The Bytes and Rights 2017 conference is being held as part of the Festival of the Web, an 8-day series of international conferences in early April in Perth.
See the full program of Festival of the Web events.
Bytes and Rights is a conference focused on the many issues around how society responds to changing technology, especially technology related to the Internet.
We will discuss legal, policy, regulatory and social responses to issues such as human rights, intellectual property enforcement, security and harassment. We aim to bring together experts including academics, lawyers, commercial practitioners, technologists, and civil society groups in a open dialog that cuts across specific disciplines.
WHEN
Tuesday 4th April 2017
WHERE
Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre
REGISTER
A variety of passes are available for just Bytes & Rights, or the entire Festival of the Web.
Please visit our registration page for more details and to register.
BYTES & RIGHTS PROGRAM: TUESDAY 4TH APRIL 2017
SESSION ONE (9AM – 10.30AM)
Keynote: The Anonymity Primitive, presented by Wendy Seltzer
Even if few interactions require anonymity, anonymous communication has a key function in social and technical architectures: it can protect dissident expression or whistleblowing; it can support private exploration of ideas or markets; it can promote independence of operations and true end-to-end separation of concerns. Of course unauthenticated communications can also do damage, and systems often seek to limit such communications as spam, harassment, denial or service, and more recently, “fake news.”
This talk will discuss the role of anonymity as a technical and social “primitive” upon which authenticated interactions can (and must) be constructed. We’ll also discuss technical means for anonymity, such as Tor, and the relationship of anonymity to privacy and free expression.
Wendy Seltzer is Strategy Lead and Counsel to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) at MIT, improving the Web’s security, availability, and interoperability through standards. As a Fellow with Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Wendy founded the Lumen Project (formerly Chilling Effects Clearinghouse), helping to measure the impact of legal takedown demands on the Internet. She seeks to improve technology policy in support of user-driven innovation and secure communication.
SESSION TWO (11AM – 12.30PM)
Privacy, Consent, and digital research. Working with people with disabilities
This panel will discuss issues face when working with people with disabilities in digital research. Drawing on the ongoing research project Navigating Urban Spaces through Curtin university the panel will focus on privacy awareness and how this impacts on ongoing digital research with people with disabilities, as well as concerns and issues related to obtaining informed consent for research participants.
Presenters
Katie Ellis is an associate professor and convenor of the Critical Disability Studies Research Network in the Internet Studies Department at Curtin University. She has worked with people with disabilities in government, academia and the community and has convened disability research advisory panels. She has authored and edited seven books and numerous articles on the topic, including an award winning paper on accessible learning platforms for students with disabilities and how these can be effectively used by mainstream students. She began a highly competitive Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) in 2013 to investigate the impacts of the changing television environment on the social inclusion and exclusion of people with disabilities.
Mike Kent is Head of Department and a senior lecturer at the Internet Studies Department at Curtin University. Mike’s research focus is on people with disabilities and their use of, and access to, information technology and the internet. His edited collection, with Katie Ellis, Disability and Social Media: Global Perspectives is available through Routledge in 2017 and his book, also with Katie Ellis, Disability and New Media was published in 2011. His other area of research interest is in higher education and particularly online education, as well as online social networking platforms. His edited collection with Tama Leaver, An Education in Facebook? Higher Education and the World’s Largest Social Network was released in 2014 through Routledge, and his collection with Rebecca Bennett, MOOCs and Higher Education: What went right, what went wrong and where to next? is also available through Routledge in 2017.
Anne-Marie Denney is the lead research assistant in the Navigating Urban Spaces project. Ms Denney has extensive experience in project management and has worked closely with the disability community in Perth in the recently completed pilot stage of this project.
SESSION THREE (1.30PM – 3PM)
The Ethics and Regulation of Privacy Breaches
Privacy is frequently discussed publicly in response to a breach, particularly as large breaches that may include the data of millions of people. What should our response to a privacy breach be? To what extent should we regulate a response? Data breach reporting legislation has recently been introduced in Australian, to what extent do these laws enforce appropriate handling of these breaches?
A presentation detailing the broad issues and current Australian legislation by Stephanie Rowland will be followed by a panel discussion.
Participants
Stephanie Rowland is a Partner in the Corporate Advisory team in Mills Oakley’s Perth office, specialising in intellectual property, technology, corporate and commercial law. Stephanie has significant experience in intellectual property and technology work including advising on the management, commercialisation and procurement of all kinds of IP and technology and strategies for its use for value creation, and on non-contentious commercial and transactional matters.Stephanie’s legal expertise is complemented by her years previously working in industry for IBM and Motorola.
Senator Scott Ludlam has been a member of the Australian Senate since 2008, representing the people of Western Australia. Scott is, among other responsibilities, the Greens’ spokesperson on Communications and has been a leading voice for digital rights issues in the Australian parliament.
Jon Lawrence is the Executive Officer of Electronic Frontiers Australia, the country’s leading digital rights organisation since 1994. Jon has 20 years of experience in the software and internet service sectors. His interests include resisting mass surveillance, protecting privacy and freedom of speech, promoting copyright law reform and bridging digital divides.
SESSION FOUR (3.30PM – 5PM)
Internet Fragmentation: can the web remain truly worldwide?
The global open Internet faces many challenges. We will discuss the many ways the Internet appears to be fragmenting and balkanising, and the methods and likelihood we might use to keep it together. We will discuss technical issues that limit interoperability, government policies that limit communication, and business practices (such as ‘walled gardens’) that limit the practical value of a single internet.
Participants
David Cake
David Cake has had an email address since 1989, and worked in the computer industry since 1991. He has worked in a wide range of software development and system administration related roles over the years, with special interests in digital media and web application development. David is currently the Chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia, the country’s leading digital rights organisation. David is also an active participant in the ICANN policy development process as a member of the Non-Commercial Users Constituency.
Narelle Clark
Narelle has over 20 years’ experience in network engineering and management positions in telecommunications companies and universities, as well as consulting with state and federal governments, overseas telecommunications providers and aid agencies. With a passion for research, Narelle also led research in networking technologies at CSIRO and managed Optus’ research program and applies this passion to her stewardship of the ACCAN grants scheme. She recently completed a six year term on the global Internet Society Board of Trustees. Narelle has been active in standards development through the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and now sits on the IEEE Software Defined Networking Initiative steering committee.
CONTACT US
Please email us at: 2017[AT]bytesandrights.org
