Event details

Date: 8-9 December 2016
Time: 10.00am – 8.00pm
Event: Symposium Invitation only and open community events Venue:

Welcome

Welcome to the symposium of the Barcelona Initiative for Technological Sovereignty (BITS), a multidisciplinary effort to analyze and shape a technological agenda rooted in the ideals of democracy, solidarity, and autonomy.

Hosted by the City of Barcelona and bringing together leading thinkers about technology, cities, and geopolitics, BITS is a strategic partnership between Hans Crescent Symposium London, the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3/UOC), the Institute of Government and Public Policy (IGOP/UAB), and a network of social movement activists and academics. It originates from the partners’ shared interest in developing a strategic vision of using advanced information technologies to benefit an alternative political, social, and economic agenda.

Purpose

BITS will stimulate a global debate about the changing meanings of sovereignty and explore the ways in which various types of sovereignty – of citizens, cities, nation states, and regions – can still be maintained in today’s highly technological global conditions. With a strong focus on the political effects of technological change, BITS will explore how the rise of technology platforms and the data extractivism they enable is transforming governments, labor, ownership, and access to the basics of life such as water, food, housing, and energy. This task is particularly important as the current political and economic regime reformulates itself around the rhetorical and practical kernel of digital technology, with a new mighty alliance between technology firms, global finance, and the military-industrial complex.

Activities

BITS’ initiatives include workshops, Symposiums, a series of monthly lectures and workshops linking researchers, grassroots, and public officials starting in 2017, and a Summer School in July 2017. Regular content will be produced and shared, including research briefings and news digests pertaining to the questions addressed by the initiative. 

BITS seminars, work streams, and research lines are geared towards "what's to be done?" sort of questions. Its members and audience include prominent academics, journalists, researchers, social movement activists, campaigners, entrepreneurs, and public officials from municipal and national governments in attendance. Thus, while BITS raises awareness and stimulates robust theoretical discussions, it also brings in and encourages concrete examples and suggestions for specific policy interventions in the political context.

Agenda

December 8

DAY ONE: POWER

10.00 Welcome
Gerardo Pisarello, First Deputy Mayor, Barcelona

Francesca Bria, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Barcelona 10.15 Opening Remarks

Roy Singham, Chairman ThoughtWorks

10.30- Keynote: Power, Economics and Crisis in the Era of Authoritarian 12:00 Capitalism

Kees van der Pijl, Emeritus Professor International Relations, Sussex University

Respondent:
Julian Assange, Founder and Editor Wikileaks

12:15- Session 1: The Geopolitics of Technology
14:15 Keynote: Dan Schiller, Historian of information and communications,

University of Illinois

Respondents:
Evgeny Morozov, author
Carlos Figueira, former Vice Minister of Technology, Venezuela

Open debate
Facilitator: Francesco Nachira, independent researcher Note taker: Renata Avila, lawyer and activist

Lunch break
15:15- Session 2: The New Global Financial Architecture

17:15 Keynote: Andres Arauz, Minister of Talent and Knowledge, Ecuador Respondents: Brett Scott, Journalist and Researcher

Ekaitz Cancela, Journalist and author

Open debate
Facilitator: Jaromil, Dyne.org
Note taker: Anthony Arnove, ThoughtWorks

Coffee Break