Calls & Events

PDF France Special Event: US Presidential Election Debrief

La Gaité Lyrique, Paris | December 6, 2012

Watch the Talks | Read the Storify “From Hope to Forward”: How Barack Obama has (again) reinvented digital campaigning Visit the PDF France Website Barack Obama was reelected on November 6th. On December 6th, PDF France sought to ... Learn More

Watch the Archive - The Rise of the "Peer Progressive"

NY Law School | September 24, 2012

Is there a new political philosophy emerging from things like open source software development; massive community sharing hubs like Wikipedia, Kickstarter, and Reddit; peer-to-peer social networking; experiments in "Liquid Democracy," and ... Learn More

How to Turn Pop-Culture Fans into Political Activists

July 26, 2012

Andrew Slack

The Harry Potter Alliance was started by comedian Andrew Slack to inspire hundreds of thousands of Harry Potter fans to act as heroes in the real world. HPA practices what Slack calls "cultural acupuncture," that is, "finding where the ... Learn More

Satire and the Web: How to Make Ideas That Spread Online

July 13, 2012

Baratunde Thurston

"Ideas that spread, win." And people are far more likely to share something funny than something serious. So, how to make serious ideas funny--and spread them online? Learn More

Social Media for Disaster Relief

June 28, 2012

David Burton and Genevieve Williams

On May 22, 2011, the city of Joplin, MO, was hit by an extremely powerful tornado. 160 people were killed and about 1,000 injured, and the area suffered $2.8 billion in damages, with more than 7,000 houses destroyed. Less than two hours ... Learn More

Abbie Hoffman 2.0? A New Generation of Creative Troublemakers on the Web

June 7, 2012

Andrew Boyd

Many of today's social movements have a creative new edge that’s blurring the boundaries between artist and activist, hacker and dreamer. On this call we'll delve into the tactics, action design principles, and theoretical frameworks that ... Learn More

Network Smarts: How to Thrive Online

May 24, 2012

Howard Rheingold

"We’re in a period where the cutting edge of change has moved from the technology to the literacies made possible by the technology," writes Howard Rheingold in his new book, "Net Smart: How to Thrive Online." For more than 25 years, ... Learn More

Is the Personalized Web Hurting Democracy?

May 3, 2012

Joseph Turow

Coming to PD+: Is personalization bad for citizens? Learn More

What Google and the Govt Really Know About You

April 26, 2012

Chris Soghoian

Christopher Soghoian is a Washington, DC based Graduate Fellow at the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, and a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. His research is focused on the topic of ... Learn More

Crowdfunding Creative Projects

April 13, 2012

Yancey Strickler

Recently, Kickstarter, the online hub for crowdfunding creative projects, hit a milestone: two popular proposals each managed to raise $1 million in just one day. More than $125 million dollars have been and more than 15,000 projects ... Learn More