Andrew Key‘s career has been at the intersection of capital markets and technology. He co-founded ConsenSys Capital, a financial services constellation of companies, including Fund Foundry, ConsenSys Ventures, and Token Foundry.

Previously, Andrew ran ConsenSys’ global business development from inception of the company, co-founded ConsenSys Enterprise, co-created the first Ethereum Blockchain-as-a-Service offering with Microsoft , and began the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance,

Andrew joined ConsenSys with capital markets, healthcare, technology and entrepreneurial experience. Previously, he worked for UBS investment bank in equities analysis. Later, he was involved within multiple hedge funds and broker dealers in alternative asset investing. After, he co-founded a healthcare revenue cycle management company where he learned about Bitcoin and eventually Ethereum.

He graduated from Loyola University in Maryland and University of Auckland with degrees in economics and international finance. Andrew’s best computer science was in college, and it’s been downhill technically, since then.

Andrew’s LinkedIn
Andrew on Twitter

Blockchain

A blockchain, originally block chain, is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Each block typically contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp and transaction data.

By design, a blockchain is inherently resistant to modification of the data. It is “an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way”. For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol for inter-node communication and validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which requires collusion of the network majority. This makes blockchains potentially suitable for the recording of events, medical records,and other records management activities, such as identity management, transaction processing, documenting provenance, food traceability or voting.

Blockchain was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008 for use in the cryptocurrency bitcoin, as its public transaction ledger. The invention of the blockchain for bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need of a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has been the inspiration for other applications.

Ethereum

Ethereum is an open-source, public, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract (scripting) functionality.It supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction based state transitions. Ether is a cryptocurrency whose blockchain is generated by the Ethereum platform. Ether can be transferred between accounts and used to compensate participant mining nodes for computations performed.

Writing (Andrew Keys)

Blockchain Predictions for 2018
Blockchain Predictions for 2017
Blockchain Predictions of 2016
Memo from Davos
Building the Hyperconnected Future on Blockchains (responsible for writing healthcare section)
Non-Technical Introduction to Ethereum
Tokenization of Assets

Andrew/ ConsenSys in Mainstream Media 

New York Times: Ethereum, a Virtual Currency, Enables Transactions That Rival Bitcoin’s (03/2016)
Bloomberg: Post-Bitcoin Technology Has Geeks, Giants, and Hackers Excited (03/2017)
Wall St Journal: Ethereum Network Copes With Surge of Activity as Virtual Kitten Game Goes Viral (12/2017)
The Economist: Financial Technology is proving less of a battleground than feared (052017)
International Business Times: How Ethereum Blockchain Technology Will Revolutionize Digital Asset Value (01/2018)

More Videos with Andrew

The Blockchain will disrupt everything – Keynote, Berlin November 2017
Speaking at Davos, World Economic Forum (1/2018)
Keynote – Cloud Expo, Jacob Javitz Center (03/2018)

Career:  Internet Philosopher, Technologist, Co-Author ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’
Other: He really hates writing or talking about himself (especially in 3rd person!)
Hometown: Born in NYC, lives with his wife and three children in Bosten, USA

Photocredits: Francesco Piasentin

Dr. David Weinberger is a technologist, author, professional speaker and commentator. David’s work focuses on how the Internet is changing human relationships, communication, and society. He is co-author of bestselling “The Cluetrain Manifesto”, author of  “Small Pieces Loosely Joined – a Unified Theory of the Web”, “Everything is Miscellaneous – the Power of the New Digital Disorder”, and the recently (01/2012) “Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room”

His one-person strategic marketing company, Evident Marketing, helps high-tech companies figure out what their products can be and how they can talk about them.
David was a gag writer for the comic strip “Inside Woody Allen” (1976-1883), holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and taught in college. He became a marketing consultant and executive at several high-tech companies, and currently serves as a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School, where he co-teaches a class on “The Web Difference”.
He had the title Senior Internet Advisor to Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, and provided technology policy advice to John Edwards’ 2008 presidential campaign. He is on a lot of industry boards and committees, including AIIM`s Emerging Technology Advisory Group, the Seybold Conference Advisory Board, the KMWorld 99 Advisory Board, the Xplor Marketspace Advisory Board and Instinctive Technology’s Advisory Board. He is very active in the politics of trying to keep the internet open and free.
David has written for a wide variety of magazines, including Wired, The New York Times and gives talks around the world.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a set of 95 theses organized and put forward as a manifesto for all businesses. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the Internet on both markets and organizations. The manifesto suggests that the changes that will be required from organizations as they respond to the new marketplace environment. The Cluetrain Manifesto was written in 1999 by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger.  A printed publication was published in 2000.

More:
www.cluetrain.com
www.davidweinberger.com
www.evident.com

David on Twitter
David on Facebook

Blog: www.johotheblog.com

Other articles/links/videos:
library lab: librarylab.law.harvard.edu

“Hab Geduld!” on the Cluetrain-Manifesto (aktuelle Ausgabe brandeins 02/2012)

Video: The Berkman Center David Weinberger on What Information was
Video: Everything is Miscellaneous – Talking to David Weinberger

Career: Founder & President FutureWorks; Author, Digital Analyst and Sociologist
Interests: Photography and Future
Hometown: San Francisco, USA

Brian Solis is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has influenced the effects of emerging media on the convergence of marketing, communications, and publishing. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media and business strategy consultancy in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups.
In March 2010 Brians latest book was released: Engage, The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web, with an introduction written by Ashton Kutcher. Brian has also written and published several ebooks on new PR, social media, customer service, personal branding and blogger relations.He is also known for photographing prominent tech figures, Hollywood Celebrities, thought leaders, artists, and events. His work has been featured in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Wired, The Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, among many other outlets.

More:
www.briansolis.com www.future-works.com
Twitter: @briansolis
Brians Photos on flickr

Other articles/links/videos:
Video: Brian Solis speaking at Thinking Digital Conference 2010 Link: Books by Brian Solis Article: Mashable: Why Brands are becoming Media 12/2010

Career: Executive Director Ushahidi, TED Senior Fellow, Blogger
Interests: Photography, Architecture, Mobile Sensors, African Futurism
Hometown: Eldoret, Kenya

Juliana Rotich is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi, the crowdsourcing platform that leverages mobile phones and the internet to change the way information flows. Ushahidi is a web based reporting system that utilizes crowdsourced data to formulate visual map information of a crisis on a real-time basis. In the Kenyan scenario it was used to map out incidents of violence. Ushahidi then grew to be an open source platform that has been used in various situations such as the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, the Palestine conflict crisis, Japan’s Earthquake and the Lybian conflict.
Prior to Ushahidi Juliana has worked in the telecommunications industry for over ten years.  She is originally from Kenya, with a Computer Science degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is a technology, budding African Futurist and TED Senior Fellow. She co- founded Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. She also writes the well-respected ‘Afromusing’ blog, typically with a focus on African tech and renewable energy. She often speaks at international conferences about technology, innovation, media, open source, crisis mapping and Africa; Past conferences she has spoken at include Lift, DEMO, TTI Vanguard, TransMediale, WSIS, DLD Women, Guardian Activate World Economic Forum -Davos, and ARS Electronica. She was named one of the Top 100 women by the Guardian newspaper and top 2 women in Technology 2011.

Ushahidi is a non-profit tech company that specializes in developing free & open source software for information collection, visualization &  interactive mapping to  democratizing information, increasing transparency & lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories (Crowdmap, SwiftRiver). “Ushahidi” means “testimony” in Swahili, and was a website initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout in 2008.  Since then Ushaidi has grown to a focused organization and now consists of a strong team of volunteer developers primarily in Africa, but also Europe, South America and the U.S. It is a disruptive organization that is willing to take risks in the pursuit of changing the traditional way that information flows.

Crowdmap is designed and built by the people behind Ushahidi. As the Ushahidi platform has evolved, so have its uses. Crowdmap allows you to set up your own deployment of Ushahidi without having to install it on your own web server. It is the fastest, simplest installation of the Ushahidi platform. Within minutes you’ll be up and running with your own installation, mapping reports events and visualizing information.

SwiftRiver is a free open source platform that helps people make sense of information in a short amount of time. The platform was born out of the need to understand and act upon a wave of massive amounts of crisis data that tends to overwhelm in the first 24 hours of a disaster.  In practice, SwiftRiver enables the filtering and verification of real-time data from channels such as Twitter, SMS, Email and RSS feeds. This free tool is especially useful for organizations that need to sort their data by authority and accuracy, as opposed to popularity. These organizations include media, emergency response groups, election monitors and more. This might include journalists and other media institutions, emergency response groups, election monitors and more.

Juliana´s TED Story: “I met two of the three co-founders of Ushahidi at TEDGlobal 2007, a conference that was a seminal moment for Africa, and for me. TED not only brought together online friends and kindred spirits, thereby seeding what later became Ushahidi, but it also changed my whole perspective about Africa, and the world. Since 2007, my life has taken an arc that I could not be happier about. I hosted the second annual TEDxNairobi, where the ideas worth spreading that TED lit in the TED Fellow’s minds, get passed on to others in the Kenyan community. As a TED Senior Fellow, I have had the incredible opportunity to make friends from around the world, and within the TED community, friendships that I treasure as we continue this journey of sharing knowledge and living our lives as active change agents in this world.”

More:
LinkedIn: Juliana
http://www.ted.com/fellows/view/id/31 (2011/03/16)

www.ushahidi.com
Twitter:@ushahidi
vimeo: Ushahidi
Facebook: Ushahidi
Crunchbase: Ushahidi
Wikipedia: Ushahidi

www.crowdmap.com
Twitter:@crowdmap
Facebook: Crowdmap

Swiftriver
Twitter:@swiftriver
Facebook: Swiftriver

www.afromusing.com
Twitter:@afromusing

Other articles/links/videos:

Japan:

Die Zeit: Ushahidi: Wissen, was wo in Japan passiert (2011/03/16)
GOOD: Earthquake in Japan: Help Google and Ushahidi Rescue Trapped Citizens and Reunite Families (2011/03/11)
Scienceray: Google and Ushahidi Serving Japan (2011/03/16)
Jonathan Stray: UN asks Ushahidi to produce Crisis Map of Lybia (2011/03/08)
Global Pulse: Crisismappers Extend UN Capacity in Lybia (2011/03/04)
Guardian.co.uk: Top 100 women: Technology – Juliana Rotich (2011/03/08)
Video: Interview Juliana Rotich on DLD (2011)
Global Voices: Japan: Earthquake Crisis Mapping on Ushahidi (2011/03/15)
Ushahidi: Crisis Mapping Japan´s Earthquake and How You Can Help (2011/03)
Geocommons: Japan Radiation Report Data Stream from Ushahidi (2011/03)
Davos: Ushahidi Grows Its Global Crowd-sourcing Platform, Slams Twitter Censorship (TCTV) (01/12)

Davos: Ushahidi Grows Its Global Crowd-sourcing Platform, Slams Twitter Censorship [TCTV]

Egypt:

Ushahidi: Crowdmapping Egypt (2011/01/25)
Diary of a Crisis Mapper: Ushahidi Egypt: When Open Data is Not so Open, or When People Just Don´t Get it (2010/11/20)

Ushahidi´s Juliana Rotich introduces Crisis Mapping in short:

Career: Founder & President University of the People (UoPeople)
Chairman of Cramster, Kidum Group and Laureate KIT eLearning
Interests: Running, Working, World Affairs & News
Hometown: Pasadena (CA), USA

Shai Reshef is an educational entrepreneur and has twenty years of experience in the international education market. From 1989-2005, he served as Chairman of the Kidum Group, a for-profit educational services company, sold to Kaplan, Inc. in 2005. While chairman of Kidum, Reshef lived in the Netherlands (2001-2004) where he chaired KIT eLearning, the eLearning partner of the University of Liverpool and the first online university outside the US. In 2009 he founded University of the People (UoPeople).

More:
www.uopeople.org
Twitter: @UoPeople
Facebook: www.facebook.com/UoPeople

Shai Reshef on
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shai_Reshef
LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/shaireshef
Facebook: facebook.com/shai.reshef

Other articles/links/videos:
The New York Times: Israeli Entrepreneur Plans a Free Global University That WIll Be Online Only (2009/01)
Video: DLD Conference 2009

Career: Head of Marketing, The Global Fund
Interests: Travel, Social Change, Cross Country Skiing Marathon
Hometown: Mexican living in Geneva, Switzerland

Claudia Gonzalez is Head of Marketing of The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, where she manages the Born HIV Free campaign that aims to eliminate the transmission of HIV from mother to children by 2015.
One of the world’s most acknowledge non-profit marketers having had top position in United Nations Refugee Agency and the World Economic Forum, she is a strategist with 15 year experience in integrated communications specialized in social media, celebrities and branding.
Claudia was previously a Diplomat for her home country Mexico and was a press correspondent for a number of years in different countries. Her academic background includes a Masters from LSE on Media and Communications. She speaks 6 languages, has two kids, enjoys sports, travel and social change.

The Global Fund was established in January 2002 to dramatically increase global financing for interventions against  AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It is the largest international funder of programs to combat malaria and tuberculosis, providing two-thirds of all financing, and provides 20% of all international funding to combat HIV/AIDS. The Fund asserts that as of June 2007, 1.9 million lives have been saved thanks to efforts in 136 countries supported by the Global Fund.

UNHCR: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, established 1950, also known as The UN Refugee Agencyis a United Nations agency mandated to protect and support refugees at the request of a government or the UN itself and assists in their voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement to a third country. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. The UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes.

More:
www.theglobalfund.org
www.unhcr.org
Twitter: @refugees
www.bornhivfree.org
www.joinred.com

Other articles/links/videos:
Video & Interview: DLD Conference 2010
Article: Press Release about AIDS campaign
Article: Arstechnica – Google Earth takes you inside Refugee-Camps

Short intro to The Global Fund:

Career: Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare
Interests: Snowboarding, Karaoke, Unemployment
Hometown: from Boston, lives in East Village, NYC, USA

Dennis Crowley is the Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare, a service that mixes social, locative and gaming elements to encourage people explore the cities. Forusquare had over 4,5 million users worldwide as of 11/2010. Previously, Dennis founded dodgeball.com, one of the first mobile social services in the US, which was acquired by Google in 2005. He has been named “Top 35 Innovators Under 35” by MIT’s Technology Review magazine (2005) and has won the “Fast Money” bonus round on the TV game show Family Feud (2009). His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MTV, Slashdot and NBC. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). The online magazine AskMen.com rated Dennis Crowley No. 19 of the “Top 49 Most Influential Men 2010”.

Foursquare is a location-based social networking website and software for mobile devices. Users check-in at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application. They are then awarded points and sometimes “badges.” The service was created in 2009 by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai. As of 11/2010, the company reported 4.5 million registered users. The World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011.

More:
www.denniscrowley.com
Twitter: @dens
www.foursquare.com

Other articles/links/videos:
www.teendrama.com
Article: Forbes Nov 2010: Foursqure´s Dennis Crowley talks Facebook
Article: The Telegraph Jul 2010: Dennis Crowling, the new darling of Silicon Valley
Video: YouTube Dennis Crowley about Foursquare

Short intro to Foursquare:

Career: Social Media Architect, World Economic Forum
Interests: Food, Travel, Family
Hometown: Lake Geneva, France; Krefeld, Germany

Matthias Lüfkens, Associate Director-Media, World Economic Forum, aspires to inspire. After bringing Davos to the world for five years, he now brings the world to Davos through his innovative use of social media, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, Wikipedia, Qik and Livestream included.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment. The WEF is active on numerous social media platforms to engage the wider public in their activities and to debate the key challenges facing the planet.

Previously a journalist, he was Baltic States correspondent for Agence France Presse, Libération and the Daily Telegraph (1991-96); and later Deputy Editor-in-chief of EuroNews television (1996-2004). Lüfkens is writing a bi monthly column about social media for the Swiss-French magazine Bilan which are also published on his blog: http://lufkens.wordpress.com. In 1991 he founded the In Your Pocket city guide series in Lithuania, now Central Europe’s premier publisher and provider of city information. In his free time, when not slavishly tracking tech trends, Lüfkens films and edits videos for his multiple YouTube channels.

More:

Matthias Lüfkens on
http://twitter.com/luefkens
http://facebook.com/luefkens
http://youtube.com/luefkens
http://linkedin.com/in/luefkens
http://foursquare.com/luefkens
http://lufkens.wordpress.com

Career: Co-Founder of BurdaStyle, Inc.
Interests: Art, Food, Travel, People, Sewing, Technology
Hometowns: Brooklyn, New York, USA;  Cairo, Egypt

Nora Abousteit is Co-Founder and CEO of BurdaStyle, an open source sewing community. She started her career in media at Hubert Burda Media in the staff of Hubert Burda, where she was part of the first two DLD conference teams in 2005 and 2006, organized several World Economic Forum related events, as well as corporate PR and networking activities. Before that, Nora worked in Business Development and Corporate Marketing in Cairo, Egypt, where she also received a degree in Middle East Studies and Political Science from the American University in Cairo. Nora currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

BurdaStyle.com is an online social community for sewing-lovers to sharpen their craft. This open-source site allows users to download copyright-free patterns, create and share their own looks, and seek advice from members around the world.

More:
www.burdastyle.com
Twitter: burdastyle
Flickr: burdastyle

Nora on
LinkedIn
XING
Twitter: @nooraa

Other articles/links/videos:
FastCompany: Nora Abousteit on Her Close-Knit Virtual Sewing Circle BurdaStyle.com

Short intro to BurdaStyle: