The Greater Good Initiative was launched in 2017 to address how best to preserve and promote the “greater good” in a world being rapidly changed by technological innovation, economic disruption, ideological polarization, and governance challenges.
This year’s conference will focus on the ways that technology today can threaten a shared sense of “community” and the common good – or fulfill its original promise to help build them.
It will provide a global focus on the way that social media and digital technologies are altering the world’s political landscape, and address the ways in which new and emerging technologies affect individuals, communities and societies – from how we think to how we interact to how we govern ourselves.
Speakers and panelists include:
•Noted authors Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Jamie Suskind, James Fallows, Franklin Foer, Soraya Chemaly, and Siva Vaidhyanathan.
•Social media activists from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High (Parkland, FL), Iran, and elsewhere.
•Cyber and tech policy advisors from the Bush, Obama and Trump White House.
•Experts on Big Data, polling, and micro-targeting in Latin America, Europe, and the US – including the director of digital strategy for the 2016 Ted Cruz presidential campaign.
•The former US ambassador to the OECD, and the head of cybersecurity for Estonian.
•The president of Media Matters and the director of the Pardee RAND Tech & Narrative Lab.
•Columbia law professor Tim Wu, who originated the term “net neutrality,” and other faculty from Columbia’s journalism, law, data science, political science and public affairs programs.
•And a special conversation with philanthropist Emma Bloomberg and Columbia student entrepreneurs working on novel ventures to advance the Greater Good.
The Greater Good Gathering is a unique place for thought-leaders in academia, technology, advocacy and public service to come together to discuss how we can best shape the future, and how it is shaping us.
Sponsored by:
Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
SIPA Urban and Social Policy Concentration
Academy of Political Science
Columbia Law School
Union Theological Seminary
Public Works LLC
Brain Storm Consulting
