noBackend as a political movement
noBackend as a political movement
Location:
Seacliff C/D
Time:
Monday, 2:50pm - 3:40pm
Abstract:
Recent news from around the world has been discouraging: we are under permanent automated government surveillance, and most of the large IT companies are complicit in this betrayal of their customers and users. It is in everyone's fundamental interest to take control of their data, to encrypt, to host themselves, to distribute and keep away from huge corporations as much as possible.
However, convenience, usability and the critical user mass are undeniably on their side. noBackend apps can potentially work against this increasing centralization of web infrastructure, make distribution of data and services simpler and more desirable, and help turn back the net into what it was supposed to be: small things, loosely coupled.
Parker Higgins is an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in issues at the intersection of freedom of speech and copyright, trademark, and patent law. He previously lived and worked in Berlin, Germany.
Parker studied at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University, where he developed a concentration of "Creativity, Freedom of Speech, and Intellectual Property." While at NYU, he served on the board of the global Students for Free Culture organization and as the president of its NYU chapter.