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NGI0 Speaker bureau

Invite our experts to your event

Are you interested in bringing the next generation internet to your event? Fill in the form below to invite a speaker. For info on how the speaker bureau works, see frequently asked questions below the form. NGI Zero's mission is to contribute to an open, resilient, human-centered internet for all by supporting the development of free/libre/open source software and hardware, open standards and open data. We're a consortium of not-for-profit organisations, each with a specific area of expertise to make the digital commons more robust. The NGI0 speaker bureau liaises to bring these experts to your event.

FSFE Legal Education Workshop

In addition to speakers the Free Software Foundation Europe also offers the Legal Education Workshop to learn about Free Software from a legal perspective. We'll tell you more about this in the section below the speakers.

Experts in our network:

Cyber security / Post growth entrepreneurship
Portrait picture of Melanie Rieback

Melanie Rieback

CEO and co-founder of Radically Open Security

Dr. Melanie Rieback is CEO/Co-founder of Radically Open Security (the world's first not-for-profit computer security company), and "Post Growth" startup incubator Nonprofit Ventures.

Read on ...

She is also a former Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Free University of Amsterdam. She was named "Most Innovative IT Leader of the Netherlands" by CIO Magazine (TIM Award) in 2017, and one of the "9 Most Innovative Women in the European Union" (EU Women Innovators Prize) in 2019. She is also one of the 400 most successful women in the Netherlands by Viva Magazine (Viva400) in 2010 and 2017, and one of the fifty most inspiring women in tech (Inspiring Fifty Netherlands) in 2016, 2017, and 2019. Her company, Radically Open Security was named the 50th Most Innovative SME by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (MKB Innovatie Top 100) in 2016.

Radically Open Security
Radically Open Security prides itself on being the world’s first not-for-profit computer security consultancy company.

Read on ...ROS is prototyping an innovative new business model to provide a commercial front-end that sends 100% of our profits tax-free to a charitable foundation (NLnet foundation). Our low management/overhead costs mean we can afford to pay competitive wages to our computer security consultants. ROS is "hacking a new business model" for prototyping an ideal company – one that optimizes for benefit to the world (customers, employees, society) as opposed to profit motive (shareholders, investors, founders). Their hope is that, in a few years from now, we might inspire others to setup similar sustainable "not for profit businesses" in other industries.

Travels from:
Melanie is based out of Amsterdam but has given on site presentations in for instance Europe, North-America and Africa.

Security / Privacy / Standards
Portrait picture of Stephen Farrell

Stephen Farrell

CEO and co-founder of Tolerant Networks

Dr. Stephen Farrell is co-founder of Tolerant Networks and a research fellow in the Distributed Systems Group of the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin.

Read on ...

At Trinity College Stephen teaches and researches on security and delay/disruption-tolerant networking (DTN). In 2006 he co-authored the first book on the latter topic. Stephen has been involved in Internet standards for more than a decade and has been an IETF security area director for six years. Prior to returning to academia in 2002, Stephen had 15 years experience in industry, working for Siemens and Baltimore Technologies amongst others.

Tolerant Networks
Tolerant Networks Limited (a Trinity College Dublin campus company) works on Internet security and privacy.

Read on ...Tolerant Networks was founded in April 2010 by Stephen Farrell and Kerry Hartnett. The company was spun out of an EU FP7 funded project called N4C in which we used Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) to enable Internet-like communications in very remote communities. It has successfully completed a range of projects in the area of DTN deployment, educational DTN projects and DTN usage for the European Space Agency. Tolerant Networks is a a Trinity College Dublin campus company.

Travels from:
Dublin, Ireland.

Legal and licensing topics relating to Free Software
Portrait picture of Gabriel Ku Wei Bin

Gabriel Ku Wei Bin

Legal Programme Manager at FSFE

Gabriel is a Legal Programme Manager at the FSFE. Originally from Singapore, Gabriel is a former human rights and constitutional law researcher, as well as a former commercial lawyer.

Read on ...

At the FSFE, Gabriel manages the FSFE’s legal projects, including its involvement in a number of European Commission funded projects, including the NGI0 projects. Additionally, Gabriel administers the FSFE’s Legal Network of lawyers around the world involved in Free Software, in order to to promote discussion and foster better knowledge of the legal constructs that back Free Software.
In addition to the topic mentioned above, Gabriel also speaks aboutHow Free Software supports Human Rights

Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to control technology.

Read on ...Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives, and it is important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use, understand, adapt, and share software. These rights help support other fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press, and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption, encouraging people to use and develop Free Software, and providing resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software in Europe.

Travels from:
Berlin, Germany


public digital infrastructure / digital rights /.../
Portrait picture of hellekin, CC-BY Christopher Adams

hellekin

free software activist & co-founder of petites singularités

hellekin is a free software activist with almost three decades experience with organizing grassroots events and virtual communities. He co-founded petites singularités in 2017.

Read on ...

With petites singularités he applies 50+ years of knowledge researching collective practices and free technology production. He currently mentors developers within the NGI0 consortium. hellekin also speaks about decentralized networking and funding free software in addition to the topics mentioned above.

petites singularités
petites singularités aims to bring a different outlook on transindividual aesthetics with regard to local collectives and their digital practices.

Read on ...P.S.: are a free software research organization dealing with collective organization, agency, and amplification of action. P.S.: is an affiliate member of the European Digital Rights network (EDRi), and a mentor organization in the Next Generation Internet Zero (NGI0) consortium. P.S.: is a non-profit association established in Brussels.

Travels from:
Brussels / Basque Country / Spain / Italy / Portugal / Eastern Europe

Security / Privacy / Standards
Portrait picture of Kerry Hartnett

Kerry Hartnett

Director and co-founder of Tolerant Networks

Kerry is co-founder of Tolerant Networks. With over 20 years experience in IT he is an experienced and versatile senior IT professional. Kerry worked with Intel for 15 years in all aspects of IT.

Read on ...

Commercially aware and results-orientated with a wide range of technical abilities, Kerry's planning and organisational skills have enabled him to repeatedly deliver complex integration projects to schedule. Kerry has a BSc. in Information Systems and has worked on contract as a research engineer on the N4C project. Kerry's focus is on new technology deployment in networks and research.

Tolerant Networks
Tolerant Networks Limited (a Trinity College Dublin campus company) works on Internet security and privacy.

Read on ...Tolerant Networks was founded in April 2010 by Stephen Farrell and Kerry Hartnett. The company was spun out of an EU FP7 funded project called N4C in which we used Delay Tolerant Networking (DTN) to enable Internet-like communications in very remote communities. It has successfully completed a range of projects in the area of DTN deployment, educational DTN projects and DTN usage for the European Space Agency. Tolerant Networks is a a Trinity College Dublin campus company.

Travels from:
Dublin, Ireland.

Free Software legal and licensing issues /.../
Portrait picture of Lucas Lasota

Lucas Lasota

Legal Programme Manager at the FSFE

Dr. Lucas Lasota works as Legal Program Manager at FSFE. He is also a researcher and lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin in the field of Civil, IT and Telecommunications Law.

Read on ...

His current research is focused on contemporary regulatory measures involving digital technologies and their impact on individual and collective rights, as well internet governance, telecommunications and international contract law.
In addition to the topics mentioned above, Lucas also speaks about Device Neutrality, Router Freedom, AI and Free Software

Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to control technology.

Read on ...The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption, encouraging people to use and develop Free Software, and providing resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software in Europe.

Travels from:
Berlin, Germany

Internet decentralisation/Digital autonomy /.../
Portrait picture of Gerben van den Broeke

Gerben van den Broeke

NLnet foundation

A self-taught programmer and school-taught electrical engineering and machine learning graduate, Gerben takes a full-stack view on technology, with an interest in the interplay of technology and society.

Read on ...Gerben also speaks about Interoperability and Data protection in addition to the topics mentioned above. Before joining NLnet he worked for noyb and Redecentralize.org

NLnet foundation
NLnet financially supports organisations and people who contribute to a resilient, trustworthy, sustainable, open internet for all.

Read on ...It offers a fast and low-threshold grant application process so as to not waste anyone's time. All project results become available under an open source license so it's available for everyone to use, study, modify and share.

Travels from:
Brussels.

Online press & business models / foss rights /.../
Portrait picture of Simon Descarpentries

Simon Descarpentries

Meta-Press.es

Simon is a computer science engineer with 15 years of experience in web development and is an online press expert. He is the creator of Meta-Press.es, a search engine to read the news without surveillance.

Read on ...Being a free software enthousiast for 20 years he contributed to many free software associations such as Framasoft, April.org and La Quadrature du Net. Today he is the CEO of a small free software compagny Acoeuro.com, treasurer of the french Fund for Defense of Net Neutrality and leader of the Meta-Press.es project.
In addition to the topics mentioned above Simon also speaks about:
  • impacts of the free softwares over the western societies
  • fundamental rights in the digital age
  • the emergence of a horde of independent investigation newspapers in France (hundreds of them)
  • technical web lessons learnt from the dissection of a thousand worldwide online newspapers…

Meta-Press.es
Meta-Press.es is a search engine that lets you explore the news without middle men between news papers and your browser.

Read on ...Meta-press, which comes in the form of a browser add-on, helps you avoid the swamp of third-party trackers on most newspaper websites and the jungle of fake newspapers.

Travels from:
Pougne-Hérisson, Deux-Sèvres, France

Security / Open-Source projects / Women in Tech
Portrait of Dominika Regéciová

Dominika Regéciová

Senior Researcher at Gen Digital

Senior Researcher at Gen Digital and Ph.D. student at the Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology. Her research interests include formal models, compilers, and languages...

Read on ...

... focusing on their use in computer security. Dominika advocates for women in Tech.

Brno University of Technology
Brno University of Technology is a research-oriented technical university founded in 1899.

Read on ...Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology (BUT) is the second-largest technical university in Czechia. It comprises 8 faculties with more than 18,000 students and 3,000 staff members. The Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) provides education in the Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral Study programs in Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence. FIT is involved in many European and international projects, national research and development grants, and contractual research for large multinational companies, as well as regional small and medium enterprises.

Travels from:
Brno, Czech Republic.

Data & AI / Information Retrieval /.../
Portrait of Pavel Smrz

Pavel Smrz

Associate professor at Brno University of Technology

Leads Faculty of Information Technology, Knowledge Technology Research group.

Read on ...

Pavel's research interests include embedded intelligence, machine learning, IoT, and human-machine interaction. He also speaks about Middleware and Open Data. He leads the Faculty of Information Technology, Knowledge Technology Research group

Brno University of Technology
Brno University of Technology is a research-oriented technical university founded in 1899.

Read on ...Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology (BUT) is the second-largest technical university in Czechia. It comprises 8 faculties with more than 18,000 students and 3,000 staff members. The Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) provides education in the Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral Study programs in Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence. FIT is involved in many European and international projects, national research and development grants, and contractual research for large multinational companies, as well as regional small and medium enterprises.

Travels from:
Brno, Czech Republic.

The GNU project / Taler (electronic payments)
Portrait of Christian Grothoff

Christian Grothoff

Professor at Bern University of Applied Sciences.

GNU maintainer, co-founder of Taler Systems SA and Anastasis SARL.

Read on ...

Christian's research interests include future Internet architectures, compilers, programming languages, software engineering, networking, security and privacy. Before, he was leading the Décentralisé research team at INRIA and an Emmy Noether research group leader at TU Munich. He earned his PhD in computer science from UCLA, an M.S. in computer science from Purdue University, and a Diplom in mathematics from the University of Wuppertal. He also served as an expert court witness, and has reported on technology and national security as a freelance journalist.

The GNU Project
The goal of the GNU Project is to build a libre operating system that give computer users freedom and control in their use of their computers.

Read on ...GNU is an operating system that is free software—that is, it respects users' freedom. The GNU operating system consists of GNU packages (programs specifically released by the GNU Project) as well as free software released by third parties. The development of GNU made it possible to use a computer without software that would trample your freedom.
Taler Systems is frictionless, sustainable, low-cost and highly scalable payment system. It’s like cash but digital, with instant confirmation for all fiat- and crypto-currencies. Taler protects your data, while being environmentally friendly.

Travels from:
Biel/Bienne, Switzerland.

Digital Commons / Rules as Code /.../
Portrait of Matti Schneider

Matti Schneider

Open Terms Archive / OpenFisca.

Founder & Director of Open Terms Archive / Director of partnerships at OpenFisca.

Read on ...

Matti Schneider is a passionate advocate for digital commons and open source innovation. As a software engineer and product manager, Matti's experience includes founding a social impact startup in sustainable mobility, leading public healthcare tech projects, co-founding the French Prime Minister State Startups incubator, and driving digital transformation across governments.

He is also Director of partnerships of OpenFisca, a law modelling tool recognized by the United Nations as a Digital Public Good and used by multiple governments worldwide. He played a pivotal role in the development and global adoption of OpenFisca,

Additionally, Matti founded Open Terms Archive, a tool for tracking and assessing changes in online platform policies. Under his lead, these projects have been distinguished by organisations such as the World Government Summit, the OECD, the Digital Public Goods Alliance, or the Nobel Prize Summit.

As a digital nomad, Matti travels extensively to understand how to best serve diverse cultures. His personal travels not only enrich his professional insights but also fuel his commitment to leveraging technology for social good.

In addition to the topics mentioned above, Matti also speaks about Platform Governance.

Open Terms Archive
Open Terms Archive publicly records every version of the terms of digital services to enable democratic oversight and make them transparent.

Read on ...It addresses a critical gap in the ability of activists, journalists, researchers, lawmakers and regulators to analyse and influence the rules of online services. Big Tech services benefit from the opaqueness of their terms, Open Terms Archive make them transparent.

Travels from:
Matti is a nomad, reach out for travel arrangements.


The Legal Education Workshop of the FSFE features talks on legal topics relating to Free Software, as well as a workshop to facilitate a better understanding of these legal frameworks and compliances. The talks will explain basic legal concepts such as licenses, copyright law, and its practical application into your projects with the FSFE's REUSE initiative, as well as other legal topics important for developers and the Free Software community in general.
Free Software grants users and developers the essential freedoms to construct a healthy and open digital ecosystem. To preserve and guarantee the continued enjoyment of those freedoms, it is important to understand and comply with the legal framework which safeguards our software projects from potential legal threats and also makes sure they reach their full potential.
Understanding the legal matters and complying with legal obligations can become a burden sometimes. That is the reason why the FSFE organizes the Legal Education Workshop. It's aim is to spread basic legal education on the legal context of Free Software, so that licensing your project, understanding copyright, and meeting legal obligations in your software project will be less of a daunting task!

Request to host the workshop

The workshop is developed by Lucas Lasota (lucas.lasota@fsfe.org) and Gabriel Ku Wei Bin (gabriel.ku@fsfe.org). If you are interested in hosting a Legal Education Workshop fill in the form below or contact the speakers directly. The full workshop takes four hours. But it is also possible to request a more condensed version that takes less time. If you want to know what to expect, here is a video of a previous edition of Legal Education Day at SFSCON 2022. For more information about Free Software Licensing check the FSFE's Frequently Asked Questions page of the FSFE.

Request a speaker for your event



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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of the speaker bureau?
Part of NGI0's mission is to share knowledge about the digital commons, and what exciting things are happening in the open technology community. We've established the speaker bureau for people who want to bring this knowledge to their event.
Is a speaker fee required?
No, it's not required. You can send in a speaker request if you don't have budget for a speaker fee. But if you do have a budget we'd appreciate compensation for the time the speakers are putting in.
Will my requested speaker definitely say yes?
No. We will relay your request but like most mortals our speakers do not have an unlimited time supply. So they'll have to make choices on what to spend it on.
What is the role of the speaker bureau?
We provide a consolidated point of entry to our network of researchers and developers, a single place where you can put in all requests for speakers. We'll ask the speaker(s) on your behalf. If they say yes, we'll get out of the way and will directly connect you to each other.
I don't know which speaker to ask, can I ask for advice?
Yes, of course. Contact us!

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