[SIGCIS-Members] Email "inventor" claimant to run for U.S. Senate -- alternative facts about technology and democracy collide

[Rebecca Slayton]

This might be a bit tangential, but on the topic of computer scientists in politics: out today is an article about Robert Mercer, billed as a computer scientist “at the heart of a multimillion-dollar propaganda network” which leverages big data
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/26/robert-mercer-breitbart-war-on-media-steve-bannon-donald-trump-nigel-farage

Best,
Rebecca

Rebecca Slayton
Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Department of Science & Technology Studies
Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies
Morrill 320 | Fax 607-255-6044

From: Members [mailto:members-bounces at lists.sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Ian S. King
Sent: Sunday, February 26, 2017 2:39 PM
To: Julie Cohn
Cc: sigcis
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Email "inventor" claimant to run for U.S. Senate -- alternative facts about technology and democracy collide

Someone a few emails back mentioned Suzan DelBene here in Washington State.  There are and have been quite a few ex-Microsoft folks who've run for office at various levels, including city councils and the state legislature.  One of our US Senators, Maria Cantwell, was with RealNetworks for some time - although as VP of Marketing, not an engineering role.  Darcy Burner, another former Microsoft marketing person, unsuccessfully ran twice against Dave Reichert for his seat in the US Congress, lost to DelBene for the newly formed First Congressional District and lost a bid to represent the Fifth Legislative District in the Washington State House.  Tina Podlodowski, ex-Microsoft, is now the chair of the Washington State Democratic Party, and served on the Seattle City Council for a single term.  Eric Oemig, again ex-Microsoft in a 'performance manager' role, served in the Washington State Senate for a single term.  Toby Nixon served in the Washington State House and is now a City Councilman for the City of Kirkland.  Laura Ruderman, an administrative assistant from Microsoft (in my product group), served a single term in the House, as well.  (Ruderman billed herself as a 'former Microsoft manager' when in fact she briefly held the title of Program Manager, had no engineering responsibilities and had only two direct reports, both of them temporary employees.)

I suspect that one reason we have a significant number of ex-Microsoft types here is that they have the money - the majority of the ex-Microsoft crowd partially or completely funded their own campaigns.  But the majority of them worked in non-technical roles.  -- Ian

On Sun, Feb 26, 2017 at 7:17 AM, Julie Cohn <cohnconnor at comcast.net<mailto:cohnconnor at comcast.net>> wrote:
Tangentially related to this discussion, some of you may already be familiar with a new PAC called 314 Action - focused on promoting fact-based policies and the candidacies of individuals coming out of the STEM professions:

http://www.314action.org/home

-Julie

*****************************
Julie Cohn, Ph.D.
Research Historian
Center for Public History
University of Houston
315 McElhinney Hall
Houston, TX 77204-3007
cohnconnor at comcast.net<mailto:cohnconnor at comcast.net>

On Feb 25, 2017, at 4:34 PM, Evan Koblentz <evan at vcfed.org<mailto:evan at vcfed.org>> wrote:

>> a name that also pops up in connection with Ayyadurai's announcement is Jeff Giesea, a venture capitalist and "executive coach"

Whoa. I used to work for Jeff. He founded a (real) tech news site called Fierce Markets in 2001. Hired me in 2004; I stayed until 2006. He sold it in 2009. We never talked politics though.
-------------------------
Evan Koblentz, director
Vintage Computer Federation
A 501(c)3 educational non-profit

Evan at vcfed.org<mailto:Evan at vcfed.org>
(646) 546-9999<tel:(646)%20546-9999>

www.vcfed.org<http://www.vcfed.org/>
facebook.com/vcfederation<http://facebook.com/vcfederation>
twitter.com/vcfederation<http://twitter.com/vcfederation>
_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org


_______________________________________________
This email is relayed from members at sigcis.org<http://sigcis.org>, the email discussion list of SHOT SIGCIS. Opinions expressed here are those of the member posting and are not reviewed, edited, or endorsed by SIGCIS. The list archives are at http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/ and you can change your subscription options at http://lists.sigcis.org/listinfo.cgi/members-sigcis.org



--
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School<http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical Narrative Through a Design Lens

Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal<http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab<http://vsdesign.org>

University of Washington

There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sigcis.org/pipermail/members-sigcis.org/attachments/20170227/89a942ac/attachment.htm>