Monique Calisti
Martel Innovate
Biography
Dr Monique Calisti is the CEO of Martel Innovate, president and founder of the Digital for Planet association and director of the NGI Outreach Office. She is a passionate entrepreneur and ICT expert with experience in research and innovation funding, strategic consulting, training, communication, social media marketing, and business development of sustainable and innovative software solutions.
With expertise in AI and NGI technologies (IoT, 5G, Cloud/Edge, etc.), Monique helps Martel’s customers and partners develop agile and efficient innovation strategies and plans.
Monique is also an expert evaluator and reviewer for the European Commission. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the European AI, Data and Robotics Association, and coordinator of the European NGIoT Coordination and Support Action.
Over the last 20 years, Monique has been a speaker and moderator at science, technology and policy events, authored and edited professional publications and R&D project proposals, and been a Programme Committee member for international conferences.
Monique holds a PhD in AI from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and a PhD in telecommunications engineering from the University of Bologna.
Organisation
Martel Innovate
Corporate
Speaker session
PLENARY 5 : Decentralised Social Media and Fediverse: from niche to scale
The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative supports open, interoperable, decentralised and trust-based internet applications through several ‘Fediverse’ projects. The Fediverse consists of a set of open protocols and independent, interoperable social media platforms, which provide the users with an alternative to the traditional, centralised social media platforms. It has grown significantly over the past 2 years but it still does not enjoy a critical mass comparable to such well-established platforms.
The session will explore what advantages the Fediverse can count on to grow as well as possible hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve its full potential. Experts in the panel, including by presenting some successful projects, will discuss how decentralised social media are different from the centralised ones, why the underlying features – such as increased users' privacy and empowerment – increasingly fit the needs of people, and what would be needed for a further uptake.
Moderated by Jennifer Baker
Renaud Chaput
Mastodon gGmbH
Biography
Renaud, also known as renchap on the web, recently joined the Mastodon core-team as volunteer CTO to help the decentralized social network grow.
Full-stack developer and system administrator, he is passionate about building and scaling infrastructure of fast moving projects or companies. He has been contributing to various open source initiatives for over 15 years and has organized the « SysadminDays » conference in Paris for several years.
Besides his consulting missions he also works on Notos, a photo-sharing platform he co-founded, with privacy and respect of personal data at its core.
Organisation
Mastodon gGmbH
NGO
Mastodon is a free and open-source software implementing the ActivityPub protocol to provide a decentralised and federated social network service.
It started in 2016 as an open-source project by Eugen Rochko. Believing that instant global communications were too crucial for modern society to belong to a single commercial company, he sought to build a user-friendly microblogging product that would not belong to any central authority, but remain practical for everyday use.
It has more than 1.8 million monthly active users, distributed over 10 000 instances.
Mastodon gGmbH is the non-profit managing the project. It has several employees dedicated to improving Mastodon, finances the development of the official mobile applications, and hosts the flagship instance, mastodon.social.
Speaker session
PLENARY 5 : Decentralised Social Media and Fediverse: from niche to scale
The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative supports open, interoperable, decentralised and trust-based internet applications through several ‘Fediverse’ projects. The Fediverse consists of a set of open protocols and independent, interoperable social media platforms, which provide the users with an alternative to the traditional, centralised social media platforms. It has grown significantly over the past 2 years but it still does not enjoy a critical mass comparable to such well-established platforms.
The session will explore what advantages the Fediverse can count on to grow as well as possible hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve its full potential. Experts in the panel, including by presenting some successful projects, will discuss how decentralised social media are different from the centralised ones, why the underlying features – such as increased users' privacy and empowerment – increasingly fit the needs of people, and what would be needed for a further uptake.
Moderated by Jennifer Baker
Isabell Claus
thinkers.ai
Biography
Isabell Claus is a serial tech entrepreneur, managing director of thinkers.ai, winner of the Europe State Award 2022, Innovator of the Year 2022 in Austria and Austrian Entrepreneur of the Year 2020.
From 2012 to 2018, she was a member of the leadership team at RadarCyberSecurity, the European market leader for continuous cybersecurity monitoring. During this time, the start-up transformed from nothing into one of the Top 100 fastest-growing companies in the EMEA region, receiving awards five years in a row from the Financial Times and Deloitte. After the team sold the venture, Isabell co-founded her second tech company thinkers.ai, which has built the first ‘find engine’ in the ‘search engine’ market.
Before her tech venture, Isabell worked at a stock exchange and Wellington Partners Venture Capital. She studied business and legal studies, and completed her doctorate in strategic finance, having studied at Vienna, Harvard, Dubai and Singapore Universities, and the London School of Economics. Isabell is also a university lecturer, author of many books and publications on cybersecurity and AI, and an active and leading figure in the global entrepreneur community.
Organisation
thinkers.ai
Corporate
The "find engine" in the "search engine" market.
Speaker session
PLENARY 5 : Decentralised Social Media and Fediverse: from niche to scale
The Next Generation Internet (NGI) initiative supports open, interoperable, decentralised and trust-based internet applications through several ‘Fediverse’ projects. The Fediverse consists of a set of open protocols and independent, interoperable social media platforms, which provide the users with an alternative to the traditional, centralised social media platforms. It has grown significantly over the past 2 years but it still does not enjoy a critical mass comparable to such well-established platforms.
The session will explore what advantages the Fediverse can count on to grow as well as possible hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve its full potential. Experts in the panel, including by presenting some successful projects, will discuss how decentralised social media are different from the centralised ones, why the underlying features – such as increased users' privacy and empowerment – increasingly fit the needs of people, and what would be needed for a further uptake.
Moderated by Jennifer Baker