Meet The Team: Lawyer Kati Vellak
An interview with Kati Vellak — the Citizen OS Foundation team lawyer keeping everything in check—on extreme sports, family decisions, office culture, and e-democracy.
So why did you choose law over becoming a professional extreme sports player?! And how did you end up focusing on such topics as e-democracy and Citizen OS?
Extreme sports just didn’t give me enough excitement, so I needed something extra. (She laughs). Haha, no… that is a big fat joke! Law and order is just something that is part of my nature, and I actually grew kind of naturally into being a lawyer.
A long time ago, I started in a small company as Office Manager, but always ended up helping my employer with their legal questions. So nobody even questioned when one day I told them that I had started my studies at a law faculty.
It just happened naturally — even before I had finished my degree, someone else had taken over the office-related duties and I had officially become the lawyer of the company. And now it’s more than 12 years that I’ve been helping various IT companies to run their businesses, and to obey the rules set out for them.
When I found out that Citizen OS Foundation needed legal help, it was a natural decision for me to offer my competencies. The values and principles that we carry here at Citizen OS are very dear to me — in both my everyday life and my professional life.
In my family we do try to discuss everything through, and make decisions together. And if that means — as it usually does — that you have to prepare your arguments to make your point, then even my 5-year-old son comes prepared to our family meetings.
And to come back to the question about the extreme sports I do, such as wakeboarding and snowboarding — because my day job requires a lot of effort from my brain, then I need to balance it out with different types of sports.
And I do love those types of sport where my whole family gets involved too — the time we spend together is so precious. Even if it means that my gut reaction as a Mum and a wife is always tested, as my close ones do different crazy tricks while I watch and cheer on.
How can you influence the development of e-democracy as a lawyer? What are the potential hazards to e-democracy from a lawyer’s point of view?
The first question is an easy one to answer — by being an active member of society, having well-motivated opinions, and sharing them caringly.
The answer to the second question is a little more complicated, as I want to say that first of all, the potential hazard to e-democracy is law itself, and this makes me both laugh and cry at the same time! But that is the everyday life of a lawyer; our hazard, tool of work and driving force — all at the same time — is the law itself.
What is it like to work at Citizen OS Foundation, where decisions are made together as a team?
I thrive here. I love the atmosphere, and the state of mind that everyone’s opinion counts. And it actually always makes me strive for more — because it is unthinkable to show up to one of our meetings and just “shoot” an opinion. I have to be prepared, organised, and opinionated — thus the homework must be done! (She laughs). And that motivates me — I like it!
Citizen OS Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation providing free open source civic tech and building a worldwide civic hacktivist network. The Citizen OS platform enables participative discussion and delegative voting. Ideal for e-democracy initiatives, online meetings, e-voting and petitions.
Find out more at: www.citizenos.com or follow the Citizen OS Facebook Page. For more details on the design work featured above, visit the DUX website.
