Update (July 2024): The interdisciplinary field of Science and technology studies, or Science, Technology and Society (STS) has strong parallels to what I mean by Public Interest Technology.
Original post:
Discovering new and various identity markers is something I have found useful. When you are interested in many things/areas, it’s sometimes difficult to answer the regular questions – what do you do, what are you interested in.
The broadest catch-all phrase that has been useful is “generalist”. I then made it “technical generalist” to add some detail. Recently, I read Speaking Tech to Power: Why technologists and policymakers need to work together, in which I discovered a perfect upgrade to my identity markers: “public-interest technologist“. Someone “working at the intersection of security, technology, and people” as detailed by the post’s author, Bruce Schneier.
And it makes perfect sense to me. Time to read more into it.