September 28 2022, MENA Meetup
| MENA Meetups |
The monthly meetups bring together folks from the MENA region to share, connect, seek help, and release stress by celebrating each other. In addition, it's a time for us to find ways to support each other, and help us understand what is happening in our part of the world. If you cannot attend the monthly meetups, we are taking notes of each gathering and linking to them below.
The MENA community is connected during the week in different ways. Either through various MENA-focused channels on the IFF Mattermost or via different events organized on various topics during the year.
Date: Wednesday, September 28th
Time: 5pm CAT / 3pm UTC (what time is it in my city?)
Who: Facilitated by Islam
Where: The Big Blue Button link will be shared in the Regional:MENA Channel on the IFF Mattermost one or two hours before the start of the meeting.
- Don't have an account to the IFF Mattermost? you can request one following the directions here.
Notes
- Attendees: 5
- Check ins! (new jobs)
- Added music to the playlist <3
Sacha introduced deceptive design
Background:
- The world wide web foundation is working with 3 x 3 which is based in new york and simply secure and they’re doing a tech policy design now. The main topic they’re working on is deceptive design which was formerly known is dark images.
- Deceptive design is a sort of tricky things in user interface design that can make consumer choices difficult. Where you felt a bit tricked/ or called out by something. It might be where you have to read a sentence 5 times to understand to check the box or not (the language is purposefully confused), for example, a checkout in an e-commerce website and suddenly extra charges are added. Looking for a product you think you found it but then you find alternatives. Those are few examples of deceptive design. Subscriptions that are impossible to cancel. The pop out box, the one that says are you sure you want to cancel. They went through this process over the summer. What they realized most of what they were finding are Euro-American, essentially. They are interested in other examples in other regions. What were the key issues or opportunities areas. Feedback on direction, later on we can talk on where the opportunities are for maybe changing some of the current bad practics that exit in the region.
Challenges:
- There’s not much information online / adjacent topics: accessible design/ data protection/ they use more surveillance / consumer protection.
- This led to a conversation on the lack of localized knowledges in the region.
SWANA/MENA discussion
the need to discuss this collaboratively in the light of lack of content and the framing of the region as lumped together and a need to do this through sitting the discomfort this discussion usually brings.
Ideas for upcoming meetings
Digital board games session! People need a break to disconnect from the "discourse" of it all and connect with each other.
