interlude - who is this handbook for?
This handbook is intended for two main audiences: organizations and individuals that are interested in having more of a say in how we use computers in our daily lives. What I learned in the chapter of my career as a facilitator is that there are repeatable structures and methods that can help people have productive conversations. These strategies and tactics are particularly helpful when the topic is fraught, confusing, and/or people have many differing perspectives and opinions.
The first audience - organizations - are the ones that might be more interested in both parts of the handbook, the strategies and the tactics. The types of organizations that might find the handbook useful includes: community groups, professional associations, unions, school boards, government departments, non-profit organizations, and businesses. These are organizations that make decisions about technology in a number of different contexts, in formal and informal ways, and at a range of different scales. The handbook is intended to support the people at these organizations that are responsible for convening discussions around these decisions and/or the people impacted by them.
The second audience - individuals - are those seeking options to influence their direct use of computers, as well as their political engagement with those making workplace, policy, legal, or regulatory choices in their name. These individuals include journalists, procurement officers, elected officials, people working in a range of different industries and sectors (in leadership roles as well as administrative and operations roles) and the general public.
There are actions that can be taken to increase our agency in the context of computer use that can happen at every level of how our society is organized. Small daily actions as well as involved and long-duration campaigns, one-off political engagements as well as scheduled formal procurement processes and contract renewals.
The reason the handbook is structured in the two parts - strategies and tactics - is to offer all audiences ways to identify and intervene on the repetitive patterns that generally make engaging on issues of computer use difficult. The main goal is to shift these conversations away from computers and back towards the people around them, the values we want to uphold in our decisions, and the implications of those decisions. The short reason for this handbook is to offer people some ideas in support of putting computer conversations in their appropriately sized box (it's a small box). It's an open-ended and ongoing conversation.