1. Search

Search form

  1. Watch

Schedule

To create your schedule, select the "plus" to add a session and the "minus" to remove it. You can view a copy of your schedule by visiting conference.freepress.net/my-schedule.

Skip to: Fri., April 5 Sat., April 6 Sun., April 7

Filter Schedule

Clear Filter

Fri., April 5

10:00am

  • Building the Future: Women, Code and Inclusion

    Women are at the center of some of the most innovative technology work in the country. They’re using code to create a new kind of public service and to build powerful social justice campaigns. And they’re introducing programming to new generations of builders.

    But Silicon Valley and other centers of the tech industry are still mired in a male-dominated “brogrammer” culture that too often alienates women. This session will address the many ways in which women are using code to innovate, make social change and build leaders in communities of color. The conversation will address the strategies needed to help bring balance and diversity to the tech industry.

    Presenters:

    Plaza Ballroom D
    show more

1:30pm

  • After SOPA: The New Wave of Internet Activism

    In January 2012, millions of Internet activists joined together to do the unthinkable: They beat back a pair of Hollywood-sponsored bills — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — that were supposedly unbeatable. It was a watershed moment for digital activism in which millions of people who’d never before engaged in the politics of the Internet suddenly realized how precious the open Internet really is.

    Since that moment, we’ve seen an alphabet soup of bills, treaties and meetings with names like CISPA, ECPA, CFAA, WCIT and FISA — all of which would hurt our online freedoms in the name of security, copyright protection or free market economics. And since then, digital rights groups and the public have worked together like never before to help protect Internet users from threats to their freedom to connect.

    On this panel, leading advocates from the front lines of these fights will discuss the strategies they’ve employed to keep up the SOPA/PIPA momentum — and will explore what this Internet freedom movement is fighting to achieve.

    Presenters:

    Governors Square 15
    show more
Sat., April 6

9:00am

  • This Conversation Is Being Recorded

    The National Security Agency has been illegally intercepting domestic phone calls and emails for years. Proposed cybersecurity legislation would violate our privacy rights even further while breaking the fundamental openness of the Internet. Meanwhile, domestic wireless companies are tracking nearly everything we do on our smartphones, noting everywhere we go and everyone we call.

    Are the same technologies that keep us so interconnected violating our basic rights to privacy? Are the federal government’s cybersecurity policies sacrificing freedom for security? Why does it matter that AT&T and Verizon are recording our every move?

    This panel of privacy experts will discuss the threats posed by Internet companies and federal agencies, and will lead a discussion about how Internet users can protect their basic rights.

    Presenters:

    Plaza Ballroom E
    show more
  • Building the Web We Want: Protecting Internet Rights Everywhere

    People around the world are fighting for access to a fast, open and affordable Internet. Yet every nation faces different political, social and technological challenges when it comes to achieving this goal. In some countries, civil society groups are working closely with government to craft policies that will enshrine online freedoms into law. Activists in other countries face online censorship or surveillance. Groups are increasingly working together across national barriers on policy and advocacy campaigns. But much work needs to be done to unite these efforts. On this panel, Internet rights advocates will discuss how Internet users around the world can join forces, coordinate advocacy efforts, and share resources to secure and protect Internet freedom for everyone.

    Presenters:

    Governors Square 14
    show more

11:00am

  • We Built This City: How Communities Can Get Better Broadband

    Communities around the country are facing the same problem: The broadband service available to their residents is too slow and too expensive, and incumbent telecom companies have no incentive to improve speeds or reduce prices.

    Some communities, like the Colorado city of Longmont, have taken matters into their own hands and built their own fiber-optic networks. Now their residents have access to more powerful broadband service, and the new networks have lowered the cost of a connection.

    Meanwhile, corporate-driven laws in 19 states restrict the ability for communities to follow this path, leaving residents with fewer broadband choices, slower speeds and higher prices.

    This panel will explore how communities in the U.S. and abroad have brought better broadband to their residents, what effects these improvement have had on local economies and how the lessons residents have learned can be applied elsewhere.

    Presenters:

    Governors Square 15
    show more
  • Are Geeks the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties?

    Hackers “are building one of the most vibrant civil liberties movements we’ve ever seen,” writes digital anthropologist Gabriella Coleman. “It is a culture committed to freeing information, insisting on privacy and fighting censorship, which in turn propels wide-ranging political activity.”

    Meanwhile, a new generation of geeks is devoted to increasing transparency, analyzing data and enhancing the media’s ability to help us solve real problems.

    In this session, Gabriella Coleman, author of Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, and Daniel Sinker, director of the Knight-Mozilla OpenNews project, author of the @MayorEmmanuel Twitter feed and founder of Punk Planet magazine, will discuss whether all this talk about coders saving democracy is for real — or divorced from messy reality. Do hacking and coding actually improve people’s lives, or are we too optimistic about the Internet’s role in our society and our politics?

    Presenters:

    Governors Square 14
    show more

2:00pm

  • The Title of This Session Matters More Than My Talk

    By 2016, nonprofits will create much of the best Internet content about stuff that matters. As traditional media declines, how will these nonprofits protect the role of the “fourth estate” as they rise to power?

    Join Eli Pariser, the board president of MoveOn.org and the co-founder of Upworthy, for a conversation about how advocates can use social media to ensure that millions of people get meaningful content amid all the LOL catz. Eli will be joined by Upworthy Deputy Editor and Denver native Amir Mansur Gidfar, who will explore how to make meaningful content go viral with killer headlines.

    Presenters:

    Governors Square 15
    show more
Add to calendar

People + Policy

= Positive Change for the Public Good

people + policy = Positive Change for the Public Good