5/11/12 The Guardian Activate Summit Returns to NYC

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It’s clear the Internet is changing our lives, oftentimes faster than we can see. But

how is the openness of the Internet shaping our future? How is its innate

interconnectedness affecting businesses, media and the way human beings think

and interact?

It’s these questions and more that will be explored at the third annual Guardian

Activate Summit. The upcoming event will take place in New York on May 3rd and is

the American iteration of the media giant’s event series, which also takes place in

London and Delhi. The Summit will bring together influential and inspirational

speakers such as Wadah Khanfar (former director general of Al Jazeera), Clay

Shirky, Om Malik, Reid Hoffman, Arianna Huffington and Jeff Jarvis to discuss and

debate the potential of the web to drive a more connected, creative and cohesive

planet.

“The first Activate came about in 2009. At the time, we were seeing a lot of events

out there about the future of the Internet. So instead, we took a look at how the

open Internet is changing how businesses think and the way people are governed,”

explains The Guardian’s Robin Hough, the Head of Content and Events at

the Guardian Media Network. “The event will explore the intersection of digital

technologies and changes in society, and will celebrate all the different nuances of

it.”

At last year’s Guardian Activate event, “ideas

were flowing too fast to get them all down”; the

day was described as “dynamite” and speakers

included Jason Clay, the Senior Vice President of market transformation at

the WWF, Carlo Ratti, the Director of the Senseable City Laboratory, Chris Thorpe,

director of ArtFinder, Michael Balaoing, the Senior Vice-President of philanthropic

services at the Entertainment Industry Foundation and Chris Vein, the Deputy Chief

Technology officer of government innovation at the White House.

Since then, The Guardian officially launched in America, with its new offices in Soho

in New York City. Now that the team has had a few months to stretch its wings on

American soil, this year’s Activate promises to be better than the last. Kicking off the

day’s events as host will be the Guardian’s Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger, who’s

well known for his 10 ideas on open journalism, which he shared with the world

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The Guardian’s Activate Summit arrivesThe Guardian’s Activate Summit arrivesin New York City this Mayin New York City this May1 0 T H A P R I L 2 0 1 2 by C O U R T N E Y B O Y D M Y E R S

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5/11/12 The Guardian Activate Summit Returns to NYC

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well known for his 10 ideas on open journalism, which he shared with the world

quite appropriately on Twitter this past March.

New York’s own Clay Shirky, a professor at NYU’s ITP school will be speaking about

the Internet and the community’s reaction regarding the recent debates over the

SOPA and PIPA acts (and their continuing threat to the Internet as we know it).

“There are many reasons to dislike SOPA and PIPA, the pair of Internet censorship

bills working their way through the US Congress. They are (another) example of the

influence of corporate money on American politics: US media firms have

cumulatively donated tens of millions of dollars to the bills’ authors…. And the

proposed technical solution – censorship enforced through the domain name

system – would not have the effect they want it to have, but its technical side-

effects would break important parts of the Internet,” writes Shirky in a piece for The

Guardian.

Watch his TED Talk on the topic below:

Another esteemed speaker is Reid Hoffman, the Executive Chairman of LinkedIn,

who serves on the boards of Kiva, Endeavor, DoSomething, and

StartupAmericaPartnership and will talk about the ways entrepreneurship and

technology are improving the world. He will also provide insights behind his best-

selling book The Startup of You.

“Activate is less about technology for technology’s sake and more about the

principles of openness and coming up with innovative solutions to problems. It’s

about getting out of traditional modes of thinking. It’s also about bringing people

together from disparate positions and disparate parts of the world. We want to

discuss the information that’s going to allow you to do your job better and run your

company better. Whether we get it right or not still remains to be seen,” says The

Guardian’s Robin Hough.

The three discussions I’m most excited will be from Hannah Jones, the VP of

Sustainable Business and Innovation for Nike; Yochai Benkler, the Berkman

professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard; and Jonah Peretti, the

Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed.

The Guardian’s Activate Summit returns to New York, 3 May 2012 at The Paley

Center for Media. Tickets start and $556.50 for the day and The Next Web

readers receive 20% off tickets with the code NEXTWEB20. For more information

and how to book visit the website.

Can’t make it to New York City for the event? Tune in for the livestream! And check

back here for coverage of the event from Features Editor, Courtney Boyd Myers

and our East Coast Editor, Harrison Weber.

Songquan Deng via shutterstock

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5/11/12 The Guardian Activate Summit Returns to NYC

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A B O U T T H E A U T H O R

Courtney Boyd Myers is the Features Editor of The Next Web, based in New York City and

London. She began her career writing about robots. She loves magnets + reading on a

Kindle. You can follow her on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter @CBM.

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