When looking at how we approach work of creating, responding to and working with technology, we know the work we do spans disciplines, professional groups and fields. What does it mean to be someone who works at the intersection of so many different groups? Particularly when working on such complex technical issues like AI futures, technological safety and security, ethical considerations around technology growth and environmental degradation. What are the skills and abilities needed to do this cross cutting work? How can we build more capacity around the skills needed to work across disciplines, communities, countries, sectors and more?

In this workshop, I’ll share some of the findings in the social sciences around boundary spanning work and some of my research with boundary spanners in tech fields. We’ll walk through some of the skills that we need to do this work and talk through what that means for the communities we support, the work we do and how we talk about our work when it is interdisciplinary, cross-pollinating and inter-community. We’ll talk about both the benefits and challenges to this work and share our experiences with one another building community for further discussion around what it means to be spanning boundaries