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Take a look at all video recordings and recaps of the conference via the timetable.


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Towards a Common Internet

NEDERLANDS 🇳🇱

Op 11 en 12 maart 2021 organiseren PublicSpaces, Pakhuis de Zwijger en Waag een conferentie om het internet te redden. Het internet is stuk, maar we kunnen het nog repareren en de kapotte onderdelen vervangen. In deze conferentie, mede mogelijk gemaakt door het Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken, gaan we op zoek naar manieren hoe we het internet weer tot een gezonde publieke ruimte kunnen maken.

De conferentie kick-off vindt plaats op donderdagavond met een internationale introductie. Tijdens het dagprogramma op vrijdag, gaan we met professionals uit de publieke sector op zoek naar een uitweg van big tech en gaan we voor ontwikkelaars op zoek naar alternatieven systemen voor een veilig, open en eerlijk internet. De vrijdagavond sluiten we af met een publieke talkshow over de gevaren van het huidige model, maar ook de concrete mogelijkheden voor een toekomstig internet zonder surveillance-kapitalisme en met gezonde alternatieven die we meteen kunnen inzetten. Samen beantwoorden we de onmogelijke vraag: hoe komen we tot een publieke ruimte op het internet?


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ENGLISH 🇬🇧

On March 11 & 12 2021 there will be a conference to save the internet and it will be organised by Waag, PublicSpaces and Pakhuis de Zwijger and is powered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The conference will have a kick off event on Thursday night, an international introduction.

The Friday Day Program
will be focused on professionals in the public sector and open source organisations and developers. A full day conference with plenary sessions and custom tracks to follow.

Friday night we end the conference with a diverse (Dutch spoken) talkshow, relevant and fun for everyone who is interested in a more public and honest internet.

PublicSpaces is a coalition of over 25 public organisations in public media, cultural heritage, festivals, museums, education and health care. We are reclaiming the internet as a force for the common good and advocating a new internet that strengthens the public domain.

We would like to start a conversation on how to bridge the gap between these public organisations and open source developers. Where to get funding? How to start co-creation with a public organisation? And how to create better designed, user-centric, value driven tools that are easy to implement by broadcasters, museums and festivals? A discussion with developers, investors, politicians and public organisations.


View recordings of the conference

Thursday kick off

This event is in English
Thursday 11 Mar, 17.00

Moderator: Marleen Stikker

The internet is broken, but we can fix it and replace broken parts. In this conference, we will look for ways how we can make the internet a healthy public space again. Therefore, on Thursday, March 11 from 17h00 CET onwards, we will gather together a network of organisations and individuals who are committed to working on digital public spaces in Europe. An evening filled with several informed presentations of experts on the recent agenda which is unfolding to build a European alternative. No longer dependent on the tech giants of Silicon Valley. An alternative that values our freedoms and is the exact opposite of the state surveillance system which is constructed in China. This conference is designed to kickstart lasting cooperation and a network of organisations and developers that are committed to fixing the internet. A collective where we are able to exchange ideas and cooperate on specific projects. Bringing different networks together from areas such as digital rights, open data, civic tech, and bridging these communities with those who have expressed their need for digital public spaces: politicians, policymakers, and organisations with a public mission who want to be able to use technology that is fully in line with the common public values that are central to their work.

Programme of the evening 

After a short introduction by our moderator Marleen Stikker at 17h00 the following speakers will deliver a short and concise keynote speech:

Katja Bego of Nesta will set the scene when it comes to the ecosystem of alternative open source initiatives that are being built and fostered in Europe.

Paul Keller of the Open Future foundation will give us an overview of the policy agenda that is unfolding at the EU policy level and what to expect for the future.

Eli Pariser of Civic Signals will provide an informed outside look on how things stand from a US perspective.

Afterwards, there will be a Q&A with the audience in which also the speakers are able to react and discuss amongst each other.

At 19h00 we will start by several community announcements, followed by a panel discussion on an open letter launched by the SDEPS calling for digital European public spaces. We want to discuss what constitutes a European public digital infrastructure, what values should be built upon, what its governance should look like and how this can promote democracy and dialogue within European society.

Panel debate on the need for a Shared Digital European Public Spaces (SDEPS)

Moderator Alek Tarkowski of Open Future will moderate a panel debate on the need for a Shared Digital European Public Spaces (SDEPS) between:

Alexander Baratsits of the Cultural Broadcasting Archive and one of the co-authors of an open letter (to be published soon) to European policy makers. Prof. Dr. Barbara Thomaß of the institute of mediascience at the Ruhr University Bochum. Danny O'Brien director of strategy of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Ariadna Matas policy advisor for the Europeana foundation. Paul Tang MEP, initiator of the AdsZuck campaign of the Socialist and Democrats in the European Parliament aimed at ending the abuse of citizens’ personal data by Big Tech companies. Followed by a Q&A with the participants and panellists.

Friday Day Program

This event is partly in Dutch 🇳🇱 and partly in English 🇬🇧
Friday 12 Mar, 10.00 – 17.00

Moderator: Clarice Gargard

This conference is designed to kickstart a lasting cooperation and a network of organisations and developers that are committed to fixing the internet. A collective where we are able to exchange ideas and cooperate on specific projects. Bringing different networks together from areas such as digital rights, open data, civic tech, and bridging these communities with those who have expressed their need for digital public spaces: politicians, policymakers, and organisations with a public mission who want to be able to use technology that is fully in line with the common public values that are central to their work.

Track 1: Towards an ethical internet

Most of the essential applications on the internet have turned into vehicles for political control and economic profit, in which citizens are no longer subjects, but objects. How can public organizations reclaim again the internet as a public space and offer their audiences services that embody public of which they subscribe the ethical values?

Track 2: The Digital Public Spaces Ecosystem

We are seeking to build digital public spaces that are in line with our common values: we want them to be open, democratic, and sustainable. Many initiatives exist that work on alternatives that can be part of this ecosystem of change. In this track, we will get both an overview of what organisations and projects are already out there, get a sense of how they can work together, and build new connections between initiatives and networks that operate in this ecosystem. Central to this track is a map that we are working on and build on during the sessions in this track. We invite participants to join us and add to this map as well as to find new potential collaborations so that together we can make these digital public spaces a reality. Ian Forrester, BBC R&D, will moderate the sessions in this track and invite you to join us on the shared ‘map of change’.

Track 3: Meet the disruptors

Silicon Valley and the world of venture capital revolve around the notion of radical disruption. Those ideas that change the world instantaneously. The question: ‘what comes after the break?’ is deliberately postponed until a later date. First, innovate, then improve is the device. In order to move towards a better internet, incremental change is not enough. In fact, it may actually be the mentality of ‘ship first, fix later’ that may have led to the problems that we are currently facing. In this track, we want to highlight the trailblazers that aim to create a different form of disruption. People that do not only want to change the world for a moment but those that have the stamina and patience to persist.

Track 4: Matchmaking track 

In the matchmaking track, supply and demand come together and new alliances are forged and partnerships are built. The purpose of the round table sessions is to bring new parties from different disciplines together around one topic. The conversation serves as an introduction and starting point for a workgroup or collaboration, also after the conference.

Vrijdag avondprogramma via LIVECAST: HOEDAN!?

Deze avond is Nederlands gesproken 🇳🇱
Reserveren is voor dit onderdeel niet nodig.
Kijk mee via de Livecast van Pakhuis de Zwijger.
Vrijdagavond 12 maart, 19.30 – 21.30 uur

Presentatoren: Nadia Moussaid & Roland Duong

Dat internet, waar wij tegenwoordig met z’n allen dag en nacht lijken te wonen, van wie is dat eigenlijk? In wiens huis hangen we de hele tijd rond en wat weten zij over ons? Is het niet eens tijd voor een eigen clubhuis, waar we zelf de regels bepalen? Ons eigen publieke en eerlijke internet? Maar hoe dan!?

Het avondprogramma van de eerste PublicSpaces conferentie richt zich op iedereen die zich zo langzamerhand begint af te vragen wat er nu eigenlijk precies mis is met het huidige internet, en vooral ook hoe je het beter zou kunnen maken.

 Onder muzikale begeleiding van Digidopamine/Rararadio met Nadine Roestenburg en Harm Hofmans, zullen de presentatoren Roland Duong en Nadia Moussaid in drie blokken en met een serie spannende gasten alle hoeken en gaten van het internet verkennen; het internet van vandaag, maar ook van morgen.