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Upcoming PdF Events in NYC

BY Daniel Teweles | Wednesday, January 12 2011

PdF is pleased to announce three upcoming events in New York City that we think you'll find continue to tap into the zeitgeist in an engaging and intellectually provocative way.

PdF Presents: A Symposium on WikiLeaks and Internet Freedom II

On January 24th we'll be hosting a follow up to our sold-out December first symposium on WikiLeaks (PdF Leaks). This event will feature an incredible line up of speakers including Clay Shirky, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (of Openleaks.org), Floyd Abrams, and Gabriella Coleman. The video stream from our December event has received more than 70,000 views, so you don't want to miss your chance to attend and participate live and in person on the 24th! More information is available at the bottom of this post, and you can purchase tickets by clicking here.

PdF Presents: WikiLeaks and Online Civil Disobedience



On February 9th, as part of Social Media Week, we'll be hosting an event called WikiLeaks and Online Civil Disobedience, featuring John Perry Barlow, Evgeny Morozov, and Deanna Zandt. More information is available at the bottom of this post, and you can reserve free tickets by clicking here.

Both events are part of a continued series that PdF is hosting in New York City to explore the implications of transparency in the digital age.

Personal Democracy Forum 2011



And of course, the event that started it all for PdF 7 years ago, the world’s leading conference exploring and analyzing technology's impact on politics and government, Personal Democracy Forum, here in New York City. This year's edition will be held June 6-7 at NYU, and already has a stellar list of confirmed speakers. Registration will open soon, and we expect another sell out crowd. For more information visit the conference website.

To stay up to date on all of PdF's upcoming events and opportunities, sign up for our email list (it takes less than 15 seconds) by clicking here.

Events in detail:

PdF Presents: A Symposium on WikiLeaks and Internet Freedom II, January 24th


We're pleased to announce that, building on the strong interest in our first symposium on WikiLeaks and Internet freedom, we are holding a second event two weeks from now, January 24, from 6-8pm at NYU, to continue the conversation. We'll look at questions like:
-How does the push for more openness and transparency conflict with legitimate security concerns?
-What are the responsibilities of online organizations who distribute information from leakers or whistleblowers?
-Are distributed denial of service attacks (DDoS) by organizations like Anonymous a new force for social justice or something more destructive?

Our speakers will include Clay Shirky, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Floyd Abrams, and Gabriella Coleman, with additional speakers to be announced.

Shirky is the author of Here Comes Everybody, and Cognitive Surplus. Domscheit-Berg is one of the founders of OpenLeaks.org, and a former spokesman for WikiLeaks. Coleman is an associate professor of media, culture and communication at NYU, and an expert on Anonymous. Abrams is a leading First Amendment lawyer, who among other things represented the New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case.

As with our first symposium, the event will be split between an hour of presentations by our speakers, followed by an hour of open forum with the audience. The event will be streamed live online. The hashtag is #pdfleaks.

Date: Monday, January 24, 2011
Time: 6:00pm - 800pm
Location: NYU Kimmel Center for University Life- Eisner & Lubin Auditorium - 4th Floor, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY 10012
How: Buy tickets here before they sell out.

We are producing this event in association with New York University, Tisch School of the Arts ITP Program.


PdF Presents: WikiLeaks and Online Civil Disobedience, February 9th

On December 3rd, noted cyber-libertarian John Perry Barlow tweeted:

Internet freedom activists using distributed denial of service attacks to shut down websites say they’ve invented a new kind of online civil disobedience. Critics worry that the tactic can backfire, and moreover, that the internet is more an ally of authoritarian regimes than we think.

We are pleased to bring together John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Evgeny Morozov, author of the new book The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, and Deanna Zandt author of Share This: How You Will Change the World with Social Networking, for a wide ranging discussion on new forms of online civil disobedience as part of Social Media Week 2011 in New York City.

Date: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Time: 12:30pm - 1:45pm
Location: Hearst Building (W 57th St), New York City
How: Reserve (free) tickets here before they're gone.

News Briefs

RSS Feed 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

tuesday >

Website Imitation is Flattery in New York City Council Race

A New York City Council candidate who had made his name as a technology consultant and spearheaded an open government initiative several years ago found parts of his website copied by another City Council candidate in a different borough, as Politicker first reported. GO

Mike Honda Locks Up Establishment Support, But Challenger Has Ear of the Silicon Valley Elite

Some of Silicon Valley's most influential business people will hold a fundraiser in San Francisco this Thursday for Ro Khanna, the 36-year-old lawyer who's challenging 71-year-old California Democrat Mike Honda for his 17th Congressional District seat. The names at the top of the invite: Ron Conway and Sean Parker. They're apparently forming a committee to help Khanna build his campaign. The other bold-face names who are listed as part of the 'committee in formation' include Salesforce.com's Founder and CEO Marc Benioff, Benchmark Capital General Partners' Matt Cohler and Peter Fenton, tech entrepreneur Shawn Fanning, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, her big data venture investor husband Zach Bogue, and Conway's SV Angel colleague, Founder and Managing Partner David Lee. GO

Tools to Keep Independent Media Online in Hostile Environments

Websites and media outlets in developing countries or countries with corrupt or repressive regimes struggle daily to fend off hacker attacks, some from their own government — like the Malaysian news portal Sarawak Report, which techPresident reported was taken down in April by sustained denial-of-service attacks. The negative attention controversial reporting draws can scare local advertisers away as well, making it difficult for a media company to support itself. Media Frontiers offers two services to websites dealing with either of those problems.

GO

monday >

Ahead of September Elections, German Pirate Party Picks Its Platform

The German Pirate Party held its election year convention over the weekend and approved its party platform, following lengthy debate over the role that online decision-making should have within the party, as German news sources reported and the party outlined on its own web platforms. GO

Peruvians Petition their President to Stick Up for their Digital Rights

Peru’s civil society advocacy groups have started an online petition outlining their ‘non-negotiable’ demands for digital rights and freedom of speech. The campaign was prompted by the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Lima, Peru, will soon host the 17th round of secretive TPP trade talks, which will take place from May 15 – 24.

GO

Gun Control Advocates Take Aim At LivingSocial for Promoting Guns and Alcohol

A coalition of advocacy groups is launching a new campaign this week against the promotion of American gun culture. The campaign focuses on the daily deals site Living Social, which hasn't stopped promoting social events Hunter S. Thompson would have loved (they promote shooting off guns and letting off steam and drinking.) GO

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