Internet Freedom & Open Government: An International Conversation

Wikimedia District of Columbia, the Washington European Society, and the Estonian Embassy in Washington invite you to attend...

Internet Freedom & Open Government: An International Conversation

SOPA. PIPA. ACTA. These four-letter acronyms dominated the headlines as thousands of people around the world protested for the right to a free and open internet. Meanwhile, a report by Freedom House, an American NGO, ranked Estonia as the country with the highest level of Internet freedom, and Estonia also ranks on the top of global lists of open and transparent governments. How did Estonia end up on top? What is the status of internet freedom around the world? What are the practices of e-governance that can foster a transparent, inclusive relationship between citizens and governments? Where does the US stand on these issues, and how do congressional measures, such as the OPEN Act, affect internet freedom in the US?

Join Wikimedia District of Columbia, the Washington European Society, and the Estonian Embassy for a discussion on Internet Freedom & Open Government, featuring Danny Weitzner, Deputy CTO for Internet Policy at the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy; Chairman Marko Mihkelson, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament; Ian Schuler, Senior Manager for Internet Freedom Programs at the State Department;; and Rebecca MacKinnon, Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation. The discussion will be moderated by Adam Kushner, Deputy Editor of the National Journal.

This event will take place at 5:00 PM on April 25, 2012, at the Estonian Embassy in Washington (located at 2131 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC), and will be followed by a reception at 6:00 PM. Space is extremely limited, and RSVP is required.

About the guests

Daniel J. Weitzner is the Deputy Chief Information Officer for Internet Policy at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Previously, he was Policy Director of the World Wide Web Consortium's Technology and Society activities. He also holds an appointment as Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Before joining the W3C, Mr. Weitzner was co-founder and Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a leading Internet civil liberties organization in Washington, DC. He was also Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He serves on the Boards of Directors of the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Software Freedom Law Center, the Web Science Research Initiative, and the Internet Education Foundation.

Marko Mihkelson is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu, the unicameral parliament of Estonia, where he also serves as a Member of the European Union Affairs Committee and Head of the Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Chairman Mihkelson is a recipient of Estonia’s Order of the White Star, 4th class, Knight of the National Order of Merit of France, and Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy, among other honors. His articles have been published in several international publications since 1993.

Ian Schuler is the Senior Manager of Internet Freedom Programs at U.S. Department of State. Prior to his work at State, Mr. Schuler was the Senior Manager of ICT Programs at the National Democratic Institute (NDI), where his work on SMS messaging in election observation helped to earn NDI recognition as one of the “Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics” by Politics Online and the World e-Democracy Forum. Mr. Schuler has also povided political technology consulting to over 100 government agencies, political parties, political campaigns, and civic groups in more than 30 countries.

Rebecca MacKinnon is a Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at the New America Foundation and author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom. MacKinnon is a former CNN journalist, having headded the CNN bureaus in Beijing and later in Tokyo. She later became co-founder of Global Voices Online, an international network of bloggers and citizen journalists. She is on the Board of Directors of the Global Network Initiative and the Committee to Protect Journalists, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Wikimedia Foundation.

About the moderator

Adam Kushner is deputy editor of the National Journal magazine. Prior to National Journal, he served as a senior editor at Newsweek, editing foreign coverage, including major projects such as a Berlin Wall retrospective and coverage of the 2010 World Cup. Earlier, Kushner covered ideas and trends for the foreign desk as a senior writer. From 2003 to 2007, Kushner held a variety of positions at The New Republic, including a post as Assistant Managing Editor and, ultimately, Managing Editor/Online. In that role, he managed all aspects of the site and oversaw a relaunch of TNR.com. Kushner is a graduate of Columbia University, and co-founded both the Columbia Political Review and the Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism during his time there. He is a native of New Orleans.