Beyond Conventions: A Ford Foundation Forum on Human Rights

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The Ford Foundation has posted the video of a panel I recently joined on "[t]he possibilities and pitfalls of technology in the pursuit of human freedom."  The other panelists were (the legendary and eloquent) Sir Tim Berners-Lee, (the brilliant and soon-to-be-book-launching) Rebecca MacKinnon, (the worldly and effective) Elisa Massimino, and (the multi-disciplinary and polymathical) Danny O’Brien.  The moderator was (the charming and prolific) Sewell Chan, deputy editor for The New York Times. For me, the most interesting part of the panel was an exchange primarily with Elisa about the pressing need for mainstream/mainline human rights advocates and organizations to view seemingly-specialized tech issues like net neutrality, competition policy, intermediary liability, encryption policy, and user data control as core human rights issues.

Let's go to the tape.

The Possibilities and Pitfalls of Technology in the Pursuit of Human Freedom with Sewell Chan (moderator), deputy editor, The New York Times; Tim Berners-Lee, inventor, World Wide Web; Rebecca MacKinnon, senior fellow, New America Foundation; Elisa Massimino, president and CEO, Human Rights First; Andrew McLaughlin executive director, Civic Commons and Danny O'Brien, internet advocacy coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists.