Technology – Looks Like New

Who owns the commons?

MEDLab — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 09:00:00 +0000

MEDLab research fellow Kadallah Burrowes speaks with Lauren Gardner, Executive Director of Open Source Collective, about what it means to build infrastructure for the commons and why the lessons of grassroots arts spaces might hold the key to the future of collective digital life. Gardner stewards a network of over 2,500 open-source and community-driven projects, providing fiscal sponsorship and shared infrastructure to thousands of maintainers and contributors worldwide.

Her path to the global open-source movement runs through some of the most generative DIY spaces in recent memory: Babycastles, the New York arcade-turned-social-gallery that reimagined game culture, and the School for Poetic Computation, where code, critical theory, art, and collaborative practice converge. Their conversation asks what artists, technologists, and anyone interested in working collectively might learn from decades of building environments where creativity and the commons come first.

How is open-source software like magic?

MEDLab — Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Writing code can be like casting a spell: magic words, written in a special language, bring new worlds into existence. But spells can have consequences. Who is responsible for how technology impacts society? This month on Looks Like New, MEDlab research fellow Adina Glickstein talked to Coraline Ada Ehmke. Who is dedicated to helping technologists make sense of – and take accountability for – the ethical implications of their work.

Ehmke developed the Contributor Covenant, a code of conduct that is widely used across digital communities, as well as the Hippocratic License, a software license designed to protect human rights. She previously appeared on Looks Like New to explore why software development communities need ethical standards. This month, Ehmke returns to Looks Like New to talk about her work as a tech ethicist, experimental musician, and occult practitioner. As the Executive Director of the Organization for Ethical Source, Ehmke considers software’s real-world impacts and works to promote the fundamental rights and well-being of diverse communities affected by technology.

Ehmke’s writing appeared in the MEDLab publication “Change is in the Cards,” a zine that explores open-source governance through the lens of tarot. The zine is freely available for download here

Curious to hear more about Ehmke’s work as a tech ethicist? Listen to her previous appearance on Looks Like New here

What does digital privacy mean for young people?

MEDLab — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 16:36:10 +0000

Whether or not we have children of our own, many of us have wondered how we approach their privacy in the digital world. What’s the best way we can approach this increasingly important question? In this episode, MEDLab research fellow Antoinette Kendrick speaks with danah boyd, a leading researcher, scholar, and thought leader in the fields of technology, social media, and youth culture. She is a Partner Researcher at Microsoft Research, founder of the non-profit organization Data & Society, and a Visiting Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University. Her book It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens is a foundational text on youth digital culture ,examining the ways teens use social platforms and the societal expectations that follow.