We’re thrilled to announce our next round of confirmed speakers for Personal Democracy Forum 2013, our tenth annual conference:
-Kimberly Bryant, Founder of Black Girls Code;
-Scott Chacon, CIO of Union Square Ventures;
-Steve Grove, Head of Community Development, Google
-Mark Kaigwa, Co-founder of Affrinnovator.com and Nairobi Ambassador for Sandbox Network;
-Tracy Russo, Director of New Media, U.S. Justice Department;
-Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, Founder of SumOfUs;
-Berin Szoka, President of TechFreedom;
-Mike Turk, President of Opinion Mover Strategies;
-Dan Wagner, Chief Analytics Officer, Obama 2012
The full list of previously announced speakers is here.
In the coming days, we’ll have a lot more details on the program to share. But here’s some highlights of what to expect in the main hall.
As past attendees know, the conference is structured around plenary sessions in the morning and at the end of each day, with big open networking lunches, mid-afternoon breakout sessions, and a giant cocktail party for all attendees the night of the first day of the conference.
The first day of the conference we’re going to open with a special talk by Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman, partner of the late Aaron Swartz, whose admonition “Think Bigger” is the source of this year’s PDF theme. We’re honored that she is joining us (and in this special case we’re waiving our informal rule of not having a main hall speaker two years in a row), and expect that she’ll do a great job of jump-starting the conversation of why and how we can use technology and the Internet to work on and solve hard problems.
Talks in the main hall will be grouped around four main arenas:
Transnational Moments and Movements: We’re going to look at the rise of global online causes (using e-petitions and new mobile tools); how to think about the rise of “cyber-war”; the evolution of geek power from Anonymous forward; tech-powered change in Africa; transparency in Eastern Europe; and the rise of online feminism powered by social media.
Big Data Politics: We’re going to explore both the promise and the pitfalls of “data-driven” campaigning, with a close look at the latest smarts on making content viral. And we’ll also explore how politics and the media may be changed by new data-driven journalism.
Solve for X: From figuring out how to undo the lobotomy that Congress gave itself when it eliminated its own internal staff research capacities, to exploring what laws need re-examination in light of the rise of peer-to-peer economics, to new ways to improve public dialogue, to acting on the gender gap and sexism in tech and politics, to actually figuring out how to fix the voting system(s) in America, this track will be a potpourri of eclectic talks all focused on attacking a particular problem. One branch will also highlight civic start-ups that are aiming to be profitable, sustainable businesses.
Heavy Lifting: What if the future is finally here, but we’re too busy to actually live in the present? What if the disruptive forces of networking technology devolve too much power to the little guy? Just how far can the “sharing economy” take us? A decade after the idea first arose, whither “emergent democracy”? Can we do more to address the needs of the “least of us”? And how should we govern ourselves in an age of hyper-networks? These are some of the biggest questions our speakers will tackle.
Getting excited? So are we! If you haven’t registered yet, there’s still time to do so. And if you have, tell a friend!