“It’s very easy to mischaracterize the internet as this thing that doesn’t exist, with a bunch of people on it. In fact, the Internet is people, and if we generally believe that most people are generally good, then we can also believe that the Internet is generally good … I hope we can talk a lot more about harnessing that good.” – Alexis Ohanian

It’s clear that the battle of protecting free information on the Internet is far from over, even despite the win against SOPA/PIPA last year. We think of the Internet as an open distribution channel, but there are many forces at hand trying to control that. We need to encourage the governments and large social networks of this world to understand the civic and democratic responsibility they have to leave the content people are creating and ideas they are sharing unfiltered and without bias.

For this discussion, Alexis and Eli will address the eye-opening issues that are at the top of their minds, and consider open solutions to information sharing. What kinds of media are distributed to whom, and when and how? What do the different forces controlling our networks do to that information, and what does it mean when those systems are monetized? How do we get our government and large companies act in the best interest of citizens and “not mess with with Internet”?

Join us for this rousing discussion on openness and what we can all do to ensure it’s place in our society.