Friday

Keeper Ines shares her reading corner tally with the crew. The council is deciding how to use the space.

Comet makes a quick chart from the Monday morning column. "Only 2 visits! Nobody uses the reading corner."

She reaches for the button that posts it to the front-desk screen.

Wren stops her gently. "What do you notice? That is one morning. The tally covers a whole week."

Nova hovers near the screen. "Interesting," she says. "If the council saw this chart, what might they decide?"

Comet lowers her hand. "They might close the reading corner. And the members who read there would lose it."

"So let's check the whole week first," Wren says.

People create computing innovations, and not every effect is expected.

One effect can be helpful to some people and harmful to others, or even both to the same person.

Sharing results fast with many people can have big effects beyond the maker's control.

Using computing to harm people raises legal and ethical concerns. Algorithms that include bias are one example.

Made-up data from the Commons Count story. Of Monday's 6 visits, 2 came in the morning.

Before the crew shares a chart, they ask who it could help and who it could harm.

They check that the chart uses the whole data and an honest axis.

They also picture where the chart could travel once it is shared.

Thoughtful work, data analyst. Tomorrow is Mission Quest: check a printed chart at home with your family.