OTI + Mozfest 2017

This week, with eight sessions at Mozfest 2017, “the world’s leading festival for the open Internet movement,” the Open Technology Institute is taking London by storm. OTI will interact with journalists, hackers, technologists, coders, and anyone else interested in the healthy internet movement through workshops featuring everything from a tech policy card game to workshops analyzing possible community solutions to current surveillance tactics.  

The Technology for Social Justice Field Scan Exhibition:
This gallery session will highlight the collaborative research from several different tech organizations, including Research Action Design and OTI. Check out the practitioners’ stories, stakeholders’ narratives, and interactive displays that have come from the organizations’ field scan after over a year of documenting, mapping, and analyzing the space known as “technology for social good.” 

Tech Policy Card Game:
Are you interested in card games, tech policy, or anything internet health-related? If so, this tech policy-themed card game created in the style of Fluxx (a card game where the rules and ways to win change as different cards are played) needs your input. This session will include testing out the game, cultivating the rules, and designing the cards that have already been developed.

M-Lab: Compare Your Internet Connectivity to Other Parts of the World:
In this session, representatives from M-Lab will ask participants about their experience of the internet and how it compares with other locations in the world. Check out this exhibit out to learn more about tools for automating measurement of home connections, and enter a raffle to win a Raspberry Pi 3.

Let’s Keep Our Chat Local:
OTI and the team at Matrix.org will provide the backchannel communications platform for MozFest. Instead of using Slack, WhatsApp, or other walled gardens, they have created a temporary, local Matrix server accessible to all participants. If you’re interested in learning more about the power of decentralization, check out the physical server itself, which will be present at the session.

Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index:
Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) is a research initiative working to set global standards for how companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector should respect freedom of expression and privacy. This session will teach participants how to use their Threatened Voices database, which contains several hundred case files on activists and independent media workers who have been targeted with legal, physical or technical threats due to their work online. RDR’s suite of tools will allow users to search, analyze, and produce simple visualizations of data in the set to support research or activism on free speech issues.

Just Numbers:
Participants at this Learning Forum session will learn how police collect data from citizens through surveillance equipment. Participants will discuss real case studies and will work in small groups to develop a community solution (both technical and non-technical) to current surveillance tactics.

The Internet Research Hub:
This hub is an an easy-going space for discussions and networking. Stop by, say “hello,” and maybe even sign up for one of the open demo tables to display your research!

Net Neutrality Enforcement:
Stop by this session to explore the current state of net neutrality in an international context. This Learning Forum session will focus on net neutrality in Europe, the United States, West Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, and discuss the legal technical, and public effort enforcement tactics.