👁 Lookout for 2022
Key ideas, issues, people and events for the new year
Welcome to 2022. We’re easing into the new year with a forward-looking collaboration with four other newsletters that we admire. Together, we pinged dozens of amazing people who are thinking about the internet, across various disciplines and a few continents. We wanted to know:
What one idea, issue, person or event should people look out for in 2022?
Here’s what some of the New_ Public Advisory Board members had to say:
Social media platforms have been in the news in 2021 for their role in affecting teen mental health and well-being. 2022 will be the year we keenly look at what these platforms do to respond to this emergent crisis, and ensure teens and youth find a supportive and welcoming platform to express themselves and construct their identities.
–Munmun De Choudhury
The hard question for the future of the social web is not ownership or control, as web3 folks are primarily focused on. It's governance. How do communities decide what speech and conduct they allow? How do we handle rulebreakers? Is tokenized democracy a reasonable way to answer these questions, or should we learn from existing communities?
–Ethan Zuckerman
I hope Facebook will start treating developing markets on par with their developed counterparts and invest more resources in content moderation. Facebook should not be allowed to operate in a language for which they do not have content moderators. –Taberez A. Neyazi
And there’s a lot more! For answers from Shannon Mattern, Jillian C. York, Joanne McNeil, Micah Sifry, Yael Eisenstat, Douglas Rushkoff, Julie Owono, Jared Holt, Cory Doctorow and other great thinkers, check out our partner newsletters:
Reboot (techno-optimism)
Tech Policy Press (technology policy)
The Information Ecologist (information ecosystems)
Everything in Moderation (content moderation)
#Lookoutfor2022 will be rolling out today and tomorrow on all five newsletters, as well as through the hashtag on Twitter.
New job postings
Want to work with us in 2022? We have two new 6-month, remote, part-time positions currently open for applications: Community Architect and Design Facilitator. If you have community building, facilitation, or design process expertise, learn more about both positions and apply here.
Open Thread
This Tuesday we have our monthly Open Thread. We’ll put the same question to you, and ask what ideas, issues, people and events you’re looking out for in 2022. Keep an eye out for an email around 12pm EST inviting you to the conversation.
Still going to be writing “2021” on things for a while,
Josh
Design by Josh Kramer
New_ Public is a partnership between the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas, Austin, and the National Conference on Citizenship, and was incubated by New America.