For the past few months, I’ve been struggling with where to go next with Makers All. That’s mostly because of how rapidly the world has changed.

From Black Lives Matter to the Coronavirus epidemic to the dramatic transformation of political discussions in tech — especially in AI — we’re living in a radically different context than where we were a year ago, when the Makers All report first came out.

As a result, I don’t think the name “Makers All” fits with where I think our communities and emerging tech need to go. And I’m not sure what the right name is — or for that matter, what the right scope of this project is.

For example:

  • I don’t think it makes sense to talk about how to open the doors to good paying jobs in emerging tech without simultaneously talking about how to turn crappy paying jobs in care work, first response, and Ghost Work into good paying jobs that have security and respect
  • Given how any Green New Deal — which we need if we’re going to survive — is going to fundamentally change the economy on a scale comparable to emerging tech, I don’t think it makes sense to talk about emerging tech jobs & wealth in isolation from talking about Green New Deal jobs

At the same time, I don’t want to completely give up my focus on emerging tech. The opportunities and dangers are too critical. And I think there are lessons we can learn from emerging tech that could be incredibly useful for how we think about the transformations we need to make in the rest of the economy — especially if we’re going to use this opportunity to help folks from Harlem to Harlan County make their communities whole.

So while I’m doing a lot of thinking and writing right now, I’m going to hold off posting anything until I have at least a rough idea of what sort of butterfly this project is going to transform into and what its new name will be.