Liquid Future

For more than 25 years, Jim Jonas has helped craft strategic, award-winning communication campaigns and projects for high-profile corporate, public affairs and political clients. He's been a pioneer in independent political reform efforts including co-founding Unity '08 and managing Greg Orman's US Senate campaign in 2014.

Jim got his start in politics managing winning congressional campaigns in his native North Carolina before joining Ailes Communications as a writer and producer of political advertising for clients including Bush/Quayle '92 and many other federal and state campaigns. He served as communications director for Sen. Lamar Alexander's early campaign for the 1996 Republican presidential nomination and as the in-house media consultant for the National Republican Congressional Committee. Since moving to Colorado in 1997, Jim has worked with a variety of independent political organizations and Fortune 500 corporations to solve public communication challenges.

Jim and his family live in Denver.

Hélène Landemore is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale University. Her research and teaching interests include democratic theory, political epistemology, theories of justice, the philosophy of social sciences (particularly economics), constitutional processes and theories, and workplace democracy.

Her first book (in French) Hume. Probabilité et Choix Raisonnable (PUF: 2004) was a philosophical investigation of David Hume's theory of decision-making. Her second book (in English) Democratic Reason won the Montreal Manuscript Workshop Award in 2011; the Elaine and David Spitz Prize in 2015; and the 2018 APSA "Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics" section book award. Hélène's third book–Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century (under contract with Princeton University Press)–develops a new paradigm of democracy in which the exercise of power is as little gated as possible, even as it depends on representative structures to make it possible. In this version of popular rule, power is equally open to all, as opposed to just those who happen to stand out in the eyes of others (as in electoral democracies). The book centrally defends the use of non-electoral yet democratic forms of representation, including "lottocratic," "self-selected," and "liquid" representation.

Hélène is also co-editor with Jon Elster of Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms (Cambridge University Press 2012), and is currently working on a new edited volume project on Digital Technology and Democratic Theory, together with Rob Reich and Lucy Bernholz at Stanford.

Her articles have been published in, among others, Journal of Political Philosophy; Political Theory; Politics, Philosophy, and Economics; Political Psychology; Social Epistemology; Synthese; the Swiss Review of Political Science: and the Journal of Politics.

Her research has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Review, Slate, and L'Humanité. Before joining Yale, Hélène lectured at Brown University and MIT. She is also an alumna from the Sorbonne, the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm), and Sciences-Po in Paris.

In the past Hélène has taught various courses, including "Introduction to Political Philosophy," "Justice in Western Thought," "Directed Studies," "Beyond Representative Government," "Deliberative Democracy and Beyond," "Political Epistemology," and "Political Authority." In 2014 she won a National Endowment for the Humanities grant for her interdisciplinary lecture course "How Do We Choose, and Choose Well."

To learn more about liquid democracy visit http://liquid.us

Carl is the Research Director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media (CASM) at Demos.

Miller's research investigates the pitfalls and promises of the digital age. His interests include politics and technology, cybercrime, war, journalism, the rise of the hackers, the threat of hate speech, the effects of automation and how social and political power is changing. This includes:

He researches and writes widely on these issues, including for Wired, New Scientist, the Sunday Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at King's College London.

His first book is The Death of the Gods: The New Global Power Grab. An examination of the new centres of power and control in the twenty-first century, it was published by Penguin RandomHouse in August 2018.

Carl's website is www.carlmiller.com

And he Tweets @carljackmiller

To learn more about liquid democracy visit http://liquid.us

"Say there's an independent or a third party candidate that you really like, but you're looking at them and you think: 'God, this person is never going to win, what I should really be doing is looking just among the major parties, and choosing a lesser of two evils.' With approval voting, you don't have to do that; you can have your cake and eat it too." -Aaron Hamlin

Aaron focuses on technically-oriented, under-recognized social causes that offer ultra-high impact. He's the executive director of The Center for Election Science. The Center studies and advances better voting methods.

You can also follow Aaron on Medium where he writes about topics relating to voting, contraception, nonprofits, and philanthropy.

To learn more about liquid democracy visit http://liquid.us

The Princeton Gerrymandering Project bridges the gap between mathematics and the law to achieve fair representation through redistricting reform.

Sam Wang has been a member of the Princeton faculty since 2000. He holds a B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology (1986) and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the Stanford University School of Medicine (1993). A central feature of his laboratory research is the use and development of statistical tools for dealing with large, complex data sets, especially in regard to individual variation. In 2015, he was appointed by Governor Chris Christie to the New Jersey Governor's Council on Medical Research and Treatment of Autism.

Sam has a long-standing interest in elections. He pioneered statistical methods for analyzing U.S. presidential elections in 2004, when he developed tools for the aggregation of state polls. These tools led to the establishment of the Princeton Election Consortium. In 2012 he recognized new, systematic distortions in representation in the U.S. House. Understanding the causes of these distortions launched his interest in voting rights and led to the creation of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.

Sam Wang's laboratory research focuses on learning from birth to adulthood, at levels ranging from single synapses to the whole brain. He is particularly curious about novel roles for the cerebellum in cognition, social thought processes, and autism. He studies these brain functions using optical neural imaging and big-data approaches to analyzing behavior. Sam is also the author of two popular books about the brain: Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys But Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life (2008) and Welcome to Your Child's Brain: How the Mind Grows from Conception to College (2011). Both books are available in over 20 languages.

Santiago Siri is the founder of Democracy Earth Foundation, a Y Combinator backed non-profit building incorruptible digital governance technology; and Partido de la Red (Peers Party), first digital political party that ran for elections with candidates committed to people's will online. Partner of Bitex.la, leading bitcoin exchange in South America. Member of the World Economic Forum since 2012. Author of "Hacktivismo",​ published in 2015 by Random House.

Learn more at https://liquid.us

www.LiquidFuture.org

As a 30-year-old Indiana native, Nathan Altman has built a career on being an artist, maker and adventurer. When you see him in the community he'll likely blend in with the hard-working people across our state, wearing a t-shirt and jeans—and the occasional layer of saw dust when he's not in the office.

Born and raised in Carmel, Indiana, Nathan grew up like many Indiana boys—playing and watching sports, getting his hands dirty building projects out in the barn, and spending a lot of time exploring the neighborhoods. The Altman family has been in Indiana for generations with deep roots across the state. His parents, Jon and Christine Altman, have been fixtures in the central Indiana community, working in real estate, development, law, and public service. His grandfather and uncle bought and ran the Studebaker plant in South Bend, Indiana--producing the famous "Avanti II" until 1982. With graduates from Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Notre Dame, the Altman's represent a host of Indiana institutions. The family remains close—living and working where Nathan grew up.

As he grew older, Nathan found and developed his passions, including robotics, design, and construction--all while fostering a role as a social organizer. Getting heavily involved in the innovative FIRST Robotics program at Carmel High School, Nathan began to really hone his creative and technical skills, while also learning to lead a team. He went on to design and build stage sets for the theatre department, and managed stage production of Cinderella. He was elected his freshman class president and went on to organize senior class charity events before graduation.

During this time in his life, he also found time to start his first business. Nathan took his lawn-mowing-money and bought his first mower. Then a bigger one. Then a truck and trailer. Altman Pro Lawn grew into a serious, profitable business before Nathan was old enough to even drive the truck.

Nathan went to Purdue University where he earned a degree in building and construction management in less than three years. Then he traveled the world--sometimes serving as crew on yachts sailing the high seas. He returned to help launch several new companies, invest in real estate with his dad and on his own, and to pour himself into the Indiana tech and development community.

In 2010, he launched DeveloperTown, creating the first DeveloperTown "office" with his own hands. He helped organize, design and build The Speakeasy—a co-working space now with four locations around Indianapolis. Nathan has made a habit of buying, re-designing, and revitalizing properties all over the state, turning them into new, innovative, and useful spaces.

With life, not everything works out the first time. Nathan launched a company called uFlavor, which while ultimately unsuccessful, taught many lessons that he has carried with him every day since. He went on to serve as COO for a successful start-up in San Francisco, Launch Media, as well as having his hands in a number of other entrepreneurial ventures.

Nathan's love of creating and building with communities led him to several large-scale Bay Area art projects. Because of his construction expertise, he volunteered with and went on to lead the 2015 Temple build at Burning Man. Burning Man organizes an annual gathering of nearly eighty thousand people who create a temporary city in the Nevada desert to experiment with art, community, friendship, and exploration. The challenging nature of the desert environment and the talented, driven community inspired Nathan to take a full-time role with the organization. In 2016, Nathan managed hundreds of volunteers in the public works division, and in 2017 he led the design and construction of the famous "burning man." For his work, he was given the nickname "Mary Poppins," which alluded to his ability to drop in and bring joy, creativity, and order to whatever he touches--leaving it better than he found it.

Andrew Keen is one of the world's best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution. He is the author of four books: Cult of the Amateur, Digital Vertigo, international hit The Internet Is Not The Answer, and his latest book How To Fix The Future. Published in February 2018, How to Fix the Future has been called "[a] bracing book" by Walter Isaacson and "the most significant work so far in an emerging body of literature…in which technology's smartest thinkers are raising alarm bells about the state of the Internet, and laying groundwork for how to fix it" by Fortune Magazine. The book also received a starred review by Kirkus Reviews.

Andrew is executive director of the Silicon Valley innovation salon FutureCast and an acclaimed public speaker around the world. He is the host of "Keen On" show, a popular TechCrunch chat show, and was named one of the "100 Most Connected Men" in 2015 by GQ magazine.

Amber McReynolds is the Executive Director for the National Vote At Home Institute and Coalition and is the former Director of Elections for the City and County of Denver, Colorado. Amber is an experienced election professional and is nationally recognized as an innovator and has proven that designing pro-voter policies, voter-centric processes, and implementing technical innovations will improve the voting experience. Under her leadership, Denver Elections earned national and international recognition from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Election Center, the National Association of Counties, and the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) for Ballot TRACE (a first-in-the-nation ballot tracking, reporting, and communication engine) and eSign, a digital petition circulation application that makes the ballot access process more efficient.

Amber was also recognized as a 2018 Top Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine for her transformational work to improve the voting experience in Denver and across Colorado. Amber serves on the Advisory Board for the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, Circle of Advisors for Democracy Fund's Election Validation Project, Women's Foundation of Colorado Empowerment Council, Executive Board for LIFT Colorado, City Year Denver Board of Directors, the Public Policy Committee of the Colorado Women's Chamber, and was a graduate of the Metro Denver Chamber of Commerce Leadership Denver 2017. Amber has a Masters of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Amber is also currently serving as a senior strategic advisor on various election-focused projects across the country. She has also served as an election expert witness and collaborates with various national and state professional organizations to identify and implement best practices in election administration.