Talking about Aura at re:publica 2018
I took a week off to dive into the world of (online) media. I watched that world for many years to see islands emerge and perish, scores of ideas setting sail to be submerged again and harmless scuttlebutt grow into a power that unleashed shit storms but also fuels campaigns that fight to keep fundamental freedoms afloat among the rising tides of state control and intervention into the net sphere.
Now it was time to engage citizens of planet online media.
Waiting in line, the size of re:publica surprised me. Considering its progressive, inclusive stance that’s good news for my hopes about the future development of democracy and journalism.
I learnt obvious things: Media outlets will only talk about Aura when there’s users or I know people who know people who know people. Folks love it and are happy to help. And very few people actually work in anti-surveillance tech. I will find them!
What lasts is inspiration, contacts, motivation and friends. His pink wig’s magnetism made sure I met Ivan and his friends and learned much more about “tech for good”. What a wonderful evening.
Sean Bonner had wisdom to share. And good ideas. Particularly stuck has the 7:3 rule. When brainstorming, come up with 7 unrealistic ideas that would totally solve the issue at hand. Then move on to 3 feasible ideas. This is a powerful doorway to thinking outside the box (sorry for the overstretched term). He’s director at SafeCast, a citizen science project crowdsourcing radiation measurements that saved lives in the response to Fukushima.
Right after re:publica I joined a Startup Weekend. I did a startup weekend four years ago and girl, was it an amazing time! Now, the low quality of ideas and lack of experience of participants depict that startups are mainstream today. What an amazing and good development! Nonetheless the pattern was broken: SaferSpace. Ousmene, an inspiring guy from London had the idea to crowd source collection of incidents of harassment and provide the data to research institutions world-wide. Electrifying! I put as much time as possible into Aura so could not make this a long-term engagement but it was a lot of fun to work with the team and offer advice. Let’s pray to the gods that SaferSpace flies high and changes peoples lives!
