The Internet Marathon

Bits of Freedom and De Balie take a deep dive into the costs and benefits of 50 years of internet with more than 30 national and international guests.

In a 12 hours-long programme we explore every nook and cranny of the world wide web. From the cables beneath the ground to the satellites in the sky. From the most-visited pages to underground weblogs. We welcome politicians, philosophers, early adopters of the Internet and the generation that cannot imagine life without it.

A conversation marathon about half a century Internet: where do we stand? Take a deep dive into the costs and benefits of 50 years of internet.

In its early years we thought that the internet would bring us more democracy, emancipation and solidarity. What has become of this hopeful beginning, where does it go wrong, and how will the internet change our future? We discuss cyberwars and perverse incentives in the design of  algorithms on the one hand – and emoji and subcultures on the other hand. Never before people all around the world were able to connect with each other as easy as now. Meanwhile, privacy was never more under threat. In 6 interview rounds we explore the relation between the internet and the constitutional state, economy, philosophy, art, human rights, the past, the present and the future.

Do you have a question for one of the speakers? Drop your question here (code: 77329) and who knows, it might be discussed on Sunday!

This marathon will last from 12AM until midnight. 

About the speakers

During the day (12:00-18:00)

Marleen Stikker internet front runner and president and co-founder of Waag Society. Author of Het internet is stuk (maar we kunnen het repareren) (2019) about the current state of our network. In het book Stikker asks where we lost our sovereignty online.

Kees Teszelszky is Curator digital collections at the Royal Library of the Netherlands. Teszelszky works hard to save parts of our web which are considered historical sites that should be archived for the next generations.

Erik Huizer was actually in the room at one of the crucial moments of the birth of our World Wide Web. A then ordinary meeting where a small group of pioneers discussed how the infrastructure should be build. They could not have suspect that their decisions would have so much impact on humanity today. For over 30 years huizer has been involved in education and research networking, Internet standardisation and Internet governance. He was introduced to the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014. 

Maurits Martijn is deputy editor-in-chief of De Correspondent. As a journalist, he specializes in data, privacy and technology. More than 60,000 copies of his book You do have something to hide (2016, together with Dimitri Tokmetzis) have been sold.

Rafaël Rozendaal is a visual artist who uses the internet as his canvas. 

Kathalijne Buitenweg is politician GroenLinks and chairman of the Digital Future Committee.

Roel Maalderink, Dutch YouTube phenomenon widly know for his satirical interviews with “the man on the street” and expert on freedom of (online) expersion.

Renata Avila is a Guatemalan lawyer and activist specializing in technology and intellectual property. She is a spokesperson and part of the team that defends Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Sal Hagen is a PhD student at the University of Amsterdam, in online political subcultures

The Smartphone Orchestra creates pieces of music and performances in which each smartphone makes its own unique contribution. Thanks to sophisticated technology and a completely new way of composing, they create a nice counterpoint to the criticism of smartphones. During the Internet Marathon they do two of their performances together with the entire audience: Music For Smartphones III (inspired by Steve Reich, composed for Lowlands) and W/O/R/K (made together with Anagram for IDFA Doclab).

Zawadi Done studies IT engineering at the Hogeschool Utrecht and works as a Cyber Security Consultant at the forensic IT company NFIR. In addition, Zawadi is also a coach on the project Hack Right of the Police.

Charlotte Bouwman (27) is journalist en psychiatrisch patiënt. Afgelopen januari begon zij een zit-actie voor het ministerie van Volksgezondheid. Ze werd binnen mum van tijd het gezicht van het protest tegen een falende GGZ. Haar manifest Lijm de Zorg genereerde veel media-aandacht en kreeg meer dan 70.000 handtekeningen. Staatssecretaris Blokhuis beloofde de wachtlijsten aan te pakken, kamerleden van partijen van links tot rechts betuigden hun steun en zelfs Rutte kwam langs bij Charlotte. Tijdens de coronacrisis zette Charlotte haar protest online voort. Ze startte een online campagne en een praatgroep op het sociale medium Discord. 

Peter Pomerantsev, is Sovjet-born tv-maker, journalist and writer. He worked in the Russian television industry and currently works for Arena-program at The London School of Economics where he writes about propaganda and media.

Egbert Dommering, professor of information law at the Institute for Information Law (IViR) of the University of Amsterdam and also works as a lawyer, specializing in telecommunication, media and entertainment law.

Constant Dullaart is a Dutch conceptual media artist, internet artist, and curator. His work is deeply connected to the Internet. For his work 100.000 followers for everyone he bought 2.5 million Instagram followers amongst a personal selection of active art-world Instagram accounts.

Pim van den Berg is a Dutch pop culture critic. He focuses on video games, digital communities, identity and masculinity. His work has appeared in Vrij Nederland and Filmkrant, among others.

Astrid Oosenbrug was a Dutch Member of Parliament and spokesperson on the portfolios ICT, governmental services, telecommunications and privacy & copyright from 2012 to 2017. Astrid has worked in several organizations as a system administrator, is president of COC Nederland and co-founder of DIVD.nl, a non-profit organization that aims to make the digital world safer by reporting vulnerabilities.

Saskia Laroo Warren Byrd De internationale artiesten trompettiste Saskia Laroo uit Amsterdam en pianist / zanger / percussionist Warren Byrd uit de V.S. (beiden ook componisten en bandleiders) creëren samen een grote verscheidenheid aan muziek.

In the evening (18:00 – 00:00)

Francesca Bria is the President of the Italian National Innovation Fund, and Honorary Professor in the Institute  for Innovation and Public Purpose at UCL in London. She is a Senior Adviser and Ambassador to the United Nation (UN-Habitat) on digital cities and digital rights. Francesca Bria is leading the DECODE project on data sovereignty in Europe, and is an adviser to the European Commission on Research and Innovation Policy and Next Generation Internet. She is the former Chief Digital Technology and Innovation Officer for the City of Barcelona in Spain.

Evgeny Morozov is a writer and researcher from Belarus who studies political and social implications of technology

Monica Horten is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the author of three books on Internet policy, all of which have a strong focus on the public interest and rights. She has served as a Council of Europe expert on the Committee of experts on Cross-border flow of Internet traffic and Internet freedom, where she participated in thedrafting an international Recommendation addressed to governments. She has also served on Internet governance and human rights capacity-building programmes in the post-Soviet States.She has presented her academic research in the European Parliament and at conferences around Europe. Her blog, Iptegrity.com has been influential in informing policy-making, notably
the 2009 EU Telecoms Package. Shewas the only female writer in the Journal of Cyber-Policy Top 10 Must Reads (2016). Her current research focusses on the accountability of the big tech platforms with regard to automated content moderation  and the rights of users.

Mary-Jo Diepeveen Tech and AI trainer at Microsoft, educating customers.

Holly Robbins PhD candidate of Industrial Design at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) where she works at the intersection of social sciences, humanities, and design. Her work focuses on shaping relationships with data-intensive objects (those connected to the Internet and that collect data) that are based on reciprocity. Holly’s work explores how design approaches can express the im/materiality of these objects- where the materials of these technologies can be just outside our grasp such as code and algorithms. 

Ingo Uytdehaage is the CFO of Adyen. He has earned degrees from Maastricht University (MBA in accounting and finance), Aarhus Business School in Denmark (MBA in supply chain management and organizational behavior) and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (Post Graduate, CPA).

Tamar Sharon is an associate professor of philosophy of technology and co-director of the Interdisciplinary Hub for Security, Privacy and Data Governance (iHub), at Radboud University. She specialises in the ethics and politics of digitalisation.

Ruben Brave is een internetpionier, bestuurslid van Internet Society Nederland (ISOC) en de Dutch Startup Association (dSa), mediaprofessional en technologie, media en telecommunicatie (TMT) ondernemer. Sinds 2004 oprichter van de academische business incubator Entelligence b.v. voor pre-seed financiering, (valorisatie)begeleiding en coaching bij start-ups op het gebied van Online Media, ICT & automatisering, Health & Life-Long Learning. Initiatiefnemer van Make Media Great Again (MMGA.io).

Hasna El Maroudi is co-founder van het feministische platform Magazine Lilith. Ze is journalist, columnist, programmamaker en presentator.

Haroon Sheikh, senior researcher at WRR en philosopher at VU.

Egbert Dommering has been a Professor of Information Law at the University of Amsterdam and the Director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR). During that period, he continued to work as an advocate. After retirement, he holds the Chair of “Theory of Information Law” at IViR and remained off-counsel at the Amsterdam based Brinkhof law firm, specializing in IP and media.

This programme is a collaboration between De Balie and Bits of Freedom, and will be partly in English, partly in Dutch. The programme is made possible in part by Adessium.

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