Public Interest Technology Knowledge Network (PIT-KN)

Overview

The Public Interest Technology Knowledge Network (PIT-KN) project develops digital community spaces and tools where the knowledge and stories of marginalized social innovators are heard, valued, and shared to develop learning communities and technology for the common good. The PIT-KN explores the legal and technical features that achieve open access, community-driven data stewardship, and privacy. 

Key insights from our research with historically marginalized social innovators has revealed that the binding constraint to growth and impact has less to do with technical expertise and more to do with soft/contextual issues – challenges related to thin or non-existent networks; the discounting of their unique and idiosyncratic lived experiences, the lack of a critical mass that robs them of representation and the inability to sell their agenda given their perceived lean body of work. This creates a vicious cycle and reinforces power dynamics associated with knowledge development that perpetuates marginalization of these social innovators — reversing this trend is the focus of our project. Our team has partnered with social innovators to shape research and development of the PIT-KN. Our team has published initial findings from developing a knowledge network to ensure knowledge from historically marginalized communities is incorporated into the public discourse and the technology-development chain.