Setting the scene for a digital future: What’s important and how can it be achieved?

This first workshop (out of six) in the VIT series will focus on a feature that makes the digital sphere  technologically and socially agile, just and resilient: Decentralization. Exploring how the Internet and our digital communication look like today, we see (i) ever increasing monopoly (ii) tremendous challenges to maintain and fix a faulty technology basis, and (iii) serious ethical questions on new technologies, many of them ‒ such as automation, AI, etc. ‒ with wide-ranging implications at the socio-economic level. At the same time, we face unprecedented inequality and over-reaching surveillance, determining our role as citizens. Privacy, trust and security are at stake ‒ in a pure technical sense as well as economically and socially.

The first workshop in this series will be hosted by the Bern University of Applied Sciences (BFH) in Benne/Biel and benefits from the support of Digitale Gesellschaft Switzerland (DigiGes) and CCC Switzerland (CCC-CH).

Please register below before 22nd January: https://www.isoc.ch/events

The workshop will be held in English. It is free of charge; lunch, coffee & tea will be provided for registered participants. Travel arrangements and costs are the responsibility of the participants.

Where:  Berner Fachhochschule (BFH), Höheweg 80, CH-2501 Biel/Bienne, Room N.521

Parking at BFH is very difficult, please use public transport. Directions on BFH website here or on Open Street Map. From the Biel/Bienne train stations, please take bus no. 6 to the stop Hoheweg and then walk for 2-3 minutes to the BFH building.

When:  25^th of January, 10:00 ‒ 16:00

Programme:

09:30 ‒ 10:00 Registration – coffee available

10:00 ‒ 10:20 Welcome remarks

Dr Roxana Radu (ISOC-CH) and Mr Hernani Marques (p≡p)

10:20 ‒ 10:50 Why our future world will (have to) be organized in a more decentralized way

Prof. Dr. Dirk Helbing (ETHZ, http://www.coss.ethz.ch/people/helbing.html)

10:50 ‒ 11:20  Escaping the Ossification Trap with GNUnet

Prof. Dr. Christian Grothoff (BFH, https://grothoff.org/christian)

11:20 ‒ 11:50 Human rights, consumer protection and personal values: Reflections in the context of our evaluation of messaging software

Mr Norbert Bollow, Digitale Gesellschaft Switzerland (https://www.digitale-gesellschaft.ch)

11:50 ‒ 12:20 Q&A and open discussion

12:20 ‒ 13:30 Lunch break

13:30 ‒ 13:55 Activist work on human rights, privacy and protections on the Internet (part I)

Mr Bernie Hoeneisen (ISOC-CH) and Mr Norbert Bollow (DigiGes)

13:55 ‒ 14:20 Activist work on human rights, privacy and protections on the Internet (part II)

Ms Nana Karlstetter, p≡p Foundation and  Mr Hernani Marques (CCC CH)

14:20 ‒ 15:40 Hands-on session / Q&A and open discussion

15:40 ‒ 16:30 Final round ‒ take away messages

Dr Roxana Radu (ISOC-CH) and Mr Hernani Marques (p≡p)

16.45 ‒ 18:00  Reception