IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017 - 32

"Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed people can
change the world. Indeed, it is the
only thing that ever has."
-Margaret Mead

machine-infused, perhaps even
machine-led, world will bring.
■ And finally, Web Science is fundamentally about questions of
equality. How the risks, opportunities and benefits of the machine
age will be apportioned and enjoyed, how access to opportunity
and power and engagement and
influence will be determined,
raises basic questions not so
much about the benefits or costs
of this new future, but how they
are going to be distributed.
Right now, suitably influenced
by William Gibson, we can be confident that these features of the
future are either already here or
that they are rapidly arriving. (Gibson famously remarked that "the
future is already here; it's just not
evenly distributed" https://medium
.com/not-evenly-distributed/thefuture-has-arrived-fed56cec3266.)
But they are very clearly not evenly
distributed. Web Science is at least as
engaged with the distribution dimension of this new world as it is rightly
immersed in the deep and complex
technical questions of the digital
world's capability and performance.

What Will You Do?
This paper and the "Brave Conversations" event are not meant to be

Convene (Who)
The right people in
the conversation
What is the conversation trying to achieve?
* Changing beliefs (across leaders
and the community)
* Changing behaviour (by leaders organizations
and the community)
* Changing investment (from government,
business, NGOs and the innovation sector)
Sustain (How)
Keeping the
conversation going

Collaborate (What)
Making sure the
conversation is
productive

Brave Conversations
(Based on The Impact Assembly at PwC)

FIGURE 2. Web Science Conversation.

once offs. They are meant to encourage you to take the reins and help
shape this world. What matters in
the end is what you can and will do
differently today. What sort of future
do you want? How can you build
that into your everyday life? What
changes do you need to make in
your thinking, actions, career, and
personal life to make that future
a reality? How will you ensure you
continue to have brave conversations into the future?

Ethics Centre, and the Australian
Information Industry Association.
This paper is not an official conference summary or report. Although
it integrates the insights and ideas
that emerged over the two days,
it does not necessarily reflect the
views or opinions of any of the participants. Its purpose is to provide a
sense of what was discussed and to
provide a starting point for further
discussion of these ideas in subsequent and continuing "brave conversations" both in Australia and
around the world.

Acknowledgment
This paper is based on the author's
"reflect and report" role at "Brave
Conversations," the two-day Web
Science 2017 conference held in
Canberra, Australia. The conference,
convened by Intersticia and the
Intersticia Foundation, was supported by the Web Science Trust, the

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

Author Information
Martin Stewart-Weeks is with Public
Purpose, Drummoyne NSW 2047,
Australia. Email: stewartweeks.martin@
gmail.com.

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SEPTEMBER 2017

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