Open Socials Award Show

Rudy Fraser is a technologist, community organizer, and founder of Blacksky Algorithms, where he develops open-source infrastructure that lets communities shape their social media experience, govern their data, and fund collective needs.

Lauren Challis works for the government as an AI Governance consultant and is a board member of the Internet Society Netherlands (ISOC NL). She has a background in Anthropology and Philosophy of Technology; in her work and ancillary roles, she focuses on the intersection of AI, public values, and legislation. At ISOC NL, she contributes to the societal debate on a free and accessible internet, digital sovereignty, and the growing power of Big Tech.

Moktar Nabil is a seasoned cultural entrepreneur with a strong background in both the business and creative aspects of the industry. He is the General Director of Stichting 40Worldwide Foundation, the founder of Garage Noord and kanaal40, and the former Creative Director of these organizations. With a passion for fostering cultural initiatives, Moktar has demonstrated a keen ability to navigate the complexities of the cultural landscape while driving creative vision and business success.

Laurens Hof is an independent analyst covering the open social web. He publishes the Fediverse Report and ATmosphere Report, weekly newsletters tracking the ActivityPub and ATProto ecosystems, with work supported by NLnet and the Stimuleringsfonds voor de Journalistiek. Based in Gouda, he operates through Connected Places, where he writes about protocol governance and what kind of public values decentralized social media actually produces.

Johannes Ernst has been a long-time advocate of putting people back in control of their technology, instead of letting unaccountable digital overlords control their lives. At FediForum, he helps convene the global community of people who move the Open Social Web forward, pioneering new and better forms of interacting online. At Dazzle Labs, he helps create some tech for it and consults with organizations who are planning to move to the Open Social Web.

Robin Berjon is a technologist specialised in strategy and governance. His work focuses on digital sovereignty, issues of power in the digital sphere, and bringing democracy to the internet. He is Principal at Supramundane Agency, Deputy Director of the IPFS Foundation, part of the Modal Foundation, and a Senior Fellow with both the Future of Technology Institute and the Public AI network. Previously, he was VP of Data Governance at The New York Times, where he worked on data strategy and safeguarding media independence, and Vice-Chair of the board of the World Wide Web Consortium.

Audrey Tang is Taiwan’s Cyber Ambassador and the 2025 Right Livelihood Laureate. A civic hacker and co-author of *Plurality* and *Civic AI*, she is a Senior Fellow at Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI and Columbia SIPA. As the world’s first nonbinary cabinet minister and Taiwan’s Minister of Digital Affairs (2016–2024), she received the Right Livelihood Award for advancing digital technology to empower citizens and renew democracy. Tang co-founded g0v, helped lead the 2014 Sunflower Movement, and implemented vTaiwan, which raised public trust in government to over 70%. She co-launched ROOST and strives to be a “good enough ancestor.”

Melanie Bartos is a science communicator in the Public Relations Office at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, responsible for multimedia formats such as podcasts and actively shaping the university’s online and social media communication. She established the university’s Open Science Communication strategy, with a focus on non-profit, privacy-friendly infrastructures like the Fediverse, as well as open knowledge projects such as Wikipedia. She chairs the Social Media Working Group of the German Association for University Communication, coordinating strategic exchange across German-speaking higher education, and is part of the Save Social initiative in Germany, which advocates for open, decentralized alternatives to commercial social media.

Mike Masnick is the founder & editor of Techdirt, the founder & CEO of the Copia Institute, and a board member at Bluesky.

Ehsan Beyraghdar is an Iranian composer and musician based in the Netherlands. His work focuses on contemporary and cross-cultural music, often combining elements of Persian traditional music with modern composition. Since 2010, he has been a member of the Iranian Cinema Composers Association (House of Cinema), and has been actively composing for film, television, and visual media. In addition to his work for screen, he has composed music for various albums and singles, and has performed in numerous concerts in Iran and internationally.