Beginning today, Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is participating in two of Europe’s major technology and media events: MozFest 2016 and WIRED2016. HRF’s Flash Drives for Freedom campaign will be featured at each London-based conference, and HRF staff will be meeting with innovators and technologists to brainstorm how to more effectively advance human rights worldwide.
Mozfest is an annual festival where hundreds of passionate people gather to wield the Web for good. The 2016 event runs this weekend at Ravensbourne and speakers include Electronic Frontier Foundation and Benetech board member Brian Behlendorf, Wikimedia executive director Katherine Maher, and Turkish internet scholar Zeynep Tufekci. Mozfest is filled with interactive labs, breakout discussions, and design studios dedicated to hands-on making and hacking. Flash Drives for Freedom will be exhibited at MozEx, a collaboration from the digital learning teams at the Tate and the V&A meant to showcase dynamic digital artwork at the intersection of art, society, and the digital world.
WIRED2016 is an annual two-day conference taking place at Tobacco Dock on November 3-4. The event unites some of the world’s top thinkers, makers, and doers, and 2016 speakers include venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently co-founder Abdalaziz al-Hamza, and Afghan tech entrepreneur Roya Mahboob. Al-hamza and Mahboob spoke at the Oslo Freedom Forum earlier this year and in London HRF president Thor Halvorssen will introduce Mahboob on the main conference stage just after lunch on November 3. Flash Drives for Freedom will be exhibited in the event's networking area, and will show the WIRED community how information and technology are helping to free minds in closed societies like North Korea.
HRF's presence in London in the coming week is part of our broader effort to engage creatives and problem-solvers in the struggle for human rights where they are most at risk. To learn more about HRF’s exhibits at MozFest and WIRED, please contact jim@humanrightsfdn.wpengine.com.
Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.