Francesca Bria: the relationship between technology and democracy and … – Observer

Francesca Bria thinks the speed talking. Of Italian origin, PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Imperial College London, is the voice and the face of a rapidly changing world and the leader of the D-CENT, a European of this project – the Agency for UK Innovation – dedicated to the study of social movements and the relationship between technology and democracy. It helps them to think and build the next generation of tools and infrastructure to strengthen the democratic political forces in the new century. XXI.

The researcher was in Portugal at the “Brave New World” organized by the FFMS, which participated in the “Digital Republic” panel. In an interview with the Observer, began by explaining in detail what it is, after all, the project D-CENT.

D-CENT project is not limited to study the technological innovation processes related to social movements , Francesca Bria team actively participates in this system. Develop and test tools open source ( software free) because they believe that is the only way to ensure that information circulates freely outside the control of large corporations and businesses. Decentralization is a watchword.

Francesca Bria defends the concept of “collective intelligence”, not only in the sense that many heads are better than one. In fact, it argues that the information is increasingly dismissal and collective action is essential to aggregate knowledge. It is a change that is happening on a large scale, an unstoppable process that has an ally that is, at once, a threat: technology. It says we need to “require Europe to invest in forms of free technology, public and democratic for the future. If not, what prevails is the interest of the status quo of the privileged positions of large companies, governments that do not want change. “

The Italian researcher has studied base in social sciences and in economics of innovation, has a PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Imperial College London and Master of E-Business and Innovation (Innovation and Electronic Business). It was inevitable touch a subject that dominates and makes sure to keep in discussion: digital cash. In the future, we will need alternative models to traditional monetary and economic system. He talked of course about Bitcoin, but what matters to Francesca Bria is not so much the amount, but the technological model that produces this digital currency.

For a more in-depth analysis of this and other issues, we recommend read the full transcript of the interview Francesca Bria in the attached document.

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