Decolonise Decentralisation: Co-building Human Rights Tech

Transcript

[music] [music] Okay. Um, thanks for that. Um, I knew this was going to be a small group, so it's all good. Um, but I'd love you guys to move forward, please. We're going to just be pretty practical, um, with this, and it's just really, we'll work as a group because there is, um, only a small number of you here. Um, and we'll see how it goes. Cool. Um, great. Got a couple of people coming in.

Yeah. Great. So, it is going to be a bit of a hands-on thing where you guys are going to talk to each other. Okay. Um, so I just want to kind of where where I'm coming from and I think this has been repeated a number of times indirectly is that really if we're building tech um we need to involve um the users and we need to involve the people who might be familiar with the users in the design of that tech. So that's what I mean by decoloniz

decolonizing um decentralization. We're talking about decentralization and decentralized tech. Talk to the user groups and those familiar with those user groups before you start building. Oh sure. So today it's really going to be a hands-on thing. We've got one, two, three. Yep. That's great. Um just very small group of you. And what we're going

to do is just try and [clears throat] conceptualize a a a design or a product. Um so that's that's the goal. So, we'll spend about 15 20 minutes on that and then we'll talk about it for about another [clears throat] 15 minutes then we'll wrap it up. Excuse me. I haven't spoke. No, no, you're right. You're right. Um, before [clears throat] I start, I just want to kind of take you through a practical example of a app I was involved with. [clears throat] Is anyone familiar with session?

Okay. session is a messaging app that was intended to basically be decentralized and be anonymous and you didn't need a mobile number to use it. So that was its advantage over signal but there was no requirement for a mobile number which was one of the one of the requirements by a lot of people who were seeking anonymous communication. Thank you. Anonymous communication. Um, so the team started building this around 2019 and they were actually based out of Melbourne and they had some remote workers in the US and Canada. Um, and I think they were hardcore privacy um, guys. They had some investment and

they just started building it. They also wanted to make sure that it was able to be used by journalists and activists and human rights defenders around the world. So, one of the biggest issues was that the team that was building it wasn't really familiar with those communities and they didn't really understand the culture of those communities. So, when they first launched there was a lot of promise um you know we said it worked but in the field it didn't work. I mean that's a common story amongst a lot of apps.

A lot of users who are at risk whose lives dependent on communication just abandoned it. Anyone who promoted it or supported it to those communities also decided to kind of pull back. So trust was lost really fast and it actually took a few years to rebuild it. So the takeaway is you know we need to listen. So what we ended up doing was physically going to events, meeting groups that were also attending that were from that human rights communities who were journalists etc. and talking to them face to face, explaining the app and understanding what their needs were and that kind of helped rebuild trust but it took a long time.

So what we really want to try and do is um you know what we found from the people that we spoke was that you know there's an assumption that people in these communities really want translation localization but what they really wanted to know was understand deeply how the techn technology itself worked. They weren't really that kind of interested in the local language issues, but they just wanted to know how the technology worked so they could understand it and then trust it. Said the translation of the app wasn't a priority. Other features that they wanted was things like disappearing messages that worked on a decentralized app. It's really hard

to get that happening. They requested a fast remote wipe in case they were arrested. someone else could um erase their content on the on the device and a way to disguise the app. So this feedback was super important and that was incorporated in and that really enabled us to again build more trust with those communities. So, I mean, this is the line, build with communities, not for them. And that's the central message of it. It seems obvious, but um I was just speaking to some VPN builders recently, and they're just building from, you know, somewhere in Europe and assuming that it's going

to work in Asia, which is often not the case. Is anyone using to who's familiar with to? Have you tried it here in India? because I haven't had it work that effectively here. So there's things it's really interesting. A lot of these products do work in the global north, but in the global south it often doesn't work. So this is the challenge and it'll be probably less than 20 minutes. But what I was hoping was that um got a few more people coming. Couple more people coming. It's good. Um, what I was hoping was that we could maybe break up into a couple of groups and

conceptualize uh a problem or identify a problem and then think through building a bit of a solution for it. Are are you guys into doing that or is that So for the two people who just walked in um just want to stress this is a real practical workshop and we're kind of um trying to practice this idea of building with the community and not for them. Um I took everyone through a case study of what happened with session uh a messaging app which initially when they launched it there was no real interaction with the one of the key user

groups which is human rights defenders. Um there was a lot of promise just didn't work and it really broke trust and it took a long time to rebuild it. So, let's kind of maybe who's who's technical here in this group? Who's like a web three? We got two. Okay. Okay. Good. Okay. That's really great. Okay. Okay. Um and who's um familiar with this part of the world?

Great. Okay. So, what we can do is maybe have two groups. That's what I propose. Um and these are some examples of problems that people you know in in I guess this part of the world. I mean it's global problems really um face but I don't want to guide you in any way. Um and what we're going to just do is just come up with a pitch. Identify a problem. I mean you've seen this kind of thing before. Identify the target user group. Uh come up with the solution. It doesn't have to use Ethereum. I mean, it's up to you. Um, that fourth heading is important. What which features matter

most to the target user? Now, that's something you're going to have to imagine because we can't validate that right now. It's just going through that exercise. And then your potential co-building partners. Who would you like on your team to help you really build that app? This is um a completed uh page I guess for session the messaging app. So the problem was journalists in Myanmar. I kind of made this up a bit last night. Um journalists in Myanmar who needed to reach their newsrooms untraced target user journalists reporting from inside Myanmar.

Um solution. That's a solution. I mean, I'd like you to probably expand on that. Uh, have more text there. Unique features, metadata free messaging, disappearing messages that work, a disguised app feature, and a remote wipe feature. And the code building partners were these groups. If you could put names to to that could be like Amnesty or other other organizations, that would be great as well. So, that's pretty much it. Um, that's what I wanted to do. And we've got two ways of doing this I guess. One is maybe we can just spend 5 minutes or 10 minutes in in groups and then we can just discuss it came up with. Would that work?

Okay, cool. Should we break up into two groups? Yeah. Can someone pop across? Um how about we just do a quick intro as well before we start so we just know each and you know uh what your background is very quickly because it's very small. >> Uh I am a farmer and I'm studying UXUI design at the same time I'm stepping back into crypto.

That's about me. Nice. Um Shazar. Hi everyone. I work as a solution architect um in the web free space and yeah I'm interested in on building something here. So let's let's solve it together. >> Uh I'm I'm a student. I just came here out of curiosity. >> Hello everyone. My name is Ben. I'm a researcher looking at um digital public infrastructures in small jurisdictions and the role of digital and decentralized um technologies in that.

Um I also work in B 3, but that's probably less relevant right now. >> Hi, I'm Vika. I'm was a UX designer. And now I'm a PhD researcher and I'm researching digital technologies and how usually people from the global north come to the global south and promise to solve all the problems on the ground but what they do is just reproduce the same inequalities but amplify it with blockchains. Yay. Hi, I'm Tessin. Um I have a background in product strategy and uh have worked in web 3 since 2016.

um building several products including a wallet long custo wallet and one of the first atomic swaps between ETH and Bitcoin. Um I also started women in blockchain in 2016 to bring the women in which is a similar problem as what you're talking about. Um unless we have all the different groups giving requirements it's not going to work for everybody. So, it's super important um to have that type of diversity. >> Hello. Um my name is Yuki from Japan.

I'm running a nonprofit company called for Japan which is u um I think you heard from the old return uh in the beginning of the decon she he she started the gap zero gab z community and called for Japan is a Japanese version of the gap zero and we are running the civic tech and opensource software community in Japan. Uh thank you so much. >> Hi everyone. Uh Morad I work at GSR as an engineer. Um and yeah just generally interested in this space.

>> Yeah. >> Thanks Mad. I'm James. I'm the MC for the session but I also work at GSR. Um and I have spent my whole career in charities um but evolved into web 3 when I realized that there's not more money coming into the sector. So, we need to get far better at um using the technology to ensure we do things more efficiently. >> Wow, we've got a really great bunch of people. Um so, sometimes, you know, events like this, I guess, attract uh a lot of people who are just wanting to make a ton of money from crypto. So, it's really really great to um have you here. So yeah, I think um what'll be fantastic is that we are need to we're

going to need to imagine a little bit because we don't have I guess the people in the room that we might want to talk with and understand deeply. Um but I think it'll be really interesting to kind of conceptualize some maybe imagine some challenges. Um maybe it could be more than one because we've got time and just go through that process. Um and we can then talk about it after maybe we'll how about we shall we do 10 minutes and we can then come back and just have a chat. Okay, cool. So we got team one and team two A and B or whatever you call yourselves and go from there. Thanks everyone.

Yeah. >> Hi [snorts] everyone. Whoa, that's loud. Um, okay. We might just um we might just do a little bit of a feedback session. Um, and we'll keep it again pretty informal. So, uh, I think one of the things is that, um, maybe one of the takeaways is that it's just easier to build without thinking too much about it. Um, and thinking about the real users needs. Um, you know, we just go ahead and build and see what happens, which is what I think 90% of apps apps do. Um, but hopefully everyone had a good discussion and I'm just going to ask each group just to kind of report back their thoughts about the process, especially the process of how how we're kind of thinking through

this. Um, and obviously, you know, 10 minutes is not long enough, but if there's any anything you can share in terms of what you learned or what you you know, the methodology of trying to address these kind of challenges, that'll be great. So maybe um this group on my left um can provide some feedback. >> Cool. Thanks. >> Uh yeah, so we >> Sorry.

>> Sorry. So we decided to uh talk about um the use case is basically like a a wallet non-custodial wallet um and the surveillance government surveillance and the issues the team has to think through uh and so we gathered like a few ideas. I wouldn't say hard requirements but um just I'm just going to read them out. Um, so basically one point was that if we make it easy for the user, if the UX is good, chances are that it's compromising perhaps for example when pulling balances that could be um compromised or um the other one was uh giving your email address um to make

sure that you can get your seat phrase back. Um those things would uh you know impact on your privacy. Um [snorts] also values, our values, the web three values of inclusion versus government uh values of exclusion, you know, having total control over um what type of transactions um you're making. And then um one of the solutions was like or requirements was like having a single address for privacy so that your transactions couldn't be followed or couldn't be accumulated by an external uh group. Um, lockdown mode, hidden mode. So, if you go somewhere that

somebody takes your phone to check what's going on, don't erase it all. That would be suspicious. But shows something else. So, the actual app is hidden. Um, by default, there should be privacy. Um, also default tour. Um, you have we should also have the access to uh Bluetooth similar to bit chat. Um, then we talked about a couple of other issues. for example, the availability of the internet. What happens if internet is off? Um, it should be working on a mesh network. Um, and then another one that goes back to the um trans uh transparency of your transactions is uh perhaps creating uh

state channels so that you accumulate all the the channel the transactions. Um this could work for off internet off and as well as um just putting them all together. So it's also part of privacy. Um and then um we were just talking about the inclusion the sanctioned list uh that teams are usually required to exclude groups on but we could also limit the size of transactions so that um you know uh Lazarus groups and others couldn't do uh big transfers. That's how far we got.

>> Great. Thank you. Um, is there any organization or collective or anyone who could help co- build this and kind of test it out as you as you went along? I I guess we were talking about Russia specifically or even Iran. >> Yeah. So, my thinking would be some local organization that is trying to either like protect the people who are still in the country who might be politically persecuted and who are c cross sourcing funding. This would be the people I would go to. Also the human rights foundation is actually doing work like that and so they also have funds um and they have a lot of knowledge and a big reach into different uh communities and I would always talk to

the end user not just people from any organizations. >> Cool. Great. Thanks so much. Um okay let's go to the other group wants to speak. So we um talked on a few things but ultimately came down to traffic uh and um the roads in India and we talked a bit about how people like a common problem so traffic we all experience traffic affects people in different ways and and you know it's it's your lens that um determines how you travel around a city like Mumbai. We

identified women as a group who experienced different problems to men as um you know you see signs on bus stations saying you know no is it e teasing the the sexual you know abuse there's clearly evidence to suggest that women have a harder time taking public transport than men evidenced by the fact there are women only carriages etc. So, so we felt like, you know, finding ways to support uh female users of public transport to feel safer in doing so would be a good methodology to get people off um the road and into public transport. We obviously recognized as a allmale group that we needed to involve some female voices in that discussion and would would create kind of a

segmented um [clears throat] series of sort of representative samples to do so. Um, and obviously we we'd want to check the efficacy of existing uh interventions like women only carriages by by testing it with the people they're aimed at. Work out if they work and if they are, push in that direction. If they aren't, then push in a different direction. And then we talked about kind of whether or not it was more effective to do that or to invest in or push for big infrastructure projects like more room on the road so that there is less traffic.

So there is this example of planes flying back in World War II and the planes which had bullet holes in them and where do you reinforce them? Do you reinforce the parts which had bullet bullet holes or do you reinforce the parts where there were no bullet holes? Simplest analogy is you reinforce the parts where there were no bullet holes because if there were bullet holes over there plane wouldn't return. So the solution that you saw that flagged the words that you that was seen over there which led us down to a discussion maybe a discussion that can inform us about the situations but it may not be that

that solution that has been already put into play is actually indicating something is wrong or right. So and neither did we have the user group here. So it went back to going back to designing assumptions and yeah >> um just out of curiosity who would you involve is there is there a group is in in India? There was another there was another thing that I we flagged out which was people who are learning to drive or learning to navigate by looking at phones and uh without cognizance their habits of driving are different than those who

are driving uh from memory. So these two things interact and how does that play into the changing scene of how driving occurs? But we did not know how to address that either. Yeah, I guess I mean there there are yeah that that issue of harassment and gender based violence is is a really big problem and I think there's a lot lot more work that needs to be done in that area. There's actually very little again involvement from the affected communities in the design of those apps.

So, it's it's a real challenge. Um cuz yeah, I think we're still I mean the the code getting more women and diverse people into tech is such an important thing otherwise you are just going to get this monoculture app. But yeah, I mean I guess you know this this was a little bit of an experimental workshop. Um, one of the things that myself and a few others are trying to do is trying to get together a bit of a fund to get kind of decentralized, you know, technology folk together with people who are affected or impacted in some way. Um, human rights defenders or, you know, dissident who require

solutions. I know Human Rights Foundation do something similar, but they're very like Bitcoin kind of focused. Um, so this is going to be more diverse. So, I'd love to keep in touch and just keep you in the loop about what might happen. Um, I've got a just a QR code if you want to. It's a signal QR code if you want to join that. Um, we can just keep you in the loop. It's kind of at the moment it's oriented towards Asia primarily, but either way, I mean, it it applies to lots of different countries. So, we can just keep in the loop on that. And I guess the purpose of today was really just to kind of problematize the design process

more than anything else. Um, and ideally we would have had more people or being able to curate the the people in the room a bit better, but we just wanted to kind of throw this out there and see what happened. So hopefully it was useful. Um, but really appreciate your involvement and [music]