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New PdF 2010 Speakers: Julian Assange, Bryan Sivak, and Many More!

BY Micah L. Sifry | Monday, April 19 2010

With the seventh annual Personal Democracy Forum conference just over six weeks away, here’s an update on some exciting new keynoters and panels. We’re still juggling some speakers and breakout sessions, and I’ll have more details to share soon. But hopefully this will get your juices flowing.

First, we’re pleased to announce several exciting new keynote speakers, starting with Julian Assange of Wikileaks.org, which has been much in the news of late. This will be Julian’s second PdF appearance, after coming to our inaugural PdF Europe conference in Barcelona last year. He’ll be joining a keynote session that we’re calling “In Search of a Theory of Change: The Internet and Democratization,” along with previously announced speakers Evgeny Morozov, Ethan Zuckerman and Cheryl Contee.

Second, we’re happy to announce that Bryan Sivak, the new Chief Technology Officer of Washington, DC, America’s most technologically advanced city administration, will be anchoring a whole track of sessions on “We.gov.” He’ll be talking about the growing OpenMUNI movement along with Jen Pahlka of Code for America and Philip Ashlock of The Open Planning Project.

More on We.Gov Track

While I’m on the topic of our We.gov track, here’s what else we have planned session-wise: Ken Goldberg, the Berkeley University lead developer of OpinionSpace; Anil Dash, the founder of Expert Labs; Ginny Hunt, the project lead for Google Moderator; and Conor White-Sullivan, the co-founder of Localocracy.com; will all speak on Tools for Listening and Engaging the Public. Conor, I should note, may be the youngest-ever PdF speaker; he’s a senior at U-Mass Amherst.

Also in the We.gov track, we’re going to take a close look at Open Source Crisis Response with Katie Stanton of the State Department, Patrick Meier of Ushahidi, Heather Blanchard of CrisisCommons; and Katrin Verclas of MobileActive.org. They’ll be focusing on the recent and ongoing crisis in Haiti as a case study for new kinds of citizen-developer-government-NGO collaboration. We’re also working on a fourth breakout session in this track, of which more details soon.

Skills-Building Tracks Added This Year

If you’re reading your PdF emails, you already know that we’ve created two skills-building tracks covering the application of best practices and emerging technologies. The idea for both came out of last year’s conference, when many attendees mentioned wanting more time devoted to digging in on the nitty-gritty of online advocacy.

The Quick Start Track is for those who want to get up to date with the basics in search engine optimization, online advertising, web analytics, and social media and the Advanced e-Campaign Track will explore advanced techniques for blogs, online advertising, and innovation in online campaigns. Here’s who’s speaking on each one (some speakers still to be announced):

Quick Start Track

Search Engine Optimization: How to Make Sure People are Finding You and Your Cause: Vanessa Fox, creator of Google's Webmaster Central and author of Marketing in the Age of Google; Kevin Lee, CEO of Didit.com and author of Search Engine Advertising; and Sara Holoubek, CEO, Luminary Labs and outgoing President of the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization board of directors

Online Advertising for Beginners: How to Reach the People You Need to Reach Most Efficiently: Peter Greenberger, Team Manager, Elections & Issue Advocacy, Google; Amy Auerbach, Baruch College; Kate Kaye, ClickZ and author of the book Campaign ’08: A Turning Point for Digital Marketing

Using Web Analytics Tools to Make Your Organization More Effective: Case Studies in How to Start: Shabbir Safdar, Measurement Guru; Alisa Aydin, US Fund For UNICEF; Shayna Englin, Englin Consulting; Ken Deutsch, Morningside Analytics

Refining Your Social Media Smarts: From YouTube to Facebook to Twitter: J.D. Lasica, Founder, SocialMedia.biz; Jonah Sieger, Bloomberg '09; Barnet Zitron, Why Tuesday?

Advanced e-Campaign Track

The Enduring Power of Blogs as Organizing Hubs: Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake; Erin Kotecki Vest, Political Director and Producer of Special Projects for BlogHer; Markos Moulitsas, Founder, DailyKos.com

Online Advertising: New Tricks of the Trade: Eric Frenchman, Chief Internet Strategist for Connell Donatelli Inc.; Josh Koster, Managing Partner, Chong + Koster; Mark Skidmore, Director of Advertising & Promotion at Blue State Digital; and Emily Williams, Senior Interactive Account Executive at MSHC Partners and Online Advertising Campaign Manager for Obama ‘08

How the Right is Innovating in Online Campaigns: David All, Founder, David All Group; Mindy Finn, Partner, EngageDC; Rob Willington, online campaign director, Scott Brown '10; Ryan Gravatt, online campaign director, Rick Perry '10

How the Left is Innovating in Online Campaigns: Dan Cantor, Executive Director of the NY Working Families Party; Natalie Foster, new media director, Organizing for America; Stephanie Taylor, co-founder, Progressive Campaign Change Committee; Ari Melber, Net Movement Correspondent, The Nation

Coming soon: details on a track for Developers of political technology, and on a track about Media. Plus, more news about the structure of our plenary sessions, which will be featuring people like Jimmy Wales, Ory Okolloh, John Perry Barlow, Saul Anuzis, Scott Heiferman, Jane Hamsher, Craig Newmark, Eli Pariser, Aneesh Chopra, Beth Kanter and Allison Fine, Bernard Avishai, Susan Crawford, Markos Moulitsas, Clay Shirky, Howard Rheingold, and Arianna Huffington.

News Briefs

RSS Feed tuesday >

Honda Campaign Rolls Out Endorsements From Asian American Stars

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) rolled out several additional endorsements from Asian American leaders and celebrities Tuesday, with one of them vouching for his high-tech bona fides. GO

Here Are The People President Obama Hopes Will Repair American Elections

The Presidential Commission on Election Administration established by President Obama after problematic 2012 elections now has a web presence at SupporttheVoter.gov. Obama established the commission by executive order on March 28 "to identify best practices in election administration and to make recommendations to improve the voting experience." GO

After Oklahoma Disaster, Neighbors Look Online for Ways To Help

In echoes of the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, social media sites and small business websites in and around tornado-wracked Moore, Okla., are full of offers of help, questions about missing pets and loved ones, and evidence that neighbors are willing to reach out to help one another in a disaster. On a single Facebook group, there's a Mexican restaurant in Oklahoma City promising free meals to first responders or people hit by the tornado; a mother a few hours' drive from Moore offering to open her door for children who might need a place to stay; a resident sharing a picture of a found dog and contact information for the owner to get in touch. GO

Change.org Lands $15 Million From Omidyar

Change.org capped an extraordinary few years of growth Tuesday with the announcement that it has landed a $15 million investment led by the Omidyar Network. GO

What German Politicians Think of Google Glass

The German government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel has not had the easiest relationship with Google. The company launched a public campaign against a law backed by her coalition that would require search engines to pay to show news articles in search results, with mixed results. What's more, Google has long had to navigate the privacy waters in Germany and throughout the European Union. But that has not stopped her federal minister for economics and technology, Philipp Rösler, from giving Google Glass an enthusiastic test run as he leads a delegation of German technology companies and politicians on a trip to Silicon Valley this week as part of German Valley Week. GO

Crowdsourcing Waste Management Solutions in Montenegro

For once we aren't talking about the worldwide scarcity of toilets, just good old-fashioned household waste. Montenegro has a garbage problem so bad even the tourists are complaining about it. A new mobile app sponsored by the Agency for Environmental Protection, NGO Ozon and United Nations Development Programme in Montenegro will hopefully get citizens involved in reporting illegal garbage dumps. GO

monday >

Her Majesty's Government Wants to Monetize Open Data

A new paper from the chair of the U.K. government's Open Strategy Board outlines the best practices for the government's open data policies. The government-commissioned Shakespeare Review – after author Stephan Shakespeare – looks into ways to monetize open data, and recommends an all-encompassing National Data Strategy.

GO

Will Silicon Valley "Disrupt" Politics With a Candidate for Congress?

Sean Parker, of Napster fame and now executive general partner at venture capital firm Founders Fund, has invested in political startups before. But last week, he went a step further — co-hosting a fundraising event for a candidate for Congress. Parker and SV Angel co-founder Ron Conway organized a crowd of Internet industry luminaries to support Ro Khanna, a former assistant deputy secretary in Barack Obama's Commerce Department. Khanna is preparing a challenge to Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), whose newly redrawn congressional district encompasses Silicon Valley. GO

Burma's Upcoming Telecom Revolution Will Probably Not Bring Internet Freedom

Burma (Myanmar) is on the threshold of an Internet revolution, but Human Rights Watch has warned companies to proceed with caution or risk trampling Burmese citizens' rights. GO

friday >

Chilean Anti-Corruption Resource: A Crowdsourced Database of Social and Political Connections

In countries where a small minority of social circles have a majority of the political and economic power, personal relationships can affect major decision-making, a serious concern of anti-corruption activists. A new web platform stores personal profiles of key players in Chilean business and politics, complete with biographies and personal and professional connections through family, education, social circles, employers and coworkers, to make tracking social relationships and conflict-of-interest easier. Called Poderopedia (from the Spanish word for power), the project sounds kind of like LinkedIn, but the creation and management of profiles is being crowdsourced out to journalists, activists and concerned citizens.

GO

Middle Eastern Telecom Accused of Working With Saudi Arabia to Spy on Citizens

Mobily, an arm of the state-owned Middle Eastern telecom giant Etihad Etisalat, has been accused of working with Saudi Arabia to develop software that would allow the government to bypass protections for social media users. The exposé comes from Moxie Marlinspike (neé Matthew Rosenfield), an expert in a certain type of malicious Internet attack called MITM (man-in-the-middle), whereby attackers intercept and secretly alter private messages exchanged via email and other social media platforms. GO

Saudi Religious Leader Warns Twitter Users of Consequences in the Afterlife

In late March, Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric said Twitter was for clowns and corrupters. Earlier this week, he said anyone using social media, in particular Twitter, “has lost this world and the afterlife.” His comments might be laughable, if they did not come at a time when the Saudi government is looking into monitoring or blocking social media sites and eliminating user anonymity.

GO

thursday >

What The Other Silicon Valley Immigration Group Is Doing This Month

A bipartisan coalition of political advocacy, business and tech groups are moving ahead to launch a social media blitz next week designed to persuade members of the Senate to vote in favor of immigration reform legislation supported in Silicon Valley. "We're going to create a virtual digital storm," said Jeremy Robbins in a Wednesday ... GO

The New Yorker Hopes "Strongbox" Is a Wiretap-Proof Sieve for Leaks

The New Yorker yesterday became the first outlet to implement DeadDrop, a new system for sources to submit information to journalists online in a more secure and anonymous way than, for example, email. GO

Female Organizer of Pakistan's First Hackathon Stresses Collaboration Over Competition

After Pakistan banned Valentine's Day this year, Sabeen Mahmud started an online protest in which people uploaded photos to mock the government ban. In the weeks following she received death threats and menacing phone calls, and early on she had to stay home from work. That did nothing, however, to keep her from further organizing. Last month, the café she started in Karachi hosted Pakistan's first ever hackathon, which tackled problems including sanitation, crime, disaster management, and education. She even invited a government representative to observe the initial conversations, tackling sensitive areas like government inefficiency and elections.

GO

wednesday >

White House Innovation Fellows Project Spins Off Into A Business

Clay Johnson and Adam Becker joined the Presidential Innovation Fellows program to help the White House fix the way government does business. Now they're turning that mission into a business themselves. GO

Fighting Fires With Data, New York City Launches New Safety Inspection System

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today that New York City has implemented city-wide a new risk based inspection system focused on fire safety that is driven by analytics from multiple city agencies. GO

Chinese Netizens Use Digital Initiative to Gain Media Attention for Unsolved Poisoning Case

Last month a medical science student at a Shanghai university died from poisoning, allegedly murdered by his roommate. The specifics of the crime echoed a case from the mid-1990s, in which a 19-year-old student was poisoned with thallium. That case has once again been thrown into the media spotlight, but after 18 years the media has changed and the spotlight means a trending hashtag on Sina Weibo or an online petition to the U.S. President.

GO

PDF France 2013: “Au Code, Citoyens!”

This year PDF France will take place in Paris on June 13, with the theme "Au Code, Citoyens!" ("To Code, Citizens!") The speakers' lineup includes some of the continent's leaders in the digital revolution. GO

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