Gareth Farry, a qualified lawyer from New Zealand with a background in music, arts, and social impact, shares his journey into blockchain technology and how it intersects with his interests in law and identity.

22-year-old Tate Berenbaum discusses Arweave, a permanent data storage network designed to store data for 200+ years, along with his journey as a young founder in Web3. Learn how decentralized technology can preserve knowledge for future generations and the challenges of building in the crypto space.

In this episode of Democracy Narrators podcast, Alessandro Oppo interviews Bjørn Bedsted, International Director of Democracy X, discussing the organization’s work on deliberative democracy, citizen participation, and sustainable development.

In this episode of Democracy Innovator, Alessandro Oppo interviews Josef Lentsch, founder and CEO of the Political Tech Summit. Josef shares insights on political technology, the distinction between civic tech and govtech, and how technology can strengthen democratic processes. Drawing from his background in psychology and public administration, Josef offers a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities in digital politics.

In this episode of Democracy Innovators Podcast, Alessandro Oppo interviews Lukas Salecker about deliberAIde, an innovative platform that uses AI to enhance deliberative democratic processes like citizens’ assemblies. Lukas shares how deliberAIde helps make democratic participation more accessible, efficient, and scalable through AI-powered transcription, analysis, and reporting tools.

Media theorist Geert Lovink discusses the internet’s military origins, its evolution, and its problematic relationship with democracy. He explores how digital networks democratized information while proving dangerous for voting systems. Lovink shares insights from his work with alternative media and warns about AI excluding cultural knowledge. He calls for Europeans to develop alternatives to Silicon Valley platforms while balancing crisis response with building democratic technological futures.

democracyinnovators.com/geert-lovink-about-democracy-and-the-internet-do-internet-technologies-help-or-harm/

NOTE: Because of some network problems, I had to repeat some questions. I had to cut the video a couple of times: to make it comprehensible, I’ve inserted a “beep” sound, to make it clear that is not Marcin that is repeating himself. I hope it is comprehensible. :)

In this insightful episode, Marcin Woźniak discusses SwarmCheck, an innovative argument mapping software developed by the Optimum Foundation to improve rational public discourse and collective decision-making. SwarmCheck visualizes arguments as interactive networks, helping people find agreements and understand disagreements through an analytical approach. Marcin explains how the platform enhances critical thinking, reduces polarization, and has been successfully applied in policymaking, pharmaceutical research, and educational contexts. He shares his concerns about AI development and argues that combining collective human intelligence with artificial intelligence represents our best path forward in an increasingly complex world, where technology should augment rather than replace human reasoning.

https://www.swarmcheck.ai/

https://democracyinnovators.com/marcin-wozniak-about-swarmcheck-and-argument-mapping-how-democratic-discourse-can-be-more-rational/

A conversation with the creator of Harmonica, an open-source tool using AI to support collective sensemaking in online communities. We explore the origins of the project, its design for asynchronous dialogue, and the vision behind building democratic infrastructure without relying on venture capital.

In this interview, Alessandro Oppo talks with Valentin Chaput from Open Source Politics about the evolution of civic tech, the challenges of institutional adoption, and the role of AI in digital democracy. They discuss key open-source tools like Decidim and Polis, the importance of collaboration, and the need to adapt civic tech to modern communication trends. Valentin emphasizes that the future of digital democracy depends on meaningful participation and interoperability between platforms.