Back last year when we could go to conferences and festivals without fear of the covd19 pandemic. BBC R&D, Mozilla and Publicspaces put on a conference during the Mozilla Festival week.
It was a great conference but unfortunately it never was written up. Its a real shame but you can understand with all the build up to the coming pandemic. So I thought it would be worth writing something short at least because it was enjoyable and full of great speakers.
We started with a keynote from Rachel Coldicutt – Doteveryone – previously CEO of Doteveryone
Rachel talked about the importance of public value, what’s at stake if we leave it to the market and the notion of just enough internet, which I mentioned previously. It was great keynote and really kicked off the day of panel talks in the right manor. Its still a shame doteveryone is no more.
Session One – Public-Controlled Data
- Rhianne Jones – BBC R&D – Research Lead (BBC R&D)
- Jeni Tennison – ODI – CEO of the Open Data Institute (ODI)
- Katja Bego – NESTA – Principal Researcher and data scientist at NESTA
Rhianne started the session with a look at the new forms of value work in R&D before Jeni and Katja followed in discussion with a look at the challenges facing the industry in which public controlled data can be ethically and unethically used.
Session Two – Equal Access for Everyone
- Bill Thompson – BBC R&D – Principal Research Engineer at BBC R&D
- Laura Ellis – BBC – BBC Head of Technology Forecasting
- Isobel Hunter – Libraries Connected – Chief Executive at Libraries Connected
Bill kicked off the conversation looking at the important issue of inequality with Laura and Isobel looking at it from their points of view. All very enlightening with the different views coming together into we can all do better.
Session Three – A Healthy Digital Public Sphere
- Solana Larsen – Mozilla Foundation – Editor of Mozilla’s Internet Health Report
- Miles Metcalfe – Campaigner and activist
- Tim Cowlishaw – BBC R&D – Project Technologist and Senior Software engineer at BBC R&D
Solana started things with a look at what makes up the internet heath report with Miles and Tim talking about the looking further and deep into what we mean by healthy and society
Session Four – Public Service Networking
- Paulien Dresscher – Publicspaces & NFF – Independent curator, researcher, writer and educator
- Ira Bolychevsky – Redecentralize – Data consultant, digital strategist and Director of Redecentralize
- Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino – Designswam – Internet of things author, consultant, public speaker and entrepreneur
Paulien kicked off the last session with a look at Publicspaces,net and their projects including the badges project. Ira followed up by exploring the notion of publicservice networking through the Redecentralize organisation. Alexandra then followed with her experience looking at the internet of things with a more ethical lens.
The whole event was very well attended and served as good follow on from the previous year. So what about this year? Well as you know Mozilla have moved the festival to Amsterdam but the pandemic has shifted things to a mainly virtual festival next year in March. Plans are a foot to follow up with something in collaboration with Publicspaces.
