Along with various partners, Waag explores the state of the social and public Internet. What becomes of our digital freedoms in these times of espionage and Big Data? Twenty years after its birth, the Internet now speaks for itself—all the more reason to take a critical look at the character of the web in 2015.
Can we fix the Internet?
Together with Fast Moving Targets, we've made a Dutch documentary about the current state of the Web. Eleven advocates for a free and open Internet have come together to explain about their vision, hopes, and fears in a series of interviews. "The value to investors is currently more important than the value of community and social issues," says Marleen Stikker, Waag's director.
The interviewees are Marleen Stikker (Director of Waag), Marietje Schaake (Europarlementariër D66), Caroline Nevejan (TU Delft, co-founder of Waag), Christiaan Alberdingh Thyme (Lawyer, Brandeis), Hans de Zwart (Director Bits Of Freedom), Daniel Karrenberg (Chief Scientist RIPE NCC), Menso Heus (Coordinator Internet Protection Lab), Melanie Rieback (Radically Open Security), Jaromil (Dyne.org), Cees de Laat (Professor, University of Amsterdam), and Michiel Leenaars (Director of Strategy at NLnet).
Besides the entire documentary, you can also watch all interviews with these internet experts separately:
- Melanie Rieback (Radically Open Security) is an online security expert: “You have to realize that on the Internet not having privacy and security is an illusion.”
- Menso Heus (coordinator Internet Protection Lab) helps protect journalists and activists in the digital world: “If everyone did this, it would not break the Internet.”
- Daniel Karrenberg is chief scientist at RIPE NCC. He helped bring the Internet to Europe and earned a place in the Internet Hall of Fame: “History teaches us that the only way to break a monopoly is through legal intervention”
- Marleen Stikker (Waag) was the founder of public Internet in the Netherlands. She was, among other thingsm a founding member of the Digital City "Every closed technology must be opened."
- Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm (Braindeis) is a lawyer and deals with legal issues: "You don't want to regulate on the Internet too quickly."
- Marietje Schaake MEP for D66 and is an advocate for a free and open Internet, "If we want to keep the Internet open, we must take action."
- Hans de Zwart (Bits of Freedom) defends civil liberties on the Internet: "Technology is never neutral."
The interviews with Caroline Nevejan, Jaromil, Cees de Laat and Michiel Leenaars will follow soon.
