PdF - Personal Democracy Forum 2011

The theme for PdF 2011 is "Agents of Change". More info now available on the plenaries and breakout sessions!

Too often, the discussion of technology and politics employs a kind of lazy shorthand. We say things like "The Internet is revolutionizing politics," or "the Internet is helping dictators," as if a set of network protocols and bits and wires could do anything on its own. Unfortunately, that shorthand often infects our discussion of current events, and we end up debating things like "TwitterRevolution" or "Facebook effect" rather than the real issues, which are what people do with these tools. The Internet, after all, doesn't empower anyone. We empower ourselves.

In that respect, this year's Personal Democracy Forum will be about what happens when the technology itself starts to fade into the background, and what becomes most important is all the new uses people come up with, as well as the policy changes that we may need in order to make such activity safe and productive.