In this episode of Tech Refactored Gus and our Research Associate Neil Rutledge speak with Colton Harper of Broader Considerations of Technology (or BCT), a student organization that is a part of the Kutak Ethics Center at Nebraska. BCT is launching several impressive initiatives from data visualization workshops, to game jams, to a science fiction and ethics book club. They’re getting students across programs and disciplines engaged in applying tech skills to their interests, serving their community, and cementing the truism: the story of technology is the story of our society.
In this episode of Tech Refactored Gus and our Research Associate Neil Rutledge speak with Colton Harper of Broader Considerations of Technology (or BCT), a student organization that is a part of the Kutak Ethics Center at Nebraska. BCT is launching several impressive initiatives from data visualization workshops, to game jams, to a science fiction and ethics book club. They’re getting students across programs and disciplines engaged in applying tech skills to their interests, serving their community, and cementing the truism: the story of technology is the story of our society.
Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and has not been thoroughly reviewed for completeness or accuracy.
[00:00:00] Gus Herwitz: This is Tech Refactored. I'm your host, Gus Herwitz, the Menard Director of the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center at the University of Nebraska. Today I'm joined by Colton Harper of the broader considerations of technology or BCT Group. This is a student organization that is part of the Robert JQ Tech Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics at the University of Nebraska.
This year, BCT is once again teaming up with the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center to host some exciting speakers and new programs. BCT is also developing programming that uses data visualization to use data to tell compelling data driven stories. Yes. I just used the word data three times in one sentence.
It's that important and that compelling. Colton is joining us today to talk about what exactly data visualization is, and listeners are encouraged to visit this episode's note page, which will contain links to some really impressive examples of data visualization [00:01:00] projects that others have put. Also joining me today is co-host is NGTC Research associate Neil Rutledge, who is working with Colton on a number of collaborations with the center.
Colton, Neil, welcome to Tech Refactored.
[00:01:15] Neil Rutledge: Hey, thanks. Happy to be here Gus.
[00:01:16] Colton Harper: Thank you very much for the opportunity. It's, it's a pleasure.
[00:01:20] Gus Herwitz: Colton, you, you have a, a great background. I've, I've known you as a student for several years now, um, and, uh, have always been impressed by how you got to be doing what it is that you're doing.
So, could you start just by telling us a bit about, uh, who you are and what you're doing here at the university?
[00:01:37] Colton Harper: Absolutely. So currently I'm a third year PhD student in the computer science program where we apply computer science to um, biology. I started in this research discipline my freshman year under the guidance of Dr. Massimiliano Pierobon in the invite lab. And I have just continued my research and from there, been inspired to start [00:02:00] incorporating some ethical analyses and considerations. So you,
[00:02:03] Gus Herwitz: you say, uh, the, you're applying computer science to biology. Can you, uh, say a bit about what that means and perhaps why ethical considerations are something that come to, uh, the fore of your mind?
[00:02:16] Colton Harper: So specifically what we do is apply telecommunication theory and information theory to analyze the communication performance between engineered biological cells that are, are communicating. And the reason that's important is, Very similar to how traditional, what we think of as traditional communication systems such as telephones or computers, uh, connected to the internet are communicating.
Biological cells are constantly communicating instead of electromagnetic magnetic waves as the medium in which information is encoded. Biological cells encode their information in chemical messages, and so understanding how that [00:03:00] communication process. Can really open the door to understanding how diseases work and how cancer is proliferated.
And so cancer is a form of misinformation or the information it's sending is a form of misinformation. But unlike cell phones where they can identify disruptive data, our biological cells are less robust at detecting that misinformation that cancer cells are em.
[00:03:26] Gus Herwitz: And this turns you to some interest in ethics. Can you talk about your interest in, uh, technology ethics and ethics, uh, more generally?
[00:03:36] Colton Harper: The underlying technology that that enables this research is, it's very clear to me how powerful it is. The, the enabling technology, synthetic biology and molecular molecular biology allows us to manipulate. The world at a nano scale level in a fairly precise and reliable way.
And with that much power, it's very sobering to think [00:04:00] how much of a double edged sword we're working with here. And so, Cole, you, you,
[00:04:04] Gus Herwitz: I, I was going to let you get away with saying, with that much power comes great responsibility.
[00:04:10] Colton Harper: Yes, that's, It's true. That's true. with that much power does indeed come. A lot of responsibility and technology in, in so many different domains, whether that's this biotech area or, or artificial intelligence and, and applications there.
And so specifically in, in my research, being able to understand how cancer communicates and being able to develop advanced therapeutics tailored to address and, and prevent cancer. It also opens the door to, um, understanding how to engineer even more forms of, of dangerous or deleterious cancers in bio weapons.
And so getting familiar with that has been, again, just a sobering process and I really wanna make sure that I ask the questions of, of responsibility [00:05:00] and, and hopeful. Be on the, the right side of history on this. Yeah.
[00:05:04] Gus Herwitz: Th this is perhaps a somewhat simple way to put it, but, uh, I, I think it's at least reasonably accurate to say that one of the first steps to, uh, curing cancer in the way that you're approaching it is understanding how a cancer works and, uh, what the origins are.
And that means that understanding how to cure cancers through this approach is tantamount to understanding how to. Cancers and possibly make worse cancers or harder to detect cancers. And it's not just about cancer. So it's a, a very powerful and important for human, uh, survival, flourishing and wellbeing perspectives to be doing this sort of work.
But it also carries, uh, a great deal of risk and consequence, and you don't just focus on. Areas in your own research, uh, and your work, but uh, you also have helped with the bct [00:06:00] broader considerations of technology group. Can you tell us a bit about, I guess I've invoked Spider-Man already, so I'm just going to, uh, uh, keep digging.
Can you tell us the origin story of BCT?
[00:06:11] Colton Harper: And yes, I love it. So yeah, bct, I think it has a rich history and sort of to set the stage it, again, this also started sort of my, my freshman year where I, through some previous experiences in scouts, I was a little bit service oriented. So getting involved in the Center for Civic Engagement and doing service work there and the.
I got involved there, whether that's preparing tax returns for low income individuals in the community or service experiences in California. Learning about the migrant worker lifestyle, I started to realize that a lot of my peers in computer science didn't have great representation there, and upon reflection, I didn't think that their lack of representation.
In service work [00:07:00] was representative of their willingness to serve. And so it seemed that they were very professional development oriented. And so that got me thinking, well, how can we blend this and, and align students who want meaningful experiences, who, who require meaningful experiences to. Internships and flip that to address this freshman catch 22 of how do we get experience when the only opportunities for experience require experience and providing students with meaningful service work such as ed, educating youth in the community, or developing software tools for non-profits.
So from there we started a student organization called Initialize, and we were able to gain a lot of traction through there and we got a $1,000 grant after we got some students involved and we were able to leverage that and get matching funding from our department. So here we were $2,000, we had some funding and we were able to buy a set of [00:08:00] kits to teach robotics in Title One middle schools here.
And there was so much. From our mentor group and from the students that we were teaching, that we decided that it'd be cool to, to scale this, um, adventure up in, in these experiences up. And we found a $50,000 grant from the Bosch Community Foundation and. We took a shot in the dark and we were able to scale our vision up and be awarded that grant.
And so finally, just to finish setting the stage of of B c T, we were able to gain so much momentum through these experiences and initialize and, and leverage the funding to get additional funding and. Here lies BC t
[00:08:43] Gus Herwitz: and i, I have to commend you in for listeners, especially listeners, uh, who may, uh, be similarly situated students, uh, or early career academics, or really anyone in civic community service life, that this is one, this is a great model of how to do things, [00:09:00] start small and bootstrap and grow.
And for anyone who's been in a, a fundraising. One of the most important things to know about fundraising is that donors like to give money to people who've previously received money, because that suggests that they're capable of doing, uh, things with that money and getting, uh, the support of others. So start small, get a couple of grants, get a couple of gifts, uh, get a bit of support.
Use that to grow, start doing. Some proof of concept stuff that demonstrates what you're capable of and that's how you hit the ground running and start doing great stuff. With that bit of history about the beginnings of bct, can you tell us a bit about what BCT does and what its goals are?
[00:09:43] Colton Harper: Oh, absolutely. BCT, we have a couple different sets of stakeholders that we try to, to tend to tend to benefit, and that is the, the students who are working and, and doing the programming and our audience. And so for the students themselves, our [00:10:00] goals are to give them meaningful experiences that help motivate them, inspire them to develop their professional skills, again, while serving the community.
And so that's what we're trying to. For the students, but our broader goals, um, with external goals are more threefold, which is first, I know at least for me, there are times where I'm in a situation where I feel anxiety, but I just can't put my thumb on what is going on, or I can't have productive thought.
And so similar to that, I feel like in this. Landscape that we're in when it comes to emerging technology and the internet and how complex it is, we don't quite have the vocabulary, um, to be able to, to talk about this in, in, in a very high resolution way. And so one primary goal and cornerstone of the broader considerations of technology is helping to define and build that vocabulary in the set of conceptual tools.[00:11:00]
Community members and, and students, um, and people across society. Can use to make sense of the world as it relates to the intersection of technology and society, and whether that be feeling anxious about targeted advertisement and how in the world is, is my advertisement here so related to what I was just talking about.
And not sensationalizing it, but providing people an accurate picture of that line of what data you've presented, how it may have been collected, and how that might translate to that targeted advertisement. So then the last two goals that BCT has is once we establish the vocabulary and the conceptual tools, if you don't use them, you, you lose them.
And so we want to continue the conversation and provide experiences for students to, to really. Have discussions around these topics and ask questions to experts. And then the, the last goal is to push the envelope. So develop events where we [00:12:00] can bring together academics who are working on cutting edge research to help either just disseminate that knowledge in an accessible way or to inspire undergraduates to start conducting research in, in these similar.
[00:12:16] Gus Herwitz: Unsurprisingly, uh, what one of, uh, your supporters, uh, nowadays is the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, because everything that you just said, uh, I think applies to, uh, a lot of our own goals and vision and the idea of breaking down silos and, uh, bringing people together across fields to have conversations and learn from each other, share knowledge, and really learn by doing.
I, uh, I'd like to hand things to Neil. To talk a bit about what the group is doing for students and as we come back for the semester, some of the, uh, programs that you're getting ready to, uh, put.
[00:12:53] Neil Rutledge: So for those of you who don't don't know, BCT and the NGTC, we have a number [00:13:00] of programs that we're gonna be working on together this year. Um, now one thing that both the NGTC and the BCT, one thing we're partnering on this upcoming year that I'm particularly excited about is the, uh, sci-fi ethics. Short Story Book Club. You might think that Short Story Book Club, those two things don't go together, but we're making it happen in the sense that, uh, we're all just gonna get together.
And before the event, we're gonna read a story and we're gonna discuss it. Can you tell us a little bit about the concept for this series? Is it. You know, introducing students to the idea of how these two things can kind of interact or, or what's, what's I guess, the goal of the series?
[00:13:40] Colton Harper: Yeah, you bet. I think short stories provide lots of great, rich prompts and thought experiments that can really enable discussion.
And so I think what ultimately what we're trying to do is get people. And have these meaningful discussions so that way we can start building out our intuitions and seeing other [00:14:00] disciplinary perspectives that we wouldn't be normally exposed to. And so I think this programming specifically is incredible because of this compatibility component.
You know, we're all students that, that are prime and, and faculty and, and staff that our, our schedules are incredibly busy. And so this particular program is set up that it's a short. So if you forget that it's on your calendar and you get that notification, 20, 30 minutes of of reading right beforehand are on your way over and you can still come and have a meaningful discussion with us.
And so with all of the programming, trying to keep that in mind of, of student compatibility. Yeah.
[00:14:42] Neil Rutledge: So growing up for you was uh, science fiction something that kind of got you interested in, in science more broadly, or was that, was that ever part of your story?
[00:14:50] Colton Harper: It's, unfortunately it wasn't. I, I actually, it's a newfound appreciation. When I was younger, for some reason I only wanted to [00:15:00] read nonfiction and I didn't realize how rich fiction and, and science fiction in an expanding sort of reality to, to help develop your intuitions and, and play with reality and, and your models can be. And so I'm really excited. I all of the, the readings that we have so far, Neil, through your expertise, you've been able to identify.
It's not something I've read before, so I'm, I'm very excited to get into.
[00:15:23] Neil Rutledge: I think, I think we have some that'll bring up some interesting, definitely some interesting ethical considerations. And particularly, you know, going back to writers who were writing decades ago, it's amazing. It's amazing how often they were, how prescient they were about anticipating issues that are so salient today.
It's, it's really, I think it'll be cool. I know the BCT also has a lecture series planned. What sort of topic? Is the BCT looking into in terms of highlighting in that series, or whether that be specific speakers or just general issues you're kind of trying to engage with?
[00:15:58] Colton Harper: Right. I, [00:16:00] I think Professor Herwitz said it well.
Uh, I think a lot of the things that, that we're interested in as a group aligns so well with the topics that the governance of technology center is interested. And so a lot of the topics. Similar to the podcast topics and, and we'll align with that, not just with this lecture series, but kind of all of our initiatives.
And so we've got one speaker so far solidified, which will be on November 8th, uh, which is Dr. Christine Weisler from the California State Polytechnic, uh, University. And it'll be, In introduction to the different aspects of technology in their relationship to, um, feminism and the philosophy of disability.
And so some other topics that our student group, once the school year gets rolled around next week, will, will solidify, but we're considering things like the right to repair among other topics. Yeah.
[00:16:54] Gus Herwitz: Super, super interesting. Now I know the BCT
[00:16:58] Neil Rutledge: is facilitating a program [00:17:00] involving the development of web apps.
Can you tell us a little more about
[00:17:03] Colton Harper: that? Yeah. This is a new initiative that I'm, I'm very excited to, to be a part of this semester in, in this year and ongoing, but basically, Hm. Our web app initiative is, is basic, is digital storytelling to help teach some of the nuance behind technology and how the different design considerations map to different outcomes with respect to society.
So we. Have iterated through ideas what some of our main initiatives could be, and the pandemic really helped with that in, in a, in a positive way. It allowed us to really incubate on our ideas and, and figure out what aligns best. And we feel that this initiative aligns well with a lot of, uh, students', professional development, ex desires.
So, We'll have students who learn sort of the technical skills such as the, the basic [00:18:00] structure of web apps. So that would be full stack web development, data analysis and manipulation through Python or developing user interface frameworks using React, um, the visualization process. So this is, I think, an incredible part, that there are so many data visualization libraries that require very few lines of code that can facilitate storytelling and building our intuition on how technology works and interacts with us. And some of those tools that are, you know, really sought after an industry, um, are, uh, D3.js, which develops interactive, um, data visualizations. One that I like and can't wait to explore is called Manam.
It's a Python library. That Grant Sanders developed from the YouTube Channel three Blue, one Brown, to help visualize and develop intuitions on rather complex mathematical concepts. And so in this data storytelling initiative, we'll be [00:19:00] blending mixed, uh, media such as. Videos that will develop in Manam or data visualizations that are interacted from other libraries, um, that we've discussed.
And we will make that all come to life using valuable data sets, whether that be the, the new census data set that that has, we will have access to. Or other existing data sets and then, and it's all about storytelling. And storytelling is such an effective meeting medium to help us understand the world.
And with that understanding how different. Storytelling design choices can change the way we perceive what's going on. So a little bit more concrete example, when we're looking at climate science research, a lot of times what we see is the average number presented the average trend line, but that's on, That's what we see and we, we don't know that it's necessarily the average.
There's so many different [00:20:00] nuanced variables that go behind that and, and studies that, that show a way more risky or a little bit more. Um, predictions or projections that are going on. And so getting people to understand that nuance in an interactive way, I think can really help people develop their intuitions.
And, and election maps are another good example. It's these numbers that can skew our perspective based on how they're presented. So if they're presented on. A normal map with just geospatial data on the counties, the red, blue, binary voter turnouts or voter results. You can have a lot of misconceptions that map that it's a reduction and it doesn't consider densities.
And so with these stories and interactive web apps, we'll have the opportunity to present different perspectives of the data sets to help build a more nuanced model. And then, so in terms
[00:20:57] Neil Rutledge: of students who want to be involved in that-. [00:21:00] Do I have it correct that they don't necessarily have to come in with, uh, an existing technical background.
There, there are roles for them potentially in the process, even if they don't
[00:21:10] Gus Herwitz: have existing technical skills.
[00:21:13] Colton Harper: I'm very glad you brought that up because that's a, a key part. We, we really want to get people involved in, in projects like, It's really gonna be tailored to the team we have. So if, if we have design students, um, involved, we can create really rich, aesthetically pleasing stories in, in web apps.
And so if we have college of law students involved, we can really help depict some of the regulatory or, or governance side of things and incorporate that into the story. And so no matter what discipline you come from, or experience level you have in that discipline, we have a great set of resources and faculty member that that will make sure that we are connected to, um, mobilize us to create these effective stories.
[00:21:59] Neil Rutledge: Now, [00:22:00] uh, lastly I wanted to ask you, you talked a little bit before, Colton, about your experience working, working with kids. Uh, would you tell us again, what was the name of the program and is it still ongoing? Do you do it every year? How does that, Um, and then if you have any stories about particular experiences or just generally how the kids respond? I think, I just think that's such a, such a cool, important way of connecting with the community.
[00:22:24] Colton Harper: Right. You bet. I think youth are going to be the developers of the future and so. Getting in and, and educating youth about some of these topics and, and helping them understand computational thinking, I think is just a cause I really care about because it's an effective way to increase your autonomy by understanding and, and being able to interact with the world.
And so what we've been able to do with that initialized group, which is sort of the springboard. For BCT is have a lot of K through 12 education initiatives, largely around the idea of robotics. And so, uh, [00:23:00] an interesting thing about robotics is, um, in the youth education space is if you give the youth an already assembled robot, they there, their creativity seems to be limited in rather than when you have the youth build the robot from just the pieces.
And so once they know that the robot just doesn't come out of a, uh, a. Prebuilt canned, then they start building these incredible robots and, and they start understanding how the different design choices can get different, um, outcomes and, and accomplish different tasks. And so seeing that process is, is really neat.
And we've been able to, you know, we're not in the, the business of competing, but more. Identifying unmet community needs and, and trying to fill that. So I mentioned we were in the Title one middle schools, but the needs seemed to be more in the ti title one elementary schools. And so we've transitioned and we've been able to cover more schools in that way.
And [00:24:00] other meaningful experiences that we've had in B C T that don't directly relate to youth involvement. Our, we, we have hosted a lecture series in the past, and that's just open to the general community. And what we, we try to do is make it very interdisciplinary, including people from economics, philosophy, computer science and law.
And in fact, you were truly, Professor Herwitz has spoken a couple different times at our lectures on artificial intelligence in the future of employment, as well as really just helping with. Some of our other main programming and flagship initiatives like the, the conference where we've invited speakers from different disciplines to talk about the academic side and present art, and give people the opportunity to interact with some of these emerging technologies like virtual reality's.
[00:24:48] Gus Herwitz: Uh, I'll jump in and say guilt guilty is charged, having spoken at some of those and also, uh, Ben in the audience for some of those discussions where, uh, uh, really the discussion of, at [00:25:00] some of the events that I've seen you put together has rd the discussion that I hear at, uh, really high profile academic events because you bring in academics from multiple fields and that leads to discussion that very rarely happens.
Perspectives being shared questions and, uh, pushback and criticism of ongoing academic work. That you, uh, don't get in, uh, most other settings. We will be back after a short break to discuss a bit more about what BCT is doing and talk a bit about data visualization.
[00:25:39] Elsbeth Magilton: I'm Elsbeth Magilton, the executive producer of Tech Refactored. I'm so glad you're tuning in today. You must be a very smart person interested in technology and society. Sound like you? Check out our weekly tech roundup posted to our blog, the record Every Friday this weekly roundup highlights tech news, nationally, but with a special [00:26:00] focus on Nebraska and the Midwest. Also, we know word of mouth is critical to reaching new listeners. We hope you tell all your tech interested friends about us and encourage them to listen and check out our roundups. Now back to this episode of Tech Refactored.
[00:26:20] Gus Herwitz: and we are back talking with Colton Harper about the broader considerations of. Student group. So, uh, Colton, we also want to talk a bit about, uh, your data visualization work in particular. You've already touched a bit on some of the work, uh, that you and BCT are doing with data visualization and giving, given us some really nice examples of.
What we can use data visualization for and why it's powerful. Uh, uh, the ideas of visualizing climate data, giving people a more intuitive sense of what climate change numbers mean beyond, uh, a average temperature increase or enriching understanding of, uh, [00:27:00] voting patterns and election results. Going beyond just 50, uh, uh, squares on a map that are red or blue to, uh, uh, maps that can encompass much more data. Can you tell us a a little bit more about what data visualization is?
[00:27:17] Colton Harper: Data visualization from, from sort of an abstract perspective, I think is interesting to think about. So, If you start with data that is in a a, it's a representation of the way the world works or some part of the world, some sub sub world part.
So computers are incredible at manipulating those numbers, using mathematics and networks, um, to make relationships and, and make sense of the data. The way our minds work are. Or at least our conscious minds were, is not necessarily, uh, able to make sense of the data in, in that way. And so data visualization is a way [00:28:00] to.
Take advantage of our natural ways of perceiving the world in general, such as our, uh, visual representations and, and how we model the world in terms of metaphors. And so data visualization is from an abstract level, just a transformation of data from a less compatible or incompatible type of information for our world building or understanding of the world.
And it's transforming it into a more compat. Information, and this is typically done through representing data in pictorial or graphical representations. Uh, so
[00:28:38] Gus Herwitz: there, there's something, uh, deeply interesting, uh, in the idea of data visualization. So with, with data visualization, as you are saying, we are representing complex.
Data in pictorial or graphical representations, which typically we need computers and advanced statistics to render and create. And we also [00:29:00] need data visualization in many ways due to these advanced computational and mathematical and statistical, uh, capabilities. So we've, if we go. 500 years or even 200 years to a pre spreadsheet era.
We didn't have much data. We didn't have many numbers and uh, a lot of our analytics really were heretical rules of thumb. We knew roughly when to start planting maybe. There was some science behind it, but uh, there wasn't that much data. And over the last hundred years we've become a data society. We have collect compiled numbers and we've come up with equations and mathematics and we've developed super computers and we're now dealing with terabytes petabytes of com data that we're processing at, uh, a petabyte speeds.
So we've gone from very heretical human level understandings of numbers to, Okay, we have a lot of numbers and we can use basic [00:30:00] statistics to kind of do stuff with, and humans can kind of understand this to. Now, these computations are so abstract. We're using, uh, advanced, uh, aggressions and machine learning to come up with correlations.
Beyond what any human can understand. So literally I just said beyond what any human can understand, but now we're bringing it back to computers and using. Computation to come up with visualizations to help us understand these things that we can't understand. I, I, I think that there's just something really rich and exciting about that.
What, what are, what are the limitations? What are the challenges? What, what can we really accomplish with a data visualization?
[00:30:40] Colton Harper: So data, one limitation of data visualization is if, if you're not introduced to, uh, multiple perspectives, you, you can gain misconceptions and sort of back to the example of the election map, it might tell a way different story of, of your support for an individual leader. And so an [00:31:00] effective data visualization is, is trying to inform you and, and build your model and intuition of the world. And I, I keep using that and I think it's a good reference point, at least for me. But when, when I look at something in the world and it, it doesn't make sense with, with my understanding of how the world works, it's not the world that's wrong.
It's, it's our models of the. That are wrong, and it's, that's what we need to, to be updating. And so the data visualizations themselves aren't giving us the accurate representation of the world. They're just helping us develop those intuitions and, and give us the perspective or provide us different perspectives.
But it's the. It's also the developer and the designer that is curating that information. And so with data visualization, there's, there's kind of two different camps or, or two different parts. One is data visual analysis, and so that's the part of, of the designer or the researcher where you're looking at graphs and you're trying to identify.[00:32:00]
Correlations and patterns and identify outliers that are interesting that can be formed into a story that help us build our intuition. And then from there you can take that and form it into data visual communication. And so that's sort of, What our end products will be with, with sort of our data visualizations is, is taking those interesting insights from the perspectives that we think give you more insights into reality and, and communicating.
Yeah.
[00:32:31] Gus Herwitz: And that there's something deeply unsettling about the importance of data visualization. First, we, we have to visualize data. We, we have to have representations of data, and we've used the word I I think at at least once. I think a couple of times in this conversation, misinformation and mis and disinformation.
One of perhaps the most famous examples of data visualization is, uh, the, the. And maps of, uh, [00:33:00] the earth and in particular the so-called, uh, mer mercat, uh, projection, which is probably the most common way that we draw, uh, uh, a map of the globe. And it's incredibly inaccurate. This, uh, most common map of the world.
It makes countries around the equator look larger than they are, and far north or south of the equator look much smaller. Then they, uh, physically are, which really distorts, uh, our perception of, uh, the world. So is it an inaccurate representation? No, it's actually a very accurate representation for what it was designed for.
The Mercat is a navigational map. It's, uh, a designed so that, uh, a straight line on the map is roughly a straight line in transit. North and south are always up and down on the map. A equatorial route is always straight, so it's a very accurate. For the thing that it was designed to be accurate for, but now we just use it for almost everything and we're no longer driving around [00:34:00] the earth on boats.
So it's a far less or far different utility . Uh, I, I've been, uh, rambling your thoughts on the importance of, uh, understanding what you're trying to communicate and communicating what you're trying to communicate as you visualize data.
[00:34:16] Colton Harper: I think that that's a great example in, in terms. If, if we don't know the purpose of why something was created, why, why the tool is created, we can be using it in in context that, that don't make any sense.
I wouldn't look at that matte projection to get information about altitude. I might be able to infer some things by looking at the C level in its spatial relationship there. But data visualization you, you definitely run the risk. People trying to use it in different contexts. And so especially it, it becomes dangerous when the mainstream news, they, they have to work in terms of entertainment of, and, and catching people's attention.
And a lot of times that's not a, a medium that you can present much [00:35:00] nuance. And so I, I think it's very important to provide, uh, a map of, of when and where. These data visualizations are, are applicable.
[00:35:16] Gus Herwitz: So talking about all this data visualization stuff, this is why I'm, uh, so thrilled to have you here at the university in bct doing what it's doing and working with us here at the center and.
I, I guess I, I should, uh, mention you're not a standalone organization, uh, as you've mentioned that you have some, uh, uh, a lot of, uh, different organizations and groups supporting you. I, I want to give you a moment to, uh, make sure that they get their due acknowledgement before we start to say farewell to, uh, uh, you, our guests, and you are our listeners.
[00:35:49] Colton Harper: Wonderful. Well, a lot of the work that bc t has been up to it, it really wouldn't be possible without the, the support system that we have and, and would have been able to [00:36:00] develop. And I think as students, a lot of times, because there's such high turnover rate, it's hard to gain the trust of faculty and and staff.
And so when. Faculty or staff offers an olive branch and, and is willing to listen to you as a student, you know, it's important to take advantage of that. And so one instrumental person who's, who's really helped and, and guided us through this is Dr. Adam Thompson and the resources from the UN l Ku Talk Ethics Center.
And then from there, getting connected with Professor Herwitz and in this center and, and being able to access some of the resources that the governance of technology. Has even curricularly as a grad student having the opportunity to enroll in some of the, the curriculum that they've provided. I'm very, very thankful for, and there's many other people in institutions on campus outside that, that have helped play a huge role in, in our success.
[00:36:55] Gus Herwitz: We are, uh, glad to have you here and listeners, we are [00:37:00] glad that you have joined us. I have been your host along with my colleague Neil Rutledge for this episode of Tech Refactored. Thank you for joining us. If you would like to learn more about what we're doing here at the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center, or submit an idea for a future episode, you can go to our website at ngtc.unl.edu.
Or you can follow us on Twitter at UNL underscore NGTC. This podcast is part of the Menard Governance and Technology Programming Series hosted by the Nebraska Governance and Technology Center. The Nebraska Governance and Technology Center is a partnership led by the Nebraska College of Law in collaboration with the Colleges of Engineering Business and Journalism, Mass Communication at the University of Nebraska.
If you enjoyed the show, don't forget to leave us a rating and a review wherever you listen to your podcast. Our show is produced by Elsbeth Magilton and Lysandra Marquez and Colin McCarthy. Created and recorded at our theme music. Until next time, get those considerations of technology.[00:38:00]