With so many badly designed computer programs and unethical data re-use over the last few years, "algorithm" has become a dirty word that reflects misuse of data and poorly justified discriminatory machine-based decisions. Opening the code that makes these decisions allows us to inspect what's going on, but does it become any more trustworthy?
Using both written and spoken break-out rooms for maximum inclusivity, we will facilitate discussion on:
- What is required to make code and algorithms trustworthy? Is open code enough?
- Are there quick "trustworthiness" wins for hesitant coders? (or sneaky bad actors?)
- It will also delve into stickier topics: Is badly written (but open source) computer code more or less trustworthy than closed code?
- What's the future you'd like to see, and who needs to do what to get us there?
A small number of attendees will result in a tight-knit discussion in one group, or if we have many attendees we will break out into sub-groups. We'll use collaborative docs to provide prompts for questions and ensure there are multiple facilitators available for the session to help guide discussion and help out with any issues. We will ask groups to nominate spokesperson for post-breakout report-back.
We're hoping that many efforts and discussions will continue after Mozfest. Share any ideas you already have for how to continue the work from your session.:This session will be run by the data for science and health team from the Wellcome Trust, a philanthropic organisation. We hope to use this session to explore how openness and trustworthiness interact with regards to health data, and we hope that Mozillans will be a good crowd to help us think through these ideas so we can apply them hands-on as part of our funding stategy. At a minimum we will be blogging collaboratively with participants of the session about the outputs of the workshop, but it's also possible that we form longer term alliances / collaborations with participants, e.g. strategic ideas or funding related collaborations.
Open Source Technical Lead for the Wellcome Trust. Love Open Science.
Communications Officer, Understanding Patient Data.