
Practical workshops on technology design, principles of behavior and code mapping will flow over the
two days, informing proposals for further action at the conclusion of the conference. Every effort is
being made to connect this conference to other discussions (such as the White House OSTP Big Data and
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Privacy discussions, the Responsible Data Forum, and scholarly workshops). Plenary and keynote
presentations will highlight research, policy proposals, and practical approaches being tried by
organizations to address specific ethical challenges.
The Conference Agenda
The agenda is currently being planned by a twenty-person planning team assembled and led by Lucy
Bernholz, Visiting Scholar, Stanford PACS. (See Appendix A for list of participants.) The planning team is
meant to reflect the cross-sector, cross-expertise stakeholders who will participate in the conference,
and the agenda development process is highly participatory. The planning team is working on sessions
and an overarching agenda that will:
1. Identify the shared systemic issues, and the mission and time-critical ethical challenges, for civil
society organizations in a digital age.
2. Consider these challenges and the various approaches to them along the complete life cycle of
digital data – gathering, storing, analyzing, sharing, preservation.
3. Address the opportunities and limitations of various approaches to adopting ethical behaviors,
from markets to regulations, coercion to moral suasion. Who is responsible for making and
enforcing certain practices and how well do codes of practice work in a digital age?
4. Build agreement on any core principles that cut across domains and the social sector.
5. Try to inform action with the insights from this conference.
A draft of the working agenda is attached to this proposal as Appendix B.
Conference and Follow-On Activities
There are many other public gatherings focused on the challenges of big data in society. We are
coordinating with several of these, incorporating their work into this conference planning, and adding
our specific focus on civil society to parallel discussions that focus instead on business or government.
This focus on the role of digital data in voluntary private action for public benefit is the distinguishing
characteristic of this gathering, and one that we expect will have carry-over insights to other forums.
The conference itself is a first and may spark interest in future sessions. As important, we intend the
conference format to facilitate knowledge sharing and the creation or expansion of practical actions.
The agenda is designed to allow participants to find like-minded actors, develop initial ideas for action,
and present those to the full group at the end of the two days. We therefore see it as part of our
conference planning to budget and prepare to support some of those activities, via smaller focused
workshops, another large gathering, the hosting of shared digital workspaces, publishing and publicizing
the outcomes of this conference and other activities that will be identified by conference participants.
We anticipate documenting and sharing the resources that inform the conference and that result from
it, both in stand-alone and integrated ways; supporting a small number of small groups to continue the
work they begin at the conference; and beginning to integrate considerations of civil society into other
forums debating the role of digital data in business and government. We would also seek to distill
insights from the conference into practical tools and documentation for nonprofit and foundations per
se.
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Background on Stanford PACS
Vision: The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Stanford PACS) strives to be the leading
global research center on philanthropy and civil society.
Mission: The Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society develops and shares knowledge to
improve philanthropy, strengthen civil society and effect social change. Stanford PACS connects
students, scholars and practitioners and publishes the preeminent journal Stanford Social Innovation
Review (SSIR).
What We Do: Stanford PACS is a research center for students, scholars and practitioners to explore and
share ideas that create social change. Its primary participants are Stanford faculty, visiting scholars,
postdoctoral scholars, graduate and undergraduate students, and nonprofit and foundation
practitioners.
As publisher of Stanford Social Innovation Review, Stanford PACS informs policy and social innovation,
philanthropic investment and nonprofit practice. SSIR is shared intellectual space where scholars and
practitioners publish interdisciplinary and cross sector research and ideas to advance social change. The
journal is complemented by a website, blog, conferences, webinars and podcasts.
Stanford PACS has relationships with five Schools (Humanities & Sciences, Engineering, Education,
Business, and Law) and twenty departments, and we leverage the intellectual assets of a diverse, worldclass faculty across the University. This provides a unique platform to share our work with the nonprofit
and for profit community in Silicon Valley and globally.
Stanford PACS offers post-doctoral fellowships, PhD fellowships and financial support for
undergraduates completing honors thesis work. Additionally, Stanford PACS sponsors a monthly public
speaker series and other symposia and salons that include speakers who are well known academic,
foundation or nonprofit leaders.
Stanford PACS is led by Kim Meredith, its Executive Director who came to the Center with deep
nonprofit sector experience, and by distinguished Faculty Co-Directors who teach a quarterly PhD
graduate student workshop in addition to their ongoing research, speaking and publishing:

Woody Powell, Professor of Education and by courtesy Sociology, Organizational Behavior,
Management Science and Engineering, and Communication; and

Rob Reich, Associate Professor of Political Science, Faculty Director of the Program on Ethics in
Society and, by courtesy, of Philosophy and the School of Education.

Paul Brest, Professor of Law, Emeritus and Former Dean, Stanford Law School.
Stanford PACS enjoys the leadership and commitment of a stellar Advisory Board, chaired by Laura
Arrillaga-Andreessen, Darren Bechtel, Somesh Dash, Susan Ford Dorsey, Laura Meier Fisher, John
Goldman, Burt McMurtry, William Meehan III, Regina Kulik Scully, and Cari Tuna.
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Appendix A
Planning Group (as of January, 2014)
Isaac Baker, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Lucy Bernholz, Stanford PACS Digital Civil Society Lab
Rahul Bhargava, MIT Civic Media Lab
Jean-Francoise Blanchette, UCLA
Brittany Card, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Ben Davies, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Leetha Filderman, PopTech
Allen Gunn, Aspiration Technology
Mark Hansen, Columbia University School of Journalism, Brown Institute
Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, Stanford School of Medicine
Heather Leson, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap
Emmanuel Letouzé, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Susan Liautaud, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
Annie O’Connor, Vital Wave Consulting
Jake Porway, DataKind
Nathaniel Raymond, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
Rob Reich, Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society
Benjamin Stokes, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Madeleine Taylor, Network Impact
Patrick Vinck, Harvard School of Public Health
John Wilbanks, Sage BioNetworks
Christopher Wilson, The Engine Room
Andrew Woods, Stanford PACS
Hosting Organizations
Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Digital Civil Society Lab
Columbia University School of Journalism and Stanford University, Brown Institute
Harvard Humanitarian Initiative
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Appendix B: Draft Agenda
Ethics of Data in Civil Society
As of March 18, 2014 – all listed speakers should be viewed as pending
September 15, 2014
1:00 pm
Welcome
1:30 – 2:00
Defining Digital Civil Society
Why consider digital data and its uses in this context specifically (Rob and Lucy)
2:00 – 2:45
Code Switch Roundtable
Experts from different domains respond to common challenge (video). Alternatively,
they share examples that highlight the key ethical choices about data being faced in
different domains. Panel moderated by Rob Reich; speaker list not included for the
public at this time.
2:45 – 4:00
Workshops (self-selected; tracked by series and one-offs)
Series: Core Principles Manifesto I (Nathaniel Raymond)
Series: Prototype Lab I (RDF) (Alan Gunn)
Series: Red Teaming (threat identification) I
We are the data (Heather Leeson and Madeleine Taylor)
The data chain (Jake or Pete, DataKind)
4:15 – 5:15
Articulating the Tensions, Framing the Assumptions
Panel moderated by Mark Hansen; speaker list not included for the public at this time.
5:15
Reception and Science Fair
6:30
Dine-Around Dinners
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September 16, 2014
8:00 – 9:00
Breakfast roundtables, workshops, self-organized discussions
9:00 – 9:45
Raw Data and Manipulation
How can we understand digital data and algorithms as created artifacts, shaped by the
choices of their makers? Games in particular offer an opportunity to think about how
we manipulate (and can be manipulated by) these choices. Panel moderated by
Benjamin Stokes; speaker list not included for the public at this time.
10:00–11:15
Workshops
Series: Core Principles Manifesto II (Nathaniel Raymond)
Series: Prototype Lab II (RDF) (Alan Gunn)
Series: Red Teaming (threat identification) II
Visual data bootcamp (TBD and HRW)
Mapping Ethical ecosystems (Madeleine/Rahul)
11:30 – 12:30 Digital data as catalysts
How are digital data creating whole new organizations and identities, and how are
existing organizations being challenged by these opportunities? Panel moderated by
Jean-François Blanchette; speaker list not included for the public at this time.
12:30 – 1:30
Lunch (Comments on Civil Society Advocacy agenda)
Remarks from EFF or ACLU
1:45 – 2:45
Codes, Norms, Markets and Defaults
What mechanisms work when and where for enabling or requiring ethical choices in
digital data use? Panel moderated by Susan Liautaud; speaker list not included for the
public at this time.
3:30 – 4:00
Science Fair Presentations
Docent-led overview of the work done in workshops
4:00 – 5:00
Keynote – Invitation pending
Data discrimination, due process and where we go from here. Introduced by Lucy
Bernholz
5:15
Close
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