A recent Forbes article reports on a panel from the CNS-UCSB conference, “Democratizing Technologies: Assessing the Roles of NGOs in Shaping Technological Futures.” The panel, focusing on workers’ rights in the global economy, featured talks by CNS research group leader and UCSB MacArthur Chair, Richard Appelbaum; Executive Director of the Worker Rights Consortium, Scott Nova: and Vice President of Operations at Labor Voices, Ari Olmos. They are all quoted in the article which discusses the role that technology can play in helping multinational businesses to achieve the stated goals of their corporate social responsibility programs and avoid tragedies like the 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh that killed 1,129 garment workers. 

Article author Tarun Wadhwa (pictured above) was also a presenter at the conference. He spoke on the hopes and challenges posed by digital identification systems. A report on the entire conference proceedings is available at: http://www.cns.ucsb.edu/sites/www.cns.ucsb.edu/files/demtech/Democratizing%20Technologies%20Conference%20Report.pdf

The conference website is here: http://www.cns.ucsb.edu/demtech2014/welcome

The Forbes article can be accessed via the link below.