NSA Comedy Tour 2.0: An Evening of NSA Themed Comedy, Ethics & Tech

SAN FRANCISCO, CA–(Marketwired – Feb 17, 2014) – BizCloud® in conjunction with EthicsInTech™ is pleased to present the second installment of the NSA Comedy™ Tour under the slogan “Got Ethics?” The event will be held on Thursday, February 20, 2014 at the Archive Productions in San Francisco. In collaboration with several nonprofit organizations, including RestoreTheFourth, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the Internet Archive, organizers have put together an impactful event that aims to increase public awareness about the NSA surveillance and its impact on Americans’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy.

After a highly successful inaugural event, the NSA Comedy™ Tour 2.0 continues the discussion about ethical implications of technology on individual privacy rights. With its unique, fresh format that combines lively panel discussions and comedy, the NSA Comedy™ Tour aims to educate and entertain, as well as to catalyze constructive conversation about civil liberties and the proper role of government in our private lives.

Comedy will serve as a medium to impress on each attendee the consequences of privacy violations in the Digital Age. The NSA Comedy™ Tour 2.0 will kick off with comedy from Zahra Noorbakhsh, an Iranian-American writer, performer and stand-up comedian dubbed by The New Yorker magazine as a “one-woman show.” Alternative comedy veteran Nato Green will also perform. Described by The East Bay Express as “erudite and acerbic, a San Francisco-raised father, union organizer, gastronome, bibliophile and political sparkplug,” Nato has been named San Francisco’s Best Comedian by the SF Weekly, Huffington Post and CBS. Standup performances will be followed by a thought provoking panel discussion on NSA snooping, how new technology makes this possible, and how it affects our lives. The conference will feature distinguished panelists who are united in their belief that the privacy and constitutional rights can and must be protected in the Digital Age. Panelists include:

• Peter ffoulkes, 451 Research. Research director for servers & virtualization and cloud computing. He has over thirty years of experience in IT transformation for enterprise, cloud and high performance computing with leading global companies. It has been rumored that he also holds and expresses his own opinions.
• April Glaser, EFF Activist & Staff Member. At EFF April focuses on community outreach and works directly with community organizations interested in promoting free speech, privacy, and innovation in digital spaces, and she lectures frequently on these topics for groups large and small.
• Justin Hall, is a communicator and entrepreneur best known as a pioneer blogger (internet-based diarist).
• Brewster Kahle, Digital Liberian and Founder of the Internet Archive, has been working to provide universal access to all knowledge for more than twenty-five years. Since the mid-1980s, Kahle has focused on developing technologies for information discovery and digital libraries.
• Norman Solomon, RootsAction.org Co-Founder & Institute for Public Accuracy Founding Director. He is the author of a dozen books on news media and social policy, including War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.

EthicsInTech™ & BizCloud® Founder, Vahid Razavi, will be moderating the panel. After the event finishes, there will be a Drinks Mixer where attendees will have a chance to meet others that are being the change they want to see in the world. 

On February 24, 2014 the NSA Comedy™ Tour 2.0 will come back for a follow up event designed for technology security experts, RSA Conference attendees, as well as for general public attendees. Happening simultaneously with the RSA Conference, the NSA Comedy ™ Tour 2.0 will offer a different perspective on information security and data privacy, examining some of the most pressing issues related to these topics. The event will kick off with a live stand-up performance by a renowned political comedian Will Durst. The comedic performance will be followed by a panel discussion with Justin Hall, a pioneer blogger and entrepreneur, Peter ffoulkes, analyst at 451 Research, Brewster Kahle, Digital Liberian, Norman Solomon, Founding Director of Public Accuracy and Vahid Razavi, EthicsInTech™ & BizCloud® Founder.
Note: this event is not sanctioned by RSA Conference Organizers. EthicsInTech™ is not affiliated with RSA or the NSA.

Event Details:

Date: February 20, 2014
Time: 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Location: Archive Productions, 134 Golden Gate Ave, Suite A, San Francisco, CA 94108
Online Registration at: http://NSAComedy.org

Follow up Event Details:

Date: February 24, 2014
Time: 6:00pm – 9:30pm
Location: 50 Mason Social House, 50 Mason St, San Francisco, CA 94102
Online Registration at: http://NSAComedy.com