Online Anonymity is to be cherished according to Ed Bice, CEO of Meedan, a global technology not-for-profit that builds software and programmatic initiatives to strengthen journalism, digital literacy, and accessibility of information online and off. In the same breath, however, Ed also calls for a fresh look at how rapidly fake news and damaging disinformation can spread as a result of articles and news pieces not being fact checked and verified. How can we as online users strike that crucial balance between online freedom and making sure that we can trust the information at our fingertips?

Ed and his team develop open-source tools for creating and sharing context on digital media through annotation, verification, archival, and translation. He has spent most of his professional life operationalizing idealism. He is optimistic that our digital evolution, and the changing face of journalism and publishing will trend us toward a world that is networked for understanding. Just as markets have gone global, so too, our digital social networks will go global in the coming years and decades.

Join us as we explore the various uses of social media and the changing face of digital journalism.