BACKGROUND AND QUALIFICATIONS

David Casacuberta is a philosophy professor at the Universidad Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). His current line of research is the cognitive and social impact of the new media, and he has published several papers about the subject, both in electronic and printed format.

Currently, he is the secretary of CPSR-Spain, and he is working in several EU co-financed projects related to the digital divide and how to use ICT towards social inclusion, showing how digital technologies can help people to improve their lives and have a more direct control of their own affairs. The general philosophy of these projects can be seen here: http://www.el4ei.net.

He was also the former president and founding member of Fronteras Electrónicas España (FrEE), an NGO devoted to electronic civil rights and liberties in Spain.

WEBSITE

He is the main editor of globaldrome (http://www.globaldrome.org) an ezine in Spanish about a digital culture and has a weekly post on the blog Republica Internet, a website in Spanish devoted to cyberrights issues.

POLICY STATEMENT

One of my main interests is to strengthen the global dimensions of CPSR as stated in the "one planet, one net" document. Specifically, I would like to establish strategies with other cyberright groups in the European Union towards a more fruitful and global actions of CPSR within Europe.

I believe that we are seeing the development of a "second wave" so to speak, on ICT and social activism. Trends are no longer about creating a virtual space with their own rules, but to direct our ICT tools to the real world and try to change things there. A more critical view on what the digital divide is and how affects to people that are already excluded in other fields of life is also emerging.

I think that CPSR is in the right position and with a right frame of mind to help all this new activism and research to push forward the social uses of ICT, making more practical, functional strategies that go beyond the "virtual activist" and thinks on how to affect our social and political reality.

Finally, as a Spanish speaking person, I would also like to help to establish more initiatives with our existing Latin-American chapter and look for an expansion of CPSR.