TheNewsGuru

Tag: Web Summit

  • Pandemic forces Europe’s largest tech event to go fully online

    Pandemic forces Europe’s largest tech event to go fully online

    Web Summit, Europe’s biggest technology conference, will be held entirely online in December due to the coronavirus outbreak.

    The pandemic has forced the cancellation or postponement of many major events this year, the conference organiser said on Thursday.

    “Lisbon is still Web Summit’s home but with growing COVID-19 outbreaks across Europe, we have to think of what’s best for the people of Portugal and our attendees,’’ the conference’s founder, Paddy Cosgrave, said in a statement.

    The decision, which came after the organiser said in June the event would take place in Lisbon as planned, followed talks with the Portuguese Government and Lisbon’s Mayor.

    The event, which moved from Dublin to the Portuguese capital in 2016, attracts around 70,000 participants every year, drawing speakers from leading global tech companies and start-ups as well as politicians.

    “Web Summit will be able to host 100,000 attendees online on its own conference platform,’’ the organiser said.

    They added around 800 speakers will join the event, including Zoom’s Chief Executive, Eric Yuan, and Captain America star, Chris Evans.

    Portugal, which has so far reported a total of 81,256 cases and 2,040 deaths from the coronavirus, much lower than in neighbouring Spain, began lifting its lockdown on May 4.

    But like most other European countries, it has seen the number of COVID-19 infections rise again after a summer lull.

    “The safest and most reasonable answer is to host Web Summit fully online in 2020, we look forward to welcoming attendees back to Lisbon in 2021,’’ Cosgrave said.

  • Cambridge Analytica whistleblower calls for social media regulation

    Cambridge Analytica whistleblower calls for social media regulation

    The whistleblower, who claimed data consultancy Cambridge Analytica played a role in obtaining data from Facebook users, on Tuesday called for government regulation of social media and online advertising.

    TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Christopher Wylie, a former director of research at the now-defunct data consultancy firm, made the call at the Web Summit, Europe’s biggest tech gathering, in Lisbon.

    In his address at the Web Summit, Wylie also called on data scientists to be subject to an ethical code just as doctors, nurses and teachers are.

    “Why is it we can regulate nuclear power, but we can’t regulate code? Why is it that as data scientists, we don’t have to think of the ethical and moral implications of what we are doing?

    “I think that is absurd. People now sleep with their phones more than they sleep with people. The need for regulation is more urgent given the rise in the number of people using social media,” Wylie said to applause from the audience.

    Wylie earlier this year said data from millions of Facebook users, without their knowledge, was used by Cambridge Analytica to influence elections across the world, including 2015 elections in Nigeria, and to help elect US President Donald Trump – a claim denied by the company.

    Some 70,000 people are expected to take part in the four-day Web Summit which got underway Monday, including speakers from leading global tech companies, politicians and start-ups hoping to attract investors.

    Dubbed “the Davos for geeks”, the annual event was launched in Dublin in 2010 and moved to Lisbon six years later.