We have four confirmed speakers for this session who will each share their most recent work to find policy and regulatory solutions to the democratic challenges posed by digital media. Each will also present a question or challenge that they are looking for help with, and and a specific invitation to those in the room to collaborate on that questions or challenge.

The speakers are:

Liz Carolan was co-founder of the Transparent Referendum Initiative, founded in Ireland to help ensure that the recent referendum process allowed for a open, truthful and respectful debate by taking action to increase the transparency of paid, online advertising during the referendum campaign. They did this by building a public, searchable database of political ads being targeted at Irish voters related to the referendum, and information on the social media accounts that are promoting them. This enabled journalists, fact-checkers and members of the public to scrutinise this content. Liz and her colleagues are continuing to investigate the vulnerabilities in our democracy posed by social media, and possible policy and regulatory solutions.

Marianne Elliott is a human rights and democracy advocate who helped found ActionStation, a digitally-powered citizen's movement for democratic engagement in New Zealand. Over four years more than quarter of a million New Zealanders engaged in democratic processes with ActionStation (ranging from Parliamentary petitions and Select Committee Submissions to voting in local and national elections). As well as being excited about the democratic possibilities offered by digital technology, Marianne became concerned at some of the democratic threats she was seeing through this work. She is now undertaking research (funded by the Omidyar Group and the New Zealand Law Foundation) to investigate the possible policy and regulatory responses to those risks. In November she'll present the initial findings of that research.

Martin Tisne has 15 years of experience in helping to build the international movement for openness, transparency and participation, including founding or co-founding two multi-stakeholder initiatives and three NGOs. Prior to joining Omidyar Network, Martin founded the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, the leading donor collaborative in the open government and open data sector. While in this role, he co-founded the Open Government Partnership together with the White House and grew it into a 65-member strong multi-stakeholder initiative. Additionally, Martin initiated the G8 Open Data Charter, the G20 commitment to open data principles, and the International Open Data Charter. Through the Omidyar Network, Martin is currently working with researchers, policy makers and political actors around the world to explore solutions to the threats posed to democracy by digital and social media.

Dr. Anja Kovacs directs the Internet Democracy Project in Delhi, India, which works for an Internet that supports free speech, democracy and social justice in India and beyond. Anja’s research and advocacy focuses especially on questions regarding freedom of expression, cybersecurity and the architecture of Internet governance. She has been a member of the of the Investment Committee of the Digital Defenders Partnership and of the Steering Committee of Best Bits, a global network of civil society members. She has also worked as an international consultant on Internet issues, including for the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, the United Nations Development Programme Asia Pacific and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue, as well as having been a Fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore, India.