As our founder heads to St. Paul again to attend the 2025 Data for Public Good 2025 (D4PG25), we share our biggest takeaways from our time at D4PG 2023.
In 2023 I was invited to as a facilitators. As an afrofuturist, data professional, and abolitionist I was ecstatic about the invite. TCA wanted an panel discussion on afrofuturism and workshop on data storytelling and community impact. Ironically the panel discussion, over 5-years later, would explicitly be about Spiderman and the masks we wear in our work.
What is Data 4 Public Good?
D4PG is a collective community space where we share insights, learnings, and have conversations on topics including Digital justice, Afrofuturism, Data privacy, Artificial Intelligence, and so much more.
Watch Our Founder’s 2023 Discussion on Miles Morales, Afrofuturism, and Co-powering Communities
Background on Data 4 Public Good x Cypher
I met Marika and her D4PG cofounder, Aasim, at the 2017 Data For Black Lives conference @ MIT Media Lab, where I was invited to lead a workshop **cough, cough** a cypher, of over 50 education advocates hoping to exchange lessons and create space for the often ignored voices parent activists, fighting for equality for youth.
Shortly after giving my presentation on the negative impact of algorithmic driven policy, Marika and Aasim, presented their campaign on how to engage working-class families in building awareness of algorithmic bias, and how to activate a coalition of education, prison, and youth advocates to change how policy is enacted and who gets to define the future for youth. In that session we went from colleagues to coconspirators in engineering better futures. That day, myself and the TCA crew and a “Spiderman meme moment” IRL.
The alliance recently won their campaign to dissolve a joint powers agreement that would have brought risk score based predictive analytics with no community input.
The work of Marikia, Aasim, and the Twin City Alliance (TCA) are a Datum. A true start-point, living data, evidence that proves local residietns, when asked to problem-solve for the future as designers & stewards, are capable of redefining the future. This organization is an afrofuturist Datum, proof of that coalition building & educational storytelling can empower community. Proof that coalitions of parents focused on mentorship, collective memory, and understanding the human impact behind the data can work against the Cradle-to-Prison Algorithm before it can become a normalized feature of public policy, and the future for our childern. To learn more about their heroic work visit their, Cradle to Prison Algorithm Journey Page.
TLDR of the Panel on Miles Morales’s Journey: How Ecosystems Give Us Power and Move with Us | D4PG 2023
The discussion centered on the concept of individualism in the hero’s journey, particularly in the origin stories of superheroes like Blue Beetle and Miles Morales. It explored the shift from a paternalistic mentor figure to a supportive ecosystem, emphasizing the importance of community and co-powering.
I shared my educational journey, highlighting the significance of relationship-building and peer mentoring. The conversation also touched on the challenges of compliance versus co-powering, the need for intellectual and emotional humility, and the importance of deep, sustained relationships in addressing community issues.
Major Themes of Panel:
- Reimagining the Hero’s Journey: Moving away from individual heroism to a community-centered approach, exemplified by Miles Morales’s story, which emphasizes ecosystem support and collective empowerment. How the pressure to conform to certain narratives in work, and how navigating narratives while maintaining compassion and understanding.
- Reflect on the concept of “masks” and roles, and how they can both free and constrain us, as well as how to build trust and vulnerability in shifting between them.
- Co-Powering vs. Compliance: Challenging traditional power structures by focusing on deep relationships, intellectual humility, and collaborative approaches that prioritize mutual growth over rigid hierarchical mentorship
“Compliance requires you to say, ‘Don’t talk about the shared vision. Look forward.’ And Co-Power says, ‘Why aren’t we looking towards each other?’” –
Rob Jackson, Founder 2023
TLDR 3 Takeways from the 2023 Cypher with Local Data Professionals in St. Paul/ Minnapolis
1. Data is more than numbers – it’s about human stories and relationships. The key is to build a Data Alliance that focuses on mentorship, collective memory, and understanding the human impact behind the data.
2. Agency and ownership in data work means challenging existing systems, asking who the future is being built for, and centering the voices of marginalized communities. It’s about organizing information to create meaningful change.
3. Critical self-awareness is crucial. Data professionals should continuously reflect on their sources of knowledge, cultural interpreters, and how they can use data to support community needs rather than just producing technical reports.
Who was in the Room and What Brought Them?
- Heads of youth education non-profits who were now experiencing fatherhood for the first time and fearing how their children’s data is collected and activated will impact their future prosperity.
- Data Consultants & Data Alliance organizers activating their knowledge to translate the impact of data on culture and families, and how they can use data to support community needs rather than just producing technical reports.
- Community Activists organizing open data sources for insights that empower black and brown businesses in their journey into establishing success in the Twin Cities and beyond.
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Here are some links to things we’ve written over the years broken down by Datum Topic: Data & AI | Afrofuturism in Practice | Education x Data x Race | Cypher & Founder Updates | Rememberance Day Spotlights
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