We hear a lot about the entrepreneurs, engineers, and companies that shape the digital landscape. But what about the communities that radicalize and transform the world, enacting power from below, using digital technology?

With a series of guest speakers and artists from Portland’s tech and creative scene, we will examine:

• The question of digital globalization and the emergence of tech in Africa, Latin America, and in indigenous communities.
• What it means to be an engineer: How do gender, race, and place affect who is recognized as such, and who is not?
• The relationship of Black aesthetics, girl culture, and the global arts to the digital world, which draws heavily from this creativity in form and content.
• Ways to advocate for distributing digital resources to marginalized groups in the Portland area and beyond.

Instructor: Ali Colleen Neff, Ph.D. is a digital anthropologist, UX researcher, and the founder of CultureEncode, a center for advocacy and consulting for digital diversity.

Learn more and sign up here: https://www.pugspdx.com/march-2018-courses/digital-undergrounds

Capitalism loves automation. Since the beginning of industrialization 250 years ago, businesses have been replacing human labor with machines. For the last 60 years, globalization has shifted American labor to other countries. And now, the advent of artificial intelligence will eliminate even more jobs.

In this course, we will:

• Consider how a jobless future could create unmatched disruption and suffering -- or limitless opportunity for human flourishing.
• Discuss how not to be a replaceable commodity in a gig economy.
• Strategize how to position ourselves as stakeholders in the emerging automated economy.

Instructor: Douglas Tsoi, JD, is the founder of Portland Underground Grad School (PUGS), a school for everyday life. Before PUGS, he managed a $4 million education and training program at the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance. Previous careers include teaching high school history and ethics, as well as being a intellectual property lawyer.

Meets March 7, 14, 21, & 28 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

For more info: https://www.pugspdx.com/march-2018-courses/the-jobless-future

This workshop provides an introduction to digital accessibility standards and practices and gives participants hands-on experience with assessing, testing, and implementing accessibility practices in the physical and digital realm.

We’ll start this workshop by talking about what accessibility entails: why it matters, and who is excluded when we don't adapt our online and physical spaces to account for varying ability levels. Then, we'll explore the business case for developing accessible technology. Isn't your business (your art project, your retail store) going to be more successful if everyone, regardless of their ability, can access and enjoy it?

Next, we’ll dive into the technical details with a straightforward overview of the latest accessibility standards (the new 2018 Revised 508 Standards, the first major update since 2001, and the W3 WCAG standards). Then, we’ll work in small groups to practice hands-on accessibility testing. Finally, we’ll reconvene, share our progress and findings, and develop plans for implementing accessible development in our day-to-day work.

Instructor: Amelia Abreu is a design researcher and the founder of UX Night School. She's worked with clients like Nike, Mozilla, Microsoft, and Intel. Before entering the industry, she did graduate research in Human Computer Interaction at the University of Washington.