Some Late-Summer Love
One image
Taken at the dog beach in Chicago where dozens of dogs and their people gather every day, rain or shine. I guess someone just wanted to show their love. Heard.
One #aha & one #ofcourse
I’ve recently been working with an organization on articulating a set of ethical principles for how they handle data and knowledge. The code of ethics that will result from this work isn’t meant to be a thought exercise. It is meant to guide decisions around tough data and knowledge governance questions when (not if) they emerge. But, #ofcourse arriving at a set of workable and usable principles is a hard thing to do.
Ideally, we would just make these principles an extension of the organization’s core values, e.g. what does humility look like when it comes to data collection, or what does accountability look like when it comes to data reuse? But when the organization hasn’t already made it a common practice to pressure test their decisions and choices against their values … it’s an extra hard thing to do all of a sudden when working through document retention rules or guardrails for ai.
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No doubt we’ll get there with the data governance code of ethics. But — #aha — if orgs want their core values to actually guide their work it takes practice practice practice. Oh, and more practice.
One more chance to eat my own cooking
I finally took the time to whip up a batch of my own cooking and developed a statement on how Think Twice works with AI, which lays out the key principles and non-negotiables for using AI in my consulting work. Chief among them is that I ask clients at the start of a project where they stand on the use of AI and I do my damndest to align with that — as long as it doesn’t violate my own non-negotiables. As I state in the document, this batch of cooking is a work in progress, so please take a look, ask questions, push me! I am learning right alongside you on this one.
(Many thanks to Valerie Ehrlich’s policy builder for getting me started on this!)
One thing I’m listening to… Rest in power and peace Dolly
I first listened to this series a number of years ago, while driving to a spot near the border of North Carolina and Tennessee, which was coincidentally a short drive from Dollywood. As she was for many of us, Dolly Parton was a fixture in my life for as long as I can remember. This podcast series, Dolly Parton’s America helps explain why. Take some time if you can, to listen to her remarkable mix of musical genius, genuine kindness, and badass smarts.
Did you miss my last missive? You can read it here.
