{"id":491239,"date":"2026-10-10T06:08:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:08:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491239\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T06:08:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T06:08:22","slug":"organizing-in-the-town-at-oakland-tech-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/491239\/","title":{"rendered":"Organizing in the Town at Oakland Tech Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

EFF was thrilled to join organizers, advocates, and activists in the East Bay for the second annual Oakland Tech Week<\/a> last week. We are grateful to our friends at MediaJustice<\/a> and Upturn<\/a> for inviting us co-present this all-day event, \u201cBuilding Beyond Big Tech: Organizing Oakland\u2019s Future\u201d<\/a>, on Sept. 30. \u00a0The event, hosted by the Kapor Center<\/a> in downtown Oakland, offered a unique chance to spend time with people across The Town and the Bay Area working to create a better future for everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at this truly consequential moment,\u201d said EFF executive director Nicole Ozer, in her speech kicking off the day\u2019s events. \u201cWe know that in this community\u2019s work\u2014and communities across the country\u2014our ability to ensure that technology empowers<\/a> rather than oppresses<\/a> is fundamental to the future of countries, our livelihoods, and, literally, our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

We also participated in a panel on the state of play in California, moderated by MediaJustice executive director Steven Renderos. Director of State Affairs Hayley Tsukayama joined reporter Khari Johnson of CalMatters and Crystal Zemero of People Over Billionaires to talk about the landscape at the state level. The day also included smaller conversations focused on building better tech and fine-tuning messaging, facilitated by our colleagues at MediaJustice.<\/p>\n

Seeing the people\u2014our neighbors\u2014who are fighting back against surveillance in their communities was inspiring. They\u2019re casting doubt on the claims large technology companies make about what\u2019s happening in their neighborhoods. They\u2019re speaking up at council meetings and rallies. They\u2019re seeking changes that would give their workplaces and neighborhoods a better, safer relationship with technology. It was so important to come together in solidarity to compare notes, spend time together, find opportunities to support each other, and scheme together.<\/p>\n

We can work together to build a future that works for everyday people<\/a>. A better world is possible\u2014and Oakland Tech Week was a great reminder that, all around us, folks are working together to tackle huge challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are formidable forces,\u201d Ozer said. \u00a0\u201cBut we can pierce the other side\u2019s narrative of inevitability with our power of indignation. The future of AI and other technology is not written and we can work together to get it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether you\u2019re in Oakland or Aukland, consider this a renewed invitation to join us<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Join the Fight\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Become an EFF Member Today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EFF was thrilled to join organizers, advocates, and activists in the East Bay for the second annual Oakland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-491239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}