Events
We regularly speak at international and online events. View our past talks and contact us if you want to book Laura or Aral for your event.
Subscribe to the events feed with RSS.
Upcoming
We have no upcoming events scheduled at the moment.
Contact us if you’d like us to speak at yours.
Design For Everyone at axe-con (online)
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Design is not just about making something pretty. Our craft can give our users powers and freedom they never knew they could have. But our design work can also promote harm, ignore user rights, and exclude many users entirely.
In this talk, Laura explores the pitfalls of designing in the tech industry today, how we can design more accessibly, and how we can respect our users’ rights. She walks through practical guidelines and personal and collective approaches we can use to design better for everyone.
2024
Small Web at Dub|Sec in Dublin, Ireland
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a talk introducing the Small Web (including how it differs from the mainstream Big Web), explained its challenges and potential, and demonstrated how Small Web sites can be built and hosted.
Small Web at Computer science colloquium in Groningen, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a computer science colloquium at the University of Groningen.
The talk covered what the Small Web is and the current state of development, with demonstrations of setting up a Small Web place on your own server and your own domain in roughly ten seconds, communicating privately using end-to-end encryption between two Small Web nodes, and using Kitten’s Streaming HTML workflow to easily make hypermedia-driven Small Web applications.
Small Technology: Building Tech That Respects Our Rights at Beyond Tellerrand in Düsseldorf, Germany
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
The technology we use tracks and captures our every move, habit, and facial expression. We’ve been taught surveillance is the only way we can create modern technology, and that our personal information is merely used to improve our experiences. Instead, we see data about us being used to perpetuate systems of oppression and discrimination.
Being creators who are also users, we also have to reckon with how we both contribute to this surveillance system and are exploited by it. We can do better. In this talk, we explore a few practical ways to design technology that prioritises human welfare. And how we can use whatever power we have to build towards a better future.
Learn more about Small Technology: Building Tech That Respects Our Rights at Beyond Tellerrand.
2023
Accessibility for Everyone at DevOps Days Amsterdam in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
What is accessibility and who benefits from it? Laura gave a short talk on approaching accessibility, how we can create products that are better for everyone, and how we can improve accessibility for our teams too.
Learn more about Accessibility for Everyone at DevOps Days Amsterdam.
2022
Letting loose with colour at Design Matters in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura talked about creating accessible colour palettes for web design, including examples from the Small Techology Foundation website.
Learn more about Letting loose with colour at Design Matters.
2020
Towards a Small Web at Howest Academy in Kortrijk, Belgium (online)
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a talk on the Small Web to students studying design and development at Howest Academy in Kortrijk, Belgium.
This One Weird Trick Tells Us Everything About You at Smashing Conference in Freiburg, Germany (online)
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“This talk will examine the problems we face as individuals, in our work, and as part of the tech community. We’ll then explore a few of the practical ways we can design and build technology that respects human rights.”
View the slides from the talk.
Learn more about This One Weird Trick Tells Us Everything About You at Smashing Conference.
Using the web for social good at Hey! Live in Cork, Ireland (online)
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave an online lecture: “How can we use the web for social good? What tools and techniques already exist, and how can we retain our rights while we use them?”
Learn more about Using the web for social good at Hey! Live.
Beyond surveillance capitalism at Creative Mornings in Istanbul, Turkey (online)
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a remote session at this event.
Watch the recording of the talk.
Learn more about Beyond surveillance capitalism at Creative Mornings.
Defying the mainstream: building technology that respects our rights at New Adventures in Nottingham, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave a keynote at the event:
“Our every move, habit, and facial expression is tracked and captured by the web and Big Tech at large. We’re told surveillance is the price of using modern technology, and that our personal information is merely used to improve our experiences. Instead, we see data about us being used to perpetuate systems of oppression and discrimination. Being designers who are also users, we also have to reckon with how we both contribute to this surveillance system and are exploited by it.
Despite what we’re so often told, technology doesn’t have to be this way. This talk will explore a few of the practical ways we can design to benefit human welfare, not corporate profits.”
View the slides and transcript.
2019
8 Unbelievable Things You Never Knew About Tracking at The Future Friends Conference (ffconf) in Brighton, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“The web, and big tech at large, is tracking our every move, habit, and facial expression. As developers who are also users, we both contribute to the surveillance system and are exploited by it. But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Accessible unethical technology at Accessibility Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“Mainstream technology today is designed to track and exploit us. As technologists who are also users, we both contribute to this exploitative system and are exploited by it.
Is making our tech accessible enough, when the driving forces behind that tech are unethical?
Can tech be inclusive if it causes disproportionate harm to people from marginalised groups?
We can do better.
My talk will look at some of the big problems we face in tech today, and how we can start building inclusive and ethical technology tomorrow.”
View the slides and transcript.
Learn more about Accessible unethical technology at Accessibility Scotland.
Disruptive Design: Harmful Patterns and Bad Practice at Nordic.design in Stockholm, Sweden
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“Why does every app use the similar interactions? Why does every homepage look so similar? Often we find ourselves using particular design patterns because other organisations use them. We assume they’ve done the research, and these patterns can be our shortcut to success. But what if those patterns actually cause harm? What if they have a negative effect on the inclusivity and accessibility of our designs?
In this talk, Laura will examine and challenge design patterns we use in the industry today, along with the assumptions and practices behind them. Let’s work to do better, and have a positive impact with what we create.”
View the slides and watch the recording of the talk.
Learn more about Disruptive Design: Harmful Patterns and Bad Practice at Nordic.design.
Panel: Human/Body/Rights at Reading Bodies! Cruising Corpoliteracy in Arts, Education and Everyday Life in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
“Bodies reflect social conditions, but they can also be instruments of political expression and artistic positioning. In the panel, artists and activists will deal with the body as a political event. Since 2012, Human Rights Tattoo has been inking the words of the UN Charter on Human Rights, letter by letter, on the skin of people worldwide.
Is the declaration that came into force 70 years ago still relevant today? Does it need to be revised to eliminate standardization, resolutely combat racism, promote inclusion and consider human rights in the digital world? And what artistic and activist strategies can help people and bodies achieve political autonomy?”
Accessibility For Everyone at State of the Browser in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“Who do we really benefit with accessible technology and why do any of us bother at all? This talk will explore the motivations for our work, how to overcome some of our most common failings, and where inclusive design fits in our processes, approaches, outlooks and lives.”
Read the transcript and view the slides.
Learn more about Accessibility For Everyone at State of the Browser.
Small Technology at UX Australia in Sydney, Australia
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the opening keynote:
“Big Tech, with its billion-dollar unicorns, has robbed us of the potential of the Internet. Fueled by the extreme shortsightedness and greed of venture capital and startups, the utopic vision of a decentralised and democratic commons has morphed into the dystopic autocracy of Silicon Valley panopticons that we call surveillance capitalism. This status quo violates our human rights, threatens our democracies, and casts doubt on the integrity of personhood itself.”
Opening keynote: Accessibility for Everyone at Loupe in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented the opening keynote at this event.
Learn more about Opening keynote: Accessibility for Everyone at Loupe.
Small Technology at Think About! in Cologne, Germany
Speaker: Small Technology Foundation
“In this talk, Laura and Aral will outline how surveillance capitalism impacts our rights and freedoms both as individuals and as a society. But we won’t stop there. Surveillance capitalism is neither inevitable nor unavoidable. We will cover both current and upcoming efforts to build a bridge to a fairer future using ethical technologies. Our suggestion is simple: Think small.”
Disruptive Design: Harmful Patterns and Bad Practice at From Business to Buttons in Stockholm, Sweden
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave a keynote at the event.
Learn more about Disruptive Design: Harmful Patterns and Bad Practice at From Business to Buttons.
The Antidote to Surveillance Capitalism for Protecting Human Rights and Democracy in Europe and Beyond at EuropaCamp der ZEIT-Stiftung in Hamburg, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a keynote at this event.
“Big Tech, with its billion-dollar unicorns, has robbed us of the potential of the Internet. Fueled by the extreme shortsightedness and greed of venture capital and startups, the utopic vision of a decentralised and democratic commons has morphed into the dystopic autocracy of Silicon Valley panopticons that we call surveillance capitalism. This status quo violates our human rights, threatens our democracies, and casts doubt on the integrity of personhood itself.”
For the motion: “Enterpreneurs today do more harm than good” at The Straits Times Education Forum in Singapore, Singapore
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral debated for the motion that “entrepreneurs today do more harm than good.”
At the start of the debate, the audience vote was 28% for, 72% against the motion. By the end of the debate we managed to flip the vote to 52% for, 48% against, thereby winning the debate.
The Antidote to Big Tech at CPH:DOX (Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival) in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Big Tech, with its billion-dollar unicorns, has robbed us of the potential of the Internet. Fuelled by the greed of venture capital and startups, the utopian vision of a decentralised and democratic commons has morphed into the dystopian autocracy of Silicon Valley panopticons that we call surveillance capitalism.
We need an antidote that is so anathema to the interests of Big Tech that it cannot possibly be co- opted by them. It must provide a viable, practical alternative to Silicon Valley’s stranglehold on mainstream technology and society.
That antidote is Small Tech.
Closing keynote at Le Grand Barouf Numérique in Lille, France
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the closing keynote at this event organised by the European Metropolis of Lille. The theme of the event was “Who runs the world?”
Learn more about Closing keynote at Le Grand Barouf Numérique.
People Might Actually Use This at AraCon in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented a keynote at this conference on building organisations and governance of the future.
Panel at Designing for Tomorrow in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura was on a panel at this event.
2018
Dinner speaker at Nordic Privacy Area in Stockholm, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a talk during dinner at the biggest data protection event in the Nordics.
Opening keynote: Peerocracy at Blend Web Mix in Lyon, France
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral opened the conference with a presentation on how the bridge from surveillance capitalism to peerocracy will be paved by Small Technology and the peer web.
Watch the recording of the talk
Learn more about Opening keynote: Peerocracy at Blend Web Mix.
Interview at Smukfest in Skanderborg, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral was interviewed by Nikolaj Sonne on stage at Smukfest.
From the event description (translated from German):
“Surveillance capitalism - is the road to hell paved with likes?
Wednesday's host is Nikolaj Sonne. Journalist and host of DR2's gadget program ‘So ein ding’. Nikolaj is one of the country's sharpest commentators when it comes to IT and is ready to challenge everything you think you know about tech.
In this talk, you can meet internet freedom fighter Aral Balkan, who gives Danish politicians the following broadside: The Danish government is so subservient to surveillance capitalism that instead of protecting citizens' rights by regulating companies like Google and Facebook, it appoints a Technology Ambassador in Silicon Valley. The police mass-surveil with Palantir, and Singularity University (which is not a university, but a lobbying firm) determines policy in the technology area.”
Smukfest is the second largest festival in Denmark, and it all takes place in the forest of Dyrehaven in Skanderborg. The main stage is located in a national amphitheatre surrounded by old beech trees, some of them more than 200 years old. This sets the scene of many magic and memorable concerts over the year.
Digital Assistants, Facebook Quizzes, And Fake News! You Won’t Believe What Happens Next at Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School in Dublin, Ireland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented a keynote at this event.
Keynote and panel at FutureFest: Occupy the Future in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Small Technology Foundation
Aral presented a keynote (Building the People’s Internet) and Laura was on a panel (Who is the Internet for?)
Read our related interview with Nesta regarding our work
Learn more about Keynote and panel at FutureFest: Occupy the Future.
Participants at Public Stack Summit in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Small Technology Foundation
Laura and Aral took part at this unconference organised by DECODE and Waag.
Keynote at Webinale in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented a keynote at this conference.
Closing keynote at UX Camp CPH in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the closing keynote, advocating for an Internet for Everyone.
Smart Citizens, not Smart Cities at Democracy in a Digital Age in Gent, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented an alternative vision of technology for cities and reported on our work on prototyping an Internet of People with the city to City of Ghent chamber.
Learn more about Smart Citizens, not Smart Cities at Democracy in a Digital Age.
An Internet for Everyone at NextM in Stockholm, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
The Internet was meant to be for everyone.
Instead, today it is for corporations and governments. They use it to constantly monitor our lives, to profile us, and to manipulate and exploit our behaviour to satisfy their financial and political goals. What was once seen as a public space has turned into private property.
On the Internet, there are no parks, only shopping malls.
We’ve lost our public sphere.
In its place we find surveillance capitalism, led by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, the Googles and the Facebooks, and the countless startups that want to either be them or be bought by them. This has dire ramifications for our privacy, our freedom of speech, and democracy.
Thankfully, another path forward is possible.
Small bands of rebels like us are working to create ethical technologies that are free and open, decentralised, and interoperable. We are making the new everyday things so that they’re owned and controlled by individuals, not corporation or governments. Whether or not these alternatives exist (and are allowed to exist) will mean the difference between living under feudalism or democracy.
In this talk, Aral will outline the problem with surveillance capitalism and explain how we can avoid digital feudalism to build an Internet for Everyone.
Talk at NZZ X.Days in Interlaken, Switzerland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented at this event.
Keynote at NextM in Helsinki, Finland
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a keynote at this event.
Closing keynote: Accessibility for Everyone at UX Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented the closing keynote at this event.
Learn more about Closing keynote: Accessibility for Everyone at UX Copenhagen.
Accessibility for Everyone at IxDA in Lausanne, Switzerland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
We are sabotaging our future selves! Let’s be responsible. Practical advice for designers and copywriters.
Keynote and workshop at Webstock in Wellington, New Zealand
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura taught a workshop (Accessibility For Everyone: Inclusive Content and Purposeful Design) and presented a keynote (Sabotaging our Future Selves) at this event.
2017
“Ethical technology or Feudalism?” at HWSW Mobile! in Budapest, Hungary
Speaker: Aral Balkan
The business model of mainstream technology (the Silicon Valley model) is based on farming people.
The goal is to create a digital copy of you, own that copy, and exploit it as an invaluable proxy to manipulate your behaviour. It is part of a socio-techno-economic system we call surveillance capitalism. It is inherently extractive, exploitative, unethical, and incompatible with human rights and democracy.
If the core of our business – the way we make money – is unethical, how can we expect our products to be ethical?
The answer is, we can’t.
Design without ethics is decoration.
Thankfully, the Silicon Valley model is just one possible way to build technology.
This talk will introduce you both to the problem and to alternative – ethical – ways to design and build technologies that are decentralised, free and open, and interoperable. The nature of the technologies we build and adopt determine no less than the type of society we live in today and in the future. Is that an authoritarian, feudal society ruled by monolithic all-knowing corporations or a democracy?
Learn more about “Ethical technology or Feudalism?” at HWSW Mobile!.
Keynote at ada_CONF in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave the keynote at the first ada_CONF, held at Foo Café.
Accessibility for Everyone at The Chicago Digital Accessibility & Inclusive Design Meetup in Chicago, United States of America (online)
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented on accessibility and inclusivity, and her book Accessibility for Everyone at this event co-hosted with the Ottawa Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design Meetup (a11yYOW).
Talk at A11Y (Accessibility) Club in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke at this community event about web accessibility and assistive technology.
Delegate at General Assembly in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral represented cyborgs (human beings who use modern technology) at this theatre event without actors in Berlin.
Additionally, he protested the presence of a member of Erdoğan’s autocratic regime being presented alongside the other delegates as a representative of “the powerless, the repressed, those who lack a democratic voice and yet yearn for democratic agency.”
Watch the recording and read more about Aral’s speech.
For more background on the event itself, here’s an automatically-translated description from the web site:
“At the global level, there are no democratic structures that could regulate the world market, prosecute violations of international law or direct ecological developments in meaningful directions. The General Assembly, which brings together 60 deputies from all over the world in Berlin, fills this blank with its draft of a real world parliament. In five plenary sessions, the members of the General Assembly ask where we stand as a world community and what to do – socially, ecologically, technologically, politically. What does political sovereignty mean in the age of globalisation? How do the interests of the world's population relate to the democratic principles of the nation states? Whose demands for independence, dignity and happiness can become the demands of all mankind? A local parliament is replaced by a global parliament, which calls on the members of the newly elected German government to join. The first World Parliament in human history, accompanied by a group of international political observers, culminates in the adoption of the Charter for the 21st Century. Century.”
Digital Assistants, Facebook Quizzes, And Fake News! You Won’t Believe What Happens Next at Push Conference in Munich, Germany
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“As citizens of the web, do we know what is happening to the data we’re sharing about ourselves publicly and privately? As designers and builders of the web, are we ethical about the data we obtain from others?
There’s a dark underbelly to the web we love, and its darkness is rooted in the core decisions we make about our products. This talk will explain more, and share how we can use the Ethical Design Manifesto to make it better.”
Talk at Ecopolis in Brussels, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke at Ecopolis. The theme of the conference was to “investigate ways in which the digitisation of society can contribute to new forms of collectiveness. How can this digitisation play a role in the transition to a more social and ecological society?”
Opening keynote at Freedom Not Fear in Brussels, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the opening keynote at Freedom Not Fear, a self-organised conference where activists and NGOs plan and take action against increasing surveillance and other attacks on civil rights.
Better Blocker at European Data Ethics Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented our Better tracker blocker as one of the case studies in data ethics (‘best cases’).
Learn more about Better Blocker at European Data Ethics Forum.
Panel: “How do the values of open source, democratic participation and transparency lead us to new productive processes and new organisational forms?” at Desire for Meaning in Milan, Italy
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral took part in a panel at this event organised by the OpenMaker project in conjunction with the municipality of Milan.
“Design or Decoration?” at IxDA Berlin in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Watch the recording of the talk.
“I am a business that makes money by tracking every move you, your family, and your loved ones make, both online and offline. I aggregate and store that information forever. I continuously analyse every piece of it to profile you and understand you better. I do all this to exploit my intimate insight into your life to manipulate your behaviour for profit and to satisfy my political needs.
Sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Hi, my name is Google. And Facebook. And Snapchat… (should I go on?)
The business model of mainstream technology (the Silicon Valley model) is based on farming people. The goal is to create a digital copy of you, own that copy, and exploit it as an invaluable proxy to manipulate your behaviour. (Oh, and by the way, sometimes we’ll also share our insight with repressive governments and spy agencies too.) This business model is a core pillar of the socio-techno-economic system we call surveillance capitalism. It is inherently exploitative, unethical, and incompatible with human rights or democracy.
If the core of our business – the way we make money – is unethical, how can we expect our products to be ethical? The answer is, we can’t. Design without ethics is decoration.
Thankfully, the Silicon Valley model is just one possible way to build technology. There are alternative – ethical – ways to design and build technologies that are decentralised, free and open, and interoperable.
The nature of the technologies we build and adopt determine no less than the type of society we live in today and in the future. Is that an authoritarian, feudal society ruled by monolithic all-knowing corporations or a democracy? If you want to help build and live in the latter future, this talk show you how to get started on the right path. Come with an open mind, prepare to question everything you know, and to learn an eye- opening and ethical new way to design and build technology.”
Aral presented this talk at IxDA Berlin, a community of experts and novices, passionate for learning, networking and quality time. Interaction Design is common ground for design sectors focussing on Services, Strategy, User Experience, Product, and many more. As a part of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA), we are fostering exchange amongst designers in Berlin, since 2008.
Keynote at Internet Summit in Vienna, Austria
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the keynote at this event organised by Internet Service Providers Austria.
Interview: Social justice in the digital era at Empodera Live in Malaga, Spain
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral was interviewed about social justice in the digital era at Empodera Live, an event organised by Cibervoluntarios Foundation, a nonprofit organisation of social entrepreneurs that promotes the use and knowledge of new technologies as a means to alleviate social gaps, generate social innovation, and foster citizen empowerment.
Learn more about Interview: Social justice in the digital era at Empodera Live.
Opening keynote at Foreplay: Technology in the City of People in Gent, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
“The morning promises to be very interesting. Four experts will focus on the role of technology, but always from a broader perspective on people and society. So you don't need to be an expert to follow along.
Does Aral Balkan still need an introduction? Expect a critical look at Facebook and Google, but not without him also proposing alternatives.”
This is the talk that let to us working with the City of Ghent on the Indienet project, the precursor to the Small Web, to prototype a system where every citizen would have their own place on the world wide web.
Learn more about Opening keynote at Foreplay: Technology in the City of People.
DiEM25: Constructive Disobedience at G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral and Renata Avila presented the Internet Of People initiative as a counter-narrative to the surveillance-based regulation that Merkel has hinted she will be pursuing at the G20.
Learn more about DiEM25: Constructive Disobedience at G20 Summit.
Opening keynote: The Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at UX Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the opening keynote.
Learn more about Opening keynote: The Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at UX Lausanne.
Opening keynote and panel at Landing Festival in Lisbon, Portugal
Speaker: Small Technology Foundation
Aral presented the opening keynote and Laura took part in a panel discussion.
Learn more about Opening keynote and panel at Landing Festival.
Keynote/Q&A on Privacy at App Builders in Lausanne, Switzerland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura had a keynote/Q&A at this event.
Opening keynote: The Cyborg Revolution at This. Privacy Summit @ Internet Week Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
“It is time to understand that human rights are cyborg rights and deserve constitutional protection. It is time to rise up, reclaim our rights, and start paving the path forward toward a more egalitarian and sustainable future, starting in Europe by reclaiming individual sovereignty and nurturing a healthy, decentralised, digital commons.”
Opening keynote: Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at Bulgaria Web Summit in Sofia, Bulgaria
Speaker: Aral Balkan
“The year is 2017, 8 men hold half of the world’s wealth between them and preside over a digital panopticon that enslaves and farms the world’s population. Fellow cyborgs, it is time to rise up, reclaim our rights, and start paving the path forward toward a more egalitarian and sustainable future.”
Learn more about Opening keynote: Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at Bulgaria Web Summit.
Keynote at NextM in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a keynote at NextM, a forum to inspire new thinking, ignite conversation and deliver exposure to concepts, original thinking and unexpected change agents.
Better Blocker at RSA Engage: Tech for Good in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral introduced Better Blocker, our app for blocking trackers and tracking-based advertising (adtech).
Learn more about Better Blocker at RSA Engage: Tech for Good.
Keynote at Design It, Build It Conference (DIBI) in Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke about her work in a keynote at the event:
“Laura works on everything from design and development, through to learning how to run a sustainable social enterprise, whilst trying to make privacy, and broader ethics in technology, accessible to a wide audience. On an average day, you can find Laura making design decisions, writing CSS, nudging icon pixels, or distilling a privacy policy into something humans understand.”
Learn more about Keynote at Design It, Build It Conference (DIBI).
Accessible by Design (Laura) and Introducing the Indienet (Aral) at Decentralised Ethical Technologies at Foo Café in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Small Technology Foundation
Laura spoke about how we incorporate accessibility into our development process (and you should too) and Aral spoke about how we are gearing up to build the second prototype of a decentralised, free/open, zero-knowledge, interoperable network, outlining the vision, architecture, and also where we can use help.
Talk at British Chamber of Commerce in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke about the dangers of centralised systems and “the Cloud” at an event titled “Harnessing the power of the cloud” organised by the British Chamber of Commerce in Denmark.
Opening keynote at Tweakers.net Developers Summit in Utrecht, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the opening keynote (The Matrix, Inverted) alongside keynotes by Peter Sunde (Pirate Bay) and Rasmus Lerdorf (author of PHP).
Learn more about Opening keynote at Tweakers.net Developers Summit.
The Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at Digital Social Innovation in Rome, Italy (online)
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a keynote introducing the Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at this event organised as part of the European Commission’s Collective Awareness Platforms for Sustainability and Social Innovation initiative.
Learn more about The Universal Declaration of Cyborg Rights at Digital Social Innovation.
2016
Opening keynote: The Matrix, Inverted at Frontier Conf in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
The open web is dead.
From its smouldering ashes protrude the cold, silicon panopticons of surveillance capitalism; the feudal dominions of platform monopolies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Uber… All engaged in the same despicable business of farming human beings.
This is the dystopia of our present.
But there is hope for a better future. How we get there is what this talk is about.
Learn more about Opening keynote: The Matrix, Inverted at Frontier Conf.
Opening keynote: The Matrix, inverted at Oredev in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the opening keynote at this event.
Learn more about Opening keynote: The Matrix, inverted at Oredev.
Closing keynote: Beyond the clouds at DrivingIT in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the closing keynote at this event.
Learn more about Closing keynote: Beyond the clouds at DrivingIT.
Talk at ADCE – 3rd European Creativity Festival in Barcelona, Spain
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a talk at the festival.
Learn more about Talk at ADCE – 3rd European Creativity Festival.
Keynote at Privacy and Sustainable Computing Lab launch at Vienna University in Vienna, Austria
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a keynote at the launch of the Privacy and Sustainability Computing Lab at WU Vienna.
Learn more about Keynote at Privacy and Sustainable Computing Lab launch at Vienna University.
Beyond the Clouds at Globart Academy in Vienna, Austria
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a keynote and participated in a panel.
Ethical Design at MakingWeb in Oslo, Norway
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave a keynote at the event:
“As citizens of the web, do we know what is happening to the data we’re sharing about ourselves publicly and privately? As designers and builders of the web, are we ethical about the data we obtain from others?
There’s a dark underbelly to the web we love, and its darkness is rooted in the core decisions we make about our products. This talk will explain more, and share how we can use the Ethical Design Manifesto to make it better.”
Master of ceremonies at Frontend Conference in Zurich, Switzerland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura returned to Frontend Conference Zurich, this time as the MC.
Learn more about Master of ceremonies at Frontend Conference.
Thinking slow about fast moving things at Foo Café in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Computers once filled up entire rooms and were programmed by punching holes in cards. Today, the phones we carry in our pockets are more powerful than those computers and we can program them using their touch screens in expressive, powerful, even visual programming languages.
Our tools evolve at the exponential rate of technology and we must invest in constantly improving our knowledge if we are to keep up.
It is, however, too easy to get caught up in this “race for the latest” and to see every new technology as an inevitable step in a ladder that spans objectively from the past to the future. It’s important that we don’t get lost in such a shallow, technologically-deterministic view of the world.
While learning to use the latest and greatest tools is important, we must also develop a critical reading of technology and its place in society. When constantly getting faster and faster engines for your car, it’s good sometimes to make sure that the breaks and steering still work and that you’re heading in the direction that you really want to be going.
Learn more about Thinking slow about fast moving things at Foo Café.
Building an anti-startup city at Minc: Building a startup city in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
During this event we explore what makes a city a startup-haven and how that affects the development of the city and influence creativity and innovation among people living in it.
Learn more about Building an anti-startup city at Minc: Building a startup city.
“Excuse me, your unicorn keeps shitting in my back yard, can he please not?” at Dokutech in Prizren, Kosovo
Speaker: Aral Balkan
The matrix is inverted and my teddy bear is spying on me. Why am I covered in unicorn shit?… I was only browsing the web. No, I do not want another cookie. Why are you feeding me cookies? Is that my treadmill? Am I the milk of magnesia to your unicorn’s constipation? How can you hear me when I’m not saying anything? I can’t seem to look away. Hello, White Man on the Cloud! Why can He see me, but I can’t see Him? Who, exactly, is getting smarter about whom? And why is Oettinger’s donut so red?
Beyond the Clouds at MedienMittwoch in Frankfurt, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
“With every interaction on the net, we reveal information about ourselves. Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and huge, interwoven ad networks collect enormous amounts of personal data and thus constantly expand their market power … In his lecture ‘Beyond the Clouds’, our keynote speaker Aral Balkan shows what is happening to our data, how our freedom is being restricted and how we can free ourselves from digital surveillance capitalism. Let’s design a revolution.” (Translated from German.)
Opening keynote at Black Hat Sessions in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the opening keynote at this Dutch cybersecurity conference.
Ethical Design at Foo Café: Digital UI in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke on ethical design at Foo Café at Media Evolution City.
Ethical Design at DEVit in Thessaloníki, Greece
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave a keynote on ethical design. Follow the link, below, to watch the video of her talk.
Beyond the Clouds at see Conference #11 in Wiesbaden, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke about using Ethical Design to create everyday things that respect human rights, effort, and experience. “Our lives are a string of experiences. Experiences with people and experiences with things. As designers – as the people who craft experiences - we have a profound responsibility to make every experience as beautiful, as comfortable, as painless, as empowering, and as delightful as possible.”
Disrupt the disruptors at Creative Mornings in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“What are you really sharing with Facebook and Google? It’s a lot more than you think, and even our human rights are at risk. We need to change the way we use the internet, but first we need the technology we use to enable us to do so.”
Learn more about Disrupt the disruptors at Creative Mornings.
Privacy by Design at Data Ethics EU in Copenhagen, Denmark
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented on how to build private-by-default tools.
Digital Emancipation: Ownership of the self in the digital age at Bucerius Lab in Hamburg, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a talk on digital emancipation at this Bucerius Lab event titled The California Challenge (What kind of digital future do we want to live in?)
Learn more about Digital Emancipation: Ownership of the self in the digital age at Bucerius Lab.
“Instructional design is dead. So what’s next?” at Learning Technologies in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke on a panel.
Learn more about “Instructional design is dead. So what’s next?” at Learning Technologies.
“Privacy, Protection, Publicity: Does Your Freedom Have Boundaries?” at Dialogue in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke on a panel.
Learn more about “Privacy, Protection, Publicity: Does Your Freedom Have Boundaries?” at Dialogue.
Ethical Design at De Balie in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke on ethical design, democracy and civil liberties. The core of his talk was animated and used as a conversation-starter on these matters in Dutch classrooms that year.
2015
High-level conference on protecting on-line privacy by enhancing IT security and EU IT autonomy at European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral participated at this high-level conference at the European Parliament.
“The European Parliament conducted in 2013 an Inquiry on ‘electronic mass surveillance’, resulting in an initial resolution adopted in March 2014 and a follow-up one in October 2015.
An important part of these two resolutions addresses the question of the current vulnerability of EU IT security and suggests several actions in this field to enhance European citizens’ online privacy, such as: enhancing encryption and anonymisation of electronic communications; developing minimum security or privacy standards for IT systems, networks and services; reshaping the internet architecture; boosting EU IT technological capabilities.
This high-level conference, organised together with the Luxembourg Presidency, aims at bringing together outstanding European academics and professionals in the various fields conductive to online privacy and the main policy makers at national and European level in this area in order to discuss these complex issues, interact and come up with bold, innovative ideas to help foster an EU IT and online privacy protection strategy for the next years.”
A chat at IP Communications & VoIP Community (online)
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral chatted with a tech group.
Learn more about A chat at IP Communications & VoIP Community.
The Tyranny of Everyday Things at EDST *15 in Kerkrade, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented in place of a speaker who had to drop out at the last minute.
Learn more about The Tyranny of Everyday Things at EDST *15.
The Tyranny of Everyday Things at OpenFest in Sofia, Bulgaria
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the opening keynote, asking “are our everyday things enslaving us in a dystopian corporatocracy? And, if so, how do we design an egalitarian, sustainable, democratic, post-colonialist, post-capitalist future?”
Learn more about The Tyranny of Everyday Things at OpenFest.
Panel at Media Democracy Festival in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented at and took part in a panel discussion at the inaugural Media Democracy Festival to help build a movement for media democracy.
Soap Box stage hosting and Heartbeat stand at Open Xchange Summit in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Small Technology Foundation
The team was in Berlin, hosting the Soap Box stage and sharing Heartbeat – our macOS-based private messaging prototype – at our stand.
Learn more about Soap Box stage hosting and Heartbeat stand at Open Xchange Summit.
Internet as a Commons: Public Space in the Digital Age at European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke on a panel at this event at the European Parliament organised by The Greens/EFA.
”The Internet as a whole has become an important part of our global public sphere. It provides access to a wealth of information and knowledge, and the possibility to participate, create and communicate. This public space is increasingly threatened from two sides: by centralisation and commercialisation through the dominant positions held by giant telecom and Internet companies and by the increasing trend of state regulation and censorship. This poses important questions about how we choose to organise and regulate our digital societies, as well as how Internet governance models can be developed and implemented to ensure fair and democratic participation.”
Learn more about Internet as a Commons: Public Space in the Digital Age at European Parliament.
Ethical Design at Over The Air in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
“The web today is filled with products and services that gather and exploit users’ data, ignoring our privacy and personal safety. We need to create sustainable alternatives that can compete against these (mostly) free products.”
Ethical Design at Frontend Conference in Zurich, Switzerland
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke about ethical design and hosted the event.
Opening keynote: Decentralise Everything at The Conference in Malmö, Sweden
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the opening keynote.
Learn more about Opening keynote: Decentralise Everything at The Conference.
Roundtable: Decentralised citizen action and tools for network democracy at D-CENT in Brussels, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral took part in a discussion with citizens activists, social movements, and the developers of the new open source democracy tools.
Learn more about Roundtable: Decentralised citizen action and tools for network democracy at D-CENT.
Panel: The Winner Takes All Model - The Path to Tech Godhood at Financial Times: Camp Alphaville in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral took part in a main stage hosted by FT Alphaville’s Izabella Kaminska on the rise of digital platform monopolies.
Designing for Web Accessibility at 418conf in Redhill, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave a talk on accessibility on the web.
Learn more about Designing for Web Accessibility at 418conf.
Hosting Design for Good at RSA Engage in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral hosted a special RSA Engage London: ‘Design for Good’, in partnership with the RSA Student Design Awards.
The New Economy at Web We Want Festival in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke on a panel about The New Economy.
Accessibility By Design at Inclusive Design 24 (online)
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Why are aesthetics so often the enemy of accessibility, and how can we change that? Laura will explore the pillars of aesthetic design on the web: typography, colour, layout, and form, and how they affect accessibility. She’ll look at strategies for involving accessibility from the beginning of the design process, in a way that’ll please both the accessibility experts and the art directors.
Learn more about Accessibility By Design at Inclusive Design 24.
85: How an otherwise unremarkable number portends ubiquitous surveillance, erosion of human rights, & end of democracy at OuiShare in Paris, France
Speaker: Aral Balkan
85 is a very interesting number. It might be the greatest indicator we have yet of the existential threat faced by our species in the Antropocene. In this talk, Aral Balkan explains how that number is related to ubiquitous surveillance, erosion of human rights, loss of our habitat, and, unless we act, the end of democracy.
The Camera Panopticon at Secure Computing Forum in Dublin, Ireland
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a keynote at the event.
Learn more about The Camera Panopticon at Secure Computing Forum.
Beyond The Camera Panoption at re:publica 2015 in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Imagine a future where multinational corporations own you and control your government. A future with ubiquitous surveillance, where even the mere attempt at privacy is tantamount to an admission of guilt. A corporate feudalism in which you are the product being sold.
This is much closer to the present than it is to the future. Learn how we got here and what we can do to create a better future together — a future where individuals, not corporations, are in control.
Learn more about Beyond The Camera Panoption at re:publica 2015.
The Camera Panopticon at Penguicon in Detroit, United States of America
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral was guest of honour at this year’s event and presented the opening keynote.
“Aral thinks we are paying too much for our free software, saying, ‘Free is a lie because it is a concealed barter,’ and ‘The cost of free is our human rights.’”
Designing for Web Accessibility at Web Sherpa Summit (online)
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura presented an opening keynote on designing for web accessibility at this virtual event jointly organised by Web Standards Sherpa and Environments for Humans.
What is web accessibility, and who benefits from it anyway? We’ll look at why we should bother at web accessibility in the first place, and who is responsible for its implementation. We’ll cover some of the common accessibility pitfalls and how to avoid them.
Learn more about Designing for Web Accessibility at Web Sherpa Summit.
Brighton Pavilion Civil Liberties Hustings at ORG Brighton in Brighton, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral chaired a panel on the Human Rights Act, freedom of speech, surveillance, and more.
Learn more about Brighton Pavilion Civil Liberties Hustings at ORG Brighton.
The Camera Panopticon at Innovathens in Athens, Greece
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented the opening keynote and ran a workshop on how to contribute to independent technology.
The Camera Panopticon at Leiden University, Centre for Law and Digital Technologies (30th anniversary) in Leiden, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Never before in human history has it been this easy and economically lucrative to collect massive amounts of personal data … The principle of privacy by design unites lawyers and technologists in their quest for results in which privacy rights are part and parcel of the fabric of digital innovations. In our symposium we bring together these disciplines to learn about fascinating new developments and discuss the ongoing challenges for privacy and innovation.
The Camera Panopticon at Glocal Design Spring 2015 in Bolzano, Italy
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a keynote at this design event organised by the Faculty of Design and Art at the Free University of Bolzano-Bozen.
Learn more about The Camera Panopticon at Glocal Design Spring 2015.
Indie Design at WordCamp in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke on indie design.
Introduction to WAI-ARIA at Tech in 10 by She Codes Brighton in Brighton, United Kingdom
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura gave a ten-minute talk on accessibility and why it’s important. The talk introduced the WAI-ARIA standard and how it can help make sites more accessible as well as when we shouldn’t use WAI-ARIA.
Learn more about Introduction to WAI-ARIA at Tech in 10 by She Codes Brighton.
The Camera Panopticon at WebTomorrow in Gent, Belgium
Speaker: Aral Balkan
We all know that Government surveillance is bad. It’s very easy to identify as a threat. We have all of this scary symbolism around it. We have the hindsight of history. We have the Stasi, for example. We have a very strong canon; Orwell, Huxley… and yet, is it the only threat? Is it today even the most important threat? What if surveillance didn’t look scary? What if it actually looked friendly? Could we still identify it as a threat?
Independent Technology at RSA Engage in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral spoke about independent technology and ind.ie (now Small Technology Foundation) at the RSA.
(Unfortunately, the original event page no longer exists on the RSA web site and has not been archived by archive.org either.)
The Camera Panopticon at Brighton Science Festival: Big Science Saturday in Brighton, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
The Matrix got it backwards: we don’t live in a simulation controlled from a tangible world, we live in a tangible world that is increasingly being controlled by simulations. But what does this mean for our future? How does technology affect human rights and democracy, and vice-versa? Aral embarks on a journey though algorithms and surveillance to reveal how the friendly façade of ‘free’ service providers like Google and Facebook belie a darker underbelly.
Learn more about The Camera Panopticon at Brighton Science Festival: Big Science Saturday.
2014
Moving beyond the clouds at Big Brother Awards in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral was in Amsterdam to deliver the opening keynote, ‘Moving beyond the clouds’, at this annual event organised by Bits of Freedom. The original event site is no longer available so this is a link to the video recording of the talk.
Learn more about Moving beyond the clouds at Big Brother Awards.
Long-term thinking in shaping government policy at Future Shock in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral sat on a panel discussing the need for visionary, long-term thinking in the shaping of government policy.
Learn more about Long-term thinking in shaping government policy at Future Shock.
I, Simulation at World Usability Day in Berlin, Germany
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave the closing keynote at World Usability Day in Berlin.
I, Simulation at Audi A3 E-tron launch in Barcelona, Spain
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave his talk titled ‘I, Simulation’.
Spyware 2.0 at TEDxYouth@Bath in Bath, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral presented a keynote on Spyware 2.0.
Spyware 2.0 at Bath Digital Festival: Digital for Good in Bath, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Aral gave a keynote on Spyware 2.0.
Learn more about Spyware 2.0 at Bath Digital Festival: Digital for Good.
Designing for Accessibility at designday in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Speaker: Laura Kalbag
Laura spoke about designing for accessibility at dsgnday in Amsterdam, a full-day conference with eight presentations about the art and craft of web design.
Free is a Lie at Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London, United Kingdom
Speaker: Aral Balkan
Designer and social entrepreneur Aral Balkan visits the RSA to call for a design revolution in open technology.
Companies like Google and Facebook that dominate the Internet promise us free services in exchange for the right to watch and study us; to mine and farm us. Like quarries, like livestock, we are natural resources to be exploited in a brave new digital world of corporate surveillance that threatens our most fundamental freedoms.
There are open alternatives but they are too difficult for most of us to use.
It is time to bring design thinking to open source and build beautiful, seamless open consumer products that are easy to use and which respect our fundamental freedoms.
Learn more about Free is a Lie at Royal Society of Arts (RSA).