This is a three-day event on building practical solutions and coming up with answers to complicated questions around challenges to defending digital freedoms, with a focus on combating Internet censorship and restoring unfettered communications on temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
The event will take place in a closed-doors Chatham house, interactive, small-group format from Friday afternoon and through the weekend. The hybrid schedule includes thematic presentations, group work and brainstorming sessions, hands-on working sessions for the hackathon.
Participants will need to select (and can change throughout the format) one of the thematic working groups:
- Research on Online Censorship, Propaganda – We invite Data Researchers and Journalists;
- Anti-censorship marketing – Anti-censorship media, art against censorship, VPN marketing and censorship education. We invite marketers, educators, and PR people;
- Activist Communications – Technologies and practices to strengthen the war resistance movement – We invite activists, security professionals and designers;
- UX, tool design and programming – we invite designers and developers
Apply to participate if you want to join the battle against Russian propaganda and build solutions for restoring digital freedoms in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
Event agenda
April 28th 2023, Friday
16:30 – 17:00 – Welcome coffee and snacks;
17:00 – 17:20 – Keynote speech: Ambitions of the “Internet Without Borders” conference series.
17:20 – 17:40 – Keynote speech: Tactical Tech’s OSINT toolkit and approaches: an overview – Marek Tuszynski – creative director and co-founder of Tactical Tech;
17:40 – 18:20 – Keynote speeches:
- Track 1. Research – Network censorship / Propaganda / OSINT – Ksenia Yermoshina, senior researcher at Citizen Lab and CIS CNRS, UX researcher at eQualit.ie;
- Track 2. Outreach – Anti-censorship media, art, VPN marketing and education – Ilia Rozovskii, co-founder Fnacy Interactive
- Track 3. Digital Activism – Technologies and practices for strengthening the war resistance movement – Alexey Sidorenko, co-founder and director of Teplitsa.
- Track 4. Coding – Building and improving anti-Censorship tools; How decentralization can define the future of digital resistance to Russian censorship – Dmitri Vitaliev, co-founder and director of eQualitie;
18:20 – 18:40 – Break;
18:40 – 20:00 – Hackathon Kick-off. Presentations of the challenges. Participants select thematic groups and assignments. Within chosen groups, participants introduce each other and chosen challenges. Each group has a facilitator, a note-taker;
19:40 – 21:00 – Party / Networking.
During the first day of the event, our partner Access Now will conduct a Digital Security Clinic which offers attendees a forum to discuss any issues or concerns they may have regarding their digital well-being. The Clinic will provide expert assistance in resolving these issues and recommend security practices that can help protect attendees from potential threats.
April 29th, Saturday
10:00 – 10:30 – Welcome coffee;
10:30 – 12:00 – Hackathon day 2 working session;
12:00 – 13:00 – Lunch;
13:00 – 16:30 – Hackathon day 2 working session;
16:30 – 17:00 – Break
17:00 – 18:00 – Hackathon checkpoint – Thematic group progress updates (by group facilitators). Update on progress. We look for collaborative opportunities between working groups; participants who have completed a challenge may move to another thematic group. Participants can request additional information or support to complete their challenge. Planning for day 3.
April 30th, Sunday
10:00 – 10:30 – Welcome coffee;
10:30 – 12:00 – Hackathon day 3 working session;
12:00 – 13:00 – Lunch;
13:00 – 15:00 – Hackathon day 3 working session;
15:00 – 15:30 – Final checkpoint;
15:30 – 17:00 – Finalisation of the presentations;
17:00 – 19:00 – Hackathon challenge presentations! Finish!
