[Applause]
I’m so excited to be here tonight
how great is actually doing right so
great um so when I was a kid I loved to
test today so much like nerd alert right
to give you an example I was that kid
who made up extra fraction problems
because there weren’t enough for me to
practice before the test and I think the
thing that I loved most about test day
was that like seeing the questions on
the test even if I didn’t get them right
and I didn’t often but seeing those
questions like validated all that time
that I’d spent right it validated a part
of my life and I don’t get to take tests
in school anymore like thanks grad
school but I do sometimes still take
quizzes I found out recently that I’m a
so if you haven’t taken a quiz in a
while today is your day yes thank you
yeah we’re gonna take a quiz together
if quizzes aren’t your thing don’t worry
now if you’re thinking maybe this is a
trick question you’re right because it’s
about favorites and favorites can change
so just vote with your heart okay
another surprise I’m gonna call on some
of you if your favorite color wasn’t up
here raise your hand some of the folks
down front okay
what is your favorite color thank you so
much for saying that he said blue blue
is like green right so your favorite
color is actually green who else
yes in the black oh thank you so much
red is like pink but more passionate
anybody else oh yeah they’re gold ooh
thank you okay so that one guy doesn’t
fit here
[Applause]
so I think I fixed it just for you I
added a box now your favorite color
might not be that important to you but
it’s still a part of who you are right
it’s gold is the color of your you know
kids favorite pajamas it’s a color of
your favorite sunset green is my
favorite color spoiler alert I wrote
this quiz and Green is the color of the
grass where I learned how to do
cartwheels but by adding this box I said
that part of you doesn’t deserve to be
counted like we’re just not gonna pay
attention to it it’s not worthy of our
attention like these questions have a
lot of power right just this one
question so I am a software engineer
like Ashley said and I write write yeah
there’s gonna be they’re gonna be more
cats don’t worry I write software
collaboratively and one of the places
that I do that is in open source
communities and we can say a lot about
open source but the most important thing
is that we use all the software that we
write so we work together and we have a
real stake in the outcome because we’re
sometimes we call it eating our own dog
food we have a real we really care
because we need that software for
ourselves so a couple of years ago in
some of my open source work I saw this
form and I was like what is this and
then I saw this form oh no it’s getting
more bad and then I saw this form and I
and I was looking at these and I was
like why are we still screwing this up
so much why are we as a community as a
community of communities as people who
make things why are we still doing such
a bad job a consistently bad job and so
I went looking for the same kind of
community for these questions that I
have in software where people who have a
vested interest in the outcome of the
questions
are a part of the creation of the
questions and I couldn’t find one so I
made it last year I created a community
called open demographics and that’s
exactly what we do we come together
anyone can participate and we can work
collaboratively it I wrote iteratively
mindfully sometimes with conflict often
not on the best way to ask these really
important questions we can’t just leave
it to chance or – oh my Google here’s
the best way I’m just gonna use that so
this slide shows some of the stuff that
we’re working on we’re gonna look again
at gender in a minute we’re talking
about disability we’re talking about
race and ethnicity we’re talking about
how we can help indigenous communities
use indigenous place names on forums
instead of colonizer place names I don’t
know what we’re gonna do when we get to
Mars but we’re fighting colonization
here on earth at least so gender
identity this is the form that we just
saw earlier this is what the community
changed it into and you don’t yeah yeah
that wasn’t cool you don’t have to be
able to read this I know there’s a lot
of text up there you see that this is a
different question right this question
sends a different message about who we
are as question askers and the amount of
respect that we have for you the
question taker a great contributor named
sage sharp did a ton of work on this
forum I want to acknowledge it so
there’s a couple of important things
that I want to share one we changed
those radio buttons those circles to
checkboxes and we call it out check all
that apply use all the words that you
need to get yourself represented the
second thing that we do is we give
people the option to not answer and I
know sometimes you can’t but more often
than not let people not answer because
sometimes you don’t need to be asking
these questions to begin with and the
third thing is we give people the option
to self-identify and this sends a
message to them and to us it’s a good
reminder for us too that we’re never
gonna get it right for everyone all the
time right there’s always gonna be
something missing so we say hey use more
words
you need them now when I show people
this self-identify I get the same
response every time I swear I didn’t
make it up just for this they say Nikki
they’re gonna call themselves a unicorn
that’s genuinely what people say and I
don’t think it’s some sort of unicorn
phobia I don’t know about I think what
they’re getting at is that people lie on
forms right every single person in this
room I bet you has filled out some junk
in a form just to get past it right –
guys see heads nodding I know just to
get past it – the next thing as long as
there have been forms on the Internet
there have been databases that look like
but I ran that same gender question that
we just looked at on a couple of surveys
and it’s a small sample size it’s about
1,100 respondents I didn’t get a single
piece of junk data not one people use
that self identify box to self-identify
and some of those forms had survey or
had comments at the bottom and they use
those comment boxes to say thank you for
the first time I’m represented on this
form I think that says a lot so I’m
gonna tell you three things that you can
do to get on this train because it’s a
good one
the first one no surprise think about
your questions and the easiest in road
to doing this because it is absolutely
something that you practice like
positive thinking or any other skill is
to stop asking yes or no questions
almost nothing in life is yes or no
nothing is black or white let’s stop
pretending that it is give people the
opportunity to be uncertain give people
the opportunity to refuse make space for
the gray here the second thing that you
can do is to give people control over
the information that they’re giving you
dr. Jackie warnimont who’s a professor
here at ASU and I’m overall smart human
asks how much data have we generated
that is lost to us forever fitbit’s
Jawbone’s
Apple watches uber rides all that data
that we’re producing that is gone but we
don’t have to be a part of that we can
give our users the opportunity to untape
the form it’s technically not
particularly complicated and it again
sends a message to them that we respect
to them and what they’re giving us the
third thing that we can do if you’re
sitting there and you’re like Nicky I’m
not an engineer I don’t make forms I’m
not a part of this but you are because
you have vendors you have contractors
you have consultants you have offices
where people do this work and you can be
the voice saying hang on let’s think
about a better way to do this we have
brand guidelines you can say if you want
to
use my brand you need to do these things
if you want to put my logo in your form
your form has to look like this and so
we can update our brand guidelines for
our schools and our departments and our
university so dr. Medusa Duarte who’s
another very smart professor here at ASU
writes in her book information takes the
about 10 minutes ago I made a container
and we filled it with information and we
all know that that is not correct we all
do this together and I’m gonna tell you
something that you already know which is
that every single day people create
containers by asking questions and we
put information into those containers
and then we use those containers that
are inaccurate insufficient incomplete
and unjust we use those containers to
make decisions right we make funding
decisions and Zoning decisions and
granting decisions and parole decisions
all kinds of decisions that affect
people’s lives because our containers
have a lot of control right these
questions have a so much power anything
you know um we would all probably get on
board with the statement that the way
that we talk to people is an ethical
issue right like how we treat people in
our daily lives reflects our ethical
code these are the questions that we’re
asking people in our daily lives this is
part of how our ethics manifest and you
know I know that a lot of times tech
makes it harder to be ethical right the
more technical innovation and technical
complexity we add the more ethical
considerations we have to make so we
have a valley full of driverless cars
right very techno technological
innovative very ethically complicated
but in this case tech makes it easier to
be ethical it has never before been so
easy to be an ethical question asker
because it used to be that we only could
ask yes or no questions computers just
couldn’t handle it we couldn’t have the
storage space we didn’t have database
formats we didn’t have this or that or
the other we have everything we need to
ask ethical questions and I truly
believe that most of us want to be
ethical in everything that we do
so the next time you’re going to ask a
question instead of asking this question
you should ask this question thank you [Applause]
I’m so excited to be here tonight
how great is actually doing right so
great um so when I was a kid I loved to
test today so much like nerd alert right
to give you an example I was that kid
who made up extra fraction problems
because there weren’t enough for me to
practice before the test and I think the
thing that I loved most about test day
was that like seeing the questions on
the test even if I didn’t get them right
and I didn’t often but seeing those
questions like validated all that time
that I’d spent right it validated a part
of my life and I don’t get to take tests
in school anymore like thanks grad
school but I do sometimes still take
quizzes I found out recently that I’m a
so if you haven’t taken a quiz in a
while today is your day yes thank you
yeah we’re gonna take a quiz together
if quizzes aren’t your thing don’t worry
now if you’re thinking maybe this is a
trick question you’re right because it’s
about favorites and favorites can change
so just vote with your heart okay
another surprise I’m gonna call on some
of you if your favorite color wasn’t up
here raise your hand some of the folks
down front okay
what is your favorite color thank you so
much for saying that he said blue blue
is like green right so your favorite
color is actually green who else
yes in the black oh thank you so much
red is like pink but more passionate
anybody else oh yeah they’re gold ooh
thank you okay so that one guy doesn’t
fit here
[Applause]
so I think I fixed it just for you I
added a box now your favorite color
might not be that important to you but
it’s still a part of who you are right
it’s gold is the color of your you know
kids favorite pajamas it’s a color of
your favorite sunset green is my
favorite color spoiler alert I wrote
this quiz and Green is the color of the
grass where I learned how to do
cartwheels but by adding this box I said
that part of you doesn’t deserve to be
counted like we’re just not gonna pay
attention to it it’s not worthy of our
attention like these questions have a
lot of power right just this one
question so I am a software engineer
like Ashley said and I write write yeah
there’s gonna be they’re gonna be more
cats don’t worry I write software
collaboratively and one of the places
that I do that is in open source
communities and we can say a lot about
open source but the most important thing
is that we use all the software that we
write so we work together and we have a
real stake in the outcome because we’re
sometimes we call it eating our own dog
food we have a real we really care
because we need that software for
ourselves so a couple of years ago in
some of my open source work I saw this
form and I was like what is this and
then I saw this form oh no it’s getting
more bad and then I saw this form and I
and I was looking at these and I was
like why are we still screwing this up
so much why are we as a community as a
community of communities as people who
make things why are we still doing such
a bad job a consistently bad job and so
I went looking for the same kind of
community for these questions that I
have in software where people who have a
vested interest in the outcome of the
questions
are a part of the creation of the
questions and I couldn’t find one so I
made it last year I created a community
called open demographics and that’s
exactly what we do we come together
anyone can participate and we can work
collaboratively it I wrote iteratively
mindfully sometimes with conflict often
not on the best way to ask these really
important questions we can’t just leave
it to chance or – oh my Google here’s
the best way I’m just gonna use that so
this slide shows some of the stuff that
we’re working on we’re gonna look again
at gender in a minute we’re talking
about disability we’re talking about
race and ethnicity we’re talking about
how we can help indigenous communities
use indigenous place names on forums
instead of colonizer place names I don’t
know what we’re gonna do when we get to
Mars but we’re fighting colonization
here on earth at least so gender
identity this is the form that we just
saw earlier this is what the community
changed it into and you don’t yeah yeah
that wasn’t cool you don’t have to be
able to read this I know there’s a lot
of text up there you see that this is a
different question right this question
sends a different message about who we
are as question askers and the amount of
respect that we have for you the
question taker a great contributor named
sage sharp did a ton of work on this
forum I want to acknowledge it so
there’s a couple of important things
that I want to share one we changed
those radio buttons those circles to
checkboxes and we call it out check all
that apply use all the words that you
need to get yourself represented the
second thing that we do is we give
people the option to not answer and I
know sometimes you can’t but more often
than not let people not answer because
sometimes you don’t need to be asking
these questions to begin with and the
third thing is we give people the option
to self-identify and this sends a
message to them and to us it’s a good
reminder for us too that we’re never
gonna get it right for everyone all the
time right there’s always gonna be
something missing so we say hey use more
words
you need them now when I show people
this self-identify I get the same
response every time I swear I didn’t
make it up just for this they say Nikki
they’re gonna call themselves a unicorn
that’s genuinely what people say and I
don’t think it’s some sort of unicorn
phobia I don’t know about I think what
they’re getting at is that people lie on
forms right every single person in this
room I bet you has filled out some junk
in a form just to get past it right –
guys see heads nodding I know just to
get past it – the next thing as long as
there have been forms on the Internet
there have been databases that look like
but I ran that same gender question that
we just looked at on a couple of surveys
and it’s a small sample size it’s about
1,100 respondents I didn’t get a single
piece of junk data not one people use
that self identify box to self-identify
and some of those forms had survey or
had comments at the bottom and they use
those comment boxes to say thank you for
the first time I’m represented on this
form I think that says a lot so I’m
gonna tell you three things that you can
do to get on this train because it’s a
good one
the first one no surprise think about
your questions and the easiest in road
to doing this because it is absolutely
something that you practice like
positive thinking or any other skill is
to stop asking yes or no questions
almost nothing in life is yes or no
nothing is black or white let’s stop
pretending that it is give people the
opportunity to be uncertain give people
the opportunity to refuse make space for
the gray here the second thing that you
can do is to give people control over
the information that they’re giving you
dr. Jackie warnimont who’s a professor
here at ASU and I’m overall smart human
asks how much data have we generated
that is lost to us forever fitbit’s
Jawbone’s
Apple watches uber rides all that data
that we’re producing that is gone but we
don’t have to be a part of that we can
give our users the opportunity to untape
the form it’s technically not
particularly complicated and it again
sends a message to them that we respect
to them and what they’re giving us the
third thing that we can do if you’re
sitting there and you’re like Nicky I’m
not an engineer I don’t make forms I’m
not a part of this but you are because
you have vendors you have contractors
you have consultants you have offices
where people do this work and you can be
the voice saying hang on let’s think
about a better way to do this we have
brand guidelines you can say if you want
to
use my brand you need to do these things
if you want to put my logo in your form
your form has to look like this and so
we can update our brand guidelines for
our schools and our departments and our
university so dr. Medusa Duarte who’s
another very smart professor here at ASU
writes in her book information takes the
about 10 minutes ago I made a container
and we filled it with information and we
all know that that is not correct we all
do this together and I’m gonna tell you
something that you already know which is
that every single day people create
containers by asking questions and we
put information into those containers
and then we use those containers that
are inaccurate insufficient incomplete
and unjust we use those containers to
make decisions right we make funding
decisions and Zoning decisions and
granting decisions and parole decisions
all kinds of decisions that affect
people’s lives because our containers
have a lot of control right these
questions have a so much power anything
you know um we would all probably get on
board with the statement that the way
that we talk to people is an ethical
issue right like how we treat people in
our daily lives reflects our ethical
code these are the questions that we’re
asking people in our daily lives this is
part of how our ethics manifest and you
know I know that a lot of times tech
makes it harder to be ethical right the
more technical innovation and technical
complexity we add the more ethical
considerations we have to make so we
have a valley full of driverless cars
right very techno technological
innovative very ethically complicated
but in this case tech makes it easier to
be ethical it has never before been so
easy to be an ethical question asker
because it used to be that we only could
ask yes or no questions computers just
couldn’t handle it we couldn’t have the
storage space we didn’t have database
formats we didn’t have this or that or
the other we have everything we need to
ask ethical questions and I truly
believe that most of us want to be
ethical in everything that we do
so the next time you’re going to ask a
question instead of asking this question
you should ask this question thank you [Applause]
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