Shaping a Profession, Building a Community: A Practitioner-Led Investigation of Public Interest Technologists in Civil Society

TL;DR

This study explores the emerging field of public interest technology (PIT) within civil society, highlighting practitioners' perspectives, the field's definitional challenges, and the need for professionalization and community building.

Contribution

It provides a mixed-methods analysis of PIT practitioners in civil society, offering insights into their self-positioning, field definition, and community needs, which is underrepresented in sociotechnical research.

Findings

PIT is broad and still evolving, with definitional challenges.

Practitioners see a need for professionalization and community development.

The field is of growing importance in sociotechnical research.

Abstract

The label `public interest technology' (PIT) is growing in popularity among those seeking to use `tech for good' - especially among technical practitioners working in civil society and nonprofit organizations. PIT encompasses a broad range of sociotechnical work across professional domains and sectors; however, the trend remains understudied within sociotechnical research. This paper describes a mixed-methods study, designed and conducted by PIT practitioners at the Center for Democracy and Technology, that characterizes technologists within the specific context of civil society, civil rights, and advocacy organizations in North America and Western Europe. We conducted interviews with civil society leaders to investigate how PIT practitioners position the field and themselves, and we held a roundtable discussion bringing diverse voices together to make meaning of this growing phenomenon. Ultimately, we find that PIT remains both defined and plagued by its expansiveness, and that today's civil society public interest technologists see a need for both (a) more robust professionalization infrastructures, including philanthropic attention, and (b) more engaged, coherent community. This study illuminates a nascent intersection of technology and policy on-the-ground that is of growing relevance to critical sociotechnical research on the shifting relationship between computing and society.