The Bubblr Ethical Tech Manifesto

Bubblr has been an ethical technology company from the get-go. To show what that means to us, we have created an ethical tech manifesto. We want other people to join us and contribute to this manifesto so please send us your feedback!

Our 5 Core Principles

1. Fairness and a sense of community are fundamental parts of the human condition.

Competitiveness, aspiration and entrepreneurial spirit are fundamental parts of the human condition. But so is fairness and a sense of community. We reject the Ayn Randian notion of a single great individual will change the world for the better. Human beings operate most effectively and efficiently in teams, with flat management structures, common goals and common responsibilities for a common enterprise. That is why an ethical tech entity must be agile to the core.

2. Treat every stakeholder fairly and how you would wish to be treated yourself.

• Treat shareholders respectfully
  Primary consideration should always be shareholders. Keep them informed with detailed updates at least once a month. Encourage active participation by shareholders and always consult them on big decisions.
• Treat employees equally and make them shareholders or at least share option owners
  Eschew industrial inequality and treat all employees the same, whether they be offshore workers or onshore. Pay scales should be based on the need to survive comfortably but not live in the lap of luxury. The motivation for working for an ethical tech company should be primarily making the world a better place and financial motivation would be share and share options not salary. The top paid person in the ethical tech enterprise should not earn more than 5 times the amount of the lowest paid employee. Benefits and pensions should be the same for everyone.
• Treat suppliers fairly
  Once a supplier invoice is approved for payment, it should be paid immediately. Making a small business succeed is hard enough without giving them the headache of collecting monies owed. Procurement processes must be transparent and independent, the results of a procurement process must be shared with all the participants.
• Treat customers fairly and give them an open channel for feedback
  Never take customers for granted no matter how successful you become. Always have an open channel for customers to contact you and provide an audited response trail. Dedicate human and technology resource to customer support and measure customer support KPI’s.

3. Keep your business practices sustainable.

All companies need to have sustainability at the core of their business practices. Circular manufacturing, and the circular economy are the future. Exploitative business practices involving people or the planet are to be completely eschewed. Continually look to reduce energy and waste costs.

4. Pay your taxes.

Reject tax avoidance practices commonly pursued by all the existing internet giants. Tax needs to be paid in the territories you operate in. Governments need money for infrastructure, security, education, welfare and healthcare. We should all pay our share. Just because you can afford the tax lawyers to avoid tax does not mean you should. Behave responsibly and pay your taxes

5. Training for life.

In the technology world, things only accelerate, things never stand still. To be an effective employee in an ethical technology business, you need to be constantly learning new skills. So an ethical tech enterprise needs to provide training to all its employees and this should be part of the employees responsibilities to learn new skills. Personally, I (Steve Morris) believe everyone should be made to learn Python. If six year olds can learn then why not HR managers.