We invite you to participate in our third and final Techstars' Inside Defense Virtual Roundtable, taking place on Wednesday, April 28th.

The first Roundtable, which took place Feb 4th, brought together a panel of world-experts in information security, disinformation propagation, journalism tech, and freedom of speech to discuss whether developing an economic feedback system around truthfulness was feasible and the key issues to address.

The second session featured leading TruthTech startups who shared their perspectives on opportunities they see in the Development and Institutionalization of a Truth Ecosystem.

This third and final panel will have investors in TruthTech, government regulators, and academics who will discuss how government regulation can help bootstrap this ecosystem.

We’ll also have breakout sessions with a host of Techstars founders, investors and other industry thought leaders.

Topic:

Development and Institutionalization of a Truth Ecosystem: How to create a global marketplace for instantaneously measuring, classifying, then rewarding or penalizing the truthfulness of information.
The famous Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in a 1919 landmark case on freedom of speech proclaimed that a person is not free to shout "fire" in a crowded theater. In this internet age a person can now shout "fire" in 1,000,000 theaters instantly. Having that party stand trial 2 years later after inflicting instantaneous, severe, irreparable damage is a woefully inadequate defense against a disinformation campaign. From Russian interference in the 2016 US elections, the more recent storming of the Capitol in Washington DC, to corporate brand sabotage and online bullying resulting in suicides, the Western World’s greatest strength, freedom of speech, is also our greatest vulnerability in the internet age.
Social media companies, news outlets, fact-checking websites, etc. have created a hodge-podge of individual, inconsistent rating systems and assessment methods, and the legal protections provided by Section 230 leave social media companies to their own internal policies with regard to enforcement, penalties, and quality assurance on promulgated information.
It is clear that a system to instantaneously measure, classify, then either promulgate or penalize information based on its represented vs. actual truthfulness is necessary. Abundant caution must be taken, however, in designing such a system such that bad actors cannot co-opt the system itself for self-interest and control (i.e. China’s control of their internet)
It is the intent of this three-part round-table series to explore the qualities and implementation practicalities of such an ecosystem, and the interplay between government regulations and enforcement, commercial vendors of truth-related products and services, and the investors that might fund such businesses.

Our featured speakers are:

Mark Fagan, Lecturer in Public Policy and former Senior Fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at Harvard Kennedy School
Jennifer Kavanagh, Director of the Strategy, Doctrine, and Resources Program in the RAND Arroyo Center
Sam Mandel, Senior Vice President at betaworks
Scott Yates, Founder of JournalList.net and US Director of the Journalism Trust Initiative
Warren Katz, Aerospace and Defense Industry Practice Lead at Techstars at Techstars

Agenda:

5 mins: Event Kickoff
45-55 mins: In a panel discussion led by Warren Katz, our subject matter experts will share their perspective about the Building a Truth Ecosystem, followed by audience Q&A
20-25 mins: Roundtable discussions to dive deeper into the topic
10 mins: Participants come back together to discuss and share key takeaways from their roundtables

During these sessions, we encourage you to open up about your organization, share a bit about your innovation strategy, and, of course, ask any questions you may have. Think of them as Defense one-on-ones.

We hope you’ll find this a truly comprehensive opportunity to connect, collaborate, and get inside Defense with the Techstars network.

Hope you can join us!

This event will be photographed, recorded and videotaped. By participating in this event and sharing your video, you consent and grant to Techstars and the event host/sponsor the right to photograph and create audio/visual recordings of you, and to use these recordings in any media, throughout the world, in connection with our legitimate business interests, including without limitation, to document, publicize, or provide information about this event, Techstars, or the event host/sponsor. Certain recordings or photographs may be made available to the public on the internet or through other media.

Techstars Defense Roundtable: Development of a Truth Ecosystem (Panel #3)