Career
Wylie started her first business during the dot-com boom, dropping out of her first undergrad in her 20s to start a business that developed educational software. [1] She then got a job working for an early webcasting platform where she was exposed to the politics of urban planning and realized that there was a lack of civilian literacy around such issues. [1]
Wylie started attending public planning forums where she met her next employer, Nicole Swerhun. Swerhun’s firm facilitates engagement and planning consultation processes between both public and private decision makers and their constituents. [2] Wylie worked as an associate at the firm from 2012-2016, where she was exposed to conversations about data and government.
After that, Wylie worked from 2016-2018 as an associate at Open North, a non-profit organization focused on open data for government and organizations. In a similar vein of work, Wylie founded the Toronto chapter of the Open Data Institute in 2017. The Open Data Institute is a volunteer-run non-profit that supports the use of open data in public policy, civic tech, civic education, and political engagement. From 2016-2018, Wylie also taught at the Schulich Executive Education Centre at York University about achieving open government through accountability, transparency, and open data.
Wylie has been involved with multiple think tanks and projects related to tech reform and data privacy including her work as a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, as an advisory board member at the Computational Democracy Project, and as an advisory board member at Electronic Privacy Information Center. She co-founded the advocacy group Tech Reset Canada in 2017, which supports investment in the technology capacity and expertise of the public sector, seeking to incorporate technology into governments in ways that promote the common good.
She has been consulted as an expert on smart cities and tech reform in the media, offering her expertise and criticism on new and proposed projects. [3] [4]
Block Sidewalk
Wylie is most known for her work speaking out against the Sidewalk Toronto smart city development project. Wylie was among the most prominent voices speaking out against Sidewalk Labs’ plans for the neighborhood of Quayside on the Toronto waterfront. [1] The project was announced in October 2017 and eventually cancelled in May 2020.
Drawing on her background in open government and public planning consultation, Wylie helped to lead a group of citizens in a campaign called #BlockSidewalk. [5] [6] The impetus for the campaign was an article in the Toronto Star that shared leaked documents suggesting that Sidewalk Labs were not being transparent about the extent of their plans for the Toronto waterfront. [7] [8] Wylie’s criticisms of the proposed project stemmed from her concern that the project was blending the roles of government and corporations. [9] In particular, she spoke out about the lack of democratic consultation on the project, the lack of digital literacy displayed by government actors, and the need for governments to be stewards of private data. [2] [9] She argued that "data produced by the public should be publicly owned and managed transparently." [5] Wylie further argued that governments need to write policy protecting private data as technology becomes increasingly involved in cities and governments. [5]
Wylie authored dozens of newspaper articles and blog posts and spoke with Toronto City Council and the Canada House of Commons to raise awareness about Sidewalk Toronto. [1] She has also spoken at conferences such as ReSite in Prague. [9]
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