Call to Action Archives -

March 9th – Meet Cindy Cohn, EFF’s Executive Director, At EFF-Austin’s SXSW Party!

CHECK THIS PAGE FREQUENTLY FOR UPDATES, WE ARE STILL PUTTING THIS EVENT TOGETHER

EFF-Austin is back with our annual unofficial SXSW shindig, and this year we’re throwing a house party and all the cyberpunks are invited! Come join us at our board member Chris Boyd’s house in Travis Heights, easy Lyft, biking, or scooter distance from downtown but a welcome oasis from the hubbub of SX at large. There will be free drinks and appetizers for our guests while supplies last (BYOB and food donations are welcome and encouraged). As always, our event is free to attend and doesn’t require any SX wristbands or badges. There is a suggested $20 donation, half of which will go to recoup Chris’s costs, the other half of which will be donated to Electronic Frontier Foundation.

We are honored to be joined by a very special guest this year, Cindy Cohn, EFF’s Executive Director. Named one of the 50 most important women in tech by Forbes Magazine, Cindy is a civil liberties attorney specializing in internet law. Cindy was one of the principal litigators in Bernstein v. United States, which established computer code as a form of free speech protected by the constitution and which allowed for the widespread deployment of encryption. She will be speaking to us about her current work leading EFF and where things are going in the fight for digital civil liberties. If you are attending SXSW, she will also be speaking on the following panel: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP90794

In addition, musical entertainment will be provided by local artists Pet Cat Man and Pilgrimess from 8pm-10pm in the backyard.

Meet Cindy Cohn, EFF’s Executive Director, At EFF-Austin’s SXSW Party!

Saturday, Mar 9, 2019, 7:00 PM

1309 Bonham Terrace
1309 Bonham Terrace Austin, TX

9 Activists Attending

CHECK THIS PAGE FREQUENTLY FOR UPDATES, WE ARE STILL PUTTING THIS EVENT TOGETHER EFF-Austin is back with our annual unofficial SXSW shindig, and this year we’re throwing a house party and all the cyberpunks are invited! Come join us at our board member Chris Boyd’s house in Travis Heights, easy Lyft, biking, or scooter distance from downtown but a …

Check out this Meetup →

https://www.facebook.com/events/254914822068117/

January 8th Meetup: Hack The Election – Using Technology To Increase Voter Registration

NOTE THE TIME CHANGE. OUR MEETUP IS NOW ON TUESDAY EVENINGS GOING FORWARD. WE HAVE MADE THIS CHANGE WITH THE HOPE THAT MORE PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO ATTEND OUR MEETUPS IN THE COMING YEAR.

Our speaker this month is Jeremy Smith. Jeremy is the Executive Director of Register2Vote, a TX 501c4 focused on increasing access to voting rights, and a Founder of BlueSquad, a progressive political tech company. He is a West Point graduate who served five years in the Army as an Engineer and Special Operations officer. Jeremy is a Marshall Scholar who studied Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at Imperial College London. After leaving the military, Jeremy worked for the Hillary Clinton campaign as the Director of Plans and Operations for Voter Protection in Florida, where he helped recruit, train, and coordinate more than 6,000 attorneys countering voter suppression. Since then, he has worked on the Doug Jones campaign in Alabama and has been helping support candidates across Texas.

Jeremy will speak to us about Register2Vote and MapTheVote: two nonprofit projects that used public records and simple technology to help voters and volunteers navigate around archaic laws in Texas that are often attributed as the cause for Texas having the lowest rate of voter registration in the nation. You can see the map ahead of time at https://mapthe.vote and the other tools at https://register2vote.org

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Join us for the discussion from 7:00PM-9:00PM, followed by drinks and camaraderie from 9:00PM-10:00PM at Firehouse Lounge (605 Brazos St).

Capital Factory is located at 701 Brazos Street, on the 16th floor of the Omni Hotel. Once on the 16th floor, there should be a sign at the front desk directing you to our meetup. If there is no sign, and no one is on duty at the desk, we are usually in the room to the left of the front desk.

Talk will be livestreamed at https://www.youtube.com/user/austintechlive

Parking for the Omni Garage can be validated at the Capital Factory front desk, reducing the cost from $18 to $7. Details: https://capitalfactory.com/parking/

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https://www.meetup.com/EFF-Austin/events/rwbnnqyzcbsb/

https://www.facebook.com/events/1063485833834385/

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December 13th – 2018 Holiday Party at B.D.Riley’s on 6th

It’s that time of year again! Join us for the EFF-Austin Holiday party on Thursday, December 13th, from 7:00pm-9:00pm at B.D.Riley’s Irish Pub on 6th Street. Each guest will receive a drink ticket good for one free beer, house wine, or well drink, and we will have a variety of free appetizers as well.

EFF-Austin (Electronic Frontier Foundation of Austin) is a local advocacy, educational, and community-organizational group that promotes bringing together those interested in learning about the myriad ways in which our ever evolving digital culture affects our communities and our societies. We host monthly meetups featuring speakers on a variety of topics – recent discussions have included secure communications platforms, the history of privacy law in the United States, the philosophical justifications for the right of privacy, the future of internet freedom, green data centers, the intersection of digital art and the law, and the tyranny of contract. We have also had various members of our board speak to various groups around town, such as Nerd Nite, gShowdown at Galvanize, Actlab, and the Nonprofit Tech Club, about a variety of topics related to digital civil liberties. In addition to this learning, EFF-Austin hopes to provide a resource whereby those interested in creating change in our digital world can meet like-minded minds and have a community to collaborate with and support them in their endeavors. More info here: https://effaustin.org

In addition to the party serving as a chance to get to know our fellow digital citizens in a more relaxed setting, the party is a great opportunity to learn about what’s planned for EFF-Austin in the coming year. We have accomplished a lot over the last year with several major events like our annual cyberpunk party at SXSW, a smart tech policy panel with candidates for state and national office Steven Kling and Joseph Kopser, as well as co-hosting events and fostering relationships with The Operator Foundation, The PLAN Foundation, and Indieweb Austin. We continue to extend the reach of our activities and look to assistance and volunteers from the community to further broaden our ability to effectively carry out our mission.

No RSVP required to attend, but you can register here to give us a headcount and ensure your admittance: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eff-austins-annual-holiday-party-tickets-53127307206. In addition, this party is serving as a fundraiser for EFF-Austin, so you can make an optional donation to us when you register for your ticket here. We hope to see you there!

Also, get your EFF-Austin ugly Christmas sweaters here! – https://www.customizedgirl.com/s/effaustin

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