Workshop on FIRE and the "No Disconnect Strategy"
Brussels, 7 May 2012 from 10:00 to 17:00
Introduction
The Internet is now much more than it was ever envisaged to be. Rather than simply a communication system, it has become the backbone of modern society. For many of us it is inconceivable to live life without being 'connected'. New and unexpected applications and services are emerging from cutting-edge technological developments, paving the road for future ones.
The recent political and social changes in the Arab world, as a result of a new revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests (Arab Spring), have repre-sented one of the most striking socio-economic and political developments worldwide. The use of the Internet in these crucial events has dramatically contributed to the spreading out of the protests by bridging the gaps of information between citizens and stimulating a better coordination in terms of actions.
The "No Disconnect Strategy" (NDS), launched in December 2011 by Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, is one of the actions of the European Commission which recognizes the important role of the Internet and the ICT in the wider strategy for the promotion of Human Rights across the globe.
It aims at providing citizens living in non-democratic regimes with the technological tools they need to shield them from indiscriminate surveillance or bypass disproportionate restrictions on their freedom to communicate.
Testing the possible tools and paradigms which may contribute to the goals of the NDS represents an interesting use case for the FIRE facilities, most of which are now planning their next open calls.
Workshop leaflet 
Objectives
This workshop is meant to create mutual awareness and effective synergies between these two EC initiatives, FIRE and the NDS.
The main objectives are:
- to introduce the FIRE landscape to those stakeholders which have been working exten-sively to use Internet and other electronic com-munications technologies to promote human rights, but are not necessarily well aware of rele-vant research and experimentation opportunities available in the European Union;
- to ensure that FIRE project partners and stakeholders understand the needs and priorities of stakeholders which are operating in an im-portant social and political dimension of Internet developments;
- to discuss how the available FIRE large-scale experimental platform can be used by stakeholders who are active in the NDS realm to test their technological solutions before putting them to a broader use, especially considering that for many of such solutions, design or implementation bugs can lead to serious personal risks for their users;
- to create awareness within both the FIRE and the NDS communities of the next
Agenda
Practical Information
The workshop will take place in the building BU25 of the European Commission (Avenue de Beaulieu 25, B-1049 Bruxelles, Belgium).
For further information, please contact:
Mr Fabrizio Sestini: FIRE
Mr Andrea Glorioso: No Disconnect Strategy
Mr Georgi Grigorov: logistics
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