Technology and Public Purpose

In creating societal guardrails for technologies that have already become pervasive in society, Congress can promote public purpose in ways that other organizations cannot.

The Technology Factsheet Series offers a brief overview of the technical aspects of salient technologies and their policy relevance for Congressional members and their staff.

Belfer Center Director Ash Carter discusses the Center's involvement with students and the importance of teaching and mentoring future leaders.

The Technology and Public Purpose (TAPP) Project, headed by Laura Manley, conducted interviews, surveys, focus groups, and secondary research to understand how Congress can simultaneously be one of the world’s most advised bodies and lack the capacity to fully engage with emerging technology issues.

The Tech and Public Purpose Spotlight is a recognition program that seeks to highlight products, initiatives, and policies that demonstrate a commitment to public purpose in the areas of digital, biotech, and the future of work. 

Protecting online privacy, combating climate change, and safeguarding elections from hacking are all examples of areas where science and technology expertise is needed by our policymakers to ensure society benefits from these new technologies while harms are minimized, Laura Manley said.

This report the nuances of privacy protection through different organizations and strategies. As part of the decision to facilitate an open discussion during the workshop, we will integrate some of the discussion, questions and ideas throughout this report without attribution.

Technology and all of objective science are caught in a crisis of reputation. From investigations into competition practices to legislative scrutiny over the application and safety of new products, innovators are facing a reckoning for their seeming absence of principles such as privacy, security, inclusion, transparency, and accountability. But it is possible to bend the arc of innovation toward overall public purpose.

The Technology and Public Purpose Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and WIRED are excited to announce the inaugural Tech Spotlight, which will recognize products, initiatives, and policies that embrace principles such as privacy, security, safety, transparency, accountability, and inclusion—and that aim to minimize technological harms.  Nomination will be open until November 30, 2019 at 11:59pm EST.