PDF PL-CEE 2013

Artas is founder of Bribespot, a service for reporting bribes that visualizes corruption hotspots on an interactive map. A former UNDP employee and OECD consultant, currently Artas works as a marketing consultant helping commercial companies talk with their customers in a language that they understand. Artas is fascinated by the idea of data-driven services and is actively involved in social initiatives that seek to create more responsible Government with the help of technology. A native of Lithuania, Artas lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

Katarzyna Batko-Tołuć is actively involved in increasing transparency within public life, accountability in governance, and in enforcing the idea of civic oversight.

She works through the Association of Leaders of Local Civic Groups – a unique nation-wide organization formed by several local grassroots initiatives, which focuses on making citizens aware of their rights to be informed, to influence the decision-making processes, and to make authorities accountable. This organization also works as a Freedom of Information watchdog addressing all levels of governance, while serving as a support hub for all watchdog initiatives in Poland.

Katarzyna also analyzes the impact of advocacy efforts on the sustainability of civic initiatives and on the ethical standards of Polish public life. In 2009, she was recognized by Ashoka, an international community of innovators in the public sphere; in 2010, she was named a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society; and in 2011, she was recognized with an award from the Polish President.

Edwin Bendyk is a journalist, writer, blogger and university teacher. Since 1999 he has been working for “Polityka”, a major Polish weekly magazine; he also writes for several other titles. His main interests are processes of modernization and postmodernization, diffusion of culture and innovations, communication and influence of media on culture, and social and political actions. He's an author of several books, the director of the Center for Future Studies at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw and a teacher at the Center for Social Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Polish PEN Club.

Aranita works for the Albanian Institute of Sciences, an NGO with several projects that use innovative ideas to serve transparency, better governance and accountability. Since December 2010 Aranita has been successfully implementing a project called Open Data Albania, promoting transparency through data. ODA's published indicators have had a high level of reuse. In 98% of cases data has been used, quoted by newspapers and Albanian televisions. Open Data Albania's success is enabled by the civil society - media partnership.

Aranita has a Master of Science Degree in Public Rights (2011) from European University of Tirana. Before joining the Albanian Institute of Sciences she worked for Albanian National Television for five years, as a Public Relation Officer for the Government Administration.

Her area of professional expertise is building and managing working groups of experts from various fields, like technology, statistics, economy, law. Brahaj is the author of several publications, as well as editorials and analysis written for the Albanian media.

Darko Brkan is founding president of Zašto ne (Why Not), a Sarajevo-based nongovernmental organization that promotes civic activism, government accountability, and the use of digital media and new technologies in deepening democracy in Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is one of BiH's leading organizations in these fields. In addition, he is a founding member of Dosta! (Enough!), one of Bosnia’s most prominent citizens’ movements for social justice and government accountability. Darko Brkan began his career in civic activism more than ten years ago as a coordinator of the Campaign for Conscientious Objection to Military Service in BiH.

He graduated from the Faculty of Electric Engineering in Sarajevo, majoring in Information Technology with the thesis "Use of Information Technologies in Election Processes". He is an MBA candidate at the School of Economics and Business in Sarajevo majoring in Strategic Information Management. Darko did a fellowship as a Reagan Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he was exploring how information technologies, online tools, and new media can be used to promote democracy and how Open Government Data could be used in the Balkans region.

He has won several awards in the field of innovation and new technology, including the 2011 US Alumni Innovation Award and first place in Innovative Projects Ideas at the Power of One Conference, Cyprus. Apart from that, he is a board member of the US Alumni Association in BiH, a member of the political council of ACIPS, and a board member of "Ekipa", a foundation promoting independent, socially-engaged culture. He is also a 2008 Alumni of the Council of Europe's Academy of Political Excellence, a 2010 Alumni of the Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict, and a 2009 Alumni of the United States Government International Visitors Leadership Program.

Stefan Candea is a freelance journalist and co-founder in 2001 of the Romanian Centre for Investigative Journalism (CRJI), an investigative non-profit registered in Bucharest, Romania.

He started Sponge (thesponge.eu), an open and collaborative media innovation Lab for Eastern Europe. The Lab created an in-depth magazine, The Black Sea (theblacksea.eu), a lifeboat for journalism in the region.

He teaches investigative journalism at Bucharest University and was the 2011 Carroll Binder Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Between 2012 and mid 2013 Stefan coordinated, on behalf of CRJI, the ICIJ Eastern Europe research and reporting Hub for the Offshore Leaks Project. "Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze" was probably the largest cross-border investigative reporting collaboration in history and has been cited more than 25,000 times by other media organizations around the world.

Since March 2001, he has been a correspondent for Reporters sans Frontieres in Romania.

Candea is a member of International Consortium for Investigative Journalism and has won several awards including the IRE Tom Renner Award, the Overseas Press Club of America Award for online journalism.

He worked for Deutsche Welle, for print, radio, TV and online and he did freelance research and production work for several foreign media outlets, including the BBC, Channel 4, ITN, ZDF, and Canal Plus.

Other investigations by Candea have included the international arms trade, illegal international adoption, an investigation of the separatist region of Trans-Dniester and the diamond business in Romania.

He started as an investigative journalist for the Evenimentul Zilei newspaper in Bucharest, in 1999, where he covered the connections between international organized crime networks and high-ranking politicians and public servants. One article showed the links between La Cosa Nostra and associates of the Romanian president and the foreign secret service director.

Alaksiej Carniajeu has been working in security and technology-related fields for non-profits since 2004, at first in frames of the Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus programs, then in Belarus IT Aid. During this time he has provided security and technology training for political and NGO activists from Northern African states, both sides of Caucasus mountains, Ukraine, and Ethiopia as well as various places throughout Belarus.

Alaksiej is also a consultant for SuperPeif.com initiative (meet the world's first pet expert on security), and a member of the electby.org team, which uses Ushahidi to monitor the always troubled Belarusian elections. Prior to joining The Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus, he worked as a programmer, taught computer science at the National Humanities Lyceum and was the technical editor of "Naša Niva" newspaper.

Helen is a human rights activist who specialises in the public’s right of access to information, and development of open and participatory democracies.

Passionate about the role of civil society in effecting change, Helen is a founder of the global Freedom of Information Advocates Network, and served two terms as its chair (2004-2010). She is a founder board member of the pro-transparency organisations Civio (Spain) and Diritto di Sapere (Italy), and a board member of the Open Knowledge Foundation Spain.

Helen led access to information activities at the Open Society Foundations (1999-2003) and was a campaigner with Article 19 (London), establishing its programmes in central and eastern Europe. She has advised UNESCO, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, and the World Bank.

Helen’s degree in Psychology and History & Philosophy of Science from the University of Durham (UK) has nothing and everything to do with her enthusiasm for information, data and the role of new technologies in advancing human rights.

Arzu Geybullayeva is a regional analyst and online blogger. Shortly after starting her own blog flyingcarpetsandbrokenpipelines.blogspot.com in September 2008, she quickly grew in the field and became one of the few critical English language bloggers writing on Azerbaijan. She has given a number of trainings on the use of new media and its advantages in authoritarian states as well as written a course on online journalism, video and audio blogging for Iranian Journalists. Currently, she is with the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation and is editor-in-chief at the online platform The Neutral Zone. Arzu also writes for the Italian online publication Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso and continues to give trainings on the use of online media for activists, organizers, and journalists.

Jarosław Gowin has been a Member of Parliament for two terms beginning in 2007. He was the Head of the Group on Bioethical Convention and Head of the Extraordinary Commission proceeding proposals of amendments to the Constitution. From 2005 to 2007, he was a Senator and member of the Senate Commission on Science and Education and the Commission on Local Government and Public Administration. From 2002 to 2004, Jarosław was a member of the Consultation Board of the National Council of European Integration. He was a co-founder and a rector of the Tischner European University in Cracow. Between1989 and 1994, he was a secretary and between 1995 and 2005, editor-in-chief of the ‘Znak’ magazine. Jarosław Gowin was the mind behind ‘Tischner Days’ and ‘Flying University of ZNAK’. In the 80s, he was a member of the Independent Students’ Union (NZS) and ‘Solidarność’.

Jakub builds communities. He formerly did it for British and German startups. Then he started to create community around Sourcefabric, an open source software producer for professional media.

Jakub is also a journalist. As a media consultant, in the past three years he's helped various media outlets in Georgia (tspress.ge, liberali.ge, netgazeti.ge, and seven others), Turkey (taraf.com.tr) and West Africa (wacsi.org). He teaches new media and blogging, and was named one of the most influential bloggers in Poland in 2012.

As Operations Director at ePF, he combines those skills to make ePF and its services trustworthy, transparent and community driven.

He always puts citizens first.

As a partner at Omidyar Network, Stephen brings exceptional experience in applying media and technology to create positive social impact. Stephen leads the global Government Transparency initiative and a portfolio that includes a broad range of national and global organizations. Many are innovators in the use of technology to help make governments more responsive and aid citizens in holding their governments to account. The portfolio includes: Sunlight Foundation, Global Voices, Fundación Ciudadano Inteligente, mySociety, New Citizen, Janaagraha and Ushahidi, among others.

Prior to Omidyar Network, Stephen served as the chief executive of BBC Media Action, where he led a period of sustained growth that included building programs in more than 40 countries in the developing world. Stephen helped establish the organization’s international reputation as one of the largest and most successful organizations using media and communications to improve the lives of the world’s poor and promote better governance and transparency worldwide. Prior to the BBC, Stephen held executive positions at several non-profit organizations based in the United Kingdom and the developing world.

Stephen is based in London and is a board member of Ushahidi, Global Voices, and mySociety. He holds an MA in Oriental and African studies from the University of London.

A Polish expert on transparency and counter corruption. Since 1989 (year of the system transformation in Poland) she gained over 20-years of experience in non-governmental sector working at first as a director of the Support Program for Small and Medium Enterprises affiliated with the Foundation of Support of Local Democracy (1992 – 1996) and later as the Central European Consultant of the Ford Foundation (1996 – 1999). She worked for 2 years as a member of the High Level Group on Anticorruption facilitated by the World Bank Warsaw Office and she was a member of National Council on Public Procurement.

In 2000, she launched Anti-Corruption Program at the Stefan Batory Foundation, which she has been running until now. The main goal of the Program is to rebuild society’s trust to public institutions and to counteract corruption. Under Anti-Corruption Program several campaigns, educational activities, monitoring of governmental institutions and advocacy projects have been accomplished; such as: trainings to Local Civic Groups and annual Corruption barometer.

Grażyna Kopińska chairs the work of a Civic Forum on Legislation, a working group of 23 representatives of civil society organizations, think-thanks, donors, lawyers & research institutions that coordinates their advocacy work on increasing the transparency of legislative process in Poland.

Anna Kuliberda is a freedom of information, open-data and democracy innovations enthusiast and educator involved in multiple grass-roots initiatives; member of a Citizens Network - Watchdog Poland and of the Supervisory Board of ePF, for more than 2 years now involved in a tech for transparency in the Balkans program of Techsoup Europe. She has also cooperated with Civis Polonus Foundation and Semper Avanti Association on involving youth in public life and is currently volunteering in Zašto ne (Why Not), a Sarajevo-based nongovernmental organization.

Paul Lenz is the Head of International Projects for mySociety. He joined in January 2011 after working in the true commercial sector for 15 years, the last 5 of which were with the BT Group PLC.

Paul's role in mySociety is overall operational management, with a specific focus on helping partner groups use mySociety's tools and open-source code base to drive democratic engagement and accountability around the world. This has included managing the re-launch of Mzalendo.com in Kenya and working with Hutspace to launch Odekro.org in Ghana, as well as working with EnoughIsEnough in Nigeria to launch a parliamentary accountability site based upon the Mzalendo code base.

Paul is also focused upon the expansion of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information platform and the wider development of online tools that can be used by groups with little or no technical skills. Paul is also focused upon the expansion of the Alaveteli Freedom of Information platform and the wider development of online tools that can be used by groups with little or no technical skills.

Jarosław Lipszyc is President of the Modern Poland Foundation, board presidium for the Open Education Coalition, committee member of the Citizens of Culture, co-founder of the Stanislaw Brzozowski Association, and audit committee member of the Internet Society of Poland. Before he started working for the Modern Poland Foundation he worked for many years as a journalist, poet and musician, and currently still is an active booster of modern education and open culture. He's the conceptual author of the portal "Włącz Polskę" (eng: Turn Poland On) published by the Polish Ministry of Education. He's an active substantive participant in all projects of the Modern Poland Foundation, a trainer in workshops for teachers, and a lecturer on subjects related to new technology, education and Internet law. Jarosław has participated in social action towards organizing consultations on the implementation of the Register of Banned Websites and Services, was a participant of the debate "Ask the Prime Minister", and debates ACTA and the future of the copyright. He promotes dialogue and cooperation between the NGOs and public administration.

Michał Mach is an entrepreneur, trainer, consultant, project manager, software designer and just a regular participant in many nonprofit sector technology projects over the past 18 years. He's passionate about pragmatic approaches to using the Internet and IT for social good, and fiercely believes in openness, transparency, knowledge sharing and all things free (as in freedom, not free beer). He's a Co-founder of the CiviCRM project, an open source constituent relationship management (CRM) software for non-profits. He's also a founding member of a few organisations, among them Association 61 and the Warsaw Hackerspace Association, as well as a regular member and adviser to many others. He's a frequent co-organiser and facilitator of good old- (or new?) fashioned face-to-face participatory events like hackathons, code sprints, book sprints, etc.

Anna Mazgal is a Polish NGO professional that has worked with numerous Polish and international organizations on the issues of policy, advocacy, strategy and cross-sectoral synergies. Currently she holds a position of Program Director for Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia at Trust for Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, a major regional US-based private grantmaker. She is also a member of Civic Legislative Forum, a cross-sectoral expert group advocating for a greater, transparent inclusion of citizens into law-making processes and for improving the quality of law-making through introduction of evidence-based methodology and regulatory impact assessment. From 2005 until winter 2012 Anna has been cooperating with the National Federation of Polish NGOs OFOP, an umbrella organization representing civil sector organizations in Poland. In years 2009 – 2011, while holding the position of International Officer there, she served as the president of European Network of National Associations ENNA and was a member of Steering Committee for Affinity Group of National Associations at CIVICUS Global Alliance for Citizen Participation.

Ellen S. Miller is the co-founder and executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based, non-partisan non-profit dedicated to using the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency. She is the founder of two other prominent Washington-based organizations in the field of money and politics -- the Center for Responsive Politics and Public Campaign -- and a nationally recognized expert on transparency and the influence of money in politics. Ms. Miller also served as deputy director of Campaign for America's Future, was the publisher of TomPaine.com and was a senior fellow at The American Prospect. Her experience as a Washington advocate for more than 35 years spans the worlds of non-profit advocacy, grassroots activism and journalism.

Emin Milli is a writer and dissident from Azerbaijan, Milli was imprisoned in 2009 for two and a half years for his critical views about the government. He was conditionally released in November 2010, after serving 16 months of his sentence, in part due to strong international pressure on the government of Azerbaijan.

From 2002-2004, Milli was director of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and also advised the Council of Europe on more than 40 cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, many of whom were released following pressure from the Council. Prior to that, he was a coordinator for the International Republican Institute in Azerbaijan. He studied at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where he wrote his dissertation on new media and Arab revolutions.

Stephen Mull was confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Poland on September 22, 2012, and sworn in by Secretary Clinton on October 24. He served as Executive Secretary of the State Department from June 21, 2010 until October 5, 2012. Before then, he had served since August 2008 as Senior Advisor to Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns. Mr. Mull served as Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs from January 2007 through August 2008. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Lithuania 2003-2006, and was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia 2000-2003. His other overseas assignments have been in Poland, South Africa and the Bahamas.

Sergejus is the Executive Director of Transparency International Lithuania and a member of Transparency International's Board of Directors. Over the past few years, along with his TI colleagues from across the globe, he's worked on finding new ways to effectively engage the public – and especially youth – in anti-corruption and transparency initiatives.

Sergejus is keenly interested in online transparency and citizen engagement tools that enable non-governmental organizations to reach out to and engage with the public. His organization has hosted a number of local and international Open Data events and has been on the forefront of testing new people engagement platforms in Lithuania and across the Transparency International movement. Over the past few years TI Lithuania has launched an online corruption mapping tool service @ www.skaidrumolinija.lt (transparencyline), an online parliamentary monitoring website @ www.manoseimas.lt (myparliament) and a FOIA website www.parasykjiems.lt (a writetothem clone).

Sergejus also initiated and oversaw the development of the Vilnius, Lithuania Transparency International Summer School on Integrity @ www.transparencyschool.org, which hosted some one hundred students from thirty-eight countries in 2012.

Sergejus is a member of the Selection Commission of Candidates to Judicial Office and a board member of the Lithuanian business transparency initiative Clear Wave. He holds degrees with distinction from Leiden and Utrecht Universities in the Netherlands and Vilnius University, Lithuania.

Marija Novkovic is an Open Government Partnership specialist with nine years of professional experience in the governance field, focusing on anti-corruption, transparency and integrity. Before joining UNDP Montenegro, Marija was a Government of Montenegro employee, where she helped design and monitor the country’s first national anti-corruption action plan. Marija joined UNDP Montenegro in 2010 to manage the anti-corruption portfolio. In 2012, she spearheaded the establishment of an online petitioning platform, Citizens Voice, allowing every adult citizen of Montenegro to directly influence policy making. Marija is currently leading a social innovation project, canvassing the whole of Montenegro for ideas on how to harness the powers of web and mobile technology for social change. She regularly writes on open government issues for UNDP's Voices from Eurasia blog and her articles have been published, among others, by the Guardian.

Marija is one of 41,000 Chevening alumni around the world who together comprise an influential and highly regarded global network of leaders who completed their postgraduate education in the United Kingdom.

Get in touch with Marija on Twitter: @MariaNovkovic.

Marko Rakar (1972) is president of a small Croatian NGO called Windmill. Marko has a lifelong experience in working/writing for media as well as dealing with the media. He combines his media knowledge with new technologies and was one of the earliest internet adopters in Croatia. He is a recognized lecturer and consultant on the subjects of organizing, the internet, new media as well as politics. He has run a number of successful campaigns and races for organizations, parties and independent candidates on presidential, parliament and municipal elections in Croatia, Europe, Asia and the US. His speciality is new and social media, as well as data transparency and open governance. Marko studied Philosophy and Information sciences at the University of Zagreb, speaks English fluently and is regular columnist and author to a number of blogs, web sites, newspapers and magazines in Croatia and internationally.

He was recognized in 2009. by World eGovernment forum as one of the "Top 10 who are changing the world of politics on the internet," recognition which he received for exposing voter list manipulation in Croatia. In 2010 he was arrested, held for questioning and accused of leaking a top secret list of war veterans which includes more then 200.000 people who never participated in the war effort and who draw more then $1.2 billion per year in benefits from Croatian government. In late 2011, Windmill published a list of more then 60.000 Croatian public procurement contracts worth more then $15 billion combined with financial data of suppliers and a number of other information which helped prove and explain how Croatian public procurement process is inefficient, riddled with crime and corruption and in general harmful for Croatian citizen interests. Windmill and Marko are currently working on analysis of the Croatian pension system trying to prove how the private pension funds were used to bail out bad bank loans, as well as a number of other anti-corruption and data transparency projects.

Marko is a member of the board of EAPC (Europan association of political consultants), member of the board of IAPC (International association of political consultants), "School of politics" alumni (by Council of Europe).

Andrew Rasiej is a civic and social entrepreneur, technology strategist, and the founder of Personal Democracy Media focusing on the intersection of technology, politics, and government. In addition to co-founding Civic Hall earlier this year, he is the Chairman of the NY Tech Meetup, a 40,000+-member organization of technologists, venture funders, marketers, representing start up and more mature companies using technology to transform themselves, New York City, and the world. He is the founder of MOUSE.org which focuses on 21st century public education and senior advisor to the Sunlight Foundation a Washington DC organization using technology to make government more transparent. Andrew lives and works in New York City.

Vukosava Crnjanski Sabovic is a founder and director of the NGO CRTA – Center for Research, Transparency and Accountability. She has also worked as a regional trainer of the National Democratic Institute since 2004, providing variety of capacity building assistance to political parties, non-governmental organizations, government officials and public institutions.

Since 2002, Vukosava manages CRTA work that primarily focuses on establishing mechanisms and ICT tools for citizens engagement in public officials accountability monitoring and accountability advocacy.

Vukosava established CRTA’s most prominent project - Truth-o-Meter, that evaluates politicians’ and public officials’ statements and pledges for their truthfulness and consistency. Her work on public education about accountability in decision making and providing public access to information includes efforts on opening of information about parliamentary work and about public spending.

Crnjanski holds EMBA degree and MA in human resources management.

For more than 7 years, Iryna has worked at Civil Network OPORA in Lviv, Ukraine, an NGO that's part of the OPORA network. OPORA's mission is to enhance public participation in the political process by using models of citizens’ influence to impact activities of state and local government.

OPORA is mostly known as a watch-dog network for Ukraine's election process. Since 2007, the Network has implemented three national (involving up to 3,500 observers) and eight local election monitoring campaigns. Due to the rich experience and innovative approaches of OPORA activists, its observation results are highly trusted and enjoy respect among different stake-holders.

Iryna as a team member was involved in the planning and conduct of observation campaigns, especially designing communication strategies, disseminating and promoting observation results on both regional and national levels.

Dr. Alexey Sidorenko is an expert on the Russian internet and an experienced web developer. His knowledge of Russian new media and politics encompasses web development, data analysis, regional political analysis, freedom of online speech issues, reporting, and editing.

Starting February 2012, Dr. Sidorenko is the head of the Moscow-based project “Teplitsa of Social Technologies” (te-st.ru), an innovation incubator dedicated to creating citizen web applications and enhancing NGO ICT skills.

From 2009-2012, Dr. Sidorenko was a reporter and an editor of the “RuNet Echo” project at Global Voices Online, where he researched and analyzed developments in the Russian internet sphere. This included the role of the internet in civil society and politics, the changing media landscape, the role of the internet in breaking news coverage, internet policy in Russia and its effect on the digital divide and freedom of speech, and information security and cyber warfare.

He has also contributed reporting for Freedom House and Reporters Without Borders on internet and freedom of speech issues in Russia. In 2010, he served as the web developer behind the “Help Map” project, an award-winning crowdsourcing initiative to help the victims of the summer wildfires.

He is a native speaker of Russian and is also fluent in English and Polish.

Micah L. Sifry is a writer, editor and democracy activist. Since 2004, he has been the co-founder and editorial director of Personal Democracy Media. In addition to co-founding Civic Hall last year, he is also a senior adviser to the Sunlight Foundation and serves on the boards of Consumer Reports and the Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science. He is the author or editor of eight books, most recently A Lever and a Place to Stand: How Civic Tech Can Move the World (Personal Democracy Media, 2015) and The Big Disconnect: Why the Internet Hasn’t Changed Politics (Yet) (OR Books, 2014), and in the spring of 2012 taught “The Politics of the Internet” at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He lives with his family in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY.

Małgorzata Steiner is the head of the Department for Analysis and Public Communication in the Ministry of Administration and Digitization in Poland. Prior to this, she had worked in the Prime Minister's Office in Poland on issues like administration reform and innovation. She also managed international projects for German Development Cooperation Agency GIZ in Berlin and was a leadership trainer and consultant in the USA. She's a graduate of Humboldt University, Berlin, where she studied law, and Harvard University, where she studied public policy.

Katarzyna Szymielewicz is a lawyer and activist. She's a graduate of the University of Warsaw's Law & Administration Department, and the University of London's Development Studies program in the School of Oriental and African Studies.

She's Co-founder and President of the Panoptykon Foundation, that deals with human rights protection in the context of new technology development. She's also Vice-President of European Digital Rights, a coalition of over 30 organisations.

Katarzyna serves as an advisor to the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative and to the Minister for Administration and Digitalisation in Poland. She is also a member of the International Commission of Jurists (Polish section) and the Internet Society.

Alek Tarkowski is the co-founder and director of Centrum Cyfrowe Projekt Polska, a think-and-do-tank that builds tools and methodologies for using digital technologies to increase openness and civic engagement. He's also the Public Lead of Creative Commons Poland, and a member of both the Council of Information, that advises the Polish Ministry of Administration and Digital affairs, and the Administrative Council of Communia, an international association supporting the digital public domain.

From 2007-2011, he was on the Board of Strategic Advisors to the Prime Minister of Poland, responsible for matters related to the development of digital society. He co-authored the strategic report “Poland 2030″; the “Digital Poland” chapter of the Polish Long Term Strategy for Growth; the "Roadmap for Open Government in Poland", published by Centrum Cyfrowe in 2011; and the study “Circulations of Culture”, a survey of informal media practices in Poland. He's co-creator of the “Culture 2.0″ project, that maps cultural changes caused by digital technologies.

Alek has a PhD in Sociology from the Polish Academy of Science and an MA in Sociology from the University of Warsaw. For over a decade he has been involved in studying and building a digital society in Poland - initially as a scholar, and now as an activist as well. His interests concern social and cultural aspects of the ongoing digital transition, with a particular focus on issues related to intellectual property and open models for production and distribution of knowledge.

Marek Tuszynski is a restless producer of various creative and social interventions spanning various media: radio, television and internet, as well as analogue formats such as workshops, book sprints and endless conversations. Activism, innovation and creativity are major driving forces in his work, as much as the importance of marginalised voices, opinions and world views. He has co-founded a number of initiatives and organisations, such as The Second Hand Bank, International Contemporary Art Network, Tactical Tech and recently Tactical Studios. Marek is currently focusing on using visual formats in representing evidence to influence the course of social and political issues, while also working on the next documentary film for Tactical Tech, along with other animations. In his spare time he produces a radio program titled Love & Chaos on Reboot FM.

Orsolya Vincze is a researcher and development coordinator at K-Monitor, a Hungarian anti-corruption NGO. K-monitor truly believes in an information society and the power of investigative journalism. Almost all of its projects are connected with information and communication technologies as well as professional and community journalism. Previously, she worked as an editor at a social science journal, where she became interested in the political aspects of the information society. She received a JD degree from Eötvös Loránd University in 2006.

Piotr Waglowski, also known as VaGla, is a Polish lawyer, open government activist, poet, publicist and webmaster, researcher of communication processes in the paradigm of social constructionist and academic teacher specializing in media education.

For over 15 years he's edited his private Internet service VaGla.pl, ‘Prawo i Internet’ (Law & Internet), which is dedicated to the legal aspects of the information society. A founding member of the Internet Society Poland, he's recognized as one of the first Wikipedians in Poland. He's a member of the Polish Informatization Council and a former council member of the Polish Chamber of Information Technology and Telecommunication. He's involved in several organisations, including the Center for Analysis at the ePaństwo Foundation // ePF, which is co-organizing PDF PL-CEE.

Piotr is a laureate of several prizes, eg: Internet Citizen of the Year 2001, Bronze Cross of Merit in 2005, Info Star 2010, and nominated for Internet Standard 2011 - "for almost 15 years of writing blog-portal on law and Internet, for consequent support of the freedom in The Net, for describing in easy-to-understand form difficult legal subjects, for initiating substantive discussions, for the contribution to the research on copyright law in Internet". In 2012, he received a prize from Accessible Cyberspace Forum "for exceptional contribution to the accessibility of Internet".

Krzysztof has been involved in the Polish ecological movement for 20 years. He was a co-founder of project MOST (EN: bridge) that granted ecological organisations free access to internet services in the mid-90's. Within the Polish Green Network, Krzysztof co-created a report on monitoring environmental protection funds, a toolkit for NGO representatives working in monitoring committees, and an ethical chart of ecological organisations.

Krzysztof is also a member of SLLGO (Association of Leaders of Local Civic Groups), where his focus is access to information on the public sector. His daily work is at the local ecological organisation 'Źródła', which doesn't use funds from local administrations for the sake of independence. The organisation is based on individual initiative and using its own resources, and uses new technologies to implement standards of openness, transparency, accountability and effective communication.

Kuba Wygnański is a sociologist by training. He started his public activity as a Solidarity activist. He participated in historical Round Table talks. After 1989, he became deeply involved in numerous initiatives to support civil society in Poland and other countries. He has established several NGOs, including the KLON/JAWOR Association (a research and information centre for Polish non-profit organisations) and the Forum of Non-Governmental Initiatives (FIP) which plays key role as a representative of the Polish Third Sector. FIP initiated a series of sector wide debates and meetings, including six national forums involving hundreds of organisations. Kuba was one of the authors and a main advocate of the Law on Public Benefit and Voluntarism in Poland (introduced in 2002). Currently he is a member of the Public Benefit Council and Chairman of the Programme Board of the Polish Public Television.

For almost 20 years Kuba has been deeply involved in the field of research on the non-profit sector in Poland (including international efforts in Poland, i.e. Johns Hopkins University, USAID and Civicus). Kuba was an initiator and coordinator of the multi-year systemic project Polish Model of Social Economy. In 2003 he was a Yale University World Fellow.

For several years, Kuba was a Board Member of the Stefan Batory Foundation, a Member of International Committee of US Council on Foundations, a Board Member of Civicus (Global Alliance for Citizens Participation) and currently is a Board Member of the TechSoup Foundation.

Kuba is also involved in numerous activities outside of Poland including work in Romania, Sarajevo, Kosovo and Kazakhstan. He has also worked for a number of international organisations and institutions including OECD, USAID, World Bank, ICNL, UNDP, CEE Trust for Civil Society and many others.

Institute for East European Studies, University of Warsaw; Member of the Polish PEN-Club; Chairman of Advisers Group of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Polish Parliament (2009-2011); adviser to the Minister in the Office for War Veterans and Repressed Persons (2008-2011); Director of the Institute of National Remembrance in Szczecin (2004-2008); Director of the Polish Institute in Leipzig (2000-2004); Director of the Polish Institute in Dusseldorf (1996-1999); Editor in Chief in the department national ‘news’ program TVP1; Political commentators in Polish Radio (1994 -1996); Editor in Chief of the daily "Życie Warszawy" (1990-1993); Secretary of the Civic Committee of Lech Walesa; press office of "Solidarity" during "Round Table" negotiation (1988-1989); Deputy editor of the monthly "Więź" (1987-1990); Journalist in the Polish section of the BBC in London (1986-1987); Scholarship of Adenauer Foundation (1984-1985); editor at "Więź" under the direction of Tadeusz Mazowiecki (1973-1981); MA in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Lublin, combined with studies in mathematics at Warsaw University (1973); born in Warsaw 1949.

Awards: Knights Cross of Polonia Restituta, Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Annual Award of the University Viadrina, 2008.

Svitlana Zalishchuk is a journalist, activist and initiator of number of influential civic campaigns in Ukraine, including the CHESNO movement, the New Citizen civic platform, and the journalist movement Stop Censorship! She is working as a founding director of Centre UA, a Kiev-based nongovernmental organization. Previously Svitlana was an anchor of the live political TV show “From the Other Side” and an international reporter at the 5th TV Channel – the only media that broadcasted Orange Revolution in 2004. Also she has an experience working at high positions in the Government and in the Administration of the President from 2005 to 2006.

Jérémie Zimmermann is co-founder of La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net), a citizen group informing about legislative projects menacing civil liberties as well as economic and social development in the digital age. He is also vice-president of April, a French non-governmental organization for promoting and defending Free Software.