[ONLINE] - Decentralized Alternatives to Big Tech

The concentration of power in today’s online landscape has plenty of D.C. policymakers looking to regulatory and legislative solutions to rein in the large companies that control so much of the public’s attention and personal data, as well as what information they see online. But without the existence of alternatives to the centralized platform business model, even breaking up the biggest companies won’t help. Fortunately, there are people out there working on technological innovations and social and economic structures to go along, all with the aim of creating a multitude of alternative models for online platforms that protect personal data, empower individuals to participate in content moderation in their communities, and push out the middlemen standing in the way of direct personal connection.

Join New America’s Open Technology Institute on October 6th at Noon Eastern for a series of tech demonstrations, to see firsthand how the decentralization movement is creating the alternatives that might someday displace today’s giant platforms, and meet some of the creators and entrepreneurs who are making it happen.

Keep up with the conversation online by following @OTI and using the hashtag #decentralizedtech.

Participants:

Paul Frazee, @pfrazee
Founder of the Beaker Browser and leading architect of peer-to-peer Web applications

Amandine Le Pepe, @AmandineLePape
COO & Co-Founder, Element and the Matrix communications protocol

Eileen Wagner, @bumblblu
Program Manager, Simply Secure

Karissa McKelvey, @okdistribute
Research Fellow, Simply Secure

Moderator:

Ross Schulman, @RossSchulman
Senior Policy Technologist & Senior Counsel, New America’s Open Technology Institute