Abstract¶
Activists and governments around the world are taking steps to protect themselves from surveillance capitalism, the surveillance state, and the largely US-based Big Tech companies that underpin them. As surveillance grows more ubiquitous and sophisticated, our tools have had to evolve. There is no such thing as perfect security, but we do now have tools available to us to mitigate risks, protect our privacy, and secure digital sovereignty for individuals, organizations, and nation states.
In this short talk, Robin will explore open source communication tools and protocols, namely Matrix and Signal, their relative merits and use cases, and how we see them used in the real world. We will also briefly touch on the reasonable limits of what we can accomplish through technology and navigating tradeoffs such as usability and security.
Robin Riley | Open Chapters¶
Robin Riley is a nonprofit executive and community organizer based in Petaluma, California, specializing in open source, civics, and movements. Her work at the intersection of social change and technology has driven a fascination with the tools we can use to reduce harm, dependence on systems that do not serve us, and usher in a better world.
Robin works independently through her consulting firm, Open Chapters, and recently completed a 2-year contract as Managing Director of The Matrix.org Foundation. She serves as a Commissioner for the Sonoma County Library and has a long history of civic engagement across ACLU Northern California, Petaluma’s General Plan Advisory Committee and Technology Advisory Committee, and several electoral campaigns. Robin previously worked in open source at Tidelift, Salesforce, Google, and O’Reilly Media, and is known for her leadership at Open Source Initiative, serving as the organization’s last Board President and first Board Chair while overseeing a project to transform and mature the nonprofit which serves as the cornerstone of modern software development.